Introduction Cascading Style Sheets, or CSS, allow you to modify characteristics of existing HTML elements. All web browsers have a built-in style sheet that defines the default styling for all elements. For instance, when the browser sees the tag, it knows to skip a line and start a new section because that’s what the built-inContinueContinue reading “WebAIM: Accessible CSS”
Category Archives: tips
The Writer’s Guide to Making Accessible Web Content
Left-handed people are surrounded by items that aren’t designed for them. Scissors, golf clubs, desks, video game controllers: it’s a right-hander’s world, and it’s annoying that they don’t take your needs into account. But imagine moving from annoyed to frustrated, because a product is completely unusable. That’s what it feels like to use the InternetContinueContinue reading “The Writer’s Guide to Making Accessible Web Content”
21 Chrome Extensions for Special Needs
21 Chrome Extensions for Struggling Students and Special Needs Technology can be a powerful tool to assist students with special needs or any sort of learning challenge. In particular the Chrome web browser allows users to install a wide variety of web extensions that provide tools that can help all learners, regardless of ability level.InContinueContinue reading “21 Chrome Extensions for Special Needs”
Easy Checks – A First Review of Web Accessibility | (WAI) | W3C
Easy Checks – A First Review of Web Accessibility This page helps you start to assess the accessibility of a web page. With these simple steps, you can get an idea whether or not accessibility is addressed in even the most basic way. These checks cover just a few accessibility issues and are designed toContinueContinue reading “Easy Checks – A First Review of Web Accessibility | (WAI) | W3C”
An Introduction to the Reduced Motion Media Query | CSS-Tricks
The open web’s success is built on interoperable technologies. The ability to control animation now exists alongside important features such as zooming content, installing extensions, enabling high contrast display, loading custom stylesheets, or disabling JavaScript. Sites all too often inundate their audiences with automatically playing, battery-draining, resource-hogging animations. The need for people being able toContinueContinue reading “An Introduction to the Reduced Motion Media Query | CSS-Tricks”
Simple tips for easy Word doc accessibility – Media Access Australia
Creating Word documents that can be read and understood by a diverse range of people, is just as vital as creating accessible, inclusive websites and online content. Imagine going to a recruitment website and downloading the Position Description as a Word document, or being sent it as an email attachment, only to find that youContinueContinue reading “Simple tips for easy Word doc accessibility – Media Access Australia”
WCAG – Quick Facts and Guide – Hurix Digital
This is how WCAG guidelines help. The standard Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (version – WCAG 2.0) is a set of rules that defines how to make web or online content more accessible, especially to people who are differently-abled. ‘Accessibility’ here could involve a wide range of limitations, including visual, auditory, physical, speech, cognitive, language, learning, andContinueContinue reading “WCAG – Quick Facts and Guide – Hurix Digital”
The Accessibility Cheatsheet
We all know that accessibility is important. The problem is, it is not always clear what exactly we can do to make our sites more accessible. The Web Accessibility Initiative created some Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) targeted at us, web content developers, to create more accessible websites. The WCAG contain some very useful information, and so I decidedContinueContinue reading “The Accessibility Cheatsheet”
An Introduction to the Reduced Motion Media Query | CSS-Tricks
A brief history of Reduced Motion When it was released in 2013, iOS 7 featured a dramatic reworking of the operating system’s visuals. Changes included translucency and blurring, a more simplified “flat” user interface, and dramatic motion effects such as full-screen zooming and panning. While the new look was largely accepted, some people using theContinueContinue reading “An Introduction to the Reduced Motion Media Query | CSS-Tricks”
Face ID Accessibility. Apple offers some answers
Apple today made a series of hardware announcements. Understandably, the announcement that has caused the most social media chatter in the blind community relates to the iPhone X, and it’s new Face ID feature. Apple has earned our trust over the years by ensuring that its products are fully accessible from their initial launch, soContinueContinue reading “Face ID Accessibility. Apple offers some answers”
ARIA Labels and Relationships | Web | Google Developers
Labels ARIA provides several mechanisms for adding labels and descriptions to elements. In fact, ARIA is the only way to add accessible help or description text. Let’s look at the properties ARIA uses to create accessible labels. aria-label aria-label allows us to specify a string to be used as the accessible label. This overrides any otherContinueContinue reading “ARIA Labels and Relationships | Web | Google Developers”
Accessibility features in macOS and iOS that everyone should try
If you’re someone who doesn’t have any specific reasons to go there, you may have never explored the Accessibility settings on your Mac, iPhone, or iPad. While it’s true that those settings are there primarily for people who have special physical needs to modify how a device’s interface works, the fact is, many people whoContinueContinue reading “Accessibility features in macOS and iOS that everyone should try”
Using Keyboard-only Navigation, for Web Accessibility
… Programmers are big fans of using the keyboard instead of continually shifting between the keyboard and mouse. And yet a significant percentage of websites make it difficult or even impossible for users to perform some activities without using a mouse or other pointer device. This curious relationship between using the keyboard and developing for the keyboard has alwaysContinueContinue reading “Using Keyboard-only Navigation, for Web Accessibility”
10 guidelines to improve your web accessibility
We put together a list of ten web accessibility guidelines that will guarantee access to your site to any person, in spite of their disabilities. There’s a quote by Tim Berners-Lee, Director of W3C and inventor of the World Wide Web, that says, “The power of the web is in its universality”. As people who make a living byContinueContinue reading “10 guidelines to improve your web accessibility”
Accessible Mounting Solutions – YouTube
Accessible: Mounting Solutions Curated by (Lifekludger) Read full article at Source.
Accessibility Testing: Checkers & Development Tools Review
Tools of the Trade In a different article, I outline the basics foundations of accessibility standards: “Understanding s508 & WCAG 2.0”. To further expand this, let’s look at various development tools to help author accessible content conformant to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (“WCAG”) 2.0 standards. Getting Started For a primer or refresher on whatContinueContinue reading “Accessibility Testing: Checkers & Development Tools Review”
Web Accessibility Checklist
A beginner’s guide to web accessibility Landmarks ARIA Landmark Roles are helpful landmarks that can be used by AT to navigate a website. Note: When you validate html using landmark roles, you’ll receive a warning stating these roles are redundant. In HTML5, several of the landmark roles are implicit via the native structural element whichContinueContinue reading “Web Accessibility Checklist”
Four Free Tools for Automated Accessibility Testing of Web Apps
Designing and developing for web accessibility has become a requirement of modern computing. Depending on the content and complexity of your project requirements, it can also be a very difficult pursuit. Two colleagues of mine have already written excellent articles exploring the need for and design of accessible web sites: Designing Accessible Software – BreakingContinueContinue reading “Four Free Tools for Automated Accessibility Testing of Web Apps”
Accessibility for Visual Design
They say beauty is in the eye of the beholder. As designers, we need to remember that the same is true of color and all visual abilities. It’s estimated that 4.5% of the global population experience color blindness (that’s 1 in 12 men and 1 in 200 women), 4% suffer from low vision (1 inContinueContinue reading “Accessibility for Visual Design”
The web is awesome and everyone should be able to read it.
These last months I’ve been improving my website accessibility so anyone can understand it. Here’s what I’ve learned: By anyone I mean any person that doesn’t use the internet like I do. Having empathy with the users is one of the things I’ve been learning on web development. You should give it a try asContinueContinue reading “The web is awesome and everyone should be able to read it.”
Semantic HTML: The Unbearable Rightness of Being
This is the fourth post in a series on accessibility from Shopify’s UX team. We’re publishing posts every two weeks. Check out the introduction. Using valid, semantic HTML is one of the most impactful ways to make your site more accessible. Writing semantic HTML means using the HTML element with the most specific, correct meaningContinueContinue reading “Semantic HTML: The Unbearable Rightness of Being”
The 7 Factors that Influence User Experience
User Experience (UX) is critical to the success or failure of a product in the market but what do we mean by UX? All too often UX is confused with usability which describes to some extent how easy a product is to use and it is true that UX as a discipline began with usabilityContinueContinue reading “The 7 Factors that Influence User Experience “
How to Get Your iPhone to Read On-Screen Text Aloud to You
Being able to hear written text on your phone read aloud to you can serve multiple purposes. If you have any type of impaired vision, it can certainly help in that regard. It’s also useful in settings where you don’t have the time nor capability to stare at your phone and read large blocks ofContinueContinue reading “How to Get Your iPhone to Read On-Screen Text Aloud to You”
5 Ways to Make Your Web Content More Neurodiversity Inclusive | NOS Magazine
When most people think about accessibility in technology, their first thought may be about accessibility for blind or D/deaf people: captioning, visual descriptions or Braille conversion. Blind and D/deaf people aren’t the only ones who benefit from inclusive technology, though. Autistic people, people with learning disabilities, people with ADHD and other neurodivergent people also haveContinueContinue reading “5 Ways to Make Your Web Content More Neurodiversity Inclusive | NOS Magazine”
Designing for Accessibility: The Ultimate in UX
Designing for users with a broad range of abilities can bring challenges. But, before you start thinking “Great, more stuff to limit my rockstar designs” — recognize this: Smart designs aren’t created to impress your peers. Smart designs (and smart designers!) use design elements like color, placement, and interaction in very intentional ways to help site visitorsContinueContinue reading “Designing for Accessibility: The Ultimate in UX”
