a11y (digital accessibility)

This mixed methods study uses an online survey and qualitative interviews to gather insights from 27 digital accessibility practitioners across 16 countries. The practitioners emphasized the need for training, additional tools and best practices for mobile applications, and limitations of automated testing. #accessibility

This article explores automated accessibility testing. It highlights that only a small number of WCAG standards can be checked by using an automated accessibility checker. Most WCAG standards require manual testing or a mix of automated and manual testing. Please check out the full article for more information. #accessibility

This article explores a digital accessibility apprenticeship at the Met Office in the UK. The Met Office forecasts weather for the UK. Adam through the course of the apprenticeship came up with digital accessibility best practices and helped make their recruitment system more accessible. #accessibility

This systematic review explores inclusive policies in higher education across the globe. A majority of the articles examined policies that support students with disabilities. The review includes a graphic highlighting policies such as mandatory staff training, establishing a disability center on campus, creating flexible courses with universal design principles, and incorporating accessible technology. Check out the full article for more details. #accessibility

Apple Podcasts will automatically generate a transcript of the podcast. Creators can download the transcript and edit it to fix any mistakes. The finalized transcript can be uploaded and will replace the auto generated one. Please check out the article for more information. #accessibility

This article explores the popover attribute in detail. Popovers are a global attribute but additional accessibility code may be necessary depending on what element they are being applied to. #accessibility

This article explores the popover attribute in detail. Popovers are a global attribute but additional accessibility code may be necessary depending on what element they are being applied to. #accessibility

This journal article explores institutional repositories. It found out of 107 IRs only 26 had specific contact information related to accessibility. Over 50% of the IRs sampled had some form of accessibility documentation. Only 39 of the IRs had a link to an institutional wide accessibility policy. Please check out the full article for more information. #accessibility

This study explores using Spatial Audio, musical cues, and audio descriptions to enhance the video game experience and to make it accessible to people who are blind or have low vision. The study included a mix of participants with and without visual impairments. The feedback highlighted the importance of accessible keyboard controls and sounds that convey character movement and object location. #accessibility

This arXiv session on sonification was really interesting. Sonification can be used to present visual data auditorily. This can make the content easier to access, especially for people who are blind or have low vision. The forum explores how this technology can be applied to large datasets like earthquakes, astronomy, and oceanography. #accessibility

The Mastodon account will be posting an accessibility related article each day. Consider following if you are interested.

Check out the WebAIM Global Digital Accessibility Salary Survey to learn more about the range of salaries across countries and the additional benefits offered. The survey also explores the percentage of people with disabilities in the field, department names, and role names. #accessibility

This article provides an overview of the characteristics needed to create an accessible PDF. The site also has more pages covering best practices for headings, images, and lists. #accessibility https://design.ipedis.com/5dda74a23/p/122882-overview

This article explores how tooltips can be used to provide an additional description for a button that is available only to sighted users when a hover or focus state is activated. Aria not tooltips should be used to convey an accessible description or name. Check out the full article for more information. #accessibility

This post by Eric Eggert explores why it is important when presenting to empathize with your audience to determine if there is a values gap. The example Eric explores relates to Deque highlighting at AxeCon that using AI they will get to 100% automated testing. They did not acknowledge how this would negatively impact accessibility professionals, exclude real people with disabilities from testing, and the complexity of making content accessible. #accessibility

This journal article examines the impact of new EU regulations on Norwegian municipality websites over a 3 year period. The enhanced regulation led to a decrease in accessibility errors and most WCAG errors decreased as well. For example, low contrast errors showed a significant drop. However, other errors like missing form labels increased over the same period. Accessible templates might be a way to address the large number of remaining errors in the future. #accessibility

This brief study examined the readability of a transcript generated by Otter.ai. The readability of the transcript was on the lower end of the average because of punctuation errors and technical terms being misspelled. It would have been interesting if they had included additional AI models like Whisper. The results of the study highlight why it is important to provide an edited transcript or captions. #accessibility

[3 different thumbnails given to you randomly. All have words in yellow text. One says "explaining ableist language" another has "intro to ableist language" and one says "what is ableist language?". They are all next to the disabled pride flag and on a digital art wooden background with a grey table in the bottom left corner]

Auto-generated sign language has been very difficult to create. I'm hopeful that advancements in AI will lead to auto-generated sign language becoming ubiquitous in the next 15 years. However, it is important to remember that auto-generated sign language like captions will probably never be 100% accurate. There should be a way to edit auto-generated sign language in the future. Also, interpreters and CART services are needed for live events. #accessibility

Perkins School for the Blind provides a digital accessibility guide with a wide range of resources. It provides tips for designing accessible websites, how to make data visualizations accessible, and exploring the shortfalls of AI auto-generated captions and alt text. #accessibility https://perkinsaccess.org/how-accessible-are-auto-captions/

This literature review explores AI and Dyslexia Research. AI can be trained to recognize handwriting, eye movement, and speech differences that may indicate dyslexia or other learning disabilities. AI can create a personalized learning environment by adapting how the content is presented based on the student's performance. A diverse dataset is needed to reduce bias and the software needs to be accessible and affordable to reach a wide range of learners. #accessibility

This study explores the accessibility of Amazon Fashion. 8 participants who are blind or low vision were asked to browse the website with screen reading software and provide feedback. They noticed issues like inaccessible colors, sizing, and difficulty navigating the website's content. #accessibility

This article highlights why you don't need to test with a screen reader to develop accessible content. Content authors can ensure their webpage or document implements accessibility principles. They can also focus on providing a good semantic structure and learn how to test using the keyboard, which is a lot easier. If you have the time or knowledge testing with screen reading software can provide additional insights, but it is not a necessity. #accessibility

This article examines accessibility testing. Automated checkers can quickly test the accessibility of a webpage or application but will miss items that can only be found through manual testing. However, manual testing requires more time and training to be performed properly. Combining automated and manual testing can save time and find a wide range of accessibility issues. #accessibility

The Galaxy S25 is receiving a low-energy Bluetooth mode that makes it compatible with hearing aids. TalkBack is receiving updates to support braille displays and improved image descriptions generated by Gemini. These features should appear on the Android 16 beta and become available on other devices soon. #accessibility