Quick, constant change is a given on the web. It is often one of its greatest strengths. As ever, though, there is a balance to find. Although longevity takes a different form online, its value is immeasurable.
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In a new short series of posts, we highlight some of the useful tools and techniques for developers and designers. Recently we’ve covered CSS Auditing Tools and CSS Generators, and this time we look into reliable accessible components: from tabs and tables to toggles and tooltips. We sincerely hope that these tools and techniques will prove to be useful in your day-to-day work — and most importantly help you avoid some time-consuming, routine tasks.
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How do we know which patterns are good, better, best when it comes to accessibility? Is it better to use an established pattern/library or create new ones? With the myriad of choices available, we can quickly become caught up in a web of confusion on this topic. In this article, Carie Fisher will attempt to untangle the complex world of accessible patterns — one step at a time. She will kick things off by reviewing current accessible patterns and libraries, then you will consider your general pattern needs and potential restrictions, and lastly, she will walk you through a series of critical thinking exercises to learn how to better evaluate patterns for accessibility.
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Modern websites aren’t inseparable from screens any more. Between phone assistants, home speakers, and screen readers, more and more people are using the web without even looking at it. Websites need to evolve in kind. In the article, Frederickk O’Brien will try to break down what that means for websites going forward, what designers can do about it, and why this might finally be a leap forward to accessibility. More than two thirds of the web is inaccessible to those with visual impairments, after all. It’s time to make websites easy to talk to.
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You can provide access to people with visual impairments without involving them in the product development lifecycle, by formally adopting web accessibility standards… but does that mean the end product is usable? In this article, Uri Paz explains how a site complying with accessibility guidelines may still present usability issues when testing with real users. Find out how weaving accessibility best practices with usability testing, can help as many people as possible to fully use your site.
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Robin Christopherson MBE, Head of Digital Inclusion at UK tech experts AbilityNet, has been hosting a series of monthly webinars with senior accessibility guests from global brands such as Microsoft and ATOS, and UK giants like Barclays and Sainsbury’s. They’re talking COVID, the challenges and opportunities the crisis brings, agile adjustments, digital inclusion and much, much more. Want food for thought from global experts in inclusion? Key takeaways to help plan ahead? Read on.
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Internationalization and localization is more than just writing your content in multiple languages. You need a strategy to determine what localization to send, and code to do it. You need to be able to support not just different languages, but different regions with the same language. Your UI needs to be responsive, not just to screen size, but to different languages and writing modes. Your content needs to be structured, down to the microcopy in your UI and the format of your dates, to be adaptable to any language you throw at it. Doing all of this with a static site generator, like Eleventy, can make it even harder, because you may not have a database, nonetheless a server. It can all be done, though, but it takes planning.
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The dream of a machine-readable Internet is as old as the Internet itself, but only in recent years has it really seemed possible. The benefits of developing for the Semantic Web are not always immediate, or visible, but every site that does strengthens the foundations of an open, transparent, decentralized internet. As major websites take strides towards data-fying their content, now’s the perfect time to jump on the bandwagon.
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Thanks to the wide support of the prefers-reduced-motion-media feature, we now have more advanced ways to design motion that can be creative and innovative while also being safer for those with motion sensitivities.
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In this article, Umar Hansa will demonstrate some useful features in DevTools which can help you improve the accessibility of your website. For many websites, things like performance and accessibility are an afterthought. But as web developers, it’s best to strive to create the best possible experience we can for our users, regardless of their abilities. This article uses Google Chrome since it’s a browser I use and feel comfortable with. That being said, Firefox, Safari, and Edge have all made great strides in their developer tools, and they definitely have some great accessibility-related features of their own.
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