I got myself a coffee advent calendar and I have to admit it was more aspirational than anything. I don’t drink enough coffee. But the packaging is nice. Web developers around the world have for years given a nod to Saturnalia solstice Isaac Newton’s birthday Yule wassailing mummering end of…
TL;DR: Probably don’t use disclosure widgets in fieldsets. If you do it anyway, don’t put the trigger in the <legend>. Context With <details> / <summary>, recent support for the popover attribute, and the never-ending belief that a “clean” page means hiding content, there is a resurgence in stuffing useful content…
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…
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…
I had some issues using the Disability:IN 2024 Conference Agenda so I made a bookmarklet: 🔗 Fix Disability:IN Agenda You may have seen this originally posted as a CodePen, but I opted to move it here since I can embed videos showing a before-and-after experience. Fixes Removes empty trigger link…
I ran across a survey from Tilburg University on the experiences and perspectives of image describers. It asked what process I follow to write image alternative text, and it occurred to me that I don’t use a checklist or guideline anymore. That may or may not be a good thing,…
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.…
TL;DR: Keep your image alternative text brief, devoid of special characters, empty of URLs, and ideally in one language. Here We Go Sometimes you can have too much alternative text, particularly for an <img>. I don’t mean there is a limit to what is allowed, I mean there is a…
Download a 4.4MB tagged PDF of my slides or try the embedded view if your browser displays PDF inline. The text in the slides is set in Atkinson Hyperlegible. The outdoor images are generated from Midjourney. The PDF is exported from PowerPoint, after confirming reading order and alternative text and…
Controls that can operate other controls in bulk are not new. One common example is a single checkbox that allows you to check or uncheck a group of checkboxes. Another example is a single button that lets you expand or collapse a set of disclosure widgets. When the user operates…
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…