Ghost Gatsby Starter - Marco's Accessibility Blog

30DaysOf, AdventCalendar

My extended advent calendar

This year, I have a special treat for my readers. On Monday, November 25, at 12 PM UTC, I will start a 30 day series about everything and anything. Could be an accessibility tip, an how-to about using a feature in an app I use frequently, some personal opinion on something, a link to something great I came across on the web… I am totally not certain yet. I have ideas about some things I want to blog about, but by far not 30 of them yet. Are you as excited about where this 30 day journey will ta

Accessibility, Android, TalkBack

My third Android experiment

In November of 2018, I started a third attempt at switching to Android as my primary mobile operating system. This time, the experiment lasted 9 months. But I switched back to iOS nevertheless. In 2013 and 2014, I conducted two experiments whether I could switch to Android as my primary operating system. The conclusion after my last experiment [https://marcozehe.wordpress.com/2014/08/06/started-a-30-days-with-android-experiment/] was, again, that Android was not fit for my use cases and usage

Mastodon, Pinafore, PWA, SPA

Nolan Lawson shares what he has learned about accessibility

Over the past year and a half, I have ventured time and again into the federated Mastodon social network [https://www.joinmastodon.org/]. In those ventures, I have contributed bug reports to both the Mastodon client as well as some alternative clients on the web, iOS, and Android. One of those clients, a single-page, progressive web app, is Pinafore [https://pinafore.social] by Nolan Lawson. He had set out to create a fast, light-weight, and accessible, client from the ground up. When I starte

DontUse, menu, menubar, menuitem, menus

WAI-ARIA menus, and why you should handle them with great care

The WAI-ARIA standard defines a number of related menu roles. However, before using them, please give great consideration to the implications. Preface This article was previously published under a different title and with a different tone. The comments below, left here for documentary and historic reasons, speak to that fact. At the time, it felt right to write it the way I did. However with some time passed and some reflection, it was time to update it to a more balanced tone and statement. Th

Firefox 63 will cut subtrees marked with aria-hidden

Starting in Firefox 63, sections of a web document marked with aria-hidden="true" will have their sub trees completely removed from the accessibility tree. Background The aria-hidden attribute [https://www.w3.org/TR/wai-aria-1.1/#aria-hidden] can be set on an element to mark it and all of its descendants as hidden from accessibility, and therefore any assistive technology, while at the same time retaining visible status on the screen itself. In this form, it is different from CSS properties su

Sara Soueidan on designing a switch control

Sara Soueidan just published an article on her path to designing a theme switch [https://www.sarasoueidan.com/blog/toggle-switch-design/]. Among the many great points she is making in this post, I would like to highlight one particular quote: > It was important for me to make sure this demo is accessible even if it’s just a quick proof of concept for a talk. First of all, because the code for the demo will be public, so I have a bigger responsibility for making sure it’s accessible, because I w

AriaRoledescription

Easy ARIA tip #8: Use aria-roledescription to selectively enhance the user experience

In WAI-ARIA 1.1 [https://www.w3.org/TR/wai-aria-1.1/], the aria-roledescription attribute has been added to give web authors the ability to further describe the function of a widget. Here are a few tips for usage. The definition of role When screen readers describe any control or item on a website, they use multiple pieces of information to describe it to the user: 1. The name or label. What does the element do? “Add a file”, for example. 2. The role of the item. What kind of control is it?

AssistiveTechnology, Blindness, Braille, Daisy

Rediscovering blindness products

In recent months, I have discovered a tendency within myself that longs for more focused, hassle-free environments or niches, where distractions are reduced to a minimum, and I can immerse myself in one thing, and one thing only. And that has lead to rediscovering the merits of some blindness-specific products. A bit of history Products that specifically fulfill the needs of blind users have been around for a long time, and in earlier years, were often the only means of accessing certain inform

Firefox 60 and JAWS 2018 back in good browsing conditions together

When Firefox Quantum was first released in November of 2017, it temporarily regressed users of the JAWS screen reader. I’m happy to report that both Firefox and JAWS once again deliver a first class browsing experience together! What happened? When Mozilla released Firefox Quantum, starting with version 57, in November of 2017, it introduced a number of technical changes that improve the browsing experience for our users. Tabs run in separate processes now, so that if one tab crashes, it does n

DeveloperTools, DevTools

Introducing the Accessibility Inspector in the Firefox Developer Tools

The built-in Firefox Developer Tools just received a new family member. The Accessibility Inspector allows you to inspect your website’s exposure to assistive technologies. Introduction As a web developer, have you wondered what your web site might look like to a screen reader for the blind? Have you wondered why you get reports that some people with disabilities cannot use your web application? Or, as a blind user, have you been frustrated by your screen reader not reading something right on a

NVDA and Firefox 58 - The team is regaining strength

A week before the Firefox 57 “Quantum” release in November, I published an Article detailing some bits to be aware of when using Firefox and the NVDA screen reader together. In Firefox 58, due on January 23, 2018, the reliable team is regaining strength in playing well together and offering you good and fast web accessibility. After the Firefox 57 release, due to many changes under the hood, NVDA and Firefox temporarily lapsed [https://www.marcozehe.de/2017/11/07/firefox-57-nvda-users-perspecti

Firefox 57 from an NVDA user's perspective

Firefox 57, also known as Firefox Quantum, will be released on November 14. It will bring some significant changes to the Firefox rendering engine to improve performance and open the door for more new features in the future. Here is what you need to know if you are a user of the NVDA screen reader. For users of the NVDA screen reader, some of these changes may initially seem like a step backward. To make the accessibility features work with the new architecture, we had to make some significant