The journey from content creator to end user is quite long. At least in terms of different software that needs to deliver. And as we all know – software has bugs. And sometimes even so called features that can actually be called bugs as well. So please test and if we find a problem – report it, so that we improve the accessibility one step at a time.
Tag: WCAG
Latest posts:
I had to fail an Android app in a recent WCAG audit because it’s expand/collapse components didn’t have the semantics. On the review I got asked about possible solutions and here you go – hope it will help somebody make accordions on Android more accessible.
Trying to set a baseline for making more accessible custom interactive components. Yes, you should refer to whole WCAG and I refer to it as well, but this can be used as a good baseline as well. Hope it can help somebody.
Website owners are responsible for use of third party widgets, plugins and more. Before using them they should check if they conform to WCAG, otherwise their site will not conform either. Checking for accessibility statement of the third party may reveal huge problems with their product’s future.
Another reflection on the business impacts of making things accessible. Investing in accessibility now will for sure make commercial advantage for us as people or companies. It’s not only the right thing to do, it also makes sense commercially.
Finding errors and failures is quite simple. Finding their solutions not so much. Audits should in my opinion provide with specific solutions that are not vague and are totally actionable. Otherwise we need to call in other experts to translate them.
Time flies, and I am WAS for two years now. Short reflection about the past and the future that WAS has for me.
As I enjoy my vacation I decided to write a bit more personal post, still related to accessibility, but no technical details.
We all reach out to third party solutions and we like it when they claim they are accessible. But please don’t just believe them – check that they really are conforming. And when they update – check again.
Mobile native applications are often with no headings. Sometimes even have visual headings but are missing on the semantics. Screen-reader users can and also like to navigate via headings, so we should be responsible and use them. They are supported on both iOS and Android.
It was not clear to me if WCAG 4.1.3 can be applied to native mobile applications. At least on both iOS and Android. So I did some research and came with the conclusion that we can and should or even must use status messages also on native mobile apps.
We are most probably failing a WCAG success criteria 1.4.10 Reflow because of CSS’s inability to fix word breaks for us. What can we do to allow grammatically correct word breaking when our browsers can’t help us yet?
What are the most critical requirements for testing native mobile accessibility? What do we have to have for testing? Should we only test with phones? What about different operating system versions? This post will give you some basic hints.
Short introduction post on important subject of cognitive accessibility – especially the practical guidelines that can be found in latest study.
Building on first Slovenian Accessibility Awareness Day and on the first official Web Accessibility Directive reports from Slovenian public sector I made the Second Slovenian Accessibility Awareness Day. Still and always a work in progress, but please read the post and then if you wish also the reports to get some clues about the state of accessibility in Slovenia.
Minimum viable product that is not accessible is not really minimum. And then also the WCAG on level AA is the minimum, a baseline. When we reflect over those two facts – we must agree that MVP must at minimum conform to WCAG 2.1 on level AA. If this MVP will run in EU’s public sector even WCAG 2.1 on level AA alone is not the minimum.
I get it, you have to release a new website next week and your client just asked you if it is accessible, because it has to be, right? What do you do? Your favorite search engine helps you at once and solution is a widget install away. Wrong! Awareness with no knowledge is dangerous! Please read and understand – and try to build on the knowledge part as well.
How come Web Content Accessibility Guidelines still surprise some people? They are not something new. They are extremely important. Maybe some of reasons lie in education, missing role models, ignorance of awards and maybe even in the open source itself. Some thoughts of mine that try to reflect about this.
This post is not your daily rant about not including accessibility into different online competitions – it is about why it really should be like that – we all deserve accessibility and there are no reasons why competitions should not add accessibility as one of key factors. It is beneficial for all!
Is it okay to give a heading level 2 the style of level 3 but keep the semantics of level 2. Well yes – but as often with accessibility – it depends. It’s not up to developers to set it in stone and it is for designers and content providers to decide when appropriate. Content is once again crucial.
How do you test for something that can be only possible in certain conditions? Well, best way to do this kind of testing is to ask developers and others that were involved in the feature specifications.
Some accessibility issues originate in code. And when design is being recreated with code it may seem to work but when thinking about accessibility we may notice that it only works for some users and not for others. I’ve decided to describe some common accessibility fails that are on developers.
I was asked if I can issue “WCAG certificate” for a website, so I decided to investigate what would that actually mean as we all know that sites and mobile apps are constantly evolving and changing and even if they conform to WCAG they may not the following day. What would then mean to issue a WCAG certified certificate and still be ethical and the right thing to do?
Why do status messages matter so much they deserve it’s own success criteria in the WCAG? Well, it is just a minimum – all users deserve to be informed when something important happens, also users of screen-readers and other assistive technologies.
What would I want from my Accessibility-as-a-Service provider? What would be the ideal here when we know that automatic testing is absolutely not enough? We must also get people as a part of the service – accessibility specialists and people with disabilities. And when done from start to end it is way more efficient compared to only using it at the end.
External agency made an accessibility audit. It provided a lot of possible solutions. In this post I try to make it easier to act on this audit. Breaking results into responsibilities, then prioritizing the issues and finally estimating and fixing them can be one way of doing so.
European authorities published accessibility reports from multiple EU lands and I decided to read all of them and make short summary with my personal comment about them. A lot can be learned from their first auditing and there is a lot that can and need to be improved throughout Europe.
Online shopping must be more accessible and it must happen now. Pandemics, quarantines and isolation are for sure one of the strongest reasons, but if you are a shop owner in the EU you should also consider the legal part of it. There are for sure also returns of investment, but please do the right thing and stop discriminating people with disabilities!
First days of new year are perfect for a summarization of previous year – I like to call it retrospective. What I did for myself and also something I did for my employer and our customers… Happy new year!
To claim that our product is accessible needs more than just WCAG audit that did not discover any fails. Real users, people with disabilities are the only one that can really reflect on the accessibility of our products. That’s why we should include them in all reasonable parts of our production processes. Otherwise we may think we deliver accessibility but the truth can be opposite.