When Reading and Focus Order Matters
As web developers, we have a responsibility to ensure that our websites are accessible to all users, regardless of their abilities. One key aspect of website accessibility is ensuring that the reading …
Divs Are Not Buttons
We’ve previously discussed the differences between buttons and links and when to use one or the other. This week’s post is about one of the most significant accessibility problems that I see …
Use Lists to Enhance Accessibility
Formatting content into lists is an easy and under-utilized way of improving accessibility on websites. If we were creating a food blog, we would all get it right: ingredients go in an …
Pause, Stop, Hide
What do background videos, carousels, animated GIFs, and the dreaded background music all have in common? Besides the fact that clients love them despite our effort to convince them otherwise, these are …
Re-think Infinite Scroll
Infinite scroll is a technique used in websites and applications to provide continuous content loading without explicit pagination or clicking on “next” or “load more” buttons. It allows users to scroll through …
Every Page Needs a Meaningful and Accurate Title
For Global Accessibility Awareness Day this year, I participated in a panel discussion with several colleagues, including Nick Corbett, Accessibility Training and Research Coordinator at The Carroll Center for the Blind. In …
Indicating Language Changes
When building websites, it is crucial to declare the language used on the page or for any parts of pages when the language changes throughout the content. This declaration, using a lang …
Include Transcripts for Audio and Video
Most of us realize the importance of captions – not just for people who are deaf, but also for language learners or people who’re situationally unable to play the sound on videos. …
Coding Media Queries for Prefers Reduced Motion
Did you know that movement on websites can literally make people sick? How Websites Can Make People Sick Movement on websites can cause discomfort and motion sickness for people with vestibular disorders …
ARIA Hidden
In several past Accessibility Weekly posts, we’ve included an HTML attribute, aria-hidden=”true”, in code examples and mentioned that aria-hidden can be used to hide elements on a web page from screen readers. …
Opening Links in New Tabs (or Not)
Target=”_blank”: it’s so easy to add this to HTML code or to toggle the checkbox in the WordPress editor to set links to open in new tabs, and we frequently do it …
Should you use animated GIFs?
In our Accessibility Checker plugin, we have a warning that flags if an animated GIF is inserted into a page. Many people don’t realize that animated GIFs can cause problems for people …
