Headings 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 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 CommentLinks are what make the internet the world wide web. The original idea was that the internet is a set of digital documents. The link allows you to move between them. To make them as effective as they can be, we want to make them clear in what they do. Often though, the simple link doesn’t provide a clear purpose. Let’s look at what it takes to pass 2.4.4 Link Purpose (in Context).
Comments closedTechnology is moving at an ever rapid pace. Some of the recent “AI” things to come along is one area that comes to mind. AI has its flaws and used incorrectly can do great harm, but it also can also improve the quality of life for others. Don’t stop them from using tools that help them, no matter your belief of such tools.
Ok, that’s the tip. You don’t have to read further. But if you desire to continue, I need to let you know what comes next is me processing an interaction I had that spawned today’s quick tip.
1 CommentI’ve been doing accessibility work long enough that I can confidently say, you cannot avoid lawsuits about accessibility. What you can do is minimize your risk. If you do not have an accessibility effort going on in your company, start one. This guide will help you prioritize where you should be looking first. If you have a program going, this can help focus your efforts into where most lawsuits look first.
1 CommentSome of my clients have faced lawsuits that I have helped them assess and address. By far the most common issue is images lacking alternative text. But not far behind it is the the focus order of the page. The vast majority of the complaints I’ve seen have claiming focus order issues are problematic, really aren’t. Today we’re going to look at focus order and why people interpret this wrong.
1 CommentThe internet today far exceeds what we initially thought it could be. We’ve advanced so far that we can replicate desktop applications running in the browser. Cloud-based software is everywhere. We’ve crafted frameworks to speed up development and solve the hard parts of server-client communication.
But the same problem keeps happening. We keep rebuilding interactive components using custom coding. And we forget all the things we need to do to make them accessible.
Today I’m looking at a why we should be using more native HTML controls and fewer custom ones. I’ll show you what is included if you use a native control.
Comments closedWalking into a library you are faced with thousands of books to read. Each one has a title, and they’re grouped together in like topics. You’re looking for a book on how to develop accessible websites, so you head to the internet section. As you walk into the aisle, all the books are pages out with spines to the back of the shelf.
1 Comment
