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In this post, I just want to talk through what alt text is, why it matters, and how to avoid some common mistakes!

I know alt text posts are common, but I feel compelled to write it given that it's 2023, and I still see a lot of the same issues I've been seeing for years.

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A friend of mine, stated that usually when we add steps to a process, people get concerned that it will add friction and lead to fewer conversions. But, he argued that it is even more costly to the business to deal with mistakes, and therefore we should use the check your answers pattern.

I agree. There is always a user need to make sure the information they have entered is correct, and a check your answers page is the easiest way to do that. That is it's primary function.

But, what I want to cover in a bit more depth, is the secondary function which often gets overlooked: The pause!

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After much anticipation and several delayed release dates, we eventually got the elusive Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2 on 5 October 2023.

For those who build websites, digital services or mobile applications, or if you just care about making the internet more accessible in general, then this is big news!

So, lets have a look at what all the fuss is about!

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In this post, we'll be specifically looking at the ethics of ChatGPT, and some warnings to heed when using it.

ChatGPT is a real ethical conundrum. By making something not human sound; well… human, it can be confusing or unnerving if you're not prepared.

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I'm seeing more and more people using ChatGPT, but also, being weirdly secretive about it. They're augmenting their own work, increasing their knowledge and productivity, but not really sharing how they suddenly appear to have stepped up a gear.

There appears to be a common fear that by admitting you use ChatGPT, your work no longer has value, that you somehow look less smart, or that you're now cheating when giving advice. But this couldn't be further from the truth, because ChatGPT is just a tool!

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I recently wrote a blog post called European Accessibility Act: What you need to know and it created a bit of a stir, and a really interesting question came up around Article 32, which is all about transitional measures.

Now, you might be thinking, 'Transitional what?' So let's dive into it together and try to make sense of it.

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The European Accessibility Act and its impact on the private sector.

Learn the differences between the EAA, EU Accessibility Directive, Public Sector Bodies Accessibility Regulations, and EN 301 549, and discover top tips to prepare your business for compliance with the EAA.

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The term ‘microservice’ is becoming more and more popular when you look across the Digital landscape of a lot of big organisations.

Several Government departments, and several large organisations I've spoken to recently, are all looking at this approach; because, if executed well, it saves time and money, and they create consistency for users.

However, as more and more organisations try to leverage microservices, the pitfalls of accessibility are perhaps not being fully considered.

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As you probably know by now, any software which is built or procured by a Public Sector Body must meet the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 to the standard of AA.

What I'm really tired of, is reading conformance reports from third party suppliers who are trying to push their inaccessible products for large sums of money under the guise that it is accessible.

These chancers often state that some of the criteria is 'partially supported', 'supported with exceptions' or any number of different ways to carefully word the fact that it does not support a particular accessibility feature.

And, it's not just one company, they're all doing it.

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There's a couple of criteria in the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines that I see catching people out time and time again. 3.1.1 Language of page and 3.1.2 Language of parts.

These two criteria are important, because they help screen readers to read out the language correctly. If your page is set to English, but some of your content is not English, then the screen reader is just going to attempt to pronounce it in English anyway, which can lead to some pretty weird results.