WCAG in Plain English - AAArdvark
If you've ever consulted the official Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) and felt befuddled by the wording, check out this site. This is a plain English guide to every WCAG standard.
Accessible Color Palette Generator | WCAG Compliant
A free tool for generating color palettes that meet WCAG AA contrast standards for normal text with either white or black text (and it notes which color text to use).
Free Closed Caption Converter
Convert files between closed captions and transcript formats: SRT, VTT, TXT, DOCX. While most LLMs can also do this reformatting, this tool is a secure option for those who can't use LLMs in their work.
When AI and Disability Rights Collide: A New Frontier in Workplace Accommodation 🤖♿
This article is about accessibility and AI tools in the workplace, but it's good to keep in mind as we experiment with and evaluate AI tools for training purposes too.
"5 Ways AI Tools Create New Barriers
1️⃣ Inaccessible interfaces – Not compatible with screen readers or voice recognition software.
2️⃣ Rigid productivity metrics – Penalize neurodiverse work patterns.
3️⃣ Communication analysis – Misreads communication styles tied to certain disabilities.
4️⃣ Cognitive assumptions – Built around neurotypical thinking.
5️⃣ Sensory requirements – Require inputs (voice/vision) not accessible to all. "
The Accessibility Icon Collection - The Noun Project Blog
25 public domain icons about accessibility, including icons for accessibility testing, inclusive design, neurodiversity, screen reader, and transcription.
Accessibility personas
This site from the UK government includes a series of personas of people with different access needs and required supports. In addition to the personas are simulations where you try to complete tasks on websites as these people with disabilities experience them. You can see how poor design affects their ability to complete tasks, as well as see an improved design that makes it easier for users with disabilities to use websites. Even though this is more about general web content, a lot of this applies to elearning as well.
Inclusive Learning Survey
Will Thalheimer and Ingeborg Kroese have developed survey questions to help measure how inclusive learning experiences are. You can read about the research, development, and pilot process on the website. The survey questions are available for free with a CC license.
ARC Toolkit - Page-Level Testing - TPGi
Free accessibility testing tool for websites. It would be interesting to test this with published elearning as well.
Accessible typography
Breaking down myths related to typography and accessibility. One space after a period improves accessibility.
Alt Text: What to Write
How do you write good alt text? What images need alt text? This article from the NN group answers both questions. I learned something new about adding periods to the end of alt text.
End alt text with a period, even if it isn’t a full sentence. The period ensures that the screen reader pauses after reading the alt text.
Summary: Images are decorative, functional, or informative. Skip alt text for decorative. Describe the action for functional. Convey the message for informative.
ViddyScribe
AI-generated audio descriptions for videos. This is a way to improve accessibility and make videos more available to blind and low-vision users. Audio descriptions are time-consuming to create manually, which means most orgs skip them. This could potentially be a way to improve accessibility quickly and cheaply.
Disabled And Here: free stock images (with attribution)
Free stock images of people with disabilities, emphasizing people of color. While AI images are already usable for many purposes, I find that images of people with disabilities are still hard to generate. Images of actual disabled people are still useful. These are mostly photos, plus a few illustrations.
#BasicDesign — Never Use Pure Black in Typography
Explanation of why to avoid using pure black for text for online reading (which applies to websites and elearning). This article talks about how to pick shades of dark gray that are both readable and align with the color scheme.
White with code #FFFFFF has more striking brightness compared to pure black with code #000000. The brightness polarity requires the eye to work harder to read pure black text on a white background.
Font colors for ui/ux design instead of pure black #000000
Pure black text or backgrounds can cause eye strain and decrease readability. For more usable designs, use an alternative to #000000 such as these options.
One thing often happens at keynotes and conferences. It surprised me….
Don Clark shares several ways that people with dyslexia are benefiting now from using AI tools. Text-to-Speech, transcription, grammar and spelling assistants, note-taking and summarizing, and other tools can all help people with dyslexia.
WordPress Page Builder Accessibility Comparison - Equalize Digital
Comparison of WordPress page builders in terms of accessibility for features like skip links, navigation, accordions, tabs, carousels, etc.
Apple's New AI-Based Accessibility Features Are Pretty Wild
AI may be able to make technology more accessible to more people. AI-generated captions and transcripts are already making it easier to make audio and video content accessible (even with the inevitable errors). Allowing technology to be controlled with eye movements rather than a mouse or keyboard is a significant potential leap for accessibility.
WebAIM: Web Accessibility in Mind
Browsing habits of screen reader users
Screenreader Visibility
Fangs - the screen reader emulator- Standards Schmandards
This <a href="http://www.mozilla.org/products/firefox/">Mozilla Firefox</a> extension creates a textual representation of a web page similar to how the page would be read by a modern screen reader.
Seven Screen Reader Usability Tips
Web Design References: Accessibility
EASI: Equal Access to Software and Information
Suckerfish Dropdowns - Three Level Bones
[ws] Color Scheme Generator 2
Introduction to Web Accessibility
WebAIM: Creating Accessible Macromedia Flash Content
Adobe - Accessibility Resource Center
‘Building Accessible Websites’ (Joe Clark; 2006.01.29)