Digital accessibility watch April - May 2025

Good news: the European Commission clearly states that overlays do not make web sites accessible, and we're making progress (fr): https://design.numerique.gouv.fr/articles/2025-04-03-les-surcouches-ne-rendent-ni-accessible-ni-conforme/.

The CNCPH, the National Consultative Council for People with Disabilities, is more pessimistic about the progress of accessibility in France (fr): https://drive.google.com/file/d/1oP88duDOzIxFjqg3MhbomEOFqA0gPuue/view .

And finally, WebAim's annual study of 1 million websites still doesn't produce amazing results; it's progressing, but very, very slowly: https://webaim.org/projects/million/.

Accessibility in Laws, Standards, and Recommendations #

• Anticipating A11Y errors in a project: https://www.lullabot.com/articles/what-it-means-shift-left-accessibility-and-how-do-it-right
• Explanations of WCAG 1.4.11 Non-Text Contrast: https://tarnoff.info/2025/04/28/a11y-101-1-4-11-non-text-contrast/
• Explanations of WCAG 2.5.3 Label-in-Name: https://www.tpgi.com/how-to-meet-sc-2-5-3-label-in-name/
• Explanations of WCAG 1.4.10 Reflow: https://tarnoff.info/2025/04/21/a11y-101-1-4-10-reflow/
• Explanations of WCAG 1.4.4 resize text: https://tarnoff.info/2025/04/07/a11y-101-1-4-4-resize-text/

Accessibility Implementation Strategy #

• Prioritizing A11y bug fixes: https://accessibility.civicactions.com/posts/prioritizing-accessibility-bugs-for-maximum-impact
• The accessibility menu, a good and bad idea (fr): https://accessibilite.public.lu/fr/news/2025-03-18-menus.html
• Interesting perspective on the use of AI in A11y, worth reading: https://scottvinkle.com/blogs/work/4-ways-i-use-ai-as-an-accessibility-specialist
• Arguments to convince people about A11y, to read: https://adrianroselli.com/2025/05/selfish-accessibility-2025-accessu.html
• And again...: https://www.nira11y.com/post/the-4-motivations-for-accessibility-the-big-why
• Still..., very comprehensive: https://stephaniewalter.design/blog/how-to-convince-people-to-care-and-invest-in-accessibility/
• When to make an alternative accessible version: https://mn.gov/mnit/about-mnit/accessibility/news/?id=38-683740
• Create a responsibility table by role in projects to improve A11y (RACI): https://www.accessarmada.com/blog/defining-raci-roles-for-improving-digital-accessibility/
• How to insert third-party content: https://www.dennisdeacon.com/web/accessibility/third-party-solutions-accessibility-a-primer/

Testing for accessibility #

• New WebAim Million 2025 study, worth reading: https://webaim.org/projects/million/
• Everything you need to know about what can be automated in WCAG: https://html5accessibility.com/stuff/2025/03/27/mind-the-wcag-automation-gap/
• Automated testing tools less effective than advertised: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/automated-accessibility-test-tools-find-even-less-than-robert-dodd-pk7be/
• Testing with keyboard: https://www.deque.com/blog/how-keyboard-testing-improves-digital-accessibility/
• Some bookmarklets: https://intopia.digital/articles/digital-accessibility-bookmarklets/
• A11y's classic and effective testing methodology: https://www.a11y-collective.com/blog/how-to-check-web-accessibility/
• Manual, automatic, or AI testing: https://www.dennisdeacon.com/web/accessibility/automated-vs-ai-vs-manual-testing-text-alternatives/

Technical points #

• All about the "main", to read: https://adrianroselli.com/2025/04/mainlining-mains.html
• Field grouping, to read: https://www.tpgi.com/everythings-more-complicated-in-groups-required-groups/
• Using aria-describedby: https://www.a11y-collective.com/blog/aria-describedby/
• Live regions: https://slides.yatil.net/were-aria-live.html#/
• An a11y accordion component based on mailing lists: https://afixt.com/creating-an-accessible-accordion-with-html-description-lists/
• An accessible CSS carousel, not possible: https://www.sarasoueidan.com/blog/css-carousels-accessibility/#conclusion-and-closing-thoughts
• React and a11y, not so bad: https://www.accessarmada.com/blog/is-react-accessible-thats-the-wrong-question/
• A recap on accessible HTML tables, to read: https://adrianroselli.com/2025/05/talkin-tables-accessu.html
• Handling keyboard and mouse events in screen readers: https://www.tpgi.com/event-handling-in-jaws-and-nvda/
• Keyboard navigation, good habits: https://afixt.com/keyboard-navigation-ensuring-usability-without-a-mouse/

Feedback #

• Interview with Laetitia Giannettini, Senior UX Strategy at Telono (fr): https://access42.net/interview-laetitia-giannettini-senior-ux-strategy-research-design-consultant-telono-suisse/
• The auditor a11y and cognitive load by Sophie Drouvroy, thoughts that I widely share (fr): https://www.sophie-drouvroy.com/blog/un-audit-daccessibilite-cest-avant-tout-un-engagement-mental/
• A look back at overdoing it in A11Y: https://rightbadcode.com/i-broke-the-disabled-button
• How to use alternative text for images on social media: https://blog.pope.tech/2025/04/02/a-guide-to-alt-text-across-popular-tools/
• Figma Sites produces inaccessible websites: https://adrianroselli.com/2025/05/do-not-publish-your-designs-on-the-web-with-figma-sites.html
• Another negative look back on Figma Sites: https://www.joedolson.com/2025/05/the-true-path-to-garbage-code-figma-sites/
• Very interesting testimony about the barriers related to mobile usability: https://makeitfable.com/article/mobile-usability-reality-check-for-inclusive-ux/

Mobile app, mobile web #

• The first draft of WCAG 2.2 applied to Mobile Applications (WCAG2Mobile) has just been released: https://www.w3.org/TR/wcag2mobile-22/
• Great summary from TPGI on the tools, techniques, and best practices for testing iOS mobile apps: https://www.tpgi.com/csun-recap-testing-mobile-apps-tools-techniques-and-best-practices-part-1-ios/
• Same thing for Android mobile apps: https://www.tpgi.com/csun-recap-testing-mobile-apps-tools-techniques-and-best-practices-part-2-android/
• A report by ArcTouch and Fable assessing the accessibility of 50 leading Android and iOS apps across five industries, available for download: https://arctouch.com/state-of-mobile-app-accessibility#panel-2RbqZjLfMkS99qZnuUqpZH
• Focus on some key elements of mobile accessibility: https://www.a11y-collective.com/blog/mobile-app-accessibility/#h-mobile-app-accessibility-checklist-7-key-steps

Technical Aids #

• Keyboard navigation, everything you need to know: https://tetralogical.com/blog/2025/05/09/foundations-keyboard-accessibility/

Ergonomics, UI & UX #

• Annotating A11y for screen readers in design, everything you need to know: https://bbc.github.io/accessibility-news-and-you/guides/screen-reader-ux.html
• Better error messages, more human-friendly: https://piccalil.li/blog/how-to-write-error-messages-that-actually-help-users-rather-than-frustrate-them/
• Don't use thin fonts: https://webdesignerdepot.com/thin-fonts-are-a-usability-nightmare-and-finally-designers-are-waking-up/
• Let's defend text labels, or the limits of icons alone: ​​https://www.chrbutler.com/in-defense-of-text-labels
• The importance of keyboard navigation in web design: https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2025/04/what-mean-site-be-keyboard-navigable/
• The a11y audit: The cornerstone of user-centric design: https://www.uxmatters.com/mt/archives/2025/04/how-accessibility-audits-are-shaping-the-future-of-user-centered-design.php

AI #

• An example of the negative impact of AI: https://adactio.com/journal/21831
• AI and A11y, where it's going: https://bestcolleges.indiatoday.in/news-detail/ai-for-the-win-how-pwds-are-benefiting-from-ai-tools
• A11y of generative AI, draft note from April 25, W3c: https://raw.githack.com/w3c/ai-accessibility/FPWD-ai-accessibility/index.html
• The benefits of AI for people with disabilities: https://bestcolleges.indiatoday.in/news-detail/ai-for-the-win-how-pwds-are-benefiting-from-ai-tools
• Tests of a11y with AI, interesting POC: https://devblogs.microsoft.com/semantic-kernel/guest-blog-letting-ai-help-make-the-world-more-accessible-analyzing-website-accessibility-with-semantic-kernel-and-omniparser/
• Feedback and tests of aXe assistant, nothing extraordinary: https://www.craigabbott.co.uk/blog/deque-axe-assistant-first-impressions/
• Beware of the Vibe Coding (AI assisted development), particularly regarding accessibility issues: https://cerovac.com/a11y/2025/04/beware-of-vibe-accessibility/

Resources #

• Mastodon and accessible images, how to do it: https://dutailly.net/mastodon-les-balises-alt-et-deux-ou-trois-autres-trucs
• Guide to accessible videos: https://afixt.com/how-to-make-your-videos-accessible-a-guide-to-inclusive-content-creation/
• Focus on a point from the WebAim Million study: https://cerovac.com/a11y/2025/04/webaim-million-results-show-that-shopping-sites-have-worst-accessibility/
• A11y PDF, using Adobe Acrobat's accessibility checker: https://blog.pope.tech/2025/04/30/remediate-a-pdf-for-accessibility-using-adobes-accessibility-checker/
• A11y PDF, fix the reading order in Adobe Acrobat: https://blog.pope.tech/2025/04/30/how-to-use-adobe-acrobats-fix-reading-order-tool/

Other #

• How IKEA optimized the use of its Noto IKEA font, fascinating: https://www.robinwhittleton.com/2025/04/23/ikea-web-fonts/
• Front-end expert Q&A on HTML semantic and accessible code: https://accessibility.blog.gov.uk/2025/04/25/unlocking-accessibility-frontend-developers-discuss-semantic-html-and-accessible-code/