Web Accessibility
The State of Web Accessibility
- Monitoring methodologies for Web Accessibility in the European Union, final report of the study
- Bednar, Lindsay: 92 Percent of Most Popular Federal Government Websites Fail to Meet Basic Standards for Security, Speed, Mobile Friendliness, or Accessibility, New ITIF Study Finds, ITIF, 08.03.2017.
- Lavoie, Jonathan: Handicap visuel : le web toujours largement inaccessible au Québec, Radio Canada, 12.02.2019.
-
Schweizer Accessibility-Studie 2016,
Zugang für Alle, 2016.
The Swiss foundation Access for all evaluated the accessibility of one hundred websites by public authorities and closely related companies, and fifteen apps by news portals. -
Fed A11y.
Description:
Fed A11y monitors the web accessibility of U.S. Federal Government websites using automated scanning software.
(14.07.2022) - Web Accessibility Directive - Monitoring reports, Shaping Europe’s digital future (European Commission), 04.01.2022.
Accessibility and User Experience (UX)
- Cao, Jerry: 8 Website Accessibility Best Practices to Improve UX, UXPin blog, 02.03.2016 (updated 23.06.2016).
- AcceDe Web | La démarche accessibilité, website by the French company Atalan.
- Kramer, Nicholas: A Primer to Web Accessibility for Designers, UX Planet, 10.03.2018 (10-minute read).
- Aizpurua, Amaia; Harper, Simon; Vigo, Markel: Exploring the Relationship between Web Accessibility and User Experience. International Journal of Human-Computer Studies, Volume 91 (July 2016): 13–23.
- Schmutz, Sven; Sonderegger, Andreas; Sauer, Jürgen: Implementing Recommendations From Web Accessibility Guidelines: Would They Also Provide Benefits to Nondisabled Users. Human Factors: The Journal of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society, Vol 58, Issue 4 (2016).
Accessibility Testing
- Dalton, Brian; Rahman, Saleem: Blind QA testing (Part 1): A Screen Reader Users Perspective, InterAccess, November 2017.
- Bell, Vance: College Recommended Web Accessibility Tools for Students, Staff and Faculty, Vance Bell's blog, 07.10.2017.
- Rietveld, Rian: Accessibility Testing, Human Made, 01.12.2017.
- Bailey, Eric: How to build a cloud-hosted accessibility testing Windows computer using Amazon WorkSpaces, 24 Accessibility, 17.12.2017.
- Sutton, Marcy:
Writing Automated Tests for Accessibility,
Deque blog, 03.01.2018.
For testing in general, Marcy Sutton recommends watching Justin Searls's talk How to Stop Hating Your Tests (RubyConf 2015). - Byrne-Haber, Sheri:
Cost per hour for Accessibility Testing,
@sheribyrnehaber on Medium, 02.12.2019 (two-minute read).
Accessibility testers from established overseas consultancies can be found for as little as $20-$25 an hour. (…) In the US, you should expect to pay the same amount for an accessibility tester as any other type of technical QA.
Based on salaries for QA engineers, Sheri Byrne-Haber estimates that hourly contract rates would be at least $70 an hour, and at least $100 an hour if you go through an agency. (These figures refer to the USA only.) - Dart, Jocelyn: Testing Fast and Slow – Accessibility & Fiori, SAP Blogs, 14.04.2016.
- Gibson, Becky: Accessibility Testing by People with Disabilities, 24 Accessibility, 08.12.2019.
- Shevastopol, Slava; Shykiriavyi, Eugene: Testing Sites And Apps With Blind Users: A Cheat Sheet, Smashing Magazine, 07.06.2023 (19-minute read).
- How to document the screen reader user experience, Accessibility, Your Team and You (BBC on GitHub Pages), last updated on 22.10.2022 (accessed on 15.11.2023).
- Soueidan, Sara: Setting up a screen reader testing environment on your computer, Sara Soueidan, 24.11.2022, last updated on 13.01.2023 (accessed on 15.11.2023).
Designing for People with Disabilities & Accessibility in General
- Swan, Henny: Inclusive Design Principles, The Paciello Group Blog, 9 June 2017.
- Pickering, Heydon: What the Heck Is Inclusive Design?, 24 Ways, 07.12.2016.
- Hausler, Jesse: 7 Things Every Designer Needs to Know about Accessibility, Salesforce UX on Medium, 15.04.2015 (14-minute read).
- Horton, Sarah: Math is hard. People with disabilities matter, Sarah Horton, 23.12.2020. Originally published on Medium, 09.02.2015 (four-minute read).
- May, Matt: The Same, But Different: Breaking Down Accessibility, Universality, and Inclusion in Design, Adobe Blog, 02.04.2018.
- May, Matt: Inclusion Doesn’t Stop at Accessibility, Adobe Blog, 02.05.2018.
- Schwab, Katharine: How To Design For Everyone, In 3 Steps, Co.Design, 09.02.2018 (seven-minute read).
- Richens, Emma Pratt; Knight, Jamie: How to design for accessibility, BBC Global Experience Language, 21.12.2015.
- Treviranus, Jutta: If you want the best design, ask strangers to help, Ontario Digital on Medium, 13.02.2018 (nine-minute read).
- Treviranus, Jutta: The Three Dimensions of Inclusive Design: Part One, fwd50 on Medium, 29.03.2018 (eleven-minute read).
- Treviranus, Jutta: The Three Dimensions of Inclusive Design, Part Two, fwd50 on Medium, 30.03.2018 (twelve-minute read).
- Treviranus, Jutta: The Three Dimensions of Inclusive Design, Part Three, fwd50on Medium, 13.04.2018 (thirteen-minute read).
- Milliken, Neil: When it comes to going global with accessible IT, the future is now, Disability-smart, 17.07.2017.
- Gibson, Anne: An Alphabet of Accessibility Issues, The Pastry Box Project, 31.07.2014.
- Pun, Karwai (UK Government Digital Service): Dos and don'ts on designing for accessibility 02.09.2016. This blog post is about a number of posters about designing for different types of users: users on the autism spectrum, users of screen readers, users with low vision, users with physical or motor disabilities, users who are Deaf or hard of hearing and users with dyslexia. The posters are available in the UK Home Office's GitHub repository under Creative Commons BY-NC-SA license.
- Barrierefreiheit • Content Management, Center für Digitale Systeme, Freie Universität Berlin.
- Coady, Geri: Colour Accessibility, 24 Way to Impress Your Friends, 04.12.2012.
- Koopersmith, Daryl; Miner, Wilson: Designing accessible color systems, stripe blog, 15.10.2019.
- Cravit, Rachel: How to Use Color Blind Friendly Palettes to Make Your Charts Accessible, Venngage blog, 21.08.2019.
- Eggert, Eric: The Accessibility Mindset, 24 Way to Impress Your Friends, 17.12.2015.
- Campbell, Ollie: Designing For The Elderly: Ways Older People Use Digital Technology Differently, Smashing Magazine, 05.12.2015.
- Fercia, Andrea: Accessibility for the future you, Yoast blog, 28.07.2017.
- Fercia, Andrea: Does accessibility slow down the development process?, Yoast blog, 31.08.2017.
- Owen, Gerie: Why you need to start thinking about accessibility testing today, TechTarget, 06.09.2017.
- Na, Daniel: Creating an Accessibility Engineering Practice, Musings, 14.09.2017.
- Stockton, Justin: Accessibility in an Agile lifecycle, The Paciello Group blog, 30.03.2017.
- Gibson, Anne:
Reframing Accessibility for the Web,
A List Apart, 03.02.2015.
Quote:We need to change the way we talk about accessibility. Most people are taught that
web accessibility means that people with disabilities can use the Web
—the official definition from the W3C. This is wrong. Web accessibility means that people can use the web. - Brownlee, John: How Designing For Disabled People Is Giving Google An Edge, Co.Design, 23.05.2016.
- Amadeo, Ron: Public outcry causes Google to rethink banning powerful “accessibility” apps, Ars Technica, 08.12.2017.
- Kutyla, Wojtek: Heydon Pickering — accessibility, responsibility and inclusive design, Wojtek Kytula on Medium, 13.12.2017.
- Ren, Fei: What my color-blindness taught me about design, UX Collective on Medium, 23.01.2018.
- Ontario (Canada): Inclusive design toolkit.
- Sherbin, Laura; Kennedy, Julia Taylor: The Case for Improving Work for People with Disabilities Goes Way Beyond Compliance, HBR, 27.12.2017.
- Spencer, Andrew: Accessible By Design, Sparkbox, 19.02.2018.
- Lindberg, Oliver: Inclusive Design: 12 Ways to Design for Everyone, Shopify Partners blog, 23.03.2018 (nine-minute read).
- L’accessibilité numérique, et si nous agissions ?, Atalan. English version: Digital Accessibility: How We Can Help.
- Lambert, Steven: Designing For Accessibility And Inclusion, Smashing Magazine, 09.04.2018. This article uses the concept of lenses from Jesse Schell's book The Art of Game Design: A Book of Lenses (second edition, CRC Press, 2014; third edition, 2019, ISBN 9781138632059).
- Na, Daniel: Creating an Accessibility Engineering Practice, Musings, 14.09.2017.
- A11y isn't Just…, letorey.co.uk, 04.03.2018.
- Maier, Andrew: Building a Business Case for Universal Design, UX Booth, 28.05.2013.
- Featherstone, Derek: Web accessibility lessons from Indiana Jones, Simply Accessible, 08.03.2013.
- Jackson, Liz: We Are the Original Lifehackers, The New York Times, 30.05.2018.
- Point sur l’accessibilité numérique avec l’experte Armony Altinier, Villes internet, 06.06.2018.
- Kengadaran, Siddarth: Inclusive: A Microsoft design toolkit, Siddarth Kengadaran on Medium, 20.08.2017.
- Inclusive Design, Microsoft (no date).
- Jacobs, Steve: The Electronic Curb-Cut Effect, ICDRI, 1998.
- Jacobs, Steve: Section 255 of the Telecommunications Act of 1996: Fueling the Creation of New Electronic Curbcuts, The Center for an Accessible Society, 1999.
- Integrating Accessibility and Design: Five Hot Tips for Start-ups, (MaRS Entrepreneurship Programs on YouTube, 07.04.2011, 5 minutes): short interview with Jutta Treviranus.
- Designing Accessible Websites, Microsoft, 06.02.2017.
- Tarnoff, Nat: How to Write About Accessibility, Nat Tarnoff, 28.01.2016.
- Boag, Paul Accessibility is Not What You Think, boagworld, 09.10.2018.
- Andrews, Mischa: Accessibility = innovation, Prototypr blog, 25.11.2018 (7-minute read).
- Lauke, Patrick H.: Too much accessibility — good intentions, badly implemented, splintered, 08.08.2007.
- Smith, Jared: Overly Accessible? WebAIM blog, 28.02.2018.
- Wilson, Mark: Microsoft went all in on accessible design. This is what happened afterwards, Fast Company, 20.11.2019.
- Design without Empathy, Accessibility Scotland, 23.11.2019.
- Moss, Trenton: Separate text-only version? No thanks!, DMXZone.com (no date). Originally published on the Webcredible UX blog, 01.11.2006.
- Byrne-Haber, Sheri: Accessibility Debt — What is it? How to pay it off ???, Medium, 11.06.2019 (six-minute read).
- Metz, John: Accessibility is a Process, Not a Project, Medium, 17.01.2016 (seven-minute read).
- Zehe, Marco: Das inklusive Netz: Wie machen wir das Internet barrierefrei?, Macwelt, 14.02.2020.
- Brechbühl, Stefan: Weshalb Barrierefreiheit keine Option ist, pixelstrol.ch, 26.02.2020.
- Ishisaka, Naomi: How embracing universal design could make the world better after COVID-19, Seattle Times, 19.10.2020.
- Cook, Anna E.: The inspirational case for web accessibility, UX Collective, 30.08.2020 (six-minute read).
- Feingold, Lainey: Honor the ADA: Avoid Web Accessibility Quick-Fix Overlays, Law Office of Lainey Feingold, 10.08.2020.
- de Oliveira, Domingos: Vier Gründe, warum Du behinderte Menschen bei der Barrierefreiheit einbinden solltest, Barrierefreiheit | Schulung und Projekt-Begleitung, 22.01.2021.
Implementing Accessibility in an Organisation
-
Gareth Ford Williams / @GarethFW tweeted on 07.03.2022,
At the beginning of project get the entire team to agree to who they are willing to exclude, and own the decision.
,
Then work out what is needed for everyone else to have a designed experience. - May, Matt: How to Implement Inclusive Design in Your Organization, Adobe Blog, 10.07.2018.
- Hansen, Michael:
Accessibility is not a 'Feature', and Developers Should Never Treat it as Such,
AppleVis blog, 14.01.2016, updated 26.02.2017.
Some companies implement “accessibility” based on feature requests. However,implementing accessibility support is an essential part of the design process which ensures all users have equal access to an app
. - Greco, Lucy; Gazdowicz, Anna: Implementing an Accessibility Policy: An Insider's Guide, EDUCAUSE, 08.02.2016 (16-minute read).
- 8-Step Implementation Model, WebAIM, 26.08.2013.
- Sustainable accessibility, Tetralogical, 07.01.2021.
- Nasta, Sanjay: Integrating Accessibility Into Key Business Processes, Microassist, 21.07.2022.
- Digitale toegankelijkheid, Poolstok (no date, possibly January 2021).
- Williams, Gareth Ford: The little book of accessibility, UX Collective, 19.05.2021.
- Chadwick, Jen; Tyler, Bill; Kelly, Sean: Introducing ARRM: Assigning Ownership to Get Things Done, A11yTalks (accessed on 18.02.2022).
- Harshbarger, Michael; Kelly-Gibson, Heidi: Change Management for Accessibility: Part 1, Deque blog, 14.06.2022.
- Kelly-Gibson, Heidi: Change Management for Accessibility: Lewin’s Three-Stage Model, Deque blog, 21.06.2022.
- Harshbarger, Michael: Change Management for Accessibility: Plan Do Check Act (PDCA) Model, Deque blog, 28.06.2022.
- Kelly-Gibson, Heidi: Change Management for Accessibility: ADKAR Model, Deque blog, 06.07.2022.
- Swan, Henny: Accessible design systems, TetraLogical, 24.06.2022.
- Bonifacio, Kasey: Taking the Guesswork Out of Accessibility Testing, Sparkbox, 17.08.2022.
- Sutton, Marcy: Accessibility-focused Test Driven Development, Testing Accessibility, 20.04.2022.
- Cerovac, Bogdan: Continuous Accessibility and end to end accessibility – considerations, planning and long term strategy, Bogdan on Digital Accessibility (A11y), 21.07.2020.
- Wie digitale Barrierefreiheit zum Unternehmensstandard wird, Netzwoche, 22.11.2022.
- Adams, Jeff: How to Build a Digital Accessibility-First Company Culture, Usablenet blog, 03.05.2023.
- Hassell, Jonathan: 5 things you should know before buying accessibility audit and accreditation services, Hassell Inclusion blog, 26.02.2021. (Note that the blog post's author was one of the main contributors to BS 8878, which he recommends.)
- Hassell, Jonathan:
How to write an effective Accessibility Statement,
Hassell Inclusion blog, 09.05.2012.
The author points out that,chances are the only reason people will visit a website’s accessibility statement is because something on the websites is not working for them
and provides some of BS 8878's tips for writing an accessibility statement.
Maturity Models
- Business Disability Forum: Accessibility Maturity Model.
- W3C Accessibility Maturity Model, W3C, working draft (accessed on 25.05.2022).
-
Reifegradmodell,
Threeway AG (no date; accessed on 02.06.2022).
Quote:Das Reifegradmodell haben wir zusammen mit dem "Hightech Zentrum Aargau AG" und der "Fachhochschule Nordwestschweiz FHNW" entwickelt.
- HE and FE Accessibility Maturity Mode, AbilityNet (no date; accessed on 25.05.2022).
- Byrne-Haber, Sheri: The “perilous pitfalls” of Accessibility Maturity, Sheri Byrne-Haber on Medium, 03.03.2019.
- Pernice, Kara; Gibbons, Sarah; Moran, Kate; Whitenton, Kathryn: The 6 Levels of UX Maturity, Nielsen Norman Group, 13.06.2021.
- Disability Inclusion Maturity Model, PeopleSmart Ltd., 2022 (accessed on 01.07.2022).
- Hendriks, Ronny: Wordt eens volwassen; Het Accessibility Maturity Model, Fronteers blog, 22.12.2022.
- Maturity Model Task Force (MMTF) of the APA WG, Web Accessibility Initiative (no date; accessed on 29.04.2023).
Braille
- Music and Braille:
-
OpenScore: For Everyone:
Each OpenScore edition will be available as a Braille file, allowing blind musicians to read these works on their Braille terminal. Partially sighted musicians can load OpenScore editions in the free MuseScore notation software and easily apply modified stave notation styles in order to change the score in a way they can read it.
- music21:
music21.braille.translate:
methods for exporting music21 data as Braille.
Music21 is a Python-based toolkit for computer-aided musicology.
- MuseScore: Accessibility (MuseScore Handbook).
- Wainwright, Martin: Prima Vista scores a musical hit for visually impaired people, The Guardian, 15.02.2011.
-
OpenScore: For Everyone:
- Adam, Birgit: Das Buch der Blindenschrift. Schriften, Praxis, Wörterbuch. Marix Verlag, 2017. ISBN 978-3-86539-217-6.
-
Braille is the answer to large unemployment numbers in blind community, says advocate,
CBC News, 07.01.2019. Quote:
A recent report from the Canadian National Institute for the Blind finds more than 70 per cent of working-age blind or partially-sighted people in Canada are unemployed.
The report says the key to getting more blind people into the workplace is braille, a tactile form of writing and reading for those who are visually impaired.
Ageing
- Fell, Greg: Reframing ageing, NHS England Blog, 08.12.2017.
- Sinha, Samir: Building age-friendly communities, presentation at TEDxStouffville 2014 (YouTube, 14 minutes, July 2014).
- Agile Ageing Alliance: Neighbourhoods of the Future – Better Homes for Older Adults – Improving Health, Care, Design and Technology (PDF, 2017).
- Smiley, Lauren: What Happens When We Let Tech Care For Our Aging Parents, Wired, 19.12.2017.
Cognitive Disabilities
- Knight, Jamie: Cognitive Accessibility 101 - Part 1: What is Cognitive Accessibility, Jamie & Lion, 2015.
- Knight, Jamie: Cognitive Accessibility 101 - Part 2: How it effects me & the tools I use, Jamie & Lion, 2015.
- Gregory, Brandon: Designing for Cognitive Differences, A List Apart, 16.10.2018.
- Blissymbolics.
- AAC Symbols and shared resources - ARASAAC.
Accessibility in the Physical World
- TravelWayfinding.com: Helping Blind and Visually Impaired Travellers and DDA Solutions.
-
ATMIA releases new ATM Accessibility Guide,
Global Accessibility News, 21 July 2017.
See Best Practices Library Overview & Executive Summaries at ATMIA. - Ryan, Frances: What is life really like for disabled people? The Disability Diaries reveal all, The Guardian, 15.11.2017.
- Flying the Unfriendly Skies, New Mobility, December 2017.
- 5 ways to make your workplace disability friendly, Business Matters, 21.01.2018.
- Vanderhyde, Michael: The quest to make Microsoft accessible to its core, Microsoft IT Showcase blog, 17.01.2018.
- World Health Organization (WHO):
Age-friendly environments in Europe. A handbook of domains for policy action (2017).
According to the WHO's description,
This handbook is based on lessons learned from existing age-friendly initiatives in Europe. It thus builds on the richness of relevant locally and regionally developed tools that are now available, as well as the latest evidence from research. This publication links actions to create more age-friendly environments to the broader context of European health and social policies for ageing populations.
See also the article New WHO handbook on age-friendly environments by the Covenant on Demographic Change (16.01.2018). - Inclusive Conference Presentation Guidelines, Coleman Institute for Cognitive Disabilities, University of Colorado (no date).
Accessibility in Education
- Digital Accessibility in Learning and Teaching, The University of Sheffield (no date). See also The University of Sheffield's The inclusive learning and teaching handbook (PDF) (created by Elena Rodriguez-Falcon, Marie Evans, Claire Allam, John Barrett, Dave Forrest and Chris Glynn in 2010).
- Inclusivity: the essentials, The University of Sheffield (no date).
- Mendlesohn, Farah: Disability on Campus: ‘We do not practise best practice, and it is high time that we did’, Times Higher Education, 17 May 2017.
- Simpson, Grace: How inclusive is support for disabled students?, HEFCE, 01.11.2017 (archived).
- McKenzie, Lindsay: An IT Accessibility Watchdog?, Inside Higher Ed, 15.11.2017.
- Young, Jeffrey R.: How a Blind Student Who Felt Locked Out of STEM Classes Challenged—and Changed—Her University, Edsurge, 08.12.2017.
- Perez, Luis: From Accommodations to Accessibility: Creating Learning Environments That Work for All, Educause Review, 27.04.2015. This article briefly describes the A3 Model of accesibility in education. The model describes the progression of higher education institutions with regard to the inclusion of students with disabilities, and consists of three phases: Advocacy, Accommodation and Accessibility. The article is also available as a downloadable PDF file.
- Anzilotti, Eillie: How To Make Snow-Bound Cities Less Of A Frozen Hell For People With Disabilities, Fast Company, 18.01.2018. (Also on Citi IO, 27.02.2018.)
- Digitale Barrierefreiheit - eine Einführung (University of Potsdam on YouTube, 5 minutes, 01.02.2021).
Business Case for Accessibility
- Martino, Christine: 5 Reasons Why Prioritizing Web Accessibility is Good for Your Business, Think Company blog, 31.10.2019.
- The Click-Away Pound Survey.
- Williams, Rick: Is there really a business case for website accessibility?, Business Disability Forum, 10.01.2017.
- Riezebosch, Iacobien; Sijtsma, Rimmert: E-commerce loopt jaarlijks €3,4 miljard mis door slecht toegankelijke websites, Emerce, 13.05.2022.
- Dolson, Joe: The real added costs of accessibility, Joe Dolson Web Accessibility, 17.01.2022.
Projects
- Zero Project: an initiative of the Essl Foundation. Its goal is to create a world without barriers. See also ZeroProject on YouTube.
- The Integration of Web Accessibility Courses in ICT Programmes (IWAC).
- Swierenga, Sara J.; Pierce, Graham L.: Should We Conduct this Usability Study? Ethics Considerations in Evaluations, User Experience, November 2012.
Personalization and Customization
- Jarno M. Koponen:
The Future Of Algorithmic Personalization,
TechCrunch, 25.06.2015. Quote:
Personalization caricaturizes us and creates a striking gap between our real interests and their digital reflection.
- Schade, Amy: Customization vs. Personalization in the User Experience, Nielsen Norman Group, 10.07.2016.
- Atkinson, Matthew: The promise of personalised interfaces, The Paciello Group blog, 13.09.2017.
- Saunders, Orde: User Queries, Decade City, 28.06.2015, updated 17.06.2018.
-
Morphic;
Morphic makes it easier to find and use special features. It also makes assistive technologies and settings show up on any computer a person needs to use.
. (Also mentioned in the description of UI Options Plus (UIO+).)
Accessibility Blogs
- The Paciello Group blog. The Paciello Group is an accessibility consultancy. One of its employees, Steve Faulkner, is co-editor of the HTML5 specification at the W3C.
- WebAIM Blog.
- Nomensa: Humanising Technology Blog. See the category about accessibility..
- Tink: Léonie Watson's blog.
- Simply Accessible: Articles.
- A11yship.
- Wendy Chisholm. Until 2009, this blog was maintained on blogspot.
- The Blind Blogger: blog by a certain Roger WH.
- Pen and Ink: blog by Julian Rickards.
- Access-for-all-Blog: blog maintained by members of the Swiss foundation Zugang für alle or Access-for-all. All blog posts are in German.
- As Your World Changes – Adjusting to vision loss with class, using technology: blog by Susan L. Gerhart, a retired computer scientist.
- UniversalAccess: blog by Jorge Fernandes, in Portuguese.
- Web Standards Sherpa is a web development blog that also has articles on accessibility.
- Einfach für Alle: accessBlog.
- AnySurfer blog (in Dutch) and Blog AnySurfer (in French).
- Blog Temesis (in French).
- Digital Darragh – tag: accessibility.
- Accessible Culture: blog by Jason Kiss; dormant since 2013.
- Accessiblog.fr: blog by Olivier Nourry, who originally published his articles on Webyboom.
-
STC Accessibility SIG: this blog has not been updated since March 2016.(In January 2021, this site could no longer be reached. The information about the Accessibility Special Interest Group appears to be out of date.) - Anikto: this blog has not been updated since October 2013.
- Stufenlos: Blog zur Barrierefreiheit und Inklusion: blog about the German accessibility that ran until February 2017.
- The A11y Files | close encounters with assistive technology. This blog has not bee updated since 2017.
- Paul Canning - label: accessibility: articles labelled “accessibility” on Paul Canning's blog. The most recent contribution in this category dates from 2009. (See also Paul Canning's olg blog.)
- The Great Accessibility Blogs Roundup, Digital A11Y, April 2018. (Only lists blogs in English.)
- Duggin, Alistair: Accessibility Blogs, Alistair Duggin's blog, 28.03.2012, updated 03.04.2012: list of accessibility blogs, some of which have disappeared by now.
- Smith, Jared: The Great Accessibility Blog Roundup, WebAIM Blog, 14.05.2007.
Accessibility Metadata
- DCMI Accessibility Community.
- Nevile, Liddy: Why is Accessibility Metadata Proving Difficult?, Dublin Core Metadata Initiative (no date).
-
Accessibility Metadata Project:
Making Accessible Content Discoverable: A Benetech Led Proposal for Accessibility Metadata in Schema.org
.
See also Accessibility Metadata Project in the Benetech wiki.
Mathematics and Scientific Notation
- What Is MathML, DO-IT, 09.04.2021.
- Hanselman, Scott: Exploring cross-browser math equations using MathML or LaTeX with MathJax, Scott Hanselman's Blog, 23.06.2014.
-
MathJax:
Beautiful and accessible math in all browsers
. (Accessed on 12.11.2021). -
MathML [support tables],
Can I use…. (Accessed on 12.11.2021.)
In November 2021, browser support for MathML has become rare. Firefox has supported it since version 2 (the current version 96 still supports it) and Safari since version 10 (most recent version: version 15). It was supported in Chrome 24 and it has or had no support in Internet Explorer, Edge, Opera (except for partial support in versions 10–12.1), the Android Browser, QQ Browser or Baidu Browser.
See also- MathML in Chromium, Igalia. (Accessed on 12.11.2021.)
- Shankland, Stephen: Google subtracts MathML from Chrome, and anger multiplies, CNET, 05.11.2013.
- Feature: MathML, Chrome Platform Status. (Accessed on 12.11.2021.)
- Why did Chrome drop MathML support?, Quora. (Question asked in 2015 or 2016.)
- MathML and browsers, Igalia, 28.08.2019.
- Creating Accessible Math with MathML, National Center on Accessible Educational Materials, 23.08.2021.
-
Teaching with Accessible Math,
National Center on Accessible Educational Materials, 04.08.2021 (Creative Commons).
This article discusses EquatIO, Microsoft OneNote, MathType (formerly owned by Design Science) and and Desmos. -
OpenMath:
OpenMath provides extensible standards for representing the semantics of mathematical objects and communicating them between software systems.
(Accessed on 12.11.2021.) - MathML Central, Wolfram.
- MathML Association.
- Orme, Richard: A demonstration of math accessibility, W3C TPAC 2022: Prerecorded group updates & demos, September 2022.
Markdown and Markdown-Based Pipelines
- betsyrosalen: Create accessible HTML tables in RStudio?, RStudio Community, 09.12.2019.
LaTeX
- Tyson, Jim R.: Accessible documents from LaTeX, Digital Education Team Blog (UCL, 22.07.2020.
Desktop Applications
- Amoli: Accessibility testing toolkit for desktop applications, UX Collective, 16.11.2018.
- Windows accessibility, Microsoft Docs, 07.01.2021.
- Accessibility Insights for Windows, Accessibility Insights (no date; accessed on 11.07.2022).
- Accessibility tools - Inspect, Microsoft Docs, 10.09.2021.
Books
- Kalbag, Laura: Accessibility for Everyone. A Book Apart, September 2017. (166 pages) ISBN 978-1-937557-61-4.
- Pickering, Heydon: Inclusive Design Patterns. Rakuten Kobo / Smashing Magazine, October 2016. ISBN 978-3-945749-43-2 (print) / 9783945749456 (e-book in ePUB 2 formats, DRM-Free).
- Newell, Alan F.: Design and the Digital Divide: Insights from 40 Years in Computer Support for Older and Disabled People. Synthesis Lectures on Assistive, Rehabilitative, and Health-Preserving Technologies. Morgan & Claypool, 2011. (195 pages)
- Petrick, Elizabeth R.: Making Computers Accessible: Disability Rights and Digital Technology. Johns Hopkins University Press, March 2015. (208 pages) ISBN 9781421416472 (e-book).
- Simpson, Richard C.: Computer Access for People with Disabilities: A Human Factors Approach. CRC Press, 2013 / 2019. (339 pages) ISBN 9780367380427.
- Borsci, Simone; Kurosu, Masaaki; Federici, Stefano; Mele, Maria Laura: Computer Systems Experiences of Users with and Without Disabilities: An Evaluation Guide for Professionals. CRC Press, 2014 / 2019. (312 pages) ISBN 9781138073487.
- Johnson, Jeff; Finn, Kate: Designing User Interfaces for an Aging Population: Towards Universal Design. Morgan Kaufmann, 2017. (258 pages) ISBN 9780128044674.
- Zajac, Mary:
'(Dis)Ability' anthology, compiled and edited by Hopkins senior, explores stories by and about people with disabilities,
Johns Hopkins University, 21.05.2018.
Article about
a collection of stories, compiled and edited by Dorffer, by and about people with disabilities
. (Dis)Ability: A Short Story Anthology can be downloaded for free. The available formats include PDF, epub and mobi. - Snowden, Robert; Thompson, Peter; Troscianko, Tom: Basic Vision: An Introduction to Visual Perception. Revised edition. Oxford University Press, 2012. (424 pages) ISBN 9780199572021.
- Rembis, Michael; Kudlick, Catherine J.; Nielsen, Kim (editors): The Oxford Handbook of Disability History. Oxford Handbooks. Oxford University Press, 2018. (552 pages) ISBN 9780190234959.
European Projects
-
We4authors:
We4Authors is the acronym of “Pilot on WEb accessibility FOR web AUTHORing toolS producers and communities”
. -
Impact Project:
IMPACT aims to create an expert training program on digital accessibility. This training will develop the skills of the experts so that they are able to provide high quality accessible content in different digital contexts.
- Able to Include:
Using assistive technology to help people with intellectual disabilities use social media.
See also the project's GitHub repositories. - WAI-DEV Project (April 2014 – March 2016)
- COMPARE (ERASMUS+ project)
- eWall. See the downloadable documents.
- Inclusive Learning Project (Supporting Trainers for an Inclusive Vocational Education and Training).
- ICT4IAL: ICT for Information Accessibility in Learning.
- Accessibility Club Summit 2019 (November 16th-17th, 2019).
The website of the European project European Internet Inclusion Initiative EIII (2013-2015) also has a resources page. However, more importantly, the search form helps you find accessibility-related resources on the Web.- EIAO: European Internet Accessibility Observatory (archived on Archive.org).
- ADORE (Funka).
-
Cardiac: this project aimed(The website could not be reached on 26 January 2021.)to create a platform that can bring together the various stakeholders in the area of accessible and assistive ICT with a view to identifying research & development gaps, emerging trends, and generate a research agenda roadmap.
- EU-funded Research Projects into Technologies for Accessibility, Shaping Europe’s digital future (European Commission), 13.12.2018.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Accessibility
- Boudreau, Denis: Five Ways in Which Artificial Intelligence Changes the Face of Web Accessibility, 24 Accessibility, 06.12.2017.
- Boudreau, Denis: Five Ways in Which Artificial Intelligence Changes the Face of Web Accessibility, The Deque Blog, 16.01.2018.
- Kontzer, Tony: Let There Be Sight: How Deep Learning Is Helping the Blind ‘See’, NVIDIA Blog, 26.04.2018.
- O'Flynn, Catherine; Brennan, Darran: What AI can do to improve workplace accessibility for employees with disabilities, Silicon Republic, 20.09.2018.
- Google sign language AI turns hand gestures into speech, BBC News, 20.09.2019.
- Alexiou, Gus: Can AI Save Web Accessibility From An Impending ‘Market Failure’?, Forbes, 30.06.2020.
- Onsman, Ricky: Introduction to A.I. and Accessibility Testing, TPGi, 08.11.2021.
- Kaye, Kate: For people with disabilities, AI can only go so far to make the web more accessible, Protocol, 19.05.2022.
-
Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Accessibility Research Symposium 2023,
World Wide Web Consortium (no date; accessed on 29.11.2023).
This symposium took place in January 2023 (see Invitation: AI and Accessibility Symposium, 10-11 January 2023, online). See also Transcript of the "Artificial Intelligence and Accessibility Research Symposium" Day 1: 10 January 2023 and Transcript of the "Artificial Intelligence and Accessibility Research Symposium" Day 2: 11 January 2023. - Kernaghan, Chris:
Please do not use ChatGPT to generate personas,
UX Collective on Medium, 18.03.2023 (four-minute read).
Personas are often used in placed of real research. Since the launch of ChatGPT, people have used it to cheaply generate peronas. This may lead to inaccurate personas. Kernaghan writes,Empathy and understanding the idiosyncrasies of human nature is the very reason UX exists as a discipline. It stands to reason that, for now at least, humans are better at understanding humans rather than a language model still in its infancy. Personas are only as good as the people who help create them, even then, they have the potential to be flawed and biased.
The blog post discusses various risks and downsides to using machine learning methods for the creation of personas. - Restructuration chez Koena grâce à ChatGPT, Blog Koena, 01.04.2023.
-
LIVESTREAM - A11yNYC - September 12 2023 - Real AI Solutions for Accessibility Challenges
(Accessibility NYC on YouTube, 59 minutes, streamed on 13.09.2023).
This video is a recording of a talk by Kevin Berg, VP of Solution Engineering at Evinced. -
Real AI Solutions for Accessibility Challenges,
Equal Entry, 26.09.2023.
This article is based on Kevin Berg's talk at A11yNYC. -
How will Artificial Intelligence change accessibility testing?,
AbilityNet (no date; accessed on 21.10.2023).
Recording and slides of a webinar that took place on 23 September 2023. - “AI-generated solution suggestions” (Powerful accessibility testing features), Accessibility Cloud (no date; accessed on 21.10.2023).
- May, Matt: First post! Why AIML harm is a pressing equity issue, Stay Human, 30.10.2023.
- Milne, Stefan:
Can AI help boost accessibility? These researchers tested it for themselves,
UW News, 02.11.2023.
See An Autoethnographic Case Study of Generative Artificial Intelligence's Utility for Accessibility by Kate S Glazko and others, ASSETS 2023 Proceedings, October 2023 (Open Access). - Moran, Kate; Nielsen, Jakob: AI for UX: Getting Started, Nielsen Norman Group, 03.11.2023.
Design Systems
Design systems are not primarily about accessibility but should be a primary place for including accessible practices.
- Fessenden, Therese: Design Systems 101, Nielsen Norman Group, 11.04.2021.
- Hanlon, Lara:
10 reflections on designing a design system,
IBM Design (on Medium), 01.10.2020.
(This blog post unfortunately does not discuss accessibility.) - Rosno, Matt; Johannessen, Mari: Carbon Design System, IBM, 15.11.2018.
- Carbon Design System (no date; accessed on 22.09.2022).
- Orange design system , Orange (no date; accessed on 22.09.2022).
- U.S. Web Design System, Digital.gov (no date; accessed on 22.09.2022).
-
GEL Technical Documentation,
BBC's GitHub Pages, copyright © 2021 BBC (accessed on 06.04.2023).
This is the BBC's design system. - 10 Best Design Systems and How to Learn (and Steal) From Them, DesignerUp, 03.06.2020.
- Swan, Henny: Accessible design systems, TetraLogical blog, 24.06.2022.
- Frost, Brad: The Design System Ecosystem, Brad Frost's blog, 21.09.2023.
Accessibility Metadata
- User Experience Guide for Displaying Accessibility Metadata 1.0: Final Community Group Report 27 September 2021, World Wide Web Consortium (W3C, 27.09.2021.
- Schema.org Accessibility Properties for Discoverability Vocabulary: Final Community Group Report 18 July 2023, World Wide Web Consortium (W3C, 18.07.2023.
- A User Experience Guide for Displaying Accessibility Metadata, Fondazione LIA, 01.10.2021.
- Accessibility Metadata, Inclusive Publishing, 27.10.2016.
- User Experience Guide for Displaying Accessibility metadata for EPUB, Benetech GitHub Pages, 24.05.2019.
- Accessibility Metadata Project (site last updated in 2021). (Accessed on 31.10.2023.)
Other Collections of Links and Resources
- Resources, The A11Y Project (no date; accessed on 23.02.2023).
- Le wiki de la Lutine du Web: collection of over 400 links related to accessibility created and maintained by Julie Moynat.
- A11y Cat: link colleciont maintained by Amin Amini (Sweden).
- Walter, Stéphanie: Accessibility for designer: where do I start? Articles, resources, checklists, tools, plugins and books to design accessible products, Stéphanie Walter, last updated 18.06.2023.
- CivicActions Accessibility. (See also the CivicActions Accessibility repository on GitHub, which is available under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International Public License.
- Web Design References: Accessibility, Information Technology Systems and Services (University of Minnesota Duluth).
- TRAINomat (Alpha) (accessed on 01.06.2022).
Other Links
-
Introducing A11ycasts! -- A11ycasts #01
(Google Chrome Developers on YouTube, 2 minutes, 02.08.2016).
This the introduction to a series of videos by Rob Dodson about accessibility: A11ycasts with Rob Dodson . (No videos were added after the announcement of a winter break in January 2018. Videos from the playlist include the following:-
Accessible Modal Dialogs -- A11ycasts #19
(Google Chrome Developers on YouTube, 13 minutes, 16.06.2017).
Looks at the Modal Dialog Example from the ARIA Authoring Practices Guide and the eBay MIND Patterns. In the source code, Rob Dodson makes the modal dialog a direct descendant of thebody
element, so it becomes a sibling of the other content on the page. In thediv
that represents the dialog itself, there is a "dialog mask", which is represented as an overlay over the other content. By default, the dialog hasdisplay: none
in the CSS code so it is not in the accessibility tree. Before opening the modal dialog, the JavaScript code also captures what the currently active element is, so focus can be restored to it later. When the modal dialog is opened, the propertyinert
is applied to anything outside the dialog. (There is a polyfill available on GitHub at WICG / inert, which can also be installed using nmp.) In Rob Dodson's example, focus is allowed to move between the dialog and URL bar and back again, whereas the ARIA Authoring Practices Guide recommends against this.
-
Accessible Modal Dialogs -- A11ycasts #19
(Google Chrome Developers on YouTube, 13 minutes, 16.06.2017).
- Pines, Eric L.: Disability Inclusion In The Workplace: Intuit’s Ted Drake On How Businesses Make Accommodations For Customers and Employees Who Have a Disability, Authority Magazine on Medium, 07.06.2022 (12-minute read).
- Shinohara, Kristen; Tigwell, Garreth: Why getting more people with disabilities developing technology is good for everyone, The Conversation, 03.06.2021 (Creative Commons).
- Zacharias, Julia: Accessibility interview with BBVA, Applause, 20.06.2021.
- Accessible Techcomm: this is a website by a not-for-profit educational organization that provides resources on making technical communication more accessible.
- The Accessible Icon Project: project that wants to replace the traditional wheelchair icon from the 1960s with a newer one that suggests movement.
- Frost, Natasha: The Controversial Process of Redesigning the Wheelchair Symbol, Atlas Obscura, 29.03.2018.
- Icon for Access, 99% Invisible, 18.02.2014.
- Digitaal Toegankelijk.
- Sydell, Laura: For People With Disabilities, New Technology Can Be Life Changing, NPR - All Tech Considered, 21 March 2016.
- Parsons, Sarah: The potential of digital technologies for transforming informed consent practices with children and young people in social research, Social Inclusion, 3.6 (2015): 56-68.
- Gifford, Mike: How & Why People With Disabilities Should Engage with Open-source Software Communities, OpenConcept blog, 08.07.2015.
- 3SheetsResearch: videos of usability tests with users under influence. (Not actually about accessibility.)
- Mahmarian, David: A Summer Designing for Autism, Google Design on Medium, 15.09.2016 (six-minute read).
- World Health Organization (WHO): Disability and health. Fact sheet. Reviewed November 2016.
- Bailey, Eric: Instituting a Culture of Accessibility in Your Organization: Part 1, Cantina, 05.04.2016.
- Teach Access.
- Ojala, Tuukka: Software development 450 words per minute, Vincit Blog, 28.08.2017.
- Ellina, Froso: When age isn’t just a number, Red Badger blog, 18.08.2017.
- Barker, Guy: Considerations around the accessibility of a calendar control, Microsoft Windows UI Automation Blog, 09.09.2017.
- Edwards-Onoro, Deborah: Best Practices for Conducting an Accessibility Review, Lireo Designs, 07.08.2017.
- Watson, Léonie: Playing with the Accessibility Object Model (AOM), Tink, 15.09.2017.
- Taylor, Tess: From ADA compliance to universal design: Creating accessible training, HR Drive, 19.09.2017.
- MDN Web Docs: CSS Grid Layout and Accessibility.
- Devlin, Ian: Accessibility at trivago, trivago Techblog, 26.09.2017.
- Schofield, Michael: Today, I learned about the Accessibility Tree, LibUX, 19.02.2017.
- Heydon:
Cupper: An Inclusive Documentation Builder,
Paciello Group blog, 18.09.2017.
Article about The Cupper Documentation Builder. - Brown, Meta S.: One Inspiring Software Developer, And Why Accessibility Matters, Forbes, 30.09.2017.
- Watson, Léonie: Regaining Sight, tink, 12.10.2017.
- Buri, Nicole: Interview with Léonie Watson: How accessibility influences the work of developers and designer, unic blog, 21.08.2015.
- Faller, Patrick: IBM’s Bo Campbell On The ‘Win-Win’ of Designing Truly Accessible Products, Adobe Creative Cloud blog, 04.10.2017.
- Bazzle, Steph: Visual Impairment And Internet: What I Learned When I Started Transcribing Facebook Memes, Inquisitr, 06.08.2016.
- Rodriguez, Jason: HTML Email and Accessibility, CSS-Tricks, 22.11.2017.
Bailey, Eric: Consistently Inconsistent: When the Most Accessible Experience is Different for Each User, Cantina, 14.11.2017.- Johansson, Emma: Learning To Design Virtual Reality For Accessibility, Venturebeat, 18.10.2017.
- Accessible Diagrams with Microsoft Visio, Microsoft Accessibility Blog, 05.12.2017.
- University of Melbourne: Accessibility of Virtual Reality Environments.
- Maddox, Donna: Web Accessibility in the Corporate World, 24 Accessibility, 15.12.2017.
- Meyer, Kate: Flat UI Elements Attract Less Attention and Cause Uncertainty, Nielsen Norman Group, 03.09.2017.
- Learning Directly From Disabled People, Business Disability International.
- Campbell, Bo: Tips for Designing Accessibility in Voice User Interfaces, UX Design Collective on Medium, 02.11.2017.
- Ravenhall, Allison: Voice assistants: Accessible for some, not everyone, Intopia, 01.01.2018.
- Heineman, Kristin:
2018 Digital Accessibility Trends Q&A and Webinar Resources, Level Access, 01.02.2018.2018 Digital Accessibility Trends – Fall Update Q&A and Webinar Resources, Level Access, 25.09.2018. - Comparatif de l’accessibilité des applications GPS, Ceciaa blog, 23.02.2015.
- Matuzović, Manuel: My Accessibility Journey: What I’ve Learned So Far, A List Apart, 06.02.2018.
- Gifford, Mike: Accessibility Lists of lists.
- Atalan: Digital accessibility resources / Ressources au sujet de l'accessibilité numérique.
-
GPII DeveloperSpace:
a
one-stop place to find resources, components and people to conceive, develop, test and market novel accessible solutions
. - Deacon, Dennis: How Accessibility Saved My Professional Life, 24 Accessibility, 09.12.2017.
- Kasdorf, Bill: If Accessibility Is So Easy Now, Why Is It Still So Hard?, DAISY Consortium blog, 01.02.2018.
- Deakin, Wayne: Meet the invisible minority: Why my autism and neurodiversity are gifts to the industry, Campaign (UK), 19.02.2018 (reading this article requires registration).
- Siegel, Bryna: What Autism Isn't, The Politics of Autism (Psychology Today blog), 30.05.2018.
- Williamson, Rachel: Why Aren’t We Doing This Already? : What I’ve Learned About Accessibility in the Tech Industry, Medium, 27.02.2018 (seven-minute read).
- Deacon, Dennis: Accessibility vs. Inclusive Design: My Point of View, Lireo Designs, 14.02.2018.
- Berger, Michael: How we stopped making excuses and started improving Basecamp’s accessibility, Signal v. Noise (on Medium), 14.03.2018 (five-minute read).
- Accessibility Analysis of Banking Industry Websites - 1Q2018, Bureau of Internet Accessibility, 14.03.2018.
- Novak, Sara: Going Colorblind: An Experiment in Empathy and Accessibility, Prototypr on Medium, 02.04.2018 (seven-minute read).
- Walls, Ashley:
Bringing Inclusive Practices to Product Design,
Microsoft Design on Medium, 30.08.2018 (four-minute read).
While the blog post acknowledges diversity in users, it does not mention people with disabilities. - Ward, Chris: Motor Disabilities and What You Need for Accessibility, Telerik, 30.07.2019.
- Barriers to access for people with disabilities, jarmin.com (no date).
- Brajnik, Giorgio: An accessibility evaluation method based on Barrier Walkthrough. (Licence: CC-BY-SA.)
- Testing for accessibility, Gov.UK Service Manual, last updated 12.07.2018.
- Faulkner, Steve: doesn’t work in lynx, Paciello Group Blog, 24.02.2018.
- Milliken, Neil: Accessibility: Let’s put away the wrecking ball!, atrophiedmind, 19.06.2011.
- Comerford, Rachel: The Accidental A11y Advocate, ePubSecrets, 07.08.2017.
- Drake, Ted: Automation and Accessibility: Building a Better Web for Everyone, Intuit Blog, 17.05.2018.
- Widell, Victor:
Dsxyliea (Dyslexia),
geon, 03.03.2016.
A web page that simulates how letters “jump around” for people with dyslexia. (You can fork the Dyslexia page on GitHub.) - Resources for teachers, British Dyslexia Association (no date).
- Gerhart, Susan L.: Is there a Killer App for Accessibility?, As Your World Changes, 14.01.2008.
- Nose to the Page: website by Wayne E. Dick, Professor of Computer Science at California State University. Wayne Dick has long argued that the needs of low-vision people have often been disregarded online. He is also a member of the W3C's Low Vision Accessibility Task Force (LVTF).
- Lydia: Bilder für Blinde zugänglich machen, Lydia's Welt, 11.01.2018.
- Dattaro, Laura: Approaching disability like a scientist, Symmetry, 29.05.2018.
-
Project Ray:
RAY’s solutions offer unique, new mobile experience for the blind, vision-impaired, and dyslectic individuals. They can now use cell phones, smartphones, touch devices and connected digital tools, without any obstacles and barriers.
- Taubenschlag: a German website for people who are deaf or hard of hearing.
- Tracey, Emma: Why deaf people sneeze silently, BBC News, 05.07.2013.
- Gehörlosigkeit - FAQ, DGB (no date; accessed on 27.10.2021).
- Gehörlos autofahren - was erlaubt und was verboten ist, hoerhelfer.de (no date; accessed on 27.10.2021).
- MSc in Educational Assistive Technology (part time), University of Dundee (September 2020).
- Daan: How Accessibility Gets More and More Important in Web Development, BetterProgramming on Medium, 07.11.2019.
- WAI (Printable) Glossary, last updated in 01.03.2003.
- WCAG 2.0 Validators and Web Accessibility Remediation Solutions: What are Your Options?, Essential Accessibility, 13.03.2017.
- Digital informiert - im Job integriert - Di-Ji.
- Lee, David: Ein Blinder öffnet uns die Augen, digitec blog, 21.01.2019. A company has its webshop tested by a blind user and finds that it is not very accessible. They then write an honest report about this on their own blog.
- Appel, Nicola: Sonja Weckenmann, BIK: „Barrierefreie Weiterbildung – davon profitieren am Ende alle“, Pink University blog, 04.08.2016.
- Viscomi, Rick:
The State of Accessibility,
DEV Community, 10.01.2019.
This page contains an embedded YouTube video of a 30-minute interview with Nektarios Paisios, a software engineer on the Chrome Accessibility team. The main takeaways from the video are summarised below the video. Note that the first point,we should see a11y as a feature of our website
, is rather contentious. - Sharath M G: “Get Accessible”, before it’s too late.., SAP Blogs, 16.03.2018 (3-minute read).
- Accessibility is not a feature; it’s a social movement. Campaign by the Centre for Accessibility in Australia.
- Marcotte, Ethan:
Accessibility is not a feature,
Ethan Marcotte, 31.08.2018.
This article breaks down the concept “accessibility” into two sub-components: navigable and usable. - Accessibility for non-web desktop applications: a question posted on User Experience Stack Exchange in May 2012.
- Colour Blindness, Colour Blind Awareness.
- anthony:
The Aesthetic-Accessibility Paradox,
UX Movement, 14.11.2019.
This article is misleading because it contains several misconceptions and inconsistencies about accessibility. First, it divides users into two groups, a majority with normal vision and a minority with some form of visual impairment, instead of recognising that there is a spectrum (rather than “us” versus “them”). Second, the article seems to suggest that people with a visual impairment, including blindness, tend to &dquo;see” the same thing:blurry text and faint elements when text sizes and color contrasts are too low
. Third, it rehashes the long exploded theory that accessibility and aesthetics:the more accessible an interface is, the less aesthetic appeal it has
. This is a nonsensical generalisation; moreover, the author proves himself wrong. The author also claims that,Most users with extreme visual impairments use screen readers that provide high contrast modes
, whereas most screen readers don't provide high contrast modes (some combine screen reader and magnifier functions). Moreover, the author appears to be unaware of the fact that some users need lower contrast, for example, some people with dyslexia or the Irlen syndrome. Finally, the article creates the myth of “accessibility extremists”:Accessibility extremists tend to discount aesthetics.
For other comments, see Steve Faulkner's tweet, 22.11.2019. - Interview de Jean-Yves Moyen, développeur chez Siteimprove (Danemark), Access42, 18.07.2022.
- Watson, Léonie: Perceived affordances and the functionality mismatch, Tink, 14.07.2022.
- Hein, Elise: Where’s the fun in accessibility?, UX Collective, 21.07.2022.
- Alice: Why I'm Running for W3C TAG, Dev, 28.12.2018. Alice is senior software egineer at Google and works on Chrome accessibility.
- Henke, Anika: How users change colours on websites, Accessibility in government (Gov.uk), 27.03.2017.
- Fernandez, Manny: Epilepsy Foundation Was Targeted in Mass Strobe Cyberattack, The New York Times, 16.12.2019.
- Epilepsy Foundation Files Criminal Complaint and Requests Investigation in Response to Attacks on Twitter Feed, Epilepsy Foundation, 16.12.2019.
- Arbeitskreis barrierefreies Internet e. V..
- KBV ( Kompetenzzentrum Barrierefreiheit Volmarstein) (formerly, until December 2020, FTB (Forschungsinstitut Technologie und Behinderung)).
- BIK für Alle: Barrierefrei informieren und kommunizieren. (This project ended in 2018.)
- Steffen KJ. Zimmermann – Experte für Barrierefreiheit || Accessibility Expert.
- TRAINomat. Background: TRAINomat (Kompetezzentrum für Digitale Barrierefreiheit, Hochschule der Medien, Stuttgart).
- Aquino, Steven: Why Unlocking Your iPhone with Apple Watch Matters For Accessibility, Forbes, 06.05.2021.
FOSDEM tracks and talks:
-
Accessibility devroom at FOSDEM 2011
(7 presentations).
Strobbe, Christophe: odt2daisy and odt2braille: OpenOffice.org/LibreOffice extensions for accessible formats: presentation in the Accessibility devroom. - Strobbe, Christophe: Accessible Authoring with LibreOffice: presentation in the LibreOffice devroom at FOSDEM 2011.
- Strobbe, Christophe: Accessibility in LibreOffice: presentation in the >LibreOffice devroom at FOSDEM 2012.
- Iglesias, Alejandro Piñeiro: How GNOME Obsoleted its "Enable Accessibility" Setting (And How You Can Too): presentation in the Cross desktop devroom at FOSDEM 2013.
- Strobbe, Christophe: Accessible Design in Open Source: presentation in the Open Source Design devroom at FOSDEM 2015.
- Strobbe, Christophe: Design for All versus Design for One and Adaptive User Interfaces: presentation in the Open Source Design devroom at FOSDEM 2016.
- Watson, Léonie: Accessibility in Open Source: presentation in the Open Source Design devroom at FOSDEM 2017.
- Behrens, Thorsten; Behrens, Katarina:
Accessibility 101 (not only) for LibreOffice developers
(FOSDEM on YouTube, 21 minutes, 07.02.2018).
Recording of a presentation in the Open Document Editors devroom at the FOSDEM 2018 conference in Brussels on 3 February 2018. (Licence: Creative Commons Attribution licence (reuse allowed).) - Thibault, Samuel:
Maintaining accessibility through testing?
(FOSDEM on YouTube, 18 minutes, 12.02.2018; Creative Commons licence).
Recording of a presentation in the Open Document Editors devroom at the FOSDEM conference in Brussels on 3 February 2018. See also Maintaining accessibility through testing? in the FOSDEM 2018 schedule. (Licence: Creative Commons Attribution licence (reuse allowed).)
This talk gives a very brief introduction to accessibility and points out that accessibility is something that should constantly be kept in mind, just like security and internationalisation. Accessibility needs to be integrated into the development process instead of expecting or assuming that other people will find and fix accessibility issues.
One way of integrating accessibility into the development process is through regression testing. Many tools and toolkits already enable technical accessibility (the console, GTK 2 and 3, Qt 5 and Java Swing), but the result is not always usable. We also can't expect screen readers to have scripts to fix or compensate for each accessibility issue. There are a number of practices that can help, such as designing an application without initially having a GUI in mind, using standard widgets and making sure that the relationships between widgets are logical. You can also test GUIs by turning on Orca and using only the keyboard, and using speech synthesis with the computer screen turned off. Accerciser is an accessibility explorer for inspecting the accessibility of widgets. However, expecting developers to do this may go a bit too far. For this reason, we need automatic tests in a context of continuous integration. Martin Pieuchot, Hypra and Samuel Thibault (with TDF funding) have workd on GLA11Y (glade accessibility), a tool that checks the accessibility of GtkBuilder .ui files produced e.g. by glade. - Strobbe, Christophe: Open Educational Resources on Digital Accessibility for Building Your Own Courses: presentation in the Open Source Design devroom at FOSDEM 2019.
- Jonas, Peter; Sabatella, Marc: Accessibility in MuseScore. presentation in the Open Source Design devroom at FOSDEM 2020.
- Ignor, Sarah: Geheimfunktionen für Alexa: Barrierefreiheit im Alltag mit fünf Kniffen, Computer Bild, 03.06.2021.
- Duchateau, Sylvie: Diffuser l’écran et l’audio d’un mobile sur ordinateur ou vidéoprojecteur avec LetsView, Access42, 06.07.2021.
- The Invisibility of Disability, UX Mag, 05.10.2010.
- Understanding Success Criterion 6.1.1: Give a Shit, User Agent Man, 16.08.2019.
- von der Burg, Saskia: Stolperfalle E-Scooter: Den öffentlichen Raum barriereärmer gestalten, vdb Medienbüro, 27.11.2022.
- Cassidy, Johny:
Blind news audiences are being left behind in the data visualisation revolution: here's how we fix that,
Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, 17.01.2023.
Quote:Frank Elavsky, a researcher at the Human-Computer Interaction Institute at Carnegie Mellon University and a recognised expert in the accessibility of visual data journalism believes many organisations following the WCAG guidelines should be going further than compliance and need to be pushing for better accessibility.
-
Details/summary polyfill (expandable/collapsible content),
Web Experience Toolkit, 2014 (accessed on 23.02.2023).
This is outdated because thedetails
andsummary
elements are now supported by common browsers. However, in early 2021, accessibility support was not complete, specifically with regard to the communication of the expanded state and changes in the expanded state. See summary_element (html) on the website Accessibility Support. Was is apparently still needed is a kind of polyfill that adds WAI-ARIA attributes for certain combinations of browsers and screen readers. - Microdata:
-
Names: the
itemprop
attribute in the WHAT WG's HTML 5 specification (accessed on 23.02.2023). - Microdata, MDN (accessed on 23.02.2023).
- Getting started with schema.org using Microdata, Schema.org (accessed on 23.02.2023).
- Book - Schema.org Type, Schema.org (accessed on 23.02.2023).
-
Names: the
- Rupert, Dave: So you’ve been publicly accessibility-shamed, Dave Rupert, 27.10.2023.
- Strain, Phil: How accessibility drives innovation (sponsored article), CIO Dive, 16.10.2023.