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Mission Impossible - Accessibility Job Roles

Published on , in Strategy and leadership,

In this post, I’ll break down a real job advert and point out the things that concern me, in the hope it will help you to avoid taking on an accessibility role which is an impossible task, and likely detrimental to your health!

Deque Axe Assistant - First impressions

Published on , in Testing,

Most language models are useful, but usually, they aren’t that great once you drift outside of the realms of common knowledge and into nuanced territory.

So, since the launch of axe Assistant, I’ve spent a few days testing it out! This post documents my findings!

AI doesn’t need to think. We do!

Published on , in AI,

The problem with AI, especially large language models (LLM), is that most people don’t really understand how they work. This is not an accident! It’s in many companies’ interests to keep the mystery alive! They use smoke and mirrors to market their products as smarter, safer, or more “human” than they actually are.

A look at the new WAI-ARIA 1.3 draft

Published on , in Standards,

W3C, the World Wide Web Consortium, released a new draft of the WAI-ARIA 1.3 specification on 23 January 2024.

If you’re not familiar with it, WAI stands for the Web Accessibility Initiative, and ARIA stands for Accessible Rich Internet Applications.

It’s a set of standards created to improve the accessibility of the products we build for the web, and it includes details about HTML attributes you can use to make content better for assistive technology. Some common ones you might have come across are aria-label, aria-live, and aria-describedby.

With the new draft of 1.3, we can get a bit of an idea as to what is coming, and how we can prepare for implementing and testing these features.

Stop trying to recruit unicorns with acorns

Published on , in Strategy and leadership,

Many organisations seem to view accessibility through a narrow lens. They do not recognise the breadth and depth of expertise that is required to create a well rounded accessibility role.

We had a similar situation 10 to 15 years ago, when start-ups were constantly trying to hire a single person that could do visual design, user experience (UX) design and software development.

This results in bloated job adverts hunting for somebody who likely does not exist in the job market. A mythical creature. A legend. Their reputation transcends the entire industry, yet nobody has managed to find a real one. Hence the term ‘unicorn’.

Web Chat accessibility considerations

Published on , in Design and development,

Web Chat relies on real time information and notifications, so you’re going to need to use several features of Aria (Accessible Rich Internet Applications).

In this post, I’m going to cover in detail which of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) you’re going to need to consider, and some examples of how you can use advanced attributes to give screen reader users the best possible experience.

How to write good alt text for screen readers

Published on , in Design and development,

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.

The hidden function of the ‘check your answers’ pattern’

Published on , in Design and development,

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!

WCAG 2.2 and what it means for you

Published on , in Standards,

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!

ChatGPT: Ethics and bias

Published on , in AI,

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.