Digital accessibility watch October-November 2024

To start an interview with a comrade, Olivier Nourry, a long-standing fighter in accessibility (fr): https://access42.net/interview-olivier-nourry-expert-accessibility-numerique/.
And then, because it is the season, the famous Advent calendar 24 days of web with lots of a11y in it (fr): https://www.24joursdeweb.fr/2024.
Last advice, the replays of ParisWeb 2024, the conference, the only one to see if you are in digital accessibility, web quality and eco-design with lots of love in it. I chose two conferences that I liked but there are many others (fr):

Accessibility in laws and standards #

New version of the note on WCAG 2 for non-web: https://www.w3.org/tr/wcag2ict-22/

Accessibility strategy #

A letter to send if your customer wants an overlay of a11y: https://alistirshepherd.uk/writing/accessibility-overlays-mail/
Bottom-up design and a11y strategy: https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2024/10/how-bottom-design-approach-enhances-site-accessibility/
Manage the a11y in the teams so that it works: https://melsumner.github.io/a11y-at-work
Captcha and other nice things to make accessible: https://2024.wpaccessibility.day/captchas-and-other-gotchas/
Some actors from the a11y: https://ozewai.org/blog/technical-articles/how-is-digital-accessibility-awareness-being-promoted-across-the-globe/
Another article on "We are all responsible for the a11y", to read: https://meryl.net/accessibility-everyones-responsibility/
Strategy for controlling the accessibility of websites and mobile applications of the British public sector: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/public-sector-website-and-mobile-application-accessibility-monitoring#How-we-test

Test accessibility #

AI and a11y tests, point of view: https://html5accessibility.com/stuff/2024/10/10/ai-for-accessibility-conformance-testing-Why/
Cost of an a11y audit (fr): https://access42.net/services/cout-audit-accessibilite-numerique/
Test with cypress and axis: https://www.deque.com/blog/how-to-test-for-accessibility-with-cypress/
Test your JS to make it a11y: https://www.a11y-collective.com/blog/accessibility-in-javascript/
An a11y checklist of tests for PowerPoint, Practical: https://creativepro.com/powerpoint-accessibility-checklist/
Reminder: a11y auto tests to capture error but not to assess the level: https://cerovac.com/a11y/2024/10/reminder-automatic-accessibility-testing-can-detect-inaccessibility-but-cant-detect-accessibility/
A new testing guide, proposed by the British government, to transpose and test the accessibility of mobile apps according to WCAG 2.2 criteria: https://github.com/alphagov/wcag-primer/wiki/mobile-app-testing

Technical points #

Do not use readonly attribute in the forms: https://adrianroselli.com/2024/11/avoid-read-only-controls.html
The two types of focusable elements, all you need to know: https://yatil.net/blog/focusable-ui-elements
Validation of forms and error management, complete: https://tetralogical.com/blog/2024/10/21/foundations-form-validation-and-error-messages/
a11y PDF Part 1, good practical tips: https://www.tpgi.com/pdf-accessibility-on-the-web-tricks-and-traps-part-1/
and a11y PDF Part 2: https://www.tpgi.com/pdf-accessibility-on-the-web-tricks-and-traps-part-2/
Popovers and dialogs - which, what, how: https://css-tricks.com/clarifying-the-relationship-between-popovers-and-dialogs/
All on aria-activeDescendant, to read: https://sarahmhigley.com/writing/activedescendant/

Feedback #

Accessible tooltips, nice: https://css-tricks.com/tooltip-best-practices/
AI and a11y tests, simply no: https://html5accessibility.com/stuff/2024/10/10/ai-for-accessibility-conformance-testing-why/
The a11y is the content and the container, example for Shopify: https://www.nicchan.me/blog/shopify-accessibility-lawsuits-compliance/
Disabled and contrast elements: https://html5accessibility.com/stuff/2024/11/04/disabled-and-obscured/
Some key steps (user scenario) to test a11y : https://www.tpgi.com/are-you-conducting-user-flow-testing-in-these-4-critical-areas/

Assistive technologies #

Design and a11y, reference site: https://www.foreveryone.design/
Cards and screen readers: https://mn.gov/mnit/about-mnit/accessibility/news/?id=38-645700
Annotations in inclusive design: https://tangible.is/en/thinking/2024/10/the-value-of-accessibility-annotations-in-inclusive-design

Mobile app, mobile web #

Accessibility tools to understand accessibility on iOS: https://www.basbroek.nl/making-accessibility-acceessible
Daniel Devesa shares his a11y advent calendar for iOS: https://www.linkedin.com/feed/hashtag/?keywords=adventofiosaccessibility
Google has just announced a number of developments for Android, mainly focused on artificial intelligence and accessibility (fr): https://www.frandroid.com/android/2432052_android-devoile-6-nouvelles-fonctionnalites-le-point-sur-les-changements
Some tips for keyboard support on native mobile applications: https://cerovac.com/a11y/2024/11/some-tips-for-keyboard-support-on-native-mobile-applications/
Jan Jaap de Groot, lead of the Mobile Accessibility Task Force at the W3C, announces first draft for mobile guidelines for December (fr): https://accessibilite.public.lu/fr/news/2024-11-13-interview-jan-jaap-de-groot.html
Full Keyboard Access feature on Flutter iOS seems to have been partially fixed (after a 4 years' waiting!) : https://github.com/flutter/flutter/issues/76497
Access42 reminds us that it's possible to navigate in Braille on an iOS mobile (fr): https://a42.fr/braille-ios

Ergonomics, UI & UX #

A designer checklist of good practices : https://accessicart.com/designing-for-accessibility-a-checklist-for-designers/
A11y needs usability: https://blog.usablenet.com/why-accessibility-needs-usability

Resources #

CSUN 2024 presentations: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1yBCYJ6flHW_KSYfBX1wNBRhGx9bxZ993_PoYaFrUAvE/edit?pli=1&gid=80757841#gid=80757841
a11y and cognitive disabilities: https://www.tpgi.com/making-the-web-accessible-a-focus-on-cognitive-disabilities/
Updated list of books on a11y from Webaxe: https://www.webaxe.org/web-accessibility-books/
In the Web Almanac, a big chapter on a11y, a little bit of everything about everything: https://almanac.httparchive.org/en/2024/accessibility
Movement, parallax and a11y: https://servicenow.iu.edu/kb?id=kb_article_view&sysparm_article=KB0025852
Public disability policies in the face of stereotypes, prejudices and discriminations in France (fr): https://www.cncdh.fr/sites/default/files/2023-12/Les Essentiels Politiques publiques Handicap%2C dec 2023.pdf

Others #

Interview with A. Maniez (Access42), to read (fr): https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/5-questions-%25C3%25A0-audrey-maniez-experte-accessibilit%25C3%25A9-num%25C3%25A9rique-et-w4xve/
12 reasons not to do eco-design: https://greenspector.com/en/12-reasons-not-to-eco-design-a-digital-service/