Automatic testing, although limited, is useful for quick and bulk test of webpages. With current progress I would expect it to be more efficient, but such tests could easily be bypassed and we can get bad data.
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I wrote a lot about automatic accessibility testing, but from developer and accessibility auditor perspective. In this post I summarize some reflections on accessibility tools for content creators – the authors.
I feel that design is too focused on the visual parts and therefore the burden on non-visual design falls on developers. What can we do to improve this? To fill the gaps?
We live in times where technology progress is amazing and therefore we need to make sure we don’t leave groups of people behind. Robots will obviously soon help us at home and everywhere and it is crucial we make their interfaces accessible. Or we will make our society full of new barriers for people with disabilities.
I try to open my mind and reflect on some possibilities that would maybe, perhaps, make accessibility overlays viable solutions. Then I quickly find the downsides and don’t change my mind about them…
2023 is over, this is a short reflection about it, primarily to remember the key accessibility efforts later in life.
Sometimes developers have good intentions and want to make their products more accessible, but can fake accessibility and make things even worse.
Sometimes when I audit webpages and mobile apps I really wish that parts of WCAG AAA would just become AA, to improve the user experience and to make things better for more users.
Don’t think accessibility audit alone will help making things accessible. It can even mean ineffective use of resources as there are several things you need to consider before just auditing.
I would like that accessibility is the default, just there, without effort. Just fixed for all of us. But it’s not yet possible. Probably never will be. And when I try to be open minded and try to use a feature of accessibility overlay and it just fails, not one but two features, under two minutes, on an important page for people with disabilities, then I had to write about it. And even make a video of it.
Making large scale analysis of accessibility based on centralized accessibility statements is simple. But we do need to consider that not everybody filling out accessibility statements have the needed experience and knowledge. And sometimes the intention to be transparent is also absent.
eGovernment Benchmark of 35 countries in Europe (EU and beyond) finally gathered some insights about accessibility of eGovernment websites. After years of accessibility legislation accessibility is still a pilot indicator which unfortunately indicates how late we are in the awareness process.
A little knowledge is a dangerous thing proverb goes also for accessibility. When we are motivated to implement newly acquired knowledge after a training we can quickly start overusing techniques and can even make our product less accessible.
WCAG 2.2 is here, when do we get it into legislation, like Web Accessibility Directive and European Accessibility Act? Well EN 301 549 seems to be updating in 2025, according to work item schedule it may come in early 2026. Unless ETSI adds WCAG 2.2 sooner it seems that we will have to wait quite a long time.
Without data we just have opinions. Having a lot of data in different formats can take time to process and sometimes also mean we can’t really compare state of accessibility if countries use different methodologies. If all countries had same data set or even better, central registry it would make data more accessible. And we could save time and money.
Municipality avoided paying fines after vendor of e-learning app fixed issues with 4 success criteria out of 6 tested (all A level). I found some interesting facts that seem to reveal procurement and especially awareness problems and I also offer some potential solutions.
Happy to present my accessibility awareness building article at the DIGIN 2023 conference, organized by European Center for Accessibility (AccessibleEU). Short overview of other contributions and a thought about how this professional event could be even better.
9 new success criteria and one less in WCAG 2.2. Removing 4.1.1 from WCAG 2.2 impacting WCAG 2.0 and WCAG 2.1 as well (can’t fail 4.1.1 anymore). Even if three new WCAG 2.2 success criteria are on level AAA I don’t see reasons to not implementing them as they bring much value!
My first academic article called General Strategies for Improving Accessibility of E-commerce was accepted on a Slovenian Digital Inclusion conference. It was an interesting experience writing it and in this post I reflect on some important things.
Brief reflection on 3 years of WAD in EU and short version of attending WAD anniversary event which was really worth attending.
Concentrating on WCAG alone can feel like accessibility is always binary. When thinking about all the success criteria of the WCAG we can quickly conclude that there is not a single medium sized website in the world that conforms totally. A reflection on perfectionism, conformance and reality.
Sustainability and accessibility are absolutely interconnected. Recent sustainability guidelines, although still in draft version, are quite often referring to accessibility, so I wanted to expose parts where accessibility is beneficial to sustainability.
Sometimes best practices are passed as WCAG requirements and that can make accessibility more difficult for some people to implement. We need to understand what WCAG actually requires and what it does not before we try to impact other people.
I just received mail from IAAP that my certification is prolonged based on my activities that generated enough Continuing Accessibility Education Credits (CAECs). I like that we need not only to pass the exam but to also remain active to maintain it. There are some downsides of certifications, but still way more positive effects in my opinion.
4 years went fast. A small self-reflection about the blog and a bit about the future of it.
Sometimes we expect code to work in a specific way. Here is another example how we need to test it to be certain. Status messages are so important that they even got their own WCAG success criteria, but make sure your code really works.
Some brief thoughts on how to make a small business more accessible, at least digitally. Don’t take it as a project, it is a program, a journey.
Advertising is big money. Making your ads inaccessible is expensive. In this post I summarize some common accessibility issues that are present in online adverts.
WCAG 2.2 seems to be around the corner, document is currently a Proposed recommendation. But what does that actually mean?
Digital transformation – as we move from paper to spreadsheets and then to smart applications for all parts of our business needs, we have the obligation to make our future digital business accessible from the start.