Digital accessibility watch April - May 2023

We start with a nice recap on European laws from a11y https://uxplanet.org/understanding-eus-digital-accessibility-rules-ac60e2914b84 because we are progressing slowly but surely... A recap on French laws (fr) https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/12NcJpScAppfIfPKlOwuZzH8Zts_hZGhjdQI9i74McQw/edit#gid=0 and an example, Italy (fr)
https://www.temesis.com/blog/italy-law-stanca/.
Then, an important article on (finally) a clear position of the European Disability Forum (EDF) and International Association of Accessibility Professionals (IAAP) on the a11y overlays which do not make sites or apps accessible https://www.edf-feph.org/accessibility-overlays-dont-guarantee-compliance-with-european-legislation/. Especially since Adrian Roselli, a well-known a11y expert, is being sued by one of the sellers of these overlays
https://adrianroselli.com/2023/05/audioeye-is-suing-me.html.

We also note the passage of WCAG2.2 to Candidate recommendation, the last step before the official release still scheduled for September https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/wcag-22-updated-candidate-recommendation-take-2-bradley-montgomery/.

Accessibility in laws and standards #

• Official publication by the W3c of Accessible Rich Internet Applications (WAI-ARIA) 1.2 https://www.w3.org/blog/news/archives/9942.

Feedback and accessibility #

• Reconsider our a11y interventions following the last Webaim Million: https://yatil.net/blog/accessibility-action
• Implement some WCAG AAA criteria on a site: https://tetralogical.com/blog/2023/04/21/meeting-wcag-level-aaa/

Accessibility strategy #

• Accessibility for Dyslexia: https://uxdesign.cc/software-accessibility-for-users-with-dyslexia-a506698af4d6
• A "CanIUse?" but for ARIA at W3c: https://bocoup.com/blog/can-i-use-but-for-aria
• The basics of visually accessible dataviz: https://medium.com/plaid-design/visually-accessible-data-visualization-ff884121479b

Test accessibility #

• The successes/failures by examples to criterion 1.4.13 contrast of non-textual content, to read: https://www.tpgi.com/when-i-get-that-low-contrast-feeling-i-need-non-textual-healing/
• Recruiting testers for a11y: https://www.accessibility.com/blog/recruiting-accessibility-testers-with-disabilities
• Handy tool in GitHub to report missing image alternatives: https://github.com/marketplace/actions/accessibility-alt-text-bot

Technical points in accessibility #

• Pure CSS components are (often) inaccessible: https://adrianroselli.com/2023/03/css-only-widgets-are-inaccessible.html
• Image alternatives by example: https://blog.pope.tech/2023/03/31/alternative-text-in-the-wild-5-alternative-text-examples/
• The new type="search": https://www.scottohara.me/blog/2023/03/24/search-element.htm
• More on this new type="search": https://alvaromontoro.com/blog/68033/new-html-element-search
• Cookie management banner and a11y: https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2023/04/potentially-dangerous-non-accessibility-cookie-notices/
• No role=presentation/none on focusable items: https://html5accessibility.com/stuff/2023/05/02/short-note-why-isnt-rolepresentation-none-allowed-on-focusable-elements/
• Use the word menu with care: https://adrianroselli.com/2023/05/be-careful-using-menu.html
• Item sizes and a11y overview: https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2023/04/accessible-tap-target-sizes-rage-taps-clicks/
• A11y's problems with nested fieldset: https://adamsilver.io/blog/the-problem-with-nested-fieldsets-and-how-to-avoid-them/
• Timed modals and a11y: https://www.digitala11y.com/addressing-timeout-modals-navigating-the-nuances-for-inclusive-web-design/

Feedback #

• Form with read-only fields: https://equalentry.com/accessibility-lessons-context-sensitive-text-alternatives/
• Visible focus and WCAG2.2, thoughts: https://yatil.net/blog/wcag22-visible-focus

Assistive technologies #

• Do not change the default AT pronunciation: https://adrianroselli.com/2023/04/dont-override-screen-reader-pronunciation.html
• A study on how screen reader users use mobiles: https://www.nngroup.com/articles/screen-reader-type-control/

Mobile app, mobile web #

• Testing React native in aXe DevTools mobile: https://www.deque.com/blog/react-native-testing-and-linting-in-axe-devtools-mobile/
• Getting a11y with iOS: https://equalentry.com/creating-accessible-ios-apps-an-action-plan/
• A11y tests with Espresso: https://dev.to/steady5063/writing-accessibility-tests-with-espresso-53m9?ref=accessible-mobile-apps-weekly.ghost.io
• Good practices for accessible dev on Android: https://github.com/cvs-health/android-view-accessibility-techniques?ref=accessible-mobile-apps-weekly.ghost.io
• iOS updates for a11y: https://developer.apple.com/documentation/Updates/Accessibility

Ergonomics, UI & UX #

• Resources for UX/UI: https://ideance.net/blog/467/accessibilite-ux-ui-design/
• Testing with screen reader users: https://www.nngroup.com/articles/mobile-accessibility-research/
• Best practices for error messages: https://www.nngroup.com/articles/error-message-guidelines/

Resources #

• How to develop accessible chatbots: https://mitre.github.io/chatbot-accessibility-playbook/docs/4_3.html
• Hover, Focus and a11y, all about it: https://www.tpgi.com/a-whole-lot-of-bovver-over-hover/
• All about fieldset/legend and a11y: https://www.tpgi.com/fieldsets-legends-and-screen-readers-again/
• Quality A11y resources: https://ideance.net/fr/ressources-accessibilite-numerique/
• Toolbox for a11y PDF: https://accessibilite.public.lu/fr/news/2023-04-05-RAPDF.html
• How to talk about accessibility: https://uxpajournal.org/we-need-to-talk-about-how-we-talk-about-accessibility/
• Make accessible PDFs: https://mn.gov/mnit/media/blog/?id=38-577889
• Washington Post a11y resources: https://build.washingtonpost.com/resources/accessibility
• Automatic transcription methods: https://www.maxability.co.in/2023/05/13/automatic-captions-an-overview/
• Guardrails for accessible dev: https://netzartist.de/blog/guardrails-for-better-accessibility-support-in-frontend/

Others #

• Games to test your a11y knowledge: https://trivia11y.com/
• No more tables in Emails: https://fullystacked.net/posts/modern-html-email/
• All about numbers to make them accessible, an anthology: https://accessiblenumbers.com/