Category Archives: design

How to create a simple CSS loading spinner & make it accessible

Since CSS animations are now so well supported using an animated .gif for a loading spinner is now no longer necessary. The mighty Developer Jon Pearse, showed me how to make a CSS loading spinner so I thought I’d share his technique using a flexible SCSS mixin step by step. This spinner will work inContinueContinue reading “How to create a simple CSS loading spinner & make it accessible”

Trends that exclude – Axess Lab

Jumping on a new trend is risky business, both in fashion and web design! Here is why trends often hurt the user experience and exclude users with disabilities. I’ll also go through what you can do to avoid this from happening. … Curated by (Lifekludger) Read full article at Source: Trends that exclude – AxessContinueContinue reading “Trends that exclude – Axess Lab”

Tipo : Braille Smartphone Keypad 

After working with a user group of visually impaired on earlier version’s of braille keyboards, it was highlighted that there is no comprehensive way of typing into a smartphone. Current software solutions are too slow, do not give good tactile feedback or just are a pain to type with. Even though there are many softContinueContinue reading “Tipo : Braille Smartphone Keypad “

How to Create an Accessible PDF

Accessible PDFs are also known as “tagged” PDFs. They contain a hidden network of instructions and provide a textual representation of the document so that people using screen readers can properly navigate the document. Properly tagged PDFs also benefit from better search engine optimization (SEO) because search engines read the words between header tags beforeContinueContinue reading “How to Create an Accessible PDF”

Hey, It’s Still OK to Use Tables

Consider this post to be the sequel to my 2012 post It’s OK to Use Tables. Here I will go into bit more detail based on the state of accessible efforts I see today. In that post I identified two scenarios I see frequently as a result of developers blindly following the don’t use tablesContinueContinue reading “Hey, It’s Still OK to Use Tables”

Accessibility With Apple – Brave In The Attempt

… Apple continues to lead the way. In fact, every photo and video on their site is made accessible with captions for the hearing impaired (in multiple languages) and audio descriptions for those with visual impairments. Even basic features you like are accessible in ways you may not have considered. Consider the Apple Watch with taptic feedback for theContinueContinue reading “Accessibility With Apple – Brave In The Attempt”

Age and Ability

In the United States, the Revised Section 508 Standards went into effect on January 18, 2018, a year after the U.S. Access Board published the final rule of the updated Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Standards and Guidelines. The Revised 508 Standards, and the accompanying updates to Section 255 of the Communications Act, have transformedContinueContinue reading “Age and Ability”

Advocating for Accessible UI Design | CSS-Tricks

Accessibility is a hot topic these days, and the older we web-makers get, the hotter it’s going to become! That might be a snarky outlook, but what I’m trying to say is that it’s about time we start designing the web for everyone because the web was meant to be for everyone, and less and less areContinueContinue reading “Advocating for Accessible UI Design | CSS-Tricks”

Accessibility: Usability for all | Interaction Design Foundation

Let’s examine a topic we often take for granted to understand what it’s really about. Doing so, you’ll be able to proceed with a broader appreciation of how users engage your designs. … A design is only useful if it’s accessible to the user: any user, anywhere, anytime. We often mistake the concept of accessibility as involving people with disabilities. However, we’re all disabledContinueContinue reading “Accessibility: Usability for all | Interaction Design Foundation”

The math of CSS locks

A CSS lock is a Responsive Web Design technique that lets you transition smoothly between two values, depending on the current viewport size, rather than jump straight from one value to the other. … I found this technique in Tim’s article and, when I tried wrapping my head around it, and creating variants of it,ContinueContinue reading “The math of CSS locks”

Accessible Dynamic Links

Although hyperlinks are the soul of the World Wide Web, it’s worth using them in moderation. Too many links becomes a barrier for visitors navigating their way through a page. This difficulty is multiplied when the visitor is using assistive technology, or is using a keyboard; being able to skip over a block of linksContinueContinue reading “Accessible Dynamic Links”

Accessibility Through Semantic HTML ◆ 24 ways

Working on Better, a tracker blocker, I spend an awful lot of my time with my nose in other people’s page sources. I’m mostly there looking for harmful tracking scripts, but often notice the HTML on some of the world’s most popular sites is in a sad state of neglect. What does neglected HTML look like?ContinueContinue reading “Accessibility Through Semantic HTML ◆ 24 ways”

Website Design: Inclusive Experiences Part 1 Visual: Colours and shapes

Why is accessibility important? In order for the consumer to have an overall positive experience, it is strongly recommended that your project is designed to be inclusive. If the right accessibility isn’t in place, it could exclude consumers who may struggle or even be unable to interact with the project. The information that will be covered inContinueContinue reading “Website Design: Inclusive Experiences Part 1 Visual: Colours and shapes”

The new guidelines in WCAG 2.1 explained 

In the Summer of 2018, WCAG 2.0 will be updated to version 2.1 with new guidelines for making websites even more accessible. In this post I’ll try to give simple explanations of these guidelines along with thoughts and advice on how to follow them. … New guidelines in WCAG 2.1 Before explaining the new guidelinesContinueContinue reading “The new guidelines in WCAG 2.1 explained “

Web Accessibility 101: Design for All People, Not Most

Web Accessibility 101: Design for All People, Not Most B Web design is about accessibility. Most web designers aim to create products for the largest swath of people within their audience, casting their designs out like gaping nets to yield them the greatest influx of users. And while there’s logic to that design principle, itContinueContinue reading “Web Accessibility 101: Design for All People, Not Most”

Microsoft, others spearheading a ‘smart cities’ initiative for everyone

Microsoft has teamed up with two organizations to make smart cities more accessible for everyone, including the disabled and elderly. The collaboration, announced in May, includes Microsoft, the Global Initiative for Inclusive Information and Communication Technologies (G3ict) and World Enabled, a nonprofit organization that advocates for the disabled. Its mission is simple: define the stateContinueContinue reading “Microsoft, others spearheading a ‘smart cities’ initiative for everyone”

Planning for Accessibility · An A List Apart Article

Incorporating accessibility from the beginning is almost always easier, more effective, and less expensive than making accessibility improvements as a separate project. In fact, building accessibility into your project and processes has a wealth of business benefits. If you’re looking to make the case for accessibility—to yourself, to coworkers, or to bosses and clients—you mightContinueContinue reading “Planning for Accessibility · An A List Apart Article”

RFID Enables Hands-Free Transit Entrance for Vancouver Disabled

… The hands-free solution, known as the Universal Fare Gate Access Program, represents the world’s first transit authority system that offers hands-free automated access to disabled passengers, according to Erin Windross, TransLink’s planner for access transit planning. The RFID technology, which consists of UHF access-control cards and readers above fare gates, is provided by British Columbia RFID and Internet of ThingsContinueContinue reading “RFID Enables Hands-Free Transit Entrance for Vancouver Disabled”

What Does Inclusive Design Mean?

Why is accessibilty seen as an after-thought, or at worst an expense to help a handful of disadvantaged people? Have you ever tried using a website or app on your smartphone whilst riding a bus when the sun is streaming through the window? You probably have. How did that work out for you? … …theContinueContinue reading “What Does Inclusive Design Mean?”

Your Users Might Not be as Tech-Savvy as You Think

Thanks to their specialist skillsets and proximity to a given project, UX Designers are set apart from the majority of their target audience. As Jakob Nielsen explains, “one of usability’s most hard-earned lessons is that you are not the user. This is why it’s a disaster to guess at the users’ needs.” However, there’s anotherContinueContinue reading “Your Users Might Not be as Tech-Savvy as You Think”

UI Options 

UI OptionsObjectiveEasily add UI Options to your website. Add a simple separated-panel preferences editor to any page.DescriptionUI Options adds a simple preferences editor dialog with a set of six panels in a collapsible panel at the top of the page, accessible through a button in the upper right corner of the page. Curated by (Lifekludger)ContinueContinue reading “UI Options “

How Current Design Trends Impact Web Accessibility

“You are not your users.” “Involve people with disabilities in user testing.” “The average user does not exist.” “Design for the extremes, and the middle will take care of itself.” We hear these phrases all the time, yet a lot of people still believe that accessibility is mostly a quality assurance or developer’s responsibility, somethingContinueContinue reading “How Current Design Trends Impact Web Accessibility”

HTML Source Order vs CSS Display Order

Last month in my post Source Order Matters I wrote about why we need to consider how the source order of the HTML of a page can affect users when the CSS re-orders the content visually. While I used a recipe as an analogue and cited WCAG conformance rules,I failed to provide specific examples. IContinueContinue reading “HTML Source Order vs CSS Display Order”