Design and development posts
Foundations: introduction to WAI-ARIA
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.
Inclusive XR: accessible 3D experiences
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.
Foundations: visible focus styles
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.
Foundations: target sizes
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.
Foundations: native versus custom components
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.
Foundations: HTML semantics
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.
Accessibility and QR codes
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.
Android accessibility: roles and TalkBack
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).
Accessible design systems
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.
Foundations: lists
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.
