Design and development posts

Extended Reality (XR) experiences provide immersive experiences which tend to require movement based interactions. But we need to consider alternative input methods for people who can’t move.

As well as labelling text fields with input and labels, form validation and error messages are also essential to making forms accessible to everyone.

Extended Reality (XR) experiences tend to focus on providing immersive sounds and directional audio to convey information. But we need to consider how we convey the information in these experiences to people who can’t hear them.

Extended Reality (XR) experiences tend to focus on providing rich, visual content to convey information. But we need to consider how we convey the information in these experiences in a way that isn’t overwhelming, scary, or difficult to understand.

Extended Reality (XR) experiences tend to focus on providing rich, visual content to convey information. But we need to consider how we convey the information in these experiences to people who can’t see them.

Extended Reality (XR) provides immersive experiences through detailed visual, audio, and multi-media content. When using these different types of content, we need to consider how we can communicate the same information to people with disabilities in order to make XR accessible to everyone.

In this post about forms, we explore how to effectively label text fields using <input> and <label> elements to create form inputs that are both accessible and user-friendly.

The ARIA Authoring Practices Guide (APG) contains an extensive range of design patterns aimed at helping developers to create accessible web experiences using WAI-ARIA. However, while we encourage web authors to follow these design patterns, a common misconception is that their usage is a prerequisite for conformance.

This is not the case.

A big question for many organisations is if WCAG 2.2 applies to native apps. In this post we explore what does and doesn't apply.

Live regions have a reputation for being "flaky" and inconsistent. While this can be attributed in part to shortcomings in current implementations, the problem can also be caused by developers misunderstanding how live regions are intended to work.

When tabindex="0" is applied to an HTML element, the content marked up using that element will become keyboard focusable, and is therefore a good starting point for supporting keyboard accessibility. However, applying this attribute haphazardly or unnecessarily can reduce the experience for people who use a keyboard or an equivalent input device to navigate web content.

Our foundations series provides an overview of core accessibility considerations.

They are a good starting point for visual designers, content designers, interaction designers, and developers when designing and building accessible products and services.

Like many inventions before it, Generative AI is changing the way we do things. Like those inventions that went before it, Generative AI is capable of great good and great harm, and like the humans that used those inventions before us, we need to be smart about the way we use Generative AI.

Supporting keyboard-only interaction is one of the most important principles of web accessibility. However, the scope of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) in relation to keyboard accessibility is often misunderstood.

TVs, set-top boxes and streaming devices are a huge part of all our lives and should be accessible so everyone can watch what they want, when they want, how they want.

We've started exploring challenges people with disabilities may face when interacting with TV apps and considerations for people designing and developing TV app interfaces.

Sticky content helps prioritise important content so it's always visible, but it can create issues for sighted people who use a keyboard, or a keyboard-like device, as focused controls become hidden behind the sticky content.

This post discusses how you can keep controls behind sticky content visible and usable when they receive focus.

In this post, we cover updates we've made to our own site in order to better satisfy the requirements of the Web Content accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 Level AAA.

An element's name, or accessible name, is how it's identified. An accessible description provides additional information, about the element, that complements the accessible name.

In this post we explore assigning accessible names and descriptions using HTML and WAI-ARIA.

In our second post about creating accessible experiences within Extended Reality (XR), we highlight some key considerations for designing accessible augmented reality (AR) experiences with our AR TetraLogical principles cube.

You can also explore Inclusive XR: accessible 3D experiences.

A pointer gesture is an action a person performs using their finger, mouse, or an assistive technology like a head pointer or eye gaze system to operate a functional control. Some pointer gestures can be difficult or even impossible for certain people to perform, so an accessible alternative may be required.

This post introduces the different forms of pointer gestures and covers how and when to provide alternatives for people who can't perform them.

As part of our ongoing effort to meet the Web Content accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 and 2.2 Level AAA, we've created British Sign Language (BSL) versions of our video and created BSL playlists in our TetraLogical YouTube channel.

In this post we explore our process for adding BSL to videos and share some tips.

The Web Accessibility Initiative Accessible Rich Internet Applications specification 1.2, or WAI-ARIA or ARIA for short, is a technical specification written by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C).

In this post we explore what WAI-ARIA is, and how it can enhance the user experience for people using screen readers.

In this series, Inclusive Extended Reality (XR), we will be delving into ways to design accessible experiences when interacting with 3D objects, augmented reality, and virtual reality.

In our first post about creating accessible experiences within Extended Reality (XR), we highlight some key considerations for designing 3D model viewers by introducing our 3D TetraLogical principles cube.

You can also explore Inclusive XR: accessible augmented reality experiences.

Visible focus styles help us to understand which part of a web page we're interacting with. You may have seen visible focus styles appear as an outline around a link or a button for example.

For people who only use a keyboard to navigate the web, visible focus styles may be one of the few ways to understand where they are in a page and what it is that they are interacting with.

A target size is the area that can be activated in order to interact with an element. For people who have dexterity issues, the smaller a target size is, the more difficult it may be to use the website.

This post explores how to create usable, consistent, and well-spaced target sizes.

Deciding whether to use native or custom components for a website or web application can have implications in terms of development effort, user experience, and accessibility. This post considers the pros and cons of each approach with a focus on accessibility, and provides guidance on how to choose one.

HTML semantics provide accessibility information about page structure and an element's role, name, and state, helping to convey the nature and purpose of content on web pages.

In this post we explore what HTML semantics are, and how they're experienced by people using assistive technologies like screen readers and speech recognition software.

Quick Response (QR) codes are graphics that can be scanned to direct people online to complete an action or find content. This blog post explores considerations and provides guidance for creating accessible experiences with QR codes.

TalkBack only announces role information for a relatively small number of user interface (UI) elements within native apps. When comparing this behaviour against web content, this can often give the (false) impression that these elements must have been coded incorrectly and therefore need to be "fixed".

This blog post looks at when it is acceptable for a role not to be announced, the roles that TalkBack does announce, and what this means for conformance to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG).

A design system is a library of styles, components, and patterns used by product teams to consistently and efficiently launch new pages and features. A good system has accessibility embedded throughout and includes documentation, guidelines and implementation notes for accessibility.

A list is generally agreed to be a series of words or phrases that are grouped together for a reason. That reason might be to remember the items we want from the store, to share our top five favourite movies, or to write down the steps needed to complete a task.

Most websites have common areas of content like a header and footer, a main content area, and one or more navigation blocks. Sighted people can identify these areas based on the way they're styled and the content they contain, but people who are blind cannot do that quite as efficiently. Landmarks, like headings and lists, offer screen reader users a more comparable experience for identifying and navigating between different areas of content.

Session timeouts are designed to protect privacy and security, but if they’re implemented incorrectly, they can prevent people from completing tasks on a website.

Well structured content helps everybody understand and navigate documents. When coded properly in the HTML, headings, lists, and landmarks help people who use screen readers (software that reads what’s on screen) both scan and navigate pages.

Colour is a valuable tool for communicating meaning. But if you can't see colour, then meaning is lost. Always plan to use colour to convey meaning in combination with another means of identification.

Good contrast is about using colours that provide enough variation between the content and background. This is particularly important for people who have conditions that affect vision or colour perception, as well as people browsing on mobile in different light conditions.

Text descriptions are primary content, and when images do not have a text description, anyone who cannot see the image will not know its purpose. This means people may be unable to access content or perform related tasks.

Animation and movement can add to the visual appeal of content, but poorly designed animations can cause problems for many people unless they are implemented correctly.

All user research projects should include people with disabilities. Representing at least 15% of the world population, according to The World Bank, and potentially your target market, it doesn't make sense to exclude them. This post provides user researchers with tips on how to best moderate usability testing sessions where participants have a disability.

Some people find accessing audio or visual content in video challenging or impossible; for this reason, providing alternatives is a requirement of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1. It is a common belief that producing alternatives are expensive and time-consuming. This can be the case when accessibility is not considered at the planning stage of video content.

This article describes an inclusive approach to video production that allows you to create accessible videos without expensive add-ons.

A new law concerning the accessibility of public sector websites and mobile apps came into effect in 2018. This article explains what the Public Sector Accessibility Regulations mean, what’s included and what isn’t, and the deadlines by which all public sector websites and mobile apps must comply.