Tagged “a11y”
A better birthday input, by Vitaly Friedman
I recently signed up to Vitaly from Smashing Mag’s Smart Interface Design Patterns newsletter. This latest edition regarding “date of birth” inputs was interesting, and well timed as my work colleagues and I are about to revisit our form patterns. It’s a nice explainer on why we should approach UI for dates the user knows differently from UI for dates the user will choose.
Tables and pseudo-tables: lessons and tactics
At work I have to think about complex HTML tables a lot. The challenge with doing tables well is that 99% of online table tutorials use fairly simple examples… whereas in reality design and product teams often want to squeeze in lots more. It’s really hard to balance those needs against accessibility, systemisation, styling and responsiveness.
Heads up: I’ve published this post early while it’s still a work in progress because it’s better for me to have it available for reference than languishing in drafts and forgotten. Apologies if you read it in a temporarily rough state.
Improved focus indicators for keyboard navigation (on GitHub’s blog)
GitHub have recently done some good work on improving keyboard navigation for (and general usability of) their focusable elements such as links, buttons and form controls by improving focus indication. And then they wrote a short-but-sweet article about it, then tweeted to share that and their work is getting lots of positive recognition from all the right people. Nice job all round, GitHub!
Improving alternative text for images
Some colleagues at work have recently been asking interesting questions about “good/appropriate alternative text for images”. I definitely reckon it’s a topic worth revisiting because it feels like the landscape has changed a bit on this front over the years.
Skip to Content: Online Accessibility Insights from Léonie Watson
Here’s a lovely, short (13 min) interview from an accessibility expert with a really positive outlook—highly recommended.
Q: What’s just one thing that every single person can do in the progression toward an accessible internet?
A: When you’re talking to colleagues, peers… promote the notion that accessibility is just part of what we do because we’re good at our job. It’s not extraordinary, it’s not unusual, it’s not something you can drop because you’re pushing for launch.
My talk, “Hiding elements on the web” for FreeAgent’s tech blog
I recorded a talk on “Hiding elements on the web” for @freeagent’s tech blog. It’s a tricky #FrontEnd & #a11y topic so I try to cover some good practices and responsible choices. Hope it helps someone. (Also it’s my first video. Lots of room to improve!)
What open-source design systems are built with web components?
Alex Page, a Design System engineer at Spotify, has just asked:
What open-source design systems are built with web components? Anyone exploring this space? Curious to learn what is working and what is challenging. #designsystems #webcomponents
And there are lots of interesting examples in the replies.
GOV.UK introduce an experimental block link component
Here’s an interesting development in the block link saga: GOV.UK have introduced one (named .chevron-card) on their Homepage, citing how it’ll improve accessibility by increasing mobile touch targets. It’s not yet been added to their Design System while they’re monitoring it to see if it is successful. They’ve chosen the approach which starts with a standard, single, non-wrapping anchor then “stretches” it across the whole card via some pseudo elements and absolute positioning magic. I’m slightly surprised at this choice because it breaks the user’s ability to select text within the link. Really interested to see how it pans out!
Lovely write-up, & great rationale re. larger mobile tap targets! I’ve wrestled with “block links” & found that each approach has issues so it’s v. interesting that you chose the route that impacts text selection. Is that the lesser of the evils? Keen to hear how it pans out!
— Laurence Hughes (@fuzzylogicx) December 13, 2021
Collected web accessibility guidelines, tips and tests
At work, I’m sometimes asked accessibility questions or to provide guidelines. I’m with Anna Cook in considering myself an accessibility advocate rather than an expert however I have picked up lots of tips and knowledge over many years of developing websites. So I thought it’d be useful to gather some general web accessibility tips and tests in one place as a useful reference.
Caveats and notes:
- this is a living document which I’ll expand over time;
- I’m standing on the shoulders of real experts and I list my references at the foot of the article; and
- if I’ve got anything wrong, please let me know!
Collapsible sections, on Inclusive Components
It’s a few years old now, but this tutorial from Heydon Pickering on how to create an accessible, progressively enhanced user interface comprised of multiple collapsible and expandable sections is fantastic. It covers using the appropriate HTML elements (buttons) and ARIA attributes, how best to handle icons (minimal inline SVG), turning it into a web component and plenty more besides.
Buttons and links: definitions, differences and tips
Some of the web’s design and development practices have led to buttons and links becoming conceptually bundled together and misunderstood. Practitioners can fall into the trap of seeing the surface-level commonality that “you click the thing, then something happens” and mistakenly thinking the two elements are interchangeable. Some might even consider them as a single “button component” without considering the distinctions underneath. However this mentality is harmful for effective web development and causes our users problems. In this post I’ll address why buttons and links are different and exist separately, and when to use each.
Broken Copy, on a11y-101.com
Here’s an accessibility tip that’s new to me. When the content of a heading, anchor, or other semantic HTML element contains smaller “chunks” of span and em (etc), the VoiceOver screen reader on Mac and iOS annoyingly fails to announce the content as a single phrase and instead repeats the parent element’s role for each inner element. We can fix that by adding an inner “wrapper” element inside our parent and giving it role=text.
The accessibility of conditionally revealed questions (on GOV.UK)
Here’s something to keep in mind when designing and developing forms. GOV.UK’s accessibility team found last year that there are some accessibility issues with the “conditional reveal” pattern, i.e. when selecting a particular radio button causes more inputs to be revealed.
Accessibility Testing (on adactio.com)
In this journal entry, Jeremy Keith argues that when it comes to accessibility testing it’s not just about finding issues—it’s about finding the issues at the right time.
Accessible Color Generator
There are many colour contrast checking tools but I like this one from Erik Kennedy (of Learn UI Design) a lot. It features an intuitive UI using simple, human language that mirrors the task I’m there to achieve, and it’s great that if your target colour doesn’t have sufficient contrast to meet accessibility guidelines it will intelligently suggest alternatives that do.
Should I use the HTML5 section element and if so, where?
Unlike other HTML5 elements such as header, footer and nav, it’s never been particularly clear to me when is appropriate to use section. This is due in large part to many experts having expressed that it doesn’t quite work as intended.
Inclusive language around buttons
@Amy_Hupe recently posed a great question on Twitter regarding inclusive language for buttons:
What's an inclusive way to describe what you do to a (digital) button, given it might be pressed with a mouse click, a screen tap, a key on a keyboard, and so on? I've tended to use "select" but wondering if that's right?
Changing visual order with CSS
When considering using Flexbox or CSS Grid to change the visual order of elements, remember that “with great power comes great responsibility”.
In Praise of the Unambiguous Click Menu (on CSS-Tricks)
Mark Root-Wiley explains why navigation menus that appear on click rather than hover are better.
Use Mac Zoom to show the text a screen reader gets
I picked up a good accessibility testing tip from my work colleague Max today.
On a Mac, if you open System > Accessibility > Zoom, you can enable “hover text”. This allows you to hold down command (cmd) and then whatever is under the mouse will be shown. This shows the same text that a screen reader sees so it’s good for checking if bits of the page respond to a screen reader.
Accessible interactions (on Adactio)
Jeremy Keith takes us through his thought process regarding the choice of link or button when planning accessible interactive disclosure elements.
Assistiv Labs
A tool for testing how accessible your experience is on various assistive technologies – perhaps “like BrowserStack but for screen readers”?
Assistiv Labs remotely connects you to real assistive technologies, like NVDA, VoiceOver, and TalkBack, using any modern web browser.
A11y is not “extra effort for people with disabilities”
Strong agree with these sentiments regarding accessibility expressed by Max Böck and Andrey Okonetchnikov on Twitter.
From Andrey:
If you’re building UI, it’s your responsibility to make it work for everyone. Clients often tell me “we don’t care about accessibility” but in reality they do want keyboard support at the very least. So I just build my UI in a way it works without discussing it. It’s my job.
Creating websites with prefers-reduced-data (on polypane.app)
Even though more and more people get access to the internet every day, not all of them have fast gigabit connections or unlimited data. Using the media query prefers-reduced-data we can keep our sites accessible to everyone.
My Screen Reader Cheatsheet
Here’s a list of useful Screen Reader commands and tips for my reference and yours. This is a work in progress and I’ll update it as I go.
How-to: Create accessible forms - The A11Y Project
Here are five bite-sized and practical chunks of advice for creating accessible forms.
- Always label your inputs.
- Highlight input elements on focus.
- Break long forms into smaller sections/pages.
- Provide error messages (rather than just colour-based indicators)
- Avoid horizontal layout forms unless necessary.
The Atkinson Hyperlegible Font (Braille Institute)
Braille Institute launch a new, free typeface promising greater legibility and readability for low vision readers.
What makes it different from traditional typography design is that it focuses on letterform distinction to increase character recognition, ultimately improving readability.
How to hide elements on a web page
In order to code modern component designs we often need to hide then reveal elements. At other times we want to provide content to one type of user but hide it from another because it’s not relevant to their mode of browsing. In all cases accessibility should be front and centre in our thoughts. Here’s my approach, heavily inspired by Scott O’Hara’s definitive guide Inclusively Hidden.
Better Alt Text
I’ve just read The A11Y Project’s page on alt text.
As most of us know, the HTML alt attribute is for providing “alternate text” descriptions of images to help ensure people do not miss out on information conveyed by graphics. This can help people using assistive technology such as screen readers, and in situations where images are slow or fail to load.
The article made some interesting points and even though I’ve been using the alt attribute for years I found three common cases where I could improve how I do things.
Setting an accessibility standard for a UK-based commercial website
When advocating accessible web practices for a commercial website, the question of “what does the law require us to do?” invariably arises.
The difference between aria-label and aria-labelledby (Tink - Léonie Watson)
The
aria-labelandaria-labelledbyattributes do the same thing but in different ways. Sometimes the two attributes are confused and this has unintended results. This post describes the differences between them and how to choose the right one.
Inclusive Datepicker (by Tommy Feldt)
A human-friendly datepicker. Supports natural language manual input through Chrono.js. Fully accessible with keyboard and screen reader.
Sign-in form best practices (on web.dev)
Sam Dutton advises how to use cross-platform browser features to build sign-in forms that are secure, accessible and easy to use.
Best practice techniques for SVG Icons
Here’s how I’d handle various common SVG icon scenarios with accessibility in mind.
How to create accessible subtitles (on Go Make Things)
Here’s Chris Ferdinandi, introducing the ARIA doc-subtitle role.
Accessibility (on adactio.com)
Here’s Jeremy Keith, making the moral case for accessible websites and why we shouldn’t use “you can make more money by not turning people away” as an argument:
I understand how it’s useful to have the stats and numbers to hand should you need to convince a sociopath in your organisation, but when numbers are used as the justification, you’re playing the numbers game from then on. You’ll probably have to field questions like ”Well, how many screen reader users are visiting our site anyway?” (To which the correct answer is “I don’t know and I don’t care” – even if the number is 1, the website should still be accessible because it’s the right thing to do.)
Striking a Balance Between Native and Custom Select Elements (on CSS-Tricks)
We’re not going to try to replicate everything that the browser does by default with a native select element. We’re going to literally use a select element when any assistive tech is used. But when a mouse is being used, we’ll show the styled version and make it function as a select element.
We’ve ruined the Web. Here’s how we fix it. (This is HCD podcast)
During the COVID situation, people have an urgent need to access critical information online. But in 2020, the average webpage is rammed full of large JavaScript files, huge images etc, and as a result is slow to load. This problem is likely to be most keenly felt by those who don’t have the luxury of fast internet – potentially the same people who need access to that critical information the most.
Here’s a brilliant discussion between Gerry McGovern and Jeremy Keith on that problem, suggesting tactics to help fix things such as performance budgets, introducing tactics at the design stage to mimic slow connections and other access constraints, optimising for return visits, progressive enhancement and more.
Finding participants for user research - Service Manual (GOV.UK)
It’s also important to do research with all the different kinds of people who may need your service, including those who: have disabilities or use assistive technologies; have limited digital skills or poor literacy; and may need help to use your service.
Block Links: A tricky UI Problem
You have a “card” component which includes a heading, some text, an image, and a link to the full article, and it’s working great. Then along comes a UX requirement that the full card (not just the button or link) should be clickable. This is where things get complicated.
HTML: The Inaccessible Parts (daverupert.com)
Here’s Dave Rupert, frustratedly rounding up the accessibility shortfalls in browser implementations of native HTML elements.
I’ve always abided in the idea that “HTML is accessible by default and then we come along and mess it up”. But that’s not always the case. There are some cases where even using plain ol’ HTML causes accessibility problems.
Why the GOV.UK Design System team changed the input type for numbers (Technology in Government
Using
<input type="text" inputmode="numeric" pattern="[0-9]*">(instead of<input type="number") allows for a degree of separation between how the user enters data (“input mode”), what the browser expects the user input to contain (type equals number), and potentially how it tries to validate it.
Are My Colours Accessible?
Colour contrast and the use of colour is extremely important for certain groups of people with varying levels of visional impairment. Building upon the excellent Colorable, I wanted more context around the result. When you share the outcome with your colleagues, all the results, rules and what you’re aiming for, is easily understandable for when you have those awkward conversations with designers and marketers. Accessibility doesn’t have to be ugly.
The Contrast Triangle
Removing underlines from links in HTML text presents an accessibility challenge. In order for a design to be considered accessible, there is now a three-sided design contraint - or what I call "The Contrast Triangle". Your text, links and background colors must now all have sufficient contrast from each other. Links must have a contrast ratio of 3:1 from their surrounding text. By not using underlines, a design has to rely on contrast alone to achieve this.
BBC GEL Inclusive Components Technical Guide
The BBC Global Experience Language (GEL) Technical Guides are a series of framework-agnostic, code-centric recommendations and examples for building GEL design patterns in websites. They illustrate how to create websites that comply with all BBC guidelines and industry best practice, giving special emphasis to accessibility.
Responsive Type and Zoom (by Adrian Roselli)
When people zoom a page, it is typically because they want the text to be bigger. When we anchor the text to the viewport size, even with a (fractional) multiplier, we can take away their ability to do that. It can be as much a barrier as disabling zoom. If a user cannot get the text to 200% of the original size, you may also be looking at a WCAG 1.4.4 Resize text (AA) problem.
Design Better Forms (UX Collective)
As Andrew Coyle says, “Life is short. No one wants to fill out a form.”. Here, he presents a number of form design tips to make the user experience more bearable and increase completion rates.
Making a Better Custom Select Element (24 ways)
We want a way for someone to choose an item from a list of options, but it’s more complicated than just that. We want autocomplete options. We want to put images in there, not just text. The
optgroupelement is ugly, hard to style, and not announced by screen readers. I had high hopes for thedatalistelement, but it’s no good for people with low vision who zoom or use high contrast themes.selectinputs are limited in a lot of ways. Let’s work out how to make our own while keeping all the accessibility features of the original.
Building an accessible show/hide disclosure component with vanilla JS (Go Make Things)
A disclosure component is the formal name for the pattern where you click a button to reveal or hide content. This includes things like a “show more/show less” interaction for some descriptive text below a YouTube video, or a hamburger menu that reveals and hides when you click it.
Who Can Use
It's a tool that brings attention and understanding to how color contrast can affect different people with visual impairments.
WAVE Web Accessibility Evaluation Tool
The featured article in this week’s Accessibility Weekly newsletter was on recent improvements to the WAVE suite of accessibility testing tools.
I can’t remember using WAVE before, however just one quick test of fuzzylogic.me using their online tool revealed an accessibility issue with the linked SVG logo in the header. A great catch, now fixed, from which I learned something new. I’ll certainly be adding WAVE to my accessibility testing toolbox from here on in.
WAVE is a suite of evaluation tools that help authors make their web content more accessible to individuals with disabilities. WAVE can identify many accessibility and Web Content Accessibility Guideline (WCAG) errors, but also facilitates human evaluation of web content. Our philosophy is to focus on issues that we know impact end users, facilitate human evaluation, and to educate about web accessibility.
Why much of the internet is closed off to blind people – BBC News
Following the recent watershed Domino’s Pizza case, BBC News reports that retailers in the USA & Canada are struggling to make their websites accessible and consumers are taking them to court.
Colors – a nicer color palette for the web
Skinning your prototypes just got easier - colors.css is a collection of skin classes to use while prototyping in the browser.
Beyond Automatic Testing (matuzo.at)
Six accessibility tests Viennese Front-end Developer Manuel Matusovic runs on every website he develops, beyond simply running a Lighthouse audit.
U.S. Supreme Court Favors Digital Accessibility in Domino’s Case
Digital products which are a public accommodation must be accessible, or will be subject to a lawsuit (and probably lose).
Webfont loading strategies
When it comes to webfonts, if you want to serve an accessible and high performance experience across device types it’s not as straightforward as just specifying your fonts in CSS then hoping for the best.
Using aria-current is a win-win situation
The HTML attribute aria-current allows us to indicate the currently active element in a sequence. It’s not only great for accessibility but also doubles as a hook to style that element individually.
Don’t set cursor: pointer on buttons
For many years I’ve been applying cursor: pointer to buttons because it felt right and would improve the user experience.
Accessible modal dialogues in 2019
I previously noted Keith J Grant’s article on the HTML dialog element which promised a native means of handling popups and modal dialogues. I’ve not yet used dialog in production, partly because of spotty browser support (although there is a polyfill) but also partly because—for reasons I couldn’t quite put my finger on after reading the spec—it just didn’t feel like the finished article.
Using the tabindex attribute | TPG
Léonie Watson explains how the HTML tabindex attribute is used to manage keyboard focus. Of particular interest to me was a clarification of what tabindex="-1" does (because I always forget).
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