Updated Brief Note on Description List Support
By @aardrian@toot.cafe
TL;DR: Description list support continues to be generally good (with VoiceOver still the outlier), even if you may not like how it is supported.
FTC orders AI accessibility startup accessiBe to pay $1M for misleading advertising | TechCrunch
Chef’s Kiss!
According to the FTC, accessiBe not only fell short of its promises to clients, but engaged in misleading marketing. accessiBe “deceptively formatted third-party articles and reviews” to appear as if they were independent opinions by impartial authors, said the agency in a press release, and failed to reveal “material connections” to supposedly objective reviewers.
How to Dehumanize Accessibility with AI | Ashlee M Boyer
@ashleemboyer@mstdn.social on why it’s dehumanizing and unnecessary to ask “AI” about the disabled experience, when disabled people exist.
AI is not impacted by inaccessibility. It is not a disabled person. It cannot explain web accessibility from the perspective of a disabled person.
Removing the human factor of inaccessibility stories does not build empathy. It dehumanizes the stories. It dehumanizes US.
Additionally, inaccessibility is not a result of a lack of empathy. It’s a result of ableism. To still position lack of empathy as the main problem in almost 2025, is a failure to consider vital historical context.
Creating AI caricatures of disabled people does not help us dismantle systemic ableism.
I also take issue with the alleged need for comments to be “appealing” or “humorous.” Nothing appealing nor humorous about inaccessibility. Inaccessibility is PAINFUL in every single sense of the word. When disabled people encounter inaccessibility, we are harmed every. single. time.
WCAG 3 December 2024 Update - Thoughts from the Co-Chair
Great overview on the new draft, but I (@yatil@yatil.social) think it is interesting to see how close this seems to align with current WCAG 2 format and organization…
Beautiful focus outlines · Medienbäcker Thomas Günther
Some good focus considerations by @medienbaecker@mastodon.social
Unfortunately, focus outlines are often overlooked in web design. Clients and designers might not even notice them, leaving developers to handle design and implementation. Some might even suggest removing focus outlines for a cleaner aesthetic 😱
HTMHAIL - HTMHell
@tink@frontend.social about AI and the most basic of HTML questions.
(Spoiler in the reply.)
Suddenly I knew exactly how Arthur Dent felt, dealing with the Nutrimatic Drinks Dispenser in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Just like the cup of tea it dispensed to Arthur, the code provided by ChatGPT was, to paraphrase, almost, but not quite, entirely unlike the HTML for an accessible button.
Assume the Position—A Labeling Story - TPGi
@lloydi@mastodon.social about label positions.
Foundations: types of disability
By @TetraLogical@a11y.social
We are all, in essence, temporarily abled. As an ageing society, the reality is that our abilities are not fixed - they change over time. Disability is a complex and deeply personal experience that can impact anyone, whether through permanent, temporary, or situational conditions, or even a mix of these.
When something is inaccessible, it can be inaccessible to people with a permanent disability, such as blindness, but also those with temporary disabilities, like a migraine, or situational challenges, such as struggling to read a screen due to sun glare.
Your EU ecommerce site legally requires a dark mode by the 28th June 2025 - Robin Whittleton
Mind The (Remediation) Gap - TPGi
When auditors provide advice on accessibility issues, it's primarily about the HTML used. But do frontend developers actually know HTML these days?
I wish I were overstating the degree to which this has become an issue. But when I regularly talk to “full-stack developers” who don’t know how to write an unordered list or who don’t know that you can’t nest a button inside of a link, I’m convinced that the term “full-stack” has always been meaningless.
Aria-activedescendant is not focus | Sarah Higley
@codingchaos@vis.social with everything there is to know about aria-activedescendant, and more!
This is an attribute that is entirely concerned with screen reader accessibility. Specifically, it allows certain scoped exceptions to the screen reader behavior of only enabling interaction with a single element at a time.
The thing about ARIA is that it does not affect browser behavior or functionality -- only semantics and accessibility API mappings. All keyboard events will still fire on the true focused element, and there are no global DOM methods to query the currently relevant active descendant in the manner of document.activeElement. The only context in which the active descendant behaves like a second focus is when it comes to a screen reader's virtual cursor.
Even for screen readers, aria-activedescendant is not entirely the same as a second focus.
WCAG2ICT Note Published
Guidance on Applying WCAG 2 to Non-Web Information and Communications Technologies (WCAG2ICT) is a completed W3C Group Note. WCAG2ICT describes how Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) principles, guidelines, and success criteria can be applied to non-web information and communications technologies (ICT), specifically to non-web documents and software. The document includes guidance for WCAG 2.0, 2.1, and 2.2 success criteria and glossary terms. WCAG2ICT has been a key resource for including WCAG in ICT accessibility regulation, legislation, and standards around the world. This update facilitates further adoption of WCAG 2.1 and WCAG 2.2 in non-web contexts. For an introduction, see: WCAG2ICT Overview.
WCAG2ICT describes how Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) principles, guidelines, and success criteria can be applied to non-web information and communications technologies (ICT), specifically to non-web documents and software.
Combating Access Trauma. – Robert Kingett
By @weirdwriter@tweesecake.social
Paragraphs | scottohara.me
@scottohara@mastodon.social about paragraphs. Because of course.
Things to Do Before Asking “Is This Accessible?”
By @aardrian@toot.cafe
The infuriating inefficiency of accessibility audits · Eric Eggert
By this account’s own @yatil@yatil.social
An explanation of accessibility issues, starting at the beginning.
Yesterday, in a forum for small business owners, someone asked me this question: "Can I ask you what the **** an 'accessibility issue' on a website even is?" I love this question. Let's start at the beginning.
Your Image Is Probably Not Decorative
By @eric@social.ericwbailey.website
Maybe Don’t Name That Landmark
By @aardrian@toot.cafe
contrast-color() is a good thing, but also solving the problem at the wrong layer
“Browsers are a failure of imagination”, says @eric@social.ericwbailey.website
Browsers are a failure of imagination.
Accessible QR Codes – The Ultimate Guide | Axess Lab
Excellent resource by @DanielGoransson@mastodon.social
Apple accessibility preview: More for Speech, CarPlay, and Vision Pro
By @shelly@zeppelin.flights
Manifesto for a Humane Web
By @michelle@front-end.social
and
How we’re building more inclusive and accessible components at GitHub
By @eric@social.ericwbailey.website
On popover accessibility: what the browser does and doesn’t do
By @hdv@front-end.social and @scottohara@a11y.info
When security and accessibility clash: why are banking applications so inaccessible? - Nic Chan
By @NicMakesStuff@indieweb.social
Vergabe und Beschaffung - Berlin.de
Minimum criteria for public purchases in the German State of Berlin, it’s kind of a VPAT that contains over 30 Success Criteria that they call KO criteria. Interesting approach.
Via: @marcus@mastodon.social
Socks, lies, and accessibility
It’s probably a coincidence that nondescript pseudo businesses advertised AccessiBe during 2023’s GAAD. For sure!
By @janmaarten@mastodon.social
Access Denied: The (in)accessibility of European Political Party websites - European Disability Forum
The report “Access Denied” reveals that European political parties’ websites are vastly inaccessible to users with disabilities, with some components even reversing default accessibility measures. The report, co-authored by the European Disability Forum and the Funka Foundation (a leader in the sector of digital accessibility), found appalling results in the websites of the 7 main […]
European political parties seem to be neglecting their obligation to provide information to all voters, whether they have specific access needs or not. In doing so, they are creating a barrier not only for persons with disabilities but for the democratic process itself.
Some website owners had actively removed code that benefits users, thereby deliberately making the interface less accessible.
Blind internet users struggle with error-prone AI aids
Via @dogfood@norden.social