In accessibility, “focusable” UI elements are represented by two separate yet equally important concepts: the elements who can be focused sequentially and those who can only receive focus programmatically. These are their stories. Dun-Dun While working for a client the other day, I found that Polypane[^ Affiliate link.], which is excellent in locating accessibility issues, showed elements with tabindex="-1" as focusable in the Focus Order section of the Outline tool. I contacted Kilian to see why that was happening, and he pointed me to the Accessibility Tree, which showed the element as focus ..read more

Just to preemptively state it: I appreciate what the Accessibility Guidelines Working Group (AGWG) is trying to do with the “In Brief” sections in WCAG’s Understanding documents. My criticism is about the execution of the information. In addition, this is not a plea to change it. I think the WG is very set on its approach and I learned it’s almost important to make it reconsider, so I don’t even want to bother trying. This is mostly documentation for myself. Table of Contents What are “In Brief” sections? What is the goal of the “In Brief” sections? Why I don’t like the current implementation ..read more

On Mastodon, Steve Faulkner shared a link to a GitHub discussion around the A, AA, and AAA levels of WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines). In it, the question is asked what makes a Success Criterion (SC) A, AA, or AAA. Basically, the question is what criteria are used to decide the level for any specific Criterion. The “Understanding Levels of Conformance” section in the Understanding documents explains which considerations contributed to the decision for each criterion (paraphrased): Is this SC essential for access overall? Can the SC be achieved by all websites and apps? How easy is ..read more

Accessibility audits are the bread and butter of every accessibility consultancy. It’s an easy to package product that clients have learned to ask for and buy. They have expectations on the deliverables and the form of an audit. Audits are usually also thorough, following established international guidelines (usually the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines). Note: I think this article applies to all kinds of accessibility audits, whether they are called “review” or “check” or “audit”. Table of Contents What’s this all about? The cost of fixing (accessibility) bugs Avoiding accessibility bugs ..read more

In our tech-focused society, there is this ever present notion that “accessibility will be solved by some technology”. But it won’t. Making things accessible is a fundamentally human challenge that needs human solutions in human contexts. I wrote about automated testing before. Support Eric’s independent work I'm a web accessibility professional who cares deeply about inclusion and an open web for everyone. I work with Axess Lab as an accessibility specialist. Previously, I worked with Knowbility, the World Wide Web Consortium, and Aktion Mensch. In this blog I publish my own thoughts and rese ..read more

In the last couple of weeks, I had some encounters that made me think about the state of ableism. Turns out that despite a lot of slow but meaningful progress, the world overall is still pretty much ableist. This is not news for anyone who is disabled, of course, and it shouldn’t be for anyone who works in the field of accessibility. Support Eric’s independent work I'm a web accessibility professional who cares deeply about inclusion and an open web for everyone. I work with Axess Lab as an accessibility specialist. Previously, I worked with Knowbility, the World Wide Web Consortium, and Aktio ..read more

Accessibility, especially on the web but also elsewhere, is a complicated combination of people with different roles working together. At any point during the creation of a web page, a blog post, its design, sourcing of images, or writing, issues can creep in. As accessibility people, we often look at the end product and say “this is not accessible” (often meaning “this does not meet the minimum standards set out by WCAG”). And yes, it is always difficult to make everything 100% correct. Nobody’s perfect and we have to make sure that perfect is not standing in the way of progress.[^ Hi Meryl ..read more

I place the start of my career in accessibility to some time in 2008. Sure, I had done accessibility stuff before then, but I always saw me as a front-end developer with an interest in accessibility, not an outright person whose main focus was accessibility. I chose this profession because I believe in a web for all, a discrimination-free environment where everyone can be themselves, unburdened from the constraints of the physical world. Of course, I knew that getting there would be a struggle. Too many people don’t care about disabled people until they experience disability themselves. But I ..read more

In a stunning press release, Level Access has revealed that it plans to buy accessibility overlay company UserWay for about $99 Million. For those who are unaware, accessibility overlays are JavaScripts that claim to fix accessibility issues automagically. They claim to use “AI” to analyze the site and then apply accessibility fixes on the fly while the user is using the website. Of course, it is common knowledge that automated tools for finding accessibility issues can only find a limited number of issues (probably about 30–50%). Fixing issues needs additional context and care. I assume ..read more

This was my submission for axe-con 2024, which unfortunately did not make it to the conference. Please tell me if the topic would be interesting for you, and you would like to hear more about the topic! Title: Enough with the baby steps! Let’s make accessibility leaps. Outline: So much of our work is based on nudging people into the right direction. Applying a little pressure that makes a change but is not disruptive. This needs to change. This talk showcases steps that we can take that make instant notable differences for disabled people using websites and apps by using policy changes that a ..read more