Oops. Someone at Podbean cancelled the equalweb subscription without telling anyone.

And while we're on the topic of newsletters... this one from @christiane.link is always such a good read and worth subscribing to. accessiblelink.substack.com/p/the-crickl...

Accessible doesn’t have to mean boring. At Wise 1 in 3 Android customers use an accessibility setting. The part about using the APCA colour contrast algorithm is interesting! medium.com/transferwise...

Let’s play spot the bad UI. Left is in-app, right is in-browser. Same company, different interfaces. Muscle memory has almost caught me out too many times 🫠

As the AI companies start pushing people to buy things through their apps, improving accessibility on your product pages makes your store easier to understand for any agent, on any surface, using any protocol. davedavies.dev/blog/ai-as-a...

Ever been tempted to use an accessibility overlay? They're not good for a number of reasons - but here's a example of overlays often make the experience more difficult instead of fixing actual accessibility issues. davedavies.dev/reviews/pass...

I've been reading a lot recently about how AI platforms are starting to experiment with keeping the entire shopping experience within their apps (with varying results). Interestingly - the bots often seem to struggle with poorly marked up, inaccessible product pages.

Does it even matter if some people can’t buy from your online store? It's a fair question someone on my email list asked - and one I explore in my latest newsletter: davedavies.kit.com/posts/does-i...

The stupidest modern day inconvenience is having to charge my doorbell. I always forget, so I end up without a doorbell for days until I remember to charge it again.

No one ever lost a sale from using the native <select> element. But plenty of businesses do lose sales when their custom dropdown doesn’t behave like the native one - or doesn’t work with a keyboard at all.

Just reading that Shopify merchants took a massive $6.2 BILLION in total sales on Friday, up 25% from last year. From last year’s UK Black Friday data, roughly 12% of online spend was lost because customers with access needs hit barriers and abandoned their purchase.

Github are retiring toast messages in favour of persistent notifications (amongst other solutions). Interesting that they start from a perspective of: what would make most sense to the end user. And work from that. Seems reasonable to me! primer.style/accessibilit...

It's dark at 4:30pm now... so it MUST be time to do sparklers with the kids, right!? Back in 15.

Many product pages make you choose an option before you can add the product to the cart. But if those options are custom and not built properly, some customers won’t even know the choices are there.

My webinar on making printed and digital content #accessibility is now available as a standalone video with descriptions and captions in: English, Ukrainian, Malay, Arabic, Czech, German, French, Hindi, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, Serbian, Spanish. youtu.be/AO9XXkrACtU?...

I know the "design for disabled people, and you benefit everyone" statement isn’t universally agreed on, but I found this video (specifically about the large button phone) fascinating. www.youtube.com/shorts/a5Lzr...

Do you ever test your “Add to cart” flow using only a keyboard? When the cart drawer opens, the focus should move inside it. If it doesn’t, the experience breaks for keyboard users. Here's why this happens, why it's a problem, and how to fix it. davedavies.dev/reviews/wher...

Email accessibility has come a long way, but this year’s report from @emailmarkup.org shows there’s still plenty of work to do. A few takeaways that really stuck with me 👇

Suddenly everything seems to be "From Discover" on my bsky timeline and I'm not sure if it's a bug but I don't like it 🥲

Passenger Clothing are doing so much right - but when it comes to accessibility, even good intentions need a bit of UX backup. I took a look at their new accessibility widget and how built-in browser tools often do a better job. youtu.be/Kd2Z0a6_kr0

If you've ever been let you down by a lift, literally or emotionally, this super-useful site can check a station lift status before you travel: lifts.matteason.co.uk Thanks to @matteason.me for this!

New font drop from @microsoft.com. What’s really interesting about this article though isn’t just the font design, it’s their discussion on the concept of 'prosody' in video captions. microsoft.design/articles/int...

Surfability's VI taster weekend is back for 2025! Last year’s event saw dozens of blind and partially sighted people take to the waves for the first time but we want this year to be even bigger! 🏄 Register for a spot here: bit.ly/4i5f5eE

Vitality’s quote form looks sharp - but a few small UX issues might be quietly hurting conversions. In this video I walk through 3 accessibility fixes that could help more people complete the form. youtu.be/Ckx6aNY-tPM

Anne-Mieke Bovelett tells Designers, your excuse is gone. Stunning, animated and accessible. Yes, you can! buff.ly/MPoHprX #Design #Animation #UXDesign #DigitalAccessibility #Accessibility #A11y

This is a good list. The only other tool I'd add is @polypane.app. www.oidaisdes.org/accessibilit...

“Accessibility takes too much time.” So does rebuilding your product after losing users who can’t access what you’ve built. People with disabilities aren’t edge cases - they’re your real audience.

Accessibility isn’t just ethical - it’s smart. 1 in 5 people has a disability. That’s not a niche audience, that’s your users. Inclusive design increases reach, improves SEO, and protects you from legal risk. So why wouldn’t you do it? www.nngroup.com/articles/inc...

Someone out there is only able to read your content because you added alt text. Someone else navigated your site with a keyboard because you made it possible. Accessibility isn’t about perfection - it’s about care and inclusion.

The 2024 WebAIM Million report just dropped. Still 95.9% of home pages have accessibility errors (and most of those are basic errors). Why is it so hard to move this number? What’s actually working - and what isn’t? webaim.org/projects/mil...

How navigation should work for keyboard users buff.ly/a71Gwpz #WebDevelopment #WebDev #WebAccessibility #DigitalAccessibility #Accessibility #A11y

The WebAIM Million 2025 report just dropped, scanning the top 1 million home pages for accessibility issues. Are we doing better? Kinda. Are we still messing up the basics? Absolutely. Let’s break it down 👇 webaim.org/projects/mil...

Have you ever wondered where WCAG’s 4.5:1 colour contrast ratio comes from, and what it actually means? If you work in accessibility or design, understanding this properly can make a real difference. davedavies.dev/posts/wcag-c...

7 years on, it's still time to ditch the placeholder attribute on form fields... www.smashingmagazine.com/2018/06/plac...

WCAG Colour Contrast: What Does the 4.5:1 Ratio Actually Mean?, by @thedavedavies.bsky.social:

@amberley.dev Hey there! Could I get an invite to the Web A11y Slack room please? It looks like the only way in is by cold-calling someone 😬 Thanks a lot!

Found a little translation hiccup in the Deque WAS certification course - looks like the 'Allowing Customizability' section accidentally got some German mixed in! Kind of ironic in a section about text accessibility 😄 #a11y #accessibility (Paging @deque.com)

🤔HTML semantics: <abbr> theory versus abbreviation reality "The HTML <abbr> element is deceptively familiar and attractive, its been around forever (1999) and thus people assume that it does what it does and does it well." #a11y #webdev #HTML www.tpgi.com/short-note-t...

#Accessibility remediation livestream today is all about AI alt text generating plugins. I made a ridiculous shocked face for the YouTube thumbnail because, OMG, I can't believe I'm going to try these. Tune in at 11 AM CST to see how they do. #a11y #WordPress

Well done Berghaus 👏 www.bbc.co.uk/news/article... This free service is going to bring the outdoors to so many more people.

Here’s another valuable accessibility checklist. The UK Gov shares 10 common accessibility mistakes and how to fix them - like missing alt text, bad color contrast, and poor keyboard support. Worth a look! accessibility.blog.gov.uk/2025/02/04/1... #a11y #accessibility

This is such an interesting insight into @whitep4nth3r.com's personal journey into coding by voice. And a powerful reminder that any of us might need to adapt how we navigate the world - whether temporarily or permanently.

Have you ever wondered where WCAG’s 4.5:1 colour contrast ratio comes from, and what it actually means? If you work in accessibility or design, understanding this properly can make a real difference. tiny-octopus.com/posts/wcag-c... #a11y #accessibility

The @github.com team has put out a fascinating blog on making tree views more accessible! If you’re into #UX, #a11y, or just love a good deep dive into thoughtful engineering, give this a read: github.blog/engineering/...

This week, the UK parliament is set to discuss legislation requiring audio and tactile voting aids at polling stations - enabling blind voters to cast their ballots independently and privately. A brilliant step towards making democracy truly accessible for everyone.

Anyone who's been around accessibility for more than a week will know about WCAG's contrast requirements. I mean, there's tools which do all this for us but did you ever wonder what a 4.5:1 ratio actually means? Follow on for a plain English explanation!

On that note... this is a great accessibility essentials blog post. Written from a ReactJS perspective, but relevant for frontend devs of all flavours. martijnhols.nl/blog/accessi...

New blog post! Our accessibility audit of the UK Met Office's weather forecast app, what we learnt along the way and the positive impact of monitoring on an already strong app 🌦️ accessibility.blog.gov.uk/2025/01/14/a... #accessibility #a11y #mobile

WCAG 1.4.1 says all information must be understandable without needing to distinguish between colours. This is especially important for red/green colour blindness. But have you ever wondered why this is? 🤔

Working on a site this week, and one of the first things I noticed was every button was just a div with an onClick event. A classic case of reinventing the wheel... poorly. So, I replaced all their div-buttons with proper button elements getting screen reader support & keyboard nav instantly.