Digital accessibility watch February - March 2024

Lots of things to read at the moment, in particular the new version of ARIA in HTML from the W3c: https://www.w3.org/TR/2024/REC-html-aria-20240216/.
Apart from this big announcement, a very unfortunate departure for the a11y in France, Jean-Pierre Vilain has left, and for people involved in accessibility, it is a great loss (fr): https://access42.net/hommage-jean-pierre-villain/.
We can also note the release of the Luxembourg RAWeb, a RGAA in full compliance with EN301549, the European standard (fr): https://accessibilite.public.lu/fr/news/2024-02-08-RAWeb.html.
And to illustrate the lack of accessibility in France, here are some edifying figures on the 250 online procedures, we're laughing, yellow (fr):https://www.temesis.com/blog/moins-de-3-du-top-250-des-demarches-en-ligne-sont-conformes-au-rgaa/.
Happy fluttering!

Accessibility in laws and standards #

• Criterion 2.5.8 Target size explained: https://www.tpgi.com/how-to-test-2-5-8-target-size-minimum/
• Criterion 3.3.8 Accessible authentication (minimum) explained: https://www.tpgi.com/how-to-test-3-3-8-accessible-authentication-minimum/
• Section titles and a11y (fr): https://ideance.net/blog/1831/accessibilite-et-titres-de-section/
• Mobile applications and accessibility obligation: what does the law say? (fr): https://www.bam.tech/article/applications-mobiles-et-obligation-daccessibilite-que-dit-la-loi
• A proposal for interpretation and transposition of WCAG 2.2 criteria to mobile apps (in): https://getevinced.github.io/mcag/

Accessibility strategy #

• According to Jacob Nielsen, the a11y failed, make way for individualized interfaces generated by AI, I don't agree but to read: https://jakobnielsenphd.substack.com/p/accessibility-generative-ui
• Results of the new Million study from WebAim: https://webaim.org/projects/million/
• A response to Jacob Nielsen by Adrian Roselli: https://adrianroselli.com/2024/03/jakob-has-jumped-the-shark.html
• Another response from the famous Léonie Watson to J. Nielsen: https://tink.uk/nielsen-needs-to-think-again/
• And yet another comeback for J. Nielsen: https://www.briandeconinck.com/jakob-nielsens-bad-ideas-about-accessibility/
• And finally, a list of articles following the outcry following the article by J. Nielsen: https://toot.cafe/@aardrian/112035138874620031
• Interesting reflection on the evolution of a11y: https://yatil.net/blog/access-by-a-thousand-curb-cuts
• Another demonstration of the damage of overlays, if necessary: https://html5accessibility.com/stuff/2024/03/03/accessibility-darkness-2/
• A clarification on certain vague points of the WCAG, to read: https://melsumner.github.io/reasonable-wcag-additions
• Measure to see progress with feedbacks from 4 experts: https://makeitfable.com/article/measure-and-quantify-accessibility-progress-like-successful-accessibility-leaders/
• Return to AI and a11y: https://alistapart.com/article/opportunities-for-ai-in-accessibility/

Test accessibility #

• A11y self-tests and the risk of adverse effects on the data collected: https://cerovac.com/a11y/2024/02/
• A new tool for testing contrast on Chrome, it stands out for the possibility of also calculating contrast according to the future WCAG Silver standard (WCAG3): https://a11ycolor.tools/more-toolstesting-and-monitoring-accessibility- with-automatic-tools-will-get-less-effective/
• The most common ARIA errors in audits: https://cerovac.com/a11y/2024/03/common-aria-problems-found-in-accessibility-audits/
• Clues for WCAG sleuths: https://accessibility.blog.gov.uk/2024/03/13/wcag-2-2-detective-skills/

Technical points #

• Build an accessible navigation, read: https://blog.pope.tech/2024/01/30/how-to-create-accessible-navigations-and-sub-menus/
• Accessible graphs to improve everyone's comfort: https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2024/02/accessibility-standards-empower-better-chart-visual-design/
• Everything about indicating mandatory or optional fields, great, it's all there: https://www.tpgi.com/doing-whats-required-indicating-mandatory-fields-in-an-accessible-way/
• Examples of WCAG 1.4.5 compliant and non-compliant images of text, to do: https://www.tpgi.com/does-it-fail-1-4-5-images-of-text/
• Make mathematical equations accessible: https://www.tpgi.com/making-math-accessible/
• Who needs an accessible name: https://html5accessibility.com/stuff/2024/02/14/when-it-says-name-from-author-it-means-from-you-not -boll-or-bukowski/
• ARIA and HTML attributes, their differences: https://www.deque.com/blog/distinguishing-between-aria-and-native-html-attributes/
• Everything about the click area and how to increase it in CSS, it's all there: https://ishadeed.com/article/target-size
• The html popover attribute and a11y: https://hidde.blog/popover-accessibility/
• Improve focus with CSS pseudo-class in forms: https://css-tricks.com/accessible-forms-with-pseudo-classes/
• Disabled html and aria-disabled attributes: https://kittygiraudel.com/2024/03/29/on-disabled-and-aria-disabled-attributes/
• Apple is experimenting with a new HTML form control, a switch: https://webkit.org/blog/15054/an-html-switch-control/

Feedback #

• Support for the ARIA note role, have a look...: https://adrianroselli.com/2024/02/aria-note.html
• The limits of generative AI for accessible code: https://tetralogical.com/blog/2024/02/12/can-generative-ai-help-write-accessible-code/
• A tutorial for writing an alternative to a complex infographic, good (fr): https://koena.net/infographie-accessible-les-12-discours-retardant-laction-climatique/
• Feedback in the form of advice from an a11y expert, so true: https://heather-buchel.com/blog/2024/03/letters-to-an-accessibility-advocate/
• 5 less known risks due to a lack of a11y: https://www.deque.com/blog/5-hidden-risks-inaccessible-website/

Assistive technologies #

• Deactivate a link for ATs (fr): https://vincent-valentin.name/articles/desactiver-les-liens
• Support for special characters in ATs: https://elevenways.be/en/articles/screenreaders-special-characters
• 5 ATs to keep in mind: https://www.nomensa.com/blog/five-assistive-technologies-you-should-be-aware-of/

Mobile app, mobile web #

• A11y's barriers for mobile AT users, nice summary: https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2024/02/mobile-accessibility-barriers-assistive-technology-users/
• Abra Desktop beta is available. This tool allows you to test the accessibility of an application installed on a mobile connected to a Mac: https://abra.ai/products/desktop
• 50+ dark mode usage statistics for 2023: https://marketsplash.com/fr/dark-mode-usage-statistics/
• New Android Ally plugin for developers on Android Studio: https://plugins.jetbrains.com/plugin/23902-android-ally/
• Still the Android Ally tool but in desktop version for testers or developers (&en): https://github.com/qbalsdon/android_ally_issues/

Ergonomics, UI & UX #

• A very detailed guide to taking into account and documenting accessibility from the design phase: https://stephaniewalter.design/blog/a-designers-guide-to-documenting-accessibility-user-interactions/

Resources #

• All links to the presentations offered at CSUN (in): https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1yBCYJ6flHW_KSYfBX1wNBRhGx9bxZ993_PoYaFrUAvE/edit#gid=80757841
• The result of the tenth questionnaire of WebAim on screen readers users: https://webaim.org/projects/screenreadersurvey10/
• Feedback on this WebAim questionnaire #10: https://adrianroselli.com/2024/02/my-webaim-10th-sr-user-survey-takeaways.html
• Another return to WebAim questionnaire #10: https://afixt.com/10-takeaways-from-the-webaim-screenreader-survey-10/
• A11y comparison of 5 form plugins for WordPress (fr): https://www.temesis.com/blog/comparatif-de-laccessibilite-de-5-plugins-de-formulaire-pour-wordpress/
• First step in a11y for devs, very useful basic advice: https://scribe.rip/@askParamSingh/a-developers-guide-for-web-accessibility-6b85448cc7a0
• A clarification of the different types of subtitles/captions: https://benmyers.dev/blog/captions-and-subtitles/

Others #

• Recruiting for accessibility, too many misunderstandings of our profession (in): https://www.craigabbott.co.uk/blog/stop-trying-to-recruit-unicorns-with-acorns/
• Reflection on the future of a11y, I believe in it: https://cerovac.com/a11y/2024/02/dont-care-about-accessibility-resistance-is-futile/
• Still on generative accessible code AI: https://hidde.blog/ai-for-accessible-components/
• Make effective word breaks: https://adrianroselli.com/2024/02/techniques-to-break-words.html
• The myths of a11y, nice anthology: https://a11ymyths.com/
• French version of the famous site explaining why overlays are bad (fr): https://overlayfactsheet.com/fr/
• Reflections of an accessibility professional after 15 years of experience, his disappointments and his hopes: https://yatil.net/blog/hope-kills-you
• Playability has just released a beta version for Windows, allowing you to play video games using facial movements: https://www.playability.gg/
• Feedback from a visually impaired person on the Apple Vision Pro headset: https://zmknox.com/2024/02/18/vision-accessibility-on-apple-vision-pro