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Uncategorized

A section is meaningless without a name

When creating a section within a document, it’s not enough just to wrap it in a <section> and walk away. Likely, you used that section to indicate that this was a specific region of content that had meaning as a group. One thing that we know is that what the HTML5 spec expects for the […]

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Daily Read

Covid-19 and Accessibility

In the midst of the response to Covid-19, the accessibility of the content that users consume on the web has become a necessary accommodation. Some users are immune compromised and rely on these services for survival. The inability to access essential services online is imperitive. Below is a list of articles to get a better […]

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Accessibility Low Vision Usability Vision

How High Contrast Mode works

This is just a quick primer on how Windows High Contrast Mode (HCM) works. It is not exhaustive, but should give you a base understanding. Basically, text, border and background colors are replaced. They are not removed, which is a pretty common misconception. Colors At a very simple level, High Contrast Mode replaces all of […]

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Accessibility Testing

Testing Resources

Test Samples HTML Element test file index My Codepen with test cases Automated browser testing AXE (Accessibility for Development Teams) ARC Toolkit (Accessibility Resource Center) Accessibility Insights AMP (Accessibility Management Platform) Tools for manual testing ANDI  (Accessible Name & Description Inspector) Accessibility Insights Screen Readers JAWS (Job Access With Speech) NVDA (Non-Visual Desktop Access) VoiceOver (mac screen reader) […]

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Low Vision Techniques Usability Vision

Accessible High Contrast Logos

A lot of companies that I encounter use logos and images against a transparent background. This works well for them in most cases, because they can determine the color of the background that the logo image is placed against. One area where this can be a problem is in Windows High Contrast mode (HCM). That […]

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Accessibility Cognitive Techniques Uncategorized Usability WCAG Concepts

Reducing Motion

Using motion on your website can be helpful for some and harmful to others. There’s a delicate balance that should be considered when creating a website that includes motion. Animations, or blinking and moving content can quickly shift from helpful to harmful in the blink of an eye. This topic affects me personally for two […]

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WCAG WCAG Concepts

What is Non-text Content?

Determining if something is non-text content? “any content that is not a sequence of characters that can be programmatically determined or where the sequence is not expressing something in human language” Non-text content definition on the W3.org website Well thanks for that super helpful definition.  Let me try to distill this into something that we […]

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Uncategorized WCAG WCAG Success Criterion

Orientation (1.3.4 AA)

“Content does not restrict its view and operation to a single display orientation, such as portrait or landscape, unless a specific display orientation is essential.” (WCAG 1.3.4 Orientation) Who is it for? Not everyone has the luxury of being able to quickly and easily rotate their display. Some devices, like a tablet or phone mount on […]

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WCAG WCAG Success Criterion

Non-text Contrast (1.4.11 AA)

“The visual presentation of the following have a contrast ratio of at least 3:1 against adjacent color(s): User Interface Components: Visual information required to identify user interface components and states, except for inactive components or where the appearance of the component is determined by the user agent and not modified by the author; Graphical Objects: Parts of graphics required to understand the […]

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Accessibility Blindness Cognitive Low Vision Types of Disabilities Uncategorized Vision WCAG WCAG Success Criterion

Status Messages (4.1.3 AA)

Who is it for? This is for users who cannot perceive the entire page. This includes users that have a screen magnifier running and those that have resized the text. What is important to know? A very important thing that most people get wrong about this criterion is that it doesn’t require that we add […]