Archive (Page 3) • Access * Ability • Buttondown

Designing Toast Messages for Accessibility

Three toast messages, the first is informational and says “great job” the second is success and says “the server configuration changed” with a close icon,...

Department of Justice to companies with inaccessible websites: We’re back!

On November 1, 2021, the Department of Justice published a settlement agreement it entered into with the nationwide pharmacy chain Rite Aid specifically...

Deconstructing Accessibility Statements

Photo by Mari Helin on Unsplash This is MY interpretation of the accessibility statement legal-ese. I am not your lawyer. You need to make up your own mind....

Dark UI themes are new and cool — but are they accessible?

The dark mode is one of those new, hot design features that is generating a lot of “buzz”. Apple and Slack, for example, have been pushing dark-themed pages...

COVID-19 vaccine workplace accommodation requests

Photo by Hakan Nural on Unsplash Disclaimer: This is not legal advice and is my own opinion. It in no way should be considered the opinion of my employer....

Cost per hour for Accessibility Testing

This is part one of a two-part article. The second part focuses on whether you should staff testing resources as employees, or contractors, or use...

Cookie Banners and Accessibility

What is a cookie? Cookies are small text files created by a website that is stored in the user’s computer either temporarily (session cookie) or permanently...

Convincing People to Be Accessible

Product owners and people above them in the executive hierarchy frequently hold the position that current customers and what they want are the most important...

Context is the most critical aspect of alt-text everyone seems to miss

Twenty-two months ago, when I started this blog, I swore I would never write an article about alt-text or headings because I thought those topics had been...

Constructing an accessibility elevator pitch

Accessibility elevator pitches are essential for two reasons: Introducing yourself and explaining what you do.Immediate, pre-programmed comebacks to people...

Color Blindness Considerations for Designers and Content Managers

Calendar app where background color is black and important actionable components are red. Good use of negative space, but red on black is almost invisible to...

Captioning: It’s Time for a Revolt

What if every person who was deaf, Deaf, had hearing loss (plus those peoples’ friends and family) refused to do business with a company that didn’t caption...

Can’t Find Underrepresented Minorities for Tech Jobs?

pipeline oil spill - Imgflip At the end of September, the CEO of Wells Fargo publicly stated the following: “[T]he unfortunate reality,” he wrote, echoing...

Can I go to beta with an inaccessible product?

I get asked the question, “Can I go to beta without being accessible?” frequently. This question usually comes outside of my employment situation, most often...

California Law AB 979 promoting board diversity does not go far enough

AB 979 was signed into law by Governor Gavin Newsom in 2020. This law requires that by the end of 2021, California-based publicly held corporations diversify...

Building an “accessibility brand”

Branding isn’t just for companies anymore. Post-pandemic, in our almost completely digital world, a personal brand is no longer an extra; it’s necessary for...

Books on Disability Resiliency

Part one of a two-part article: Read part one, “My favorite books on accessibility and related topics.” What makes a good disability resiliency book? So this...

Attracting candidates with disabilities

Part one (1) of a three-part article. Read Part 2 (on employment policies related to people with disabilities and Part 3 (on retaining employees with...

A tale of two retailers — a disability inclusion story

Sprouts Farmer’s Market Three d/Deaf applicants applied for jobs at Sprouts and were selected for interviews. The applicants requested American Sign Language...

“As Designed” is a useless bug closure status — especially for people with disabilities

As someone who started off in software testing over 30 years ago, and then transitioned into accessibility, I’ve seen some crazy bug closure statuses. Won’t...

Are you ready to be anti-ableist in 2021?

As I start to think about the standard “year-end” / wrap-up articles related to accessibility, this one seems pretty obvious. We need more people to be anti-...

Are you guilty of “inspiration porn”?

Man with prosthetic leg exercising in Gym Inspiration porn is portraying people with disabilities as: inspirational solely or in part on the basis of their...

Are you Disability Compliant? Or Disability Competitive?

Disability Compliant is asking people to identify whether they are disabled on a questionnaire anonymously. Disability Competitive is conducting an annual...

Are bad graphical descriptions better than no graphical descriptions to someone with vision loss?

Customer service stoplight chart with red sad face, yellow neutral face, and green happy face This is the first part of a two-part article. The second part,...

Are bad captions better than no captions?

In the first part of this article, I explored whether bad image descriptions were better than no image descriptions. After consulting with many blind users,...

Applying Ted Lasso management lessons to accessibility

Used with permission from https://www.apple.com/tv-pr/originals/ted-lasso/episodes-images/ I am one of a jillion people anxiously awaiting season 3 of Ted...

“Anything else you want to tell us?” is not a valid substitute for “do you need an accommodation?”

Photo by Sigmund on Unsplash In the first of two articles I have recently published on accommodations, I addressed what accommodations are. The second...

Answering the question “Are you accessible?”

I despise the Museum of Ice Cream. Don’t get me wrong, I *love* ice cream. Anything with chocolate in it, for the win. The more dark chocolate (especially...

An open letter to vendors seeking customers via social media

I just passed 10,000 connections on LinkedIn, largely curated around three main areas of subject matter. Not surprisingly to anyone who knows me, these areas...

An award-winning business product that is the opposite of inclusion

Q.Workntine pod (photo from Business Insider) On paper, “Q.workntine” is the kind of innovative product people fawn over, and investors throw money at...

An accessibility review of the new Medium site

At the beginning of February, Medium launched a new format. I have highlighted Medium’s lack of concern over severe accessibility problems in a previous...

All the Things You Shouldn’t Be Evaluating During Interviews

Photo by Christina @ wocintechchat.com on Unsplash There are all kinds of advice on the Internet about things you should be evaluating when you conduct an...

All the reasons you might not have gotten that job

Photo by Tim Gouw on Unsplash Over the last few months, I have spent time mentoring people finding themselves out of work courtesy of COVID-19. Some have...

A Happy Accessibility Article

A lot of accessibility articles (mine included) are negative and/or depressing. On any given day, at least half of the articles I see have titles like: How...

Advice for the Aspiring Accessibility Tester / Manager

Last updated June 13, 2022Authors note: Coming up on 3 1/2 years of writing on Medium with more than 250,000 reads, I’ve decided to go back and update/clean...

Addressing accessibility requirements in design briefs

Photo by Felipe Furtado on Unsplash A design brief is a description of a project and corresponding drawings (comps and wireframes, for example) created by a...

ADA lawsuit costs are WAY more than just the settlement

Karl Groves wrote an amazing article this week on the ROI on Accessibility. This is a topic near and dear to my heart and one I am considering for my PhD...

ACR /VPAT Consumption and Production

The Information Technology Industry Council (ITI) is the premier global advocate for technology, representing the world’s most innovative companies. ITI...

Accessible Social Media

Picture of hands swiping on a phone with words representing Friends, Community, Sharing, Blog, Follow, Networking, and icons representing music and email...

Accessibility tools and plugins that designers should be using

Designers have their choice of countless tools, many of which are convenient plugins that are integrated with Chrome. If you are a designer and are not...

Accessibility — Separate but Equal is Never OK

This week, the US DOT ruled that Scandinavian Airlines’ separate site for people with disabilities was against the DOT’s web accessibility requirements. SAS...

Accessibility Retrospectives

Photo by Jakub Gorajek on Unsplash An agile retrospective (sometimes called a post-mortem) is a gathering of interested and involved parties at the end of a...

Accessibility Playlist

Photo by Eric Nopanen on Unsplash So like any good tech company, the first thing my co-workers did when we were urged to work from home (I’m based in...

Accessibility Participants, Managers, and Leaders

Cartoon man in overalls with four arms in a super hero pose completely laden down with construction tools (screwdrivers, pliers, level, tape measure, trowel,...

Accessibility Micro-coaching

Photo by Didssph on Unsplash Ever since the Internet was invented, training and communications trends have centered around getting those materials focused,...

Accessibility Memes

https://imgflip.com/i/459gpg When I took a management class at VMware, part of the course was analyzing our “Via Institute on Character” results. Recently,...

Accessibility Job Auditions

Photo by Xander Bissell on Unsplash “Job Auditions” — an interview process that includes doing actual work to prove that you CAN do a job before you are...

Accessibility issues that can’t be solved by tech

Photo by Jason Leung on Unsplash There are two different categories of thought on the WCAG accessibility guidelines: WCAG is a goal, something that one...

Accessibility is not an “add-on” service

Every week I get a handful of unsolicited LinkedIn messages from people/companies I’ve never heard of, almost always from outside the US. They claim to be...

Accessibility Interview Questions

Man using wheelchair and woman engaging in conversation in a business setting So, you got permission to bring an accessibility subject matter expert on...