Digital accessibility watch October-November 2021

A little late this time but, hey, the holidays and all that...

On these times, the famous 24 days of web, the web advent calendar (fr): https://www.24joursdeweb.fr.

We continue with a rant over the French stagnation at the A11y, https://www.yanous.com/pratique/informatique/pointsdevue211001.html, basically without sanctions nothing will advance!

To follow up on the lawsuits brought by Facil'iti, Koena files its conclusions for the trial https://koena.net/proces-faciliti-conclusions-koena-12-novembre-2021/.

And on the same topic, another site on accessibility overlays: https://overlayfalseclaims.com.

Happy Holidays !

Accessibility in laws, standards and recommendations #

• Advocacy of 12 proposals to make the accessibility obligation a reality in France (fr): https://certam-avh.com/fr/dossiers-thematiques/plaidoyer-pour-l-accessibilite-numerique#les-douze-propositions-de-the-association-valentin-hauy
• Rant of the visually impaired on a11y (fr): https://informations.handicap.fr/a-web-inaccessible-ras-le-bol-internautes-malvoyants-31777.php
• And the logical consequence of this lack of political will, filing a complaint (fr): https://www.voirensemble.asso.fr/actualites/sites-internet-inaccessibles-les-aveugles-se-portent-en-justice
• Main advances of WCAG 3.0, becareful, WCAG 3.0 is not official: https://www.boia.org/blog/understanding-the-differences-between-wcag-2.2-and-wcag-3.0 and here too https://uxdesign.cc/wcag-3-0-what-you-need-to-know-about-the-future-of-accessibility-standards-2e1f6374f2c7
• The tour of the new WCAG 2.2 criteria: https://www.essentialaccessibility.com/blog/new-wcag-22-release-impacts-2021-web-accessibility
• Make good use of ARIA 1.2 (editor draft) by the W3C: https://w3c.github.io/aria-practices/
• Qualiopi certification and accessibility of training (fr): https://access42.net/qualiopi-handicap-indicateur26-formation-accessible

Feedback and accessibility #

• Updated SVG pattern tests and their support in screen readers: https://codepen.io/cariefisher/pen/QWpjded
• Experts in a11y are not evangelists, a point of view that I share: https://uxdesign.cc/it-is-time-to-ditch-the-title-evangelist-from-accessibility-d35e8723ed71
• Interesting perspective on the near future that would be beneficial for a11y: https://yatil.net/blog/fix-web-accessibility-systematically
• Comparison of the main online survey tools, who wins?: https://www.washington.edu/accessibility/2021/09/28/online-survey-tools/
• The false negatives of our a11y tools, beware: https://adrianroselli.com/2021/09/beware-false-negatives.html

Accessibility strategy #

• Do we need to know how many people are benefiting from a11y on our site: https://hiddedevries.nl/en/blog/2021-12-05-how-many-people-with-disabilities-use-our-site
• Collaborative accessibility planning, to read: https://www.deque.com/blog/collaborative-planning-the-forgotten-step-of-accessible-development/
• Captcha and a11y, an overview: https://www.digitala11y.com/the-captcha-conundrum-accessible-alternatives/
• Focus visibility according to WCAG 2.1 and even 2.2: https://www.sarasoueidan.com/blog/focus-indicators/
• Consider any type of handicap in a11y, here photophobia: https://www.boia.org/blog/web-design-mistakes-that-impact-light-sensitive-users

Test accessibility #

• PAC, pdf Accessibility Checker, new editor, new version: https://pdfua.foundation/en/pac-download
• 47 bookmarklets to test the a11y: https://www.digitala11y.com/accessibility-bookmarklets-testing/
• ARC, a tool to test the a11y, everything is explained there, well done tool: https://valor-software.com/articles/arc-a-new-weapon-against-accessibility-bugs.html
• Equal Access, a new suite of tools (browser extension, ci/cd, test library) from IBM for a11y, I had not yet seen it, to test: https://github.com/IBMa/equal-access
• AI and a11y tests: https://www.tpgi.com/introduction-to-a-i-and-accessibility-testing/

Technical accessibility points #

• The scope attribute is no longer needed for major screen readers: https://www.tpgi.com/short-note-on-scoping-mechanisms/
• Keyboard traps, a horror: https://www.boia.org/blog/why-keyboard-traps-are-one-of-the-most-frustrating-accessibility-issues
• Too much a11y kills a11y, an example with form fields: https://www.scottohara.me//blog/2021/10/04/redundantly-redundant.html
• React and a11y, overview: https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/react-accessibility-tools-build-accessible-react-apps/
• The ARIA application role, pros / cons: https://www.boia.org/blog/avoid-accessibility-issues-when-using-arias-application-role
• What screen readers see, cool examples and explanations: https://www.boia.org/blog/avoid-accessibility-issues-when-using-arias-application-role
• Title page in React: https://dev.to/steady5063/accessible-titles-in-react-210j
• Text size for the web, an answer to a frequently asked question: https://pimpmytype.com/font-size/
• Again a link is not a button and vice versa: https://yatil.net/blog/buttons-vs-links
• Set up prefers-reduced-motion, feature article: https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2021/10/respecting-users-motion-preferences/
• Name, label and ARIA, full of basic techniques: https://www.scottohara.me/blog/2021/11/02/names-and-labels.html

Mobile app, mobile web #

• Test a mobile app or mobile website for a11y: https://www.boia.org/blog/how-do-i-test-my-app-or-mobile-website-for-accessibility
• Screen readers on mobile, a nice summary: https://tetralogical.com/blog/2021/10/05/browsing-with-a-mobile-screen-reader/
• Support of Swift UI by aXe DevTools mobile: https://www.deque.com/blog/axe-devtools-mobile-now-supports-swiftui/
• What is an accessible mobile app: https://www.boia.org/blog/what-is-accessibility-in-mobile-apps

Ergonomics, UI & UX #

• Design and accessibility, a guide: https://www.saggezza.com/a-guide-to-accessible-digital-ux-design/
• Design and accessibility, a great podcast: https://podcast.designmasterclass.fr/episode/28/design-accessible-une-priorite
• A ready-made kit for a11y annotations in Figma, practical: https://www.figma.com/community/file/1022394680250523675
• Too many pop-ups, uplifting: https://www.nngroup.com/articles/overlay-overload/
• UX = a11y and vice versa: https://uxdesign.cc/ux-accessibility-accessibility-ux-3f609617c480
• Ban generic "click here" and other "read more" links: https://uxdesign.cc/the-problem-with-click-here-and-learn-more-links-d01a0eba5cbd

Resources #

• An anthology of myths about a11y, there are plenty of them: https://a11ymyths.com/
• Screen magnifier users: https://tetralogical.com/blog/2021/11/10/browsing-with-screen-magnification
• The audio description bible to keep in mind: https://www.3playmedia.com/learn/popular-topics/audio-description/
• Paid article but free checklist on accessible chatbots, big job, extensive: https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-981-16-1781-2_80
• Presentation of accessibility resources on augmented and virtual reality: https://arpost.co/2021/10/28/xr-association-xr-access-xraccessibility-site/ and the resource site: https://github.com/XRAccessibility/xraccessibility.github.io
• It made me laugh, a html how-to button, a code lesson: https://www.buttoncheatsheet.com/
• What is an a11y audit: https://www.rmmagazine.com/articles/article/2021/10/12/what-constitutes-a-digital-accessibility-audit
• A11y and social networks, how to do it right: https://therealalexa.com/accessible-social
• Introduction to screen readers: https://www.tpgi.com/what-is-a-screen-reader-and-why-are-they-important/
• Some of the a11y declaration generation tools: https://www.digitala11y.com/accessibility-statement-generators-roundup/
• The great guide to subtitling for major video players, a snapshot of the state of the art: https://www.3playmedia.com/blog/guide-caption-description-formats-video-player/
• Resources for subtitling, complete (fr): https://github.com/emma11y/sous-titres/
• Build a photo gallery, for example, accessible in html: https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2021/10/build-expandable-accessible-gallery/
• Nice intro to a11y (fr): https://www.usabilis.com/accessibilite-numerique/

Others #

• 6 points to improve the a11y of your remote meetings: https://meryl.net/accessible-online-video-meetings/
• AI not so good for a11y: https://www.vice.com/en/article/m7az74/people-with-disabilities-say-this-ai-tool-is-making-the-web-worse-for-them