Digital accessibility watch January - February 2021

Big news, “W3C First Public Working Draft 21 January 2021” released, the future of a11y web and more. An introduction: https://www.w3.org/WAI/standards-guidelines/wcag/wcag3-intro/

And some articles to get an idea:

• https://www.deque.com/blog/first-public-working-draft-wcag-3/
• https://www.deque.com/blog/public-working-draft-wcag-3-history/
• https://jspellman-77432.medium.com/an-insider-look-at-wcag-3-0-276e9b964a33
• https://sheribyrnehaber.medium.com/silver-wcag-3-0-first-public-working-draft-released-15f765b9525e
• https://www.jdsupra.com/legalnews/new-web-content-accessibility-standard-4698390/

Accessibility in laws, standards and guidelines #

• Label in name WCAG 2.5.3, explained in detail: https://css-tricks.com/whats-new-in-wcag-2-1-label-in-name/
• Message status 4.1.3 explanations: https://www.digitala11y.com/understanding-sc-4-1-3-status-messages/

Feedback and accessibility #

• A message from a screen reader user for devs: https://bighack.org/message-to-web-developers-from-a-screen-reader-user/
• Semantic HTML or CSS display: https://adrianroselli.com/2020/10/a11yto-conf-css-display-properties-versus-html-semantics.html

Accessibility strategy #

• Make maps accessible, all points of vigilance: https://www.benjystanton.co.uk/blog/a-plan-for-accessible-maps/
• Reduce animations via CSS, JS and React, read: https://letsbuildui.dev/articles/reducing-motion-in-animations

Test accessibility #

• The browser developer tools to test accessibility: https://christianheilmann.com/2021/01/11/seven-ways-to-test-for-accessibility-of-your-web-site -with-browser-developer-tools /
• The problem of screen reader testing for devs: https://jaketracey.com/a-developers-perspective-the-problem-with-screen-reader-testing/
• Developer test tools, succinct but takes stock: https://techosmo.com/hacker-noon/winning-at-web-accessibility-in-2021-with-these-tools-for-developers /
• Contrast ratio calculator for WCAG3: https://www.myndex.com/APCA/

Accessibility technical points #

• aria-description, neat: https://html5accessibility.com/stuff/2021/02/09/aria-description-by-public-demand-and-to-thunderous-applause/
• Be careful to the CSS content-visibility property: https://marcysutton.com/content-visibility-accessible-semantics
• Difference between aria-label, labelledby, describedby: https://benmyers.dev/blog/aria-labels-and-descriptions/
• Labeling a control (interactive elements), prioritized the methods, to read: https://adrianroselli.com/2020/01/my-priority-of-methods-for-labeling-a-control.html
• aria-haspopup, not very robust and therefore to be avoided, how… : https://html5accessibility.com/stuff/2021/02/02/haspopup-haspoop/
• An update on focus visibility, technics: https://www.nicchan.me/blog/tips-for-focus-styles/
• Advice for voice control and SVG: https://www.ajsaucier.com/accessibility/2020/12/14/voice-control-and-css-psuedo-elements.html
• Change accessible names dynamically, bad thing sometimes!: https://adrianroselli.com/2020/12/be-careful-with-dynamic-accessible-names.html
• alt and figcaption, for whom, why: https://thoughtbot.com/blog/alt-vs-figcaption
• Anchor and accessibility link: https://amberwilson.co.uk/blog/are-your-anchor-links-accessible/

Mobile app #

• Mobile guidelines on the very serious bbc.co.uk: https://www.bbc.co.uk/accessibility/forproducts/guides/mobile/

Ergonomics, UI & UX #

• User experience and accessibility, basic points: https://www.awwwards.com/accessibility-in-user-experience-how-to-include-people-with-disabilities.html
• Users without mouse, the basics: https://uxdesign.cc/taking-the-keyboard-navigation-red-pill-dbb76dd73b1e
• Cognitive load, examples: https://uxdesign.cc/the-cognitive-overload-happening-on-your-screen-right-now-deee2a913393
• 8 points on UX and a11y: https://uxdesign.cc/8-faqs-about-accessible-ux-7c5a372a1ffb

Resources #

• Web code and design pattern libraries, full of resources: http://www.webaxe.org/web-accessible-code-library-design-systems-patterns/
• Cool resources for a11y devs: https://www.upyoura11y.com/
• Resources for accessibility and laws: https://accessibility-manual.dwp.gov.uk/accessibility-law
• A little history of screen readers: https://knowbility.org/blog/2021/a-brief-history-of-screen-readers/
• Excellent video episodes of Heydon Pickering, here on ARIA, must see, humor in: https://briefs.video/videos/what-is-aria-even-for/
• Newsletter digital accessibility: http://www.webaxe.org/digital-accessibility-newsletters/
• 2021 dev tools a11y: https://dev.to/jaketracey/the-best-web-accessibility-tools-for-developers-in-2021-8c8
• Semantic HTML: https://dev.to/eevajonnapanula/ode-to-semantic-html-38c3
• The semantic web, go further than the previous link: https://24days.in/umbraco-cms/2020/semantics-in-web-development/
• List of accessible sites: https://www.a11ywebsites.com/

Others #

• Progressive enhancement, where are we?: https://briefs.video/videos/is-progressive-enhancement-dead-yet/
• Why separate HTML, CSS and JS is good for the user: https://hiddedevries.nl/en/blog/2020-11-25-why-its-good-for-users-that-html-css-and-js-are-separate-languages