PUBLIC MARKS with tags [en] & webdesign

A practical resource for content authors that shows you how to comply with WCAG 2.0. Each topic explains what you need to do, why you need to do it and how to do it in easy-to-understand language.

Make no mistake: Sectioning elements help you improve document structure, and they’re in the spec’ to stay. Once and for all, I will be exploring the problems these elements solve, the opportunities they offer and their important but misunderstood contribution to the semantic Web.

Follow these pro tips and create your best ever logo design. Paul Wyatt reveals everything you need to know to improve your designs.

With the help of CSS3 and mediaqueries you can change the layout of your website based on the detected screen size of the device (be it a computer screen, tablet, smartphone,...). But what are the current guidelines in pixels? Find out here.

We've made an easy-to-use, always up-to-date, information resource, just for you.

Class is only becoming more important. Focusing on its original definition as an attribute for grouping (or classifying) as well as linking HTML to CSS, recent front-end development practices are emphasizing class as a vessel for structured, modularized style packages. These patterns reduce the need for repetitive declarations that can seriously bloat file sizes, and instil human-readable understanding of how the interface, layout, and aesthetics are constructed.

My biggest overall takeaway from this experience was how inaccessible many sites are, and how frustrating it must be to a person with certain disabilities to regularly have poor web experiences. As developers, it’s our job to keep this in mind when creating any site, whether it “needs to be accessible” or not. You can bet that these lessons are being baked back into our work. Hopefully some of these will make it into your next projects as well.

The reality is that accessibility is simply a key part of UX. A truly outstanding digital experience is a fusion of accessibility, usability, creativity and technology. The trick is to weave those things together, and to do that successfully there needs to be a cross pollination of skills and expertise.

The good news is that accessibility is usability under a magnifying glass. If you’re thinking about great usability, the chances are that you’re already thinking about great accessibility too.

This one is for testers who use NVDA, a free screenreader, to test online content for any access issues.

What does the outline property do?

It provides visual feedback for links that have "focus" when navigating a web document using the TAB key (or equivalent). This is especially useful for folks who can't use a mouse or have a visual impairment. If you remove the outline you are making your site inaccessible for these people.

Icons are an important part of making a website usable. Make sure to use best practices for your icon designs to help clients keep their clients happy and ultimately help you bring in the big bucks.

Browser support is IE10 and modern versions of Firefox, Safari, Chrome, Opera. Basic support for IE9. No responsive version yet, sorry (but you can always send pull requests!)

For years now, we've used a number of techniques for hiding content offscreen for accessibility purposes. We do this because the content is still accessible to screenreaders while being removed from the interface for sighted users.

Part polemic, part instruction manual, The Truth About HTML5 has ignited an interesting debate. Here we present an exclusive excerpt on the problems around structuring in HTML5

Compatibility tables for support of HTML5, CSS3, SVG and more in desktop and mobile browsers.

Why I created this resource

This list should not be taken as a stab against tools and tool vendors. I’ve said numerous times that we should do automatic testing first. When done properly, automatic testing offers a degree of efficiency that cannot be matched by other methods. However, that doesn’t mean that we should leave our compliance up to automated testing. As the tables above show, there are 9 WCAG Success Criterion (in Level A and AA) that cannot be tested for in any meaningful manner using a tool. There are another 13 that can be tested for automatically but require a human to verify. Full compliance and risk mitigation always requires the involvement of a skilled professional reviewer, even when you have a tool as well.

I first got to know Kim Patch when we worked together on the W3C User Agent Accessibility Working Group. As a resident of the Web since it’s inception and a long term voice input / non mouse user I was always fascinated to hear what she had to say about making web content, and how a browser interprets that content, accessible.

This mantra is as true for the mobile Web as it is for the desktop Web.

This article is based on the WCAG 2.0 (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines), a worth reading set of recommendations for making Web content more accessible, that is, more friendly for people with disabilities.

If you are about to redesign your website, now is a good time to focus on getting a website that can be used by as many people as possible. Here are some tips on when and how to make requirements and focus on accessibility throughout the process.