Information and Communication

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Usability & Web Accessibility – PDFs & Documents

Before distributing and remediating PDFs, determine whether a PDF is necessary. PDFs can be challenging to remediate for accessibility. Whenever possible, share content as a webpage and use PDFs sparingly.

Inclusive Design Principles.

Equivalent Experiences: Thinking Equivalently

If you’re looking for a more approachable resource for how to dig into what the WCAG covers, the Inclusive Design Principles would be a great place to start. The seven principles it describes all map back to WCAG success criterion.

black and white image covered with text.

Semantic Structure: Regions, Headings, and Lists

The originators of HTML—particle physicists sharing documents—had no interest in fluffy visuals. They set out to create a World Wide Web of machine-readable pages to display in every system and browser, including those that spoke text to visually-impaired users.

Web Accessibility Checklist logo.

Web Accessibility Checklist

Images should have meaningful and contextual alternative text which describes the image. Alternative text is read by screen readers in place of images, displayed in place of images if the image is not loaded and provides semantic meaning to images which can be read by search engines.

Smashing Magazine logo.

Good, Better, Best: Untangling The Complex World Of Accessible Patterns

Marc Benioff memorably stated that the only constant in the technology industry is change. Having worked in tech for over 15 years, I can confirm this. Fellow tech dinosaurs can attest that the way the web worked in the early days is drastically different than many of us could have even imagined.

Person typing on a laptop.

Companies under pressure to comply with Ontario’s new website accessibility standards

Time is running out for Ontario companies to show their websites comply with new standards making them more accessible for people with disabilities or face fines of up to $100,000.

Woman thinking surrounded by arrows and question marks.

Accessibility and 2022: 13 Design Trends From a Usability Perspective

We’re finally here: 2022. The last couple of years have really put us through the wringer. People were working from home, Zoom went from being a thing only some people knew about to being a household application, and middle-aged teachers had to learn how to use Discord to create a digital social classroom environment. It’s been wild. And believe it or not, COVID-19 had a HUGE effect on web-based trends for this year (and probably quite a while after that).

Laptop open and turned on.

AODA Compliance Requirements for Websites

Learn about the AODA requirements for web accessibility, if the law applies to your organization, deadlines for compliance, and how you can ensure your website meets legal requirements.

Macy’s app (left) and Nordstrom.com (right).

Accidental Dismissal of Overlays: A Common Mobile Usability Problem

Overlays have become a ubiquitous UI element on mobile: beyond the annoying popups for cookie permissions, chat bubbles, coupons offerings, and marketing-subscription offers, you will also find them used for navigation menus, bottom sheets, product-detail pages, or in-app browsers.

Accessi.org logo.

Top Companies That Got Sued Over Website Accessibility

It might surprise you to learn that your favorite brands have faced accessibility lawsuits. Why?  Because their websites did not provide equal access to people with disabilities.