Alex Russell wrote a four-part series a couple weeks ago arguing that modern JavaScript-first framework-focused front-end development is costing the industry and users. Part of his conclusion for organizations: Never, ever hire for JavaScript framework skills. Instead, interview and hire only for fundamentals like web standards, accessibility, modern CSS, semantic…
I am mis-using closed captions for a gag. The following video has an audio track and four sets of captions (for now?). Each set of captions is in English. Only one set of captions represents the spoken dialog, the other two represent dialog not in the video. The tracks are…
Remy Sharp asked on the Mastodon about pagination as he found it in the W3C Design System: <nav aria-label=”pagination” class=”l-cluster pagination”> <ul class=”pagination__list”> <li><a href=”path/to/page”>Previous <span class=”visuallyhidden”>page</span></a></li> <li><a class=”pagination__list__first” href=”path/to/page”><span class=”visuallyhidden”>page</span> 1<span class=”visuallyhidden”> (first page)</span></a></li> <li><a class=”ellipsis”>…</a></li> <li><a href=”path/to/page”><span class=”visuallyhidden”>page</span> 6</a></li> <li><a href=”path/to/page”><span class=”visuallyhidden”>page</span> 7</a></li> <li><a href=”#” aria-label=”page 8″ aria-current=”page”>8</a></li>…
TL;DR: Be careful when using the word grid on its own. Be certain you have chosen the term that accurately describes the pattern you want. If this post looks familiar to you, that is because it is essentially a redress of my 2023 post Be Careful Using ‘Menu’. It is…
TL;DR: You probably don’t need to name that landmark. The Ngong Ping Village tourist trap on Hong Kong’s Lantau Island. All the pricey tourist spots have visible named landmarks on the map, but the ones people generally care about (bathrooms, food, that lovely tea house) are not. The accompanying tactile…
TL;DR: Avoid setting heading levels greater than six (6). This applies whether using aria-level or the proposed headingstart HTML attribute. Use HTML <h#> elements whenever possible. ARIA The aria-level attribute, when applied to headings (or nodes with the heading role) lets authors set an integer value for a heading level.…
Trying Markdown code indicators in my post title, not because I want it to convert, but because I am curious if people will ping me to tell me it broke their RSS readers. Oh, and so it converts to code when pasted into your GitHub issues. ARIA note Role A…
Again, title says it all. However, there is an equally bad opposite approach you might be tempted to use, so let me clarify: Don’t use ARIA grid roles simply to make rows clickable in a table, and Don’t put click handlers on table rows (<tr>s) to make them clickable. Step…
Does what it says on the tin. Uses <details> and <summary> with a bit of ARIA to create an accordion that works without JavaScript while working better with JavaScript. Mostly. See the Pen Progressively Enhanced HTML Accordion by Adrian Roselli (@aardrian) on CodePen. Visit the standalone version for testing or…
TL;DR: Despite claims, APG’s support charts are not ARIA support charts and they are not analogous to Can I Use. While brand new and likely to grow, their scope is still strictly APG patterns. Why I Say This I have opinions on the ARIA Authoring Practices Guide (APG). I am…
This post is about exposing field errors programmatically. I have already shared some opinions (such as a caution about displaying messages below fields or avoiding default browser field validation), but this post dives into using ARIA to convey them to screen reader users. With fields that produce error messages on…
Using ARIA instead of HTML is generally fine for content, layout, structure, and other static bits of a page. A <div role=”heading” aria-level=”1″> is the same as <h1> as far users and accessibility APIs are concerned. It is unlikely a user will ever notice the difference unless you use both…