Digital accessibility watch October-November 2025

To start, here are two great tech and a11y advent calendars (fr): https://www.24joursdeweb.fr/ and https://www.htmhell.dev/adventcalendar/.

And then there's progress (it's becoming clearer...) regarding the complaints filed by ApiDV (Accompanying, Promoting, Integrating Visually Impaired People) against major retailers for non-compliance with the EAA (Accessibility Advisory Agreement), and finally, its transposition into French law (fr):

That's all, happy holidays everyone!

Accessibility in Laws, Standards, and Recommendations #

RaWeb integrates EN301549 (fr): https://access42.net/references-clients/raweb-referentiel-accessibilite-web-luxembourg/
Meeting EAA requirements: https://www.deque.com/blog/understanding-compliance-and-conformance-in-the-eaa-era/
Explanation of WCAG 2.4.5 Multiple ways: https://tarnoff.info/2025/10/27/a11y-101-2-4-5-multiple-ways/

Accessibility Implementation Strategy #

Alternative text should be as long as necessary: https://chrisyoong.com/blog/the-100-150-or-200-characters-alt-text-rule-is-a-myth
No headings in the header: https://css-tricks.com/headings-semantics-fluidity-and-styling-oh-my/
Automated tests are lying to you: https://chrisyoong.com/blog/your-accessibility-score-is-lying-to-you
Sustainable A11y for large organizations, three key articles:
Shopify and a11y: https://adrianroselli.com/2025/11/shopify-needs-a-mirrorfy.html
a11y bugs shouldn't just be put in the backlog: https://intopia.digital/articles/straight-to-the-pool-room-the-pitfalls-of-placing-accessibility-issues-in-the-backlog/
Getting things moving again when a11y stalls: https://buttondown.com/access-ability/archive/when-accessibility-progress-plateaus-how-to/

Testing Accessibility #

User Testing with People with Disabilities: https://intopia.digital/articles/user-testing-with-people-with-disabilities/w
Testing WCAG by Dennis Deacon, full of articles on almost all criteria, worth reading: https://www.dennisdeacon.com/category/web/accessibility/
Manual testing in a11y: https://blog.pope.tech/2025/10/29/manual-testing-webinar/
PDF Accessibility Checker (PAC) 2026, downloadable: https://pac.pdf-accessibility.org/en/download

Point Techniques #

Validating an accessible form, code examples: https://blog.pope.tech/2025/09/30/accessible-form-validation-with-examples-and-code/
An accessible flip card: https://www.tpgi.com/creating-a-truly-accessible-flip-card/
Data tables and a11y: https://www.tpgi.com/tables-beyond-rows-and-columns/
All about links and buttons, a great summary: https://www.tpgi.com/link-vs-button-choosing-the-right-element-for-the-right-job/
Accessible naming explained: https://www.tpgi.com/accessible-names-and-labels-understanding-what-works-and-what-doesnt/
Aria-selected, what you need to know: https://www.a11y-collective.com/blog/aria-selected/
A good focus indicator: https://www.a11y-collective.com/blog/focus-indicator/
Interactive elements, HTML dialogs, and tabindex: https://matuzo.at/blog/2025/whats-an-interactive-element
Aria-hidden="true" and a11y explained (fr): https://access42.net/attribut-aria-hidden-true-accessibilite/
When a search finds nothing, do it right: https://buttondown.com/access-ability/archive/why-every-search-needs-an-announced-empty-state/
A complete overview of HTML data tables: https://adrianroselli.com/2025/10/talkin-tables-at-a11yto-conf.html
Dialog on how to do it right: https://jaredcunha.com/blog/html-dialog-getting-accessibility-and-ux-right
Some ARIA state attributes explained: https://www.tpgi.com/what-state-aria-in/

Lessons Learned #

Even GitHub doesn't like toasts: https://primer.style/accessibility/toasts/

Mobile App, Mobile Web #

Some new accessibility features from Google: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h1a7O6UzBdY
A talk to learn everything about focus management on Android (droidcon Berlin 2025): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ou-mws7GX_A
Designing inclusive and accessible Android apps (droidcon Bangladesh 2025): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NURCk-joKqk
A library providing automated testing examples on iOS, by Mark Steadman: https://github.com/Steady5063/iOS-Automated-Accessibility-Example-Lib?ref=appt.news
A practical guide to accessibility on Flutter: https://www.thedroidsonroids.com/blog/flutter-accessibility-guide-part-1
How a simple button role can make an app accessible: https://axesslab.com/how-button-traits-can-make-a-chaotic-ios-app-accessible/

Technical Aids #

Misconceptions about screen readers: https://tetralogical.com/blog/2025/10/14/common-misconceptions-about-screen-readers/
Accessible time, tests on JAWS, VoiceOver, and NVDA: https://ozewai.org/blog/newsletter/accessible-time-format/
Implicit labels and voice commands, to do: https://gomakethings.com/implicit-labels-arent/
There's more than just tabs in screen readers: https://tarnoff.info/2025/11/03/quick-tip-use-more-than-tab-in-screen-readers/

Ergonomics, UI & UX #

Discussion among designers on a11y (fr): https://www.tamarasredojevic.com/fr/writing/design-accessibilite-ludovic-evelin
Modal and non-modal components, differences: https://www.a11y-collective.com/blog/modal-vs-dialog/
A11y and interaction design: https://www.alicia.design/post/interaction-design-and-accessibility-ux-without-barriers
Guide to the principles of inclusive design: https://tetralogical.com/blog/2025/10/07/guide-to-the-inclusive-design-principles/
Colour in maps: https://designsystem.gov.scot/guidance/maps/using-colour-in-maps
Close what you opened when the user leaves: https://buttondown.com/access-ability/archive/why-you-need-to-close-open-objects-when-users/
a11y toolkits in Figma: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/vitalyfriedman_ux-accessibility-activity-7135568572046544896-mWsN/

AI #

AI inevitable, no: https://yatil.net/blog/ai-is-inevitable-is-bullshit
AI, self-testing, and a11y, the progress report: https://cerovac.com/a11y/2025/11/ai-will-soon-deliver-code-that-will-pass-automatic-testing-by-default/
Open AI, Aria, and a11y, not good: https://adrianroselli.com/2025/10/openai-aria-and-seo-making-the-web-worse.html
Code generation via AI and a11y lacks clean source code: https://www.aaron-gustafson.com/notebook/identifying-accessibility-data-gaps-in-codegen-models/
More proof that AI generates inaccessible code: https://dl.acm.org/doi/full/10.1145/3663547.3759755
AI generating more accessible code, but still...: https://hidde.blog/teaching-llms-or-companies/
Prompts for common errors, to try: https://www.forbes.com/councils/forbesbusinesscouncil/2025/10/31/ai-prompts-for-web-accessibility-testing/

Resources #

Consumer services and A11Y (fr): https://www.avh.asso.fr/nos-solutions/accessibilite/accessibilite-numerique/accessibilite-des-produits-et-des-services/accessibilite-des-services
Why WCAG 2.2 no longer has criterion 4.1.1 Parsing, to read: https://www.tpgi.com/understanding-the-removal-of-4-1-1-parsing-in-wcag-2-2/
Writing accessible for the web: https://www.a11y-collective.com/blog/accessible-writing/
Risks for a11y on the web: https://alice.boxhall.au/articles/a-threat-model-for-accessibility-on-the-web/
Designing for dyslexia, some essential points: https://buttondown.com/access-ability/archive/designing-for-dyslexia-accessibility-requirements/
Alt text in Word and PowerPoint and converting to PDF: https://webaim.org/blog/word-and-powerpoint-alt-text-roundup/

Other #

A strong opinion, no bad actors in a11y conferences: https://chrisyoong.com/blog/inviting-harmful-actors-into-genuine-accessibility-spaces-is-dangerous
An interview with Easy-to-Read and Understand (FALC) expert Karine Bardary (fr): https://www.lunaweb.fr/actualites/podcasts/sld-35-karine-bardary-experte-en-accessibilite-web-et-falc/