Sometimes, you might think that previous #accessibility wisdom has been superseded by new "facts". Maybe someone told you that #screenReaders don't work well with a particular design pattern, but you tested #ScreenReader X and it seemed to work fine. Perhaps you heard that an interactive HTML input doesn't persist with forced colours styling, but you tried a High Contrast mode in Microsoft Edge and it seemed to be there.

There are three considerations usually missing here:

1. How are you defining and evaluating the working state? Do you have a functional, accurate understanding of the #accessTechnology or accessibility feature you are asserting things about?
2. You tested one thing in relation to a statement about multiple things, e.g. a statement is made about screen readers, plural, and you only tested with #VoiceOver (it's always VoiceOver). Beyond posting on the web-a11y Slack, how do you propose testing more broadly, if you plan to at all?
3. Possibly the most critical at all: is this question worth its overheads? If answering it conclusively would require me to test ten screen readers with 45 speech engines, or seven browsers with 52 permutations of CSS properties, maybe following the advice is "cheaper" than determining whether the advice is still completely relevant.

Important disclaimer: this relates specifically to cases where following the advice would not actively make things worse for users.

TL;DR: when you know doing a thing won't make things bad, doing the thing is usually quicker than evaluating whether not doing the thing is also bad.

I wrote an article about how to make hastags accessible. Did some #ScreenReader testing with #JAWS, #NVDA, #VoiceOver and #Narrator, which was fun!

Pretty long one though, contains a bunch of tables for comparison. Enjoy the ride!

https://stevefrenzel.dev/posts/easy-web-accessibility-wins-hashtags/

#accessibility #a11y #html #JavaScript #WebDev #frontend

Easy web accessibility wins: Hashtags

Is there a way to create hashtags that work for everyone? I did some screen reader testing and was surprised by the outcome!

^{Steve Frenzel}

I am extremely clumsy when it comes to testing things with #VoiceOver for #accessibility, but I do try. I have a question:

Is it possible to completely skip over a table on a web page? I know VoiceOver has options to navigate it, but is there a way (or best practice I can implement) to just skip right past it?

Context: Planning handling accessibility for Chart.js. Planned MVP is to add an accessible description. Potential enhancement is to embed the data as a table.

Continued…

@matt I use the Spitfire Audio downloader (for my sins) on Mac and it's 99.5% accessible with VOCR, and 1% accessible with #VoiceOver. the only reason it gets the 1% is because just like when you write your name, date and title at the top of the paper you likely get marked for good spelling, we can see the close button, but nothing else. Haha.
In this instance, you'd best know how to use VOCR before you get into their libraries, without it, you're simply out of luck.
Situations like that, sure. But that's different from an email from a supposed reputable company with important information that absolutely, without question, *needs* to be in a format that is accessible to *all* customers, irrespective of ability or disability.

You don't *need* spitfire, but if a company have suffered some kind of hack, you *do* need to know about it, you know?

Greetings!

Well, after finding out that #WhaleBird
https://github.com/h3poteto/whalebird-desktopis a decent enough accessible MacOS client for use with #Misskey, you'll see me post on here from time to time now as well! Most of the time I'll still be posting on my Mastodon account, though watch this space! Three-Thousand characters is more than i ever would need myself, but I'll take it!

For users of #VoiceOver, the 'J' & 'k' keys currently do not speak under the curssor what the post is, thus nornal VO commands for now are necessary. Definitely a client for #Blind users to check out though!

NB. As noted among the GitHub page, WhaleBird is also available for #Windows and #Linux, though I'll leave those builds to you guys!

GitHub - h3poteto/whalebird-desktop: An Electron based Mastodon, Pleroma, and Misskey client for Windows, Mac, and Linux

An Electron based Mastodon, Pleroma, and Misskey client for Windows, Mac, and Linux - GitHub - h3poteto/whalebird-desktop: An Electron based Mastodon, Pleroma, and Misskey client for Windows, Mac, ...

^GitHub

OK, this is great. Just found an #iOS equivalent of #MacWhisper and it’s free. Not sure if it always is, but it certainly is right now.
It’s #Accessible and works well with #VoiceOver.

#Aiko by Sindre Sorhus

https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/aiko/id1672085276

‎Aiko

‎High-quality on-device transcription. Easily convert speech to text from meetings, lectures, and more. The transcription is powered by OpenAI's Whisper running locally on your device. The audio never leaves your device.

^{App Store}