An accessible sortable table is not necessarily the same as a usable sortable table. Outline: Basics Let The User Know This Thing Has Sorted Screen Reader Announcement Sort Arrows Column Background Column Background via <col> Let The User Know This Thing Sorts SVGs Layout Windows High Contrast Mode Screen Readers…
Others in this sorta-series: Under-Engineered Custom Radio Buttons and Checkboxen Under-Engineered Toggles Under-Engineered Toggles Too Under-Engineered Text Boxen I am still confounded how many developers and designers see a <select> and immediately reach for a library or framework to re-create the features from the ground up. Though, frankly, I am…
On Friday, 12 February, at the request of Chancey Fleet I joined a call accessiBe set up with her. I have made it a point to only engage accessiBe publicly and with publicly available information, declining invitations from accessiBe in the past. Michael Hingson, formerly of Aira, had recently joined…
Table of Contents Example The HTML Live Region Button Decoration Accessible Name The Styles Hide the Live Region Color and Contrast Active Animations Text Resize and Reflow Windows High Contrast Mode The Script The Click Event Manipulate Outcomes Screen Reader Output WCAG Success Criteria What This Does Not Do Wrap-up…
Many of my clients try to reduce the number of controls on a screen by replacing them with single controls that change their name based on their purpose (what they unironically call reducing complexity). For example, presenting a download button that also acts as its own progress indicator and completion…
This is why you never go to the (locally- and independently-owned) grocery store on an empty stomach. Web developers around the world have celebrated Saturnalia solstice Isaac Newton’s birthday Christmas with advent calendars covering web-related topics. As a result, you may recognize some of the ones listed below. Every year…
I had this post queued up for Halloween because, come on, skeletons, and then life did its thing and now it is a … Thanksgiving post? Many skeleton patterns do a poor job presenting themselves to screen reader users in any meaningful way. They often stuff aria-busy into their widget,…
Relying on images that come from CSS has always been risky from an accessibility perspective. CSS background images, in particular, must either be purely decorative or be described to the user in some way. The risk is no different for images coming from CSS generated content using content: url(foo.gif) (typically…
Creating an accessible dialog on the web is trickier than it should be. Lack of support for the <dialog> element, the need for fundraisers to get inert into WebKit, inconsistent support for the ARIA dialog role, and other annoyances make them problematic. Scott O’Hara has spent a few years covering…
Visually and functionally sortable column headers on tables are straightforward (I have a post on that coming soon). However, making them accessible can be a bit frustrating. To clarify, making them accessible to screen readers is frustrating. I wrote the post I promised in the opening: Sortable Table Columns There…
The headline is intentional hyperbole, chosen mostly for the sloppy alliteration. When sighted users test with a screen reader it is common to rely on the visual output — checking to see where focus goes, confirming that controls behave, watching the spoken output in a text log. The problem is…
First I will cover what an ARIA grid is per the ARIA specification, and then I will discuss two patterns proposed by the ARIA Authoring Practices. ARIA 1.1 Data Grids Layout Grids As Defined The Provided Examples 1. Simple List of Links 2. Pill List For a List of Message…