Spanned table headers are not well supported across screen readers. While you can visually style these all sorts of ways to make the spanning clear, I am focusing on the programmatic outcomes. Which essentially means how they are exposed to screen reader users. This post uses only HTML <table>s. It…
Automated accessibility testing tools cannot test 100% of WCAG. This position is not controversial. Other than overlay vendors, no automated tool maker makes that claim. This is partly because WCAG is targeted at humans, not code, and so nuance and context apply. Free automated accessibility testing tools may have even…
There is a non-zero chance that WCAG Success Criterion 4.1.1 Parsing will go away in WCAG 2.2. This isn’t a problem for users, regardless of the problems it may pose for the WCAG process, ACT rules, automated testing tools, or ossified testing processes. The joke here is using an antique…
TL;DR: Description list support is generally good (with Safari being the outlier), even if you may not like how it is supported. This post builds on my 2020 tests when iOS 14 finally added (partial) support for description lists (VoiceOver on iOS 14 Supports Description Lists). The <dl> has existed…
It’s a dice advent calendar. I have no idea how five Platonic Solids and some D10s will carry for 24 days, but I am going to find out. 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: Support for aria-readonly is nearly non-existent for the roles I tested. Should you need it, you cannot rely on it. You will be better off revising the pattern where you think you need it. For some background, the aria-readonly property: Indicates that the element is not editable, but is…
Now that it is a market differentiator to talk about accessibility in projects, that’s all many do — talk about it. In a sea of pop-dev noise, “accessibility” can be claimed with little risk someone will challenge it. If someone does, the response is often a fine balance between silence…
I ran a highly scientific and well-scoped Twitter poll (yes, sarcasm) to ask a question that has been in the back of my head for some time: When you see a claim that an automated accessibility testing tool finds X% of issues, what do you believe the word ‘issues’ means…
It’s 2022 and people are still afraid to use <fieldset> and <legend>. I understand the layout challenges can be frustrating, but swapping to an ARIA group role will result in a more inaccessible experience. A Solution Try this: <fieldset> <legend>Choose</legend> <div aria-hidden=”true”>Choose</div> […] </fieldset> legend:not(:focus):not(:active) { position: absolute; overflow: hidden;…
At the start of 2016 I wrote Internet Explorer Does Not Go Away Today because back then IE up to version 11 was being retired. But not Internet Explorer 11. I asked an AI (Neural Blender) to give me a picture of the Internet Explorer logo on fire. It’s almost…
9 May 2023: The 2.5.8 language has changed. For the latest bookmarklet and language, skip ahead to the 9 May update. The proposed WCAG version 2.2 has gone through a bunch of revisions since I covered the first draft in 2020. One new success criterion that persisted is 2.5.8 Target…
If you have little experience with ARIA, screen readers, or testing in general, understanding accessible descriptions can be trickier than understanding accessible names (already confusing for many). I have written explanations so many times for clients and in fora that I opted to put this together so I maybe never…