People who want to make the web accessible need to understand the many different ways that people with disabilities use the web. This W3C resource offers a good introduction to how disabled people navigate the web, and barriers they commonly encounter. www.w3.org/WAI/people-u...

When considering rainbow text, don't forget to consider readability and legibility. Text filled with rainbows can be difficult to read. Same with complex rainbow backgrounds. Putting each word or letter in a different color of the rainbow could force readers to work harder.

Avoid emoji icons in alt text. Emoji icons are a visual element, so it's counterintuitive to add them to non-visual content. You'll likely confuse people with messages that don't make sense. In alt text, use plain text, free of symbols, icons, or any weird special characters.

Want to include everyone in your high quality awesome and hilarious Bluesky content that has images? Want to stay faithful and not forget? Settings > Accessibility > Require alt text before posting Then, when you add an image, you'll see the warning and the post button will be greyed out...

Many live with the limitations of not understanding numbers and the impact that has on everyday life. Laura Parker's Accessible Numbers project offers guidance on how to design services and write content for people who need help with numbers. accessiblenumbers.com

Get your nominations in for our Community Champions 2026! I know there's loads of you out there doing great work in your respective professional communities. Calling all librarians, learning tech folk, teaching and learning and IT crew.

The BBC's Accessibility Guide has several resources, including step-by-step instructions to using assistive technologies. The resource includes insight into several assistive technologies, including VoiceOver, JAWS, NVDA, TalkBack, ClaroRead, and Dragon. bbc.github.io/accessibilit...

Some people need to change the way text is displayed in order to read it. This includes changing size, spacing, font, color, and other properties. When people customize text, the text should re-flow so they don’t have to scroll horizontally to read. www.w3.org/WAI/perspect...

We've put this up on our big vertical screen again this year... #UoYTips

Thank you so much for sharing. I would also suggest thinking about accessibility more generally, I wrote a blog post that also reflects on other forms of accessibility and has a video that explains some of those decisions as well enhancingaudiodescription.com/darci-confer...

Keeping to time is an accessibility issue! People need breaks between sessions in conferences for all sorts of accessibility reasons - whether for cognitive load, to take medication, needing bathroom breaks, check blood sugar or anything else! Making an effort to keep to time is inclusive.

More conferences are choosing to provide quiet and/or sensory spaces to help make events more inclusive - this blog post offers some ideas if you're planning an event and are interested in including such a space:

ICYMI: The 2026 #DisabledInSTEM Mentorship applications are now open! I look forward to seeing your applications soon! 💜

Huge thankyou to CILIP Disability Network for awarding NLISN this Accessibility Award, which has now safely arrived in the post! We won as an organisation so although Jo and Andy are named, this award is for all of us. The committee, the network and all our allies. #cilip #libraries #accessibility

So as Halloween draws near, time for a seasonal PSA: if you taken any kind of oral medication, beware novelty black food for Halloween. The colouring, especially in any baked goods, is commonly achieved using powdered charcoal. This can absorb medication, effectively reducing the dosage. 1/

It's that time of year again... time for #DisabledInSTEM 2026 Mentorship applications! I'm so excited to be running this program for the sixth year and seeing the growth over the years! Mentee form: forms.gle/um5DvYnBi3tn... Mentor form: forms.gle/BvaxnQm8uhUR... Applications due December 5th!

Hello! We're going to be part of an ADHD awareness month stand in @uoylibrary.bsky.social library foyer today! The stand runs 12.30-14.30 - do drop by with any questions, to find out more about available university support or just to have a chat!

Whether digital or physical, universal design is the best approach. Building accessibility into your building, designs, product or service from the start is so much easier than trying to retrofit.

Vestibular disorders affect people's balance as well as their visual perception of their world around them. Don't make animations, sliders, videos, or rapid movement start automatically, as autoplaying elements could trigger a bad reaction in people who have vestibular disorders.

The internet’s down and suddenly it’s chaos. Welcome to a day in the life of blind and partially sighted people trying to access websites that aren't accessible, it’s like the internet’s down all the time.

A reminder that the ADHD Awareness library stand is TOMORROW (Tues 21st October) in the library foyer, 12:30-14:30. If you're on campus west, do drop by to find out more and have a chat! And if coming to speak to us wasn't enticement enough, there may also be cake...

Acq/ER folks, have you heard anything about how publishers are going to make journal articles and ebooks compliant with WCAG 2.1 AA level? #CripLib #libraries

Oh hiii #OAWeek - we are still looking for a couple more presentations for this Green OA event 😁 You may know someone doing fantastic work related to Green OA which needs to be shared (open access is sharing and all) 💚

✨ Happy Diwali from the School for Business and Society! On this Festival of Lights, we warmly wish a Happy Diwali to all our colleagues, students, alumni and wider community who are celebrating here and around the globe. Enjoy the joyous celebration with your loved ones! 🪔🕯️

October is #ADHDAwarenessMonth! To help mark this, at Uni of York we're joining colleagues and students at a stall in the Library foyer on Tuesday 21st October, 12:30-14:30 to help raise awareness both of ADHD and of support available at the university. Do drop in and say hi! 1/

Tomorrow (Friday 17th, 1pm) I'll be speaking as part of the series of talks organised by The Digital Archaeology & Heritage Lab at York at King's Manor and online. I'll be exploring how we study the sounds of the past + approaches to sound installations in museums and online experiences

University of York staff are very welcome to join the digital-accessibility channel in Slack! It's an open channel, so staff members can add themselves - join us!

Gearing up for @ire.org's #AccessFest25 this week. Here's a friendly reminder to include alt text on your images. Bluesky has a setting that will remind you to add alt text before posting any images. Go to "Settings," then "Accessibility." Select the checkbox for "Require alt text before posting."

What day is it?

Boosting for University of York staff - this should be really good session, so do join us to learn more about tactile data representation and different kinds of tactile resources. We have some great examples to show you!

UoY teaching staff! Do join us in person at 12:30 on 24th October for a session exploring different types of tactile resources, as well as how to create and use tactile resources to support teaching of vision impaired students. Book your place via the form: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

Also if you're in any way tempted to go in any flood water (I have no idea why but some people do seem to want to) then DON'T! There can be hidden debris and it is not at all clean water.

We know a lot of our followers use Academia Edu - definitely worth reading the new Ts and Cs before deciding whether to accept them... bsky.app/profile/npos...

Offer users multiple ways of understanding your content. This includes graphics, charts, summaries of long documents, icons added to headings and links, and alternatives for numbers. These things can help everyone, especially people with cognitive disabilities.

Don't forget transcripts for video and audio. These will help many people, including blind users and low-vision users, deaf and hard-of-hearing users, people with ADHD, and people with audio-processing disorders. Transcripts also benefit search engines, people in quiet spaces, and people in a hurry.

When creating PDFs, avoid using "Print to PDF." A screen reader user may still be able to access the text of PDFs created this way, but heading structure, alternative text, and any other tag structure will be lost. Using "Save As" or "Export" can preserve these tags.

"Introduction to Web Accessibility" is a free course designed for people of all roles and all experience levels, so regardless of your background, there's something you can learn here. www.edx.org/course/web-a...

And that's how you do alt text for text as image posts!

Some tips on preparing to teach our VI students at York. Our lecturers and students have provided insights that have helped us to develop our practice further!

Our latest blog post is up! In this post, Lilian @xlearn.bsky.social provides the key points for any university staff preparing to teach blind or partially blind students this academic year: blogs.york.ac.uk/digital-acce...

If you have an election results chart, the alt text needs to communicate the results. "Election results" is not enough. The same rules apply for alt text for images of weather charts. "Weather chart" doesn't cut it and doesn't convey what the chart is actually saying to users.

York Departments, Schools, Groups, academics etc - if you have the chance, please point incoming students towards the Library's Quick Start Guide to help get them up to speed with all we can offer them: www.york.ac.uk/library/visi... #UoYTips

University of York people! Whether staff or student, the new academic year is rushing towards us! Our lovely colleagues in the Digital Education Team have once again created their start of semester guide, with all you need to know about the VLE and more elearningyork.wpcomstaging.com/2025/08/15/s...

Important reminder about the emergency alert test this weekend! A useful thread to know what to expect and how to report any accessibility problems.

Live captions help so many people! Let's make them the conference norm

Looking for a digital accessibility job? Or looking to hire someone for an accessibility role? A11yjobs is a digital accessibility job board. www.a11yjobs.com

#UoY University of York teaching staff - check out our roundup of upcoming digital accessibility training:

Uni of York teaching staff! As we approach the start of another academic year, we have a smorgasbord of of digital accessibility training available to you. Sessions are online - most will be recorded, so if you're interested but can't attend, do sign up to receive the recording and materials 1/

More properly phrased as "Sorry for the delay on this train - this was because neither our trains or railway stations are properly accessible."

Get in the habit of bringing up accessibility at meetings, in stand-ups, and in demos. Bring up things you've done to address accessibility. Likewise, don't be afraid to ask, "Have we tested this on a keyboard?" or "What's the experience like on a screen reader?"