This applies to browser behavior as well. I’ve been encountering a significant number of sites recently where the site tries to offer the user ways to make the site more accessible. Sometimes these are part of an overlay or widget providing accessibility “fixes” and sometimes they are part of the core code. In both cases they are taking the wrong approach to implementing help. Let me explain why.
Comments closedWhat had been intended as a couple of weeks off for the holidays ended up being more time than intended due to a collection of emergencies. On January 21st, 2026 at 3:45pm Central, my father – Howard Tarnoff passed away. He was surrounded by me, Melissa, and our children – Stella, Sawyer, and Morgan. He is survived by my brother, Matthew, and his children: Niko, Ivy, and Oriole. Additionally, his sister, Valerie survives him.
Howard has a left an indelible mark on this world. Everyone he met was a friend, some became good friends, some great, and others he called best friends. Growing up in Philadelphia, he still spent Eagles games texting his childhood buddies Warren and Mike.
Howard served time in the Air Force. After that he entered the workforce as an engineer in aeronautics. He quit his job the week he and my mother found I was on the way and got a new one in the toy industry. It was here he found meaningful work. He invented numerous toys and games on his own, with family input, and sharing ideas with collaborators.
I grew up in a house of fun. My brother and I were always alpha testers for anything he could come up with. He’d do toy exchanges with colleagues at other companies for the holidays to get us gifts we wanted. Ready, Set, Spaghetti sent me to college as well as being published in dozens of languages and turned into an Italian game show for kids. The Belly Ball made it into Time Magazine. Hours of my youth playing games over and over to work out the bugs. While I’ve grown up and am no longer in the target audience, he found testers in his grandkids as well as similarly aged neighbors. He hosted a game night at his apartment complex with a few 20-something couples.
His charm, snark, and humor won people over all the time. He could get away (in the 90s) with telling Secret Service, “If I tell you, I’ll have to kill you.” regarding a NDA’d prototype he was taking to show a toy company. The company just happened to be holding meetings where President Clinton was staying.
But if you asked my father what his most prized accomplishments are, he would tell you his family. Starting with my mother. He worshiped and loved her twice as hard as you think imaginable. And she loved him the same amount. He was extremely proud of his sons and his grandchildren. Nothing made him happier than a hug from family, but a hand made piece of art was almost as good.
I will be developing a memorial site for Howard and Lynn. Please message me through this site or however we may be connected if you’d like to contribute a memory, well wishes, or photo.
Comments closedModern dynamic websites use layers of content on a page. We have tooltips, popups, dialogs, menus, navigation, and modals that bring more functionality by using these layers. But they can introduce a problem for keyboard-only users when focus can fall on content underneath. Let’s explore how this can resolved.
Comments closedDisabilities come in all sorts. So do users. Some users can manipulate a mouse. Some rely on keyboard alone. Others have assistive technology. When you use a mouse, where your mouse is located is visible. This lets the sighted mouse user know what they are clicking on and where the focus is. Keyboard only users need something else. Let’s get into the details of what is needed.
Comments closedYou can see in the photo our little pantry was quickly thrown up. Now we are facing winter weather in Wisconsin. We realized we needed a better structure. So we bought a small 22 sq foot shed. We posted that this was happening on social media and looking for assistance to install it as both my wife and I are disabled.
Comments closedHeadings and labels need to describe the content they are identifying in the content. This means when you have a H1 is should describe the page as a whole. Labels need to describe the data they are collecting. Seems simple. And usually it is. Let’s look at some examples of when it isn’t as clear.
Comments closedTimes are tough, but we have a little extra. Instead of shaming people for needing help, we are sharing what we can. I have been a Buddhist for over a decade. I’ve read all the major religious texts as well as the major philosophy and ethics books as part of getting my degree in philosophy. My wife is a deacon at her Episcopal church. One thing we agree upon is that all humans deserve care, love, support, the right to food, clothing, shelter, and healthcare. Actually, we agree on a lot, but most of it is irrelevant to this post.
‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’ – Matthew 25(40)
If you have the means to help your local community, I encourage you to do so. If you can’t provide a pantry like ours, find somewhere to donate time or money. Because our budget for this is coming out of our pockets, we have limits. If you’d like to help us support our community, please visit our page about the pantry and donate.
Comments closedIt’s been a busy week in my house, so I’m going to keep this quick. One of the issues I often see flagged by other accessibility testers is that something doesn’t work with keyboard navigation. The vast majority of times I revisit these, it turns out the tester doesn’t fully understand how screen readers work. I want to highlight a few items for folks.
Screen readers typically have 3 main modes. The virtual browser, forms, and application.
The virtual browser is when the screen reader technology is intercepting the keyboard input and uses that to execute a function in the browser for you. When we press tab we jump to the next active item. Pressing the down arrow will read the next line, chunk, or set number of characters in a paragraph. Here’s a short list of common commands:
When a user encounters a form element, the screen reader should automatically shift to the forms mode. There usually is ab audible sound to indicate this. This mode moves the screen reader out of the way to interact directly with the page via the keyboard. This limits how to navigate to using only the Tab and Shift keys to move among the active elements in the form.
In this mode you need to have the role=”application” and then the screen reader again gets out of the way of the keyboard. However, even if you use active controls navigating between them is completely up to the author. They will work with Space & Enter to activate, but the author really needs to define the navigation scheme and controls to use the tool.
Don’t flag an issue for not being keyboard accessible with a screen reader on unless you can identify it is an application or is also not accessible without the screen reader.
There’s way more to this, but the great folks over at Tetralogical have a great screen reader misconceptions article and a full break down of commands.
Comments closedIn the physical world we understand that not everyone can climb 20 flights of stairs, so under the ADA we created rules to overcome these situations. Buildings now have commitments they need to make during construction to include ramps and elevators to access areas that someone might not be able to climb stairs. This is an example of multiple ways. Let’s review how that translates to digital spaces.
Comments closedIf you are anything like me, you don’t want your data sold to third parties. You probably run ad blockers. Maybe a VPN. Some governments are trying to help by requiring the site to declare what cookies are used and providing the user to opt out. But the current method of displaying this information tends to have some serious accessibility issues. I have another way of thinking about them I’d like to propose.
Leave a Comment
