Attended Grace Hopper Celebration conference, discussed accessibility with industry professionals, and attended speaker sessions on accessibility:
A11Y for Everyone by Lizzie Siegle from Cloudfare
This presentation advocated for creating websites that were accessible to everyone, including people with disabilities. It emphasized that accessibility was not just an ethical responsibility, but also a legal requirement in many cases and a smart business decision as it expanded your potential audience.
The presentation outlined how various disabilities could affect a person's experience online. For users with visual impairments, it was crucial to have sufficient color contrast between text and background, clear fonts, alternative text descriptions for images, and keyboard navigation as an alternative to using a mouse. People with auditory impairments benefited from captions and transcripts for videos, as well as visual cues replacing any crucial sounds. Those with motor impairments needed websites that were easily navigable with a keyboard alone or through voice recognition software. A simple, consistent layout was also key. For users with cognitive impairments, clear language, consistent design, and strong visual cues like headings were essential for easy comprehension and navigation.
The presentation highlighted the importance of assistive technologies like screen readers, magnifiers, and voice recognition software, which enabled people with disabilities to interact with digital content. Web designers needed to ensure their sites were compatible with these tools.
Finally, the presentation stressed the importance of testing and evaluating websites for accessibility. This could be done through manual testing, automated tools, and, most importantly, user testing with people with disabilities. By identifying and fixing accessibility issues, developers could create a more inclusive online experience for everyone.
research on digital accessibility:
Contextual Queries are a nuanced concept in digital accessible design that often goes overlooked, even by those with a solid understanding of the field. They refer to the ability of an interface to provide meaningful information based on the user's current context or situation.
Here's a real-world example:
Imagine a visually impaired user navigating a website using a screen reader. When they encounter an image, the screen reader might announce the image's file name or a generic description like "image." While this is technically accessible, it lacks context and doesn't provide the user with a clear understanding of the image's purpose.
A contextual query would dynamically provide a more descriptive and relevant caption based on the user's current position within the website. For instance, if the image is part of a product page, the caption might describe the product's color or material.
Key considerations for contextual queries:
<img>, <figure>, <figcaption>) provides a strong foundation for contextual queries.aria-label and aria-describedby can be used to provide additional context for elements.