+++ WEB DESIGN UPDATE. - Volume 19, Issue 26, December 22, 2020. An email newsletter to distribute news and information about web design and development. ++ISSUE 26 CONTENTS. SECTION ONE: New references. What's new at the Web Design Reference site? https://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/ New links in these categories: 01: ACCESSIBILITY. 02: BOOKS. 03: CASCADING STYLE SHEETS. 04: EVALUATION & TESTING. 05: EVENTS. 06: HTML. 07: JAVASCRIPT. 08: MISCELLANEOUS. 09: TOOLS. 10: USABILITY. 11: WEBWASTE & SUSTAINABILITY. SECTION TWO: 12: What Can You Find at the Web Design Reference Site? [Contents ends.] ++ SECTION ONE: New references. +01: ACCESSIBILITY. Making Content Usable for People With Cognitive and Learning Disabilities Lisa Seeman, Rachael Montgomery, Steve Lee, and Ruoxi Ran, Editors. "This document is for people who make Web content (Web pages) and Web applications. It gives advice on how to make content usable for people with cognitive and learning disabilities…" https://www.w3.org/TR/coga-usable/ How to Write Better Website Content for People with Dyslexia By Lauren Garden. "Dyslexia is a common learning difficulty that affects the skills a person uses to learn how to read and write. It's estimated up to 1 in every 10 people in the UK has some degree of dyslexia. Tailoring your writing to this audience makes your content more accessible to everyone…" https://bighack.org/how-to-write-better-website-content-for-people-with-dyslexia/ Document and Content Language By WebAIM. "Screen readers can 'speak' various languages-as long the content language is identified. If the screen reader does not support or cannot speak the defined language, the user might be informed of the content language, even if that content cannot be properly read…" https://webaim.org/techniques/language/ What's New in WCAG 2.1: Label in Name By Todd Libby. "…In this article, I will discuss Label in Name, which is how we visually label components. We'll take a look at what some failure states look like, how to fix them, and examples of how to do them correctly…" https://css-tricks.com/whats-new-in-wcag-2-1-label-in-name/ Accessible Infographics By Universal Design Center, California State University, Northridge. "An infographic is a visual representation of complex data that allows users to interact with the content. Infographics can be designed as images, websites, print material and PDFs and are known for these design features…" https://www.csun.edu/universal-design-center/accessible-infographics user-scalable=no and Suppressing Zoom Suppression By Peter Paul Koch. "The story goes as follows: Once upon a time there was a meta viewport property called user-scalable=no that suppressed pinch zoom on the page it was on. As a result users could not zoom in, even if they needed to. This was obviously a bad idea, and therefore browsers stopped supporting it…" https://www.quirksmode.org/blog/archives/2020/12/userscalableno.html Starting a New Accessibility Remediation Project? By Sheri Byrne-Haber. "…There are approaches and prioritization that will make your end goal of an accessible website easier and cheaper…" https://uxdesign.cc/starting-a-new-accessibility-remediation-project-5559e30e94a 11 Golden Rules for A11Y By ezgizalig. "As a self-taught front-end developer, when I discovered the concepts of accessibility and inclusive design a few months ago, I did not know much about it…" https://dev.to/ezgihendrickx/11-golden-rules-for-a11y-146c Rutgers University Announces Online Accessibility Training and Workshops By Deborah Edwards-Onoro. "If one of your goals in 2021 is to learn about web and digital accessibility, or you want to expand your current knowledge, take a look at the free accessibility training sessions from Rutgers University…" https://www.lireo.com/rutgers-university-accessibility-training-workshops/ How We Made GOV.UK More Accessible By Tobi Ogunsina. "…here's what we've been doing to improve things on GOV.UK over the last few months…" https://accessibility.blog.gov.uk/2020/12/17/how-we-made-gov-uk-more-accessible/ Web Almanac, Part II, Chapter 8, Accessibility By Olu Niyi-Awosusi and Alex Tait. "In 2020, more than ever before, it's become increasingly urgent for digital spaces to be inclusive and accessible to all…" https://almanac.httparchive.org/en/2020/accessibility People With Hearing Loss Shouldn't Have To Pay Zoom For Captions By Shari Eberts. "…We should not be forced to pay for the feature we require for equal access. Like ramps, captioning is good universal design, benefiting not only people with hearing issues but all users, including people for whom English is a second language…" https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/12/17/zoom-captions-hearing-loss-free/ Accessible Overlay Tools: Realities and Myths By Hiram Kuykendall. "In recent months there has been much discussion regarding accessibility overlay tools claiming to completely remediate an inaccessible site to Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0/2.1 level AA…" https://www.microassist.com/digital-accessibility/accessible-overlay-tools-realities-and-myths/ Website Accessibility Design Does Not Disregard This Human By Kimberly Krause Berg. "…Web accessibility may be an entirely new way of design thinking for some folks. It means getting out of your personal mini-world. Learn about the folks who are pushing back against the barriers thrown up when they try to read a page, use a form, or experience a video or podcast their way…" https://creativevisionwebconsulting.com/2020/12/disregard-this-human/ This Bill Would Make It Harder for People With Disabilities to Access the Internet By Lydia Smeltz. "…rather than expanding ADA protection, the bill would require new, time-consuming administrative procedures to file complaints against non-compliant private websites. Its true intent appears to be to make legal action against inaccessible websites and services more difficult, thus making it harder to hold businesses accountable…" https://www.pennlive.com/opinion/2020/12/this-bill-would-make-it-harder-for-people-with-disabilities-to-access-the-internet-opinion.html +02: BOOKS. Burgstahle, Sheryl. Creating Inclusive Learning Opportunities in Higher Education, Harvard Education Press, 2020. +03: CASCADING STYLE SHEETS. Content-visibility and Accessible Semantics By Marcy Sutton. "…if you're using content-visibility on sections of content including headings and semantic structure, screen reader users won't be able to benefit from that structure on load. This unfortunately degrades accessibility in favor of loading performance. Based on my testing, I recommend keeping headings and landmark elements outside of regions styled with content-visibility: auto…" https://marcysutton.com/content-visibility-accessible-semantics +04: EVALUATION & TESTING. Conducting Remote UX Research from Home By Jim Ross. "…During the pandemic, I've discovered…various useful tips for conducting remote UX research…" https://www.uxmatters.com/mt/archives/2020/12/conducting-remote-ux-research-from-home.php From Functionality To Features: Making The UMUX-Lite Even Simpler By Jim Lewis and Jeff Sauro. "…use words that are simple and concise-a guideline that also applies to UX questionnaires…" https://measuringu.com/simpler-umux-lite/ Dot Voting in the UX Design Process (Video) By Therese Fessenden. "In UX design, you always have to prioritize. Features, personas, usability problems, and the list goes on. Dot votes are a simple way to find the group sense of what's the most important." https://www.nngroup.com/videos/dot-voting-ux-design-process/ Top Tasks and COVID-19 By Gerry McGovern. "One of the most important things I've learned as a result of observing the voting intentions of some 500,000 people in more than 100 countries is that there are indeed top tasks that are universal…" https://gerrymcgovern.com/top-tasks-and-covid-19/ +05: EVENTS. Accessibility Training & Workshops (from Rutgers University) Various dates January-April 2021. Online https://it.rutgers.edu/it-accessibility-initiative/knowledgebase/accessibility-training-workshops/ Should You Remediate Your PDFs? January 14, 2021. Online https://www.meetup.com/a11yATX/events/275302461/ Digital Accessibility Experts Live January 28, 2021. Online https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/digital-accessibility-experts-live-jan-2021-registration-111949261254 ACCESS at Home February 8-12, 2021. Online https://www.3playmedia.com/access/ John Slatin Virtual AccessU 2021 May 18-20, 2021. Online https://knowbility.org/programs/accessu/ M-Enabling Summit June 21-23, 2021. Washington, D.C., U.S.A. https://m-enabling.com/ The Digital Accessibility Legal Summit 2021 June 24-25, 2021. Washington, D.C., U.S.A. https://www.accessibility.legal/index.html International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) June 27-30, 2021. San Antonio, Texas, U.S.A. https://conference.iste.org/2021/ +06: HTML. HTML Memory Test By Paul Foster. "…The app is built with plain JavaScript, the recalled total counts down as you make your HTML element guesses, which join a list of correct answers…" https://www.paulfosterdesign.co.uk/blog/html-elements-test/ Writing Semantic HTML Even When You Don't Know Any Better: Progress vs Meter By Leslie Cohn-Wein. "…Semantics matter. When writing new markup: * Ask: "Does my markup make sense in plain English?" Rewording markup in plain English can help make semantic discrepancies more obvious. * Read the MDN docs to confirm your usage * Leverage baked-in functionality for free…" https://leslie.dev/posts/writing-semantic-html-even-when-you-dont-know-any-better/ Ode to Semantic HTML By Eevis Panula. "…using semantic HTML is the thing to do for several reasons; It helps to build accessible sites, to get better SEO-scores, and make the code more readable. You can add semantics by using the native elements or with ARIA. If you use ARIA, be sure to use the correct aria-attributes and implement the functionality that is required (so, for example, don't communicate that "this is a button" with role="button" but then neglect to create the keyboard shortcuts)…" https://dev.to/eevajonnapanula/ode-to-semantic-html-38c3 +07: JAVASCRIPT. The new Operator By Eirik Vigeland. "…today we're going to do a deep dive into one of the fundamental operators of JavaScript, new…" https://javascript.christmas/2020/21 +08: MISCELLANEOUS. Webbish By Remy Sharp. "…What follows are a series of musings about the web, what makes the web and related navel-gazing…" https://remysharp.com/2020/12/17/webbish What the Web Still Is By Eric Bailey. "Being a pessimist is an easy thing to fall back on, and I'm trying to be better about it. As we close the year out, I thought it would be a good exercise to take stock of the state of the web and count our blessings…" https://css-tricks.com/what-the-web-still-is/ Ignore AMP By Jens Oliver Meiert. "…The best AMP document is no AMP document. Avoid AMP. Ignore AMP. And avoid and ignore MIP and Turbo pages, too." https://meiert.com/en/blog/ignore-amp/ Are You Ready to be Anti-Ableist in 2021? By Sheri Byrne-Haber. "Make a New Year's Resolution to add anti-ableism to your skillset from 2021 going forward…" https://sheribyrnehaber.com/are-you-ready-to-be-anti-ableist-in-2021/ +09: TOOLS. Accessible Usability Scale (AUS) By Fable Tech Labs. "The Accessible Usability Scale (AUS) is a free tool to measure the usability of a digital product for assistive technology users. Inspired by the System Usability Scale (SUS), the Accessible Usability Scale consists of ten questions administered at the end of a user experience to calculate a score…" https://makeitfable.com/accessible-usability-scale/ The Most Useful Accessibility Testing Tools and Techniques By Artem Sapegin. "Shipping accessible features is as essential for a frontend developer as shipping features without bugs. Here is a list of tools I regularly use to make sure everything I do is accessible for folks with different abilities, whether they are blind or holding a sandwich in their hand…" https://blog.sapegin.me/all/accessibility-testing/ +10: USABILITY. User Stories vs Use Cases: How They Stack Up By Patrick Joseph Downs. "Just what exactly are the differences between user stories and use cases? Aren't they the same? Don't they have the same goals? Why not just settle on one word for both of them? As it turns out, user stories and use cases, while they do have similar purposes, are not quite the same…" https://uxmag.com/articles/user-stories-vs-use-cases-how-they-stack-up Time to Make Tech Work (Video) By Jakob Nielsen. "Users waste unacceptably much time struggling with computer bugs. Users' mental models suffer when systems don't work as advertised, leading people to question their understanding of the UX." https://www.nngroup.com/videos/make-tech-work/ Study Finds Bad Web Design is Killing Us All With Stress By Eric Griffith. "A design company created test sites full of super-annoying issues, such as slow load times, auto-play music, and pop-ups, then measured how much each increased people's blood pressure…" https://www.pcmag.com/news/study-finds-bad-web-design-is-killing-us-all-with-stress CPUX-F Curriculum and Glossary (PDF) By The International Usability and UX Qualifications Board (UXQB). "This document defines what you need to know in order to pass the certification test for Certified Professional for Usability and User Experience -Foundation Level (CPUX-F)…" https://uxqb.org/public/documents/CPUX-F_EN_Curriculum-and-Glossary.pdf +11: WEBWASTE & SUSTAINABILITY. This Article Emits 0.28g of CO2 Every Time It's Viewed By Håkon L'orange. "…By reading this article you'll hopefully get a better understanding and become more conscious about the carbon footprint of websites and digital products. And fear not. It's not all carbon shaming. I'll also provide some tips to design and develop more sustainable products and websites. More often than not, these tweaks will also improve your user's experiences…" https://ux.christmas/2020/21 [Section one ends.] ++ SECTION TWO: +12: What Can You Find at the Web Design Reference Site? Accessibility Information. https://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/accessibility.html Association Information. https://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/associations.html Book Listings. https://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/books.html Cascading Style Sheets Information. https://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/css.html Color Information. https://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/color.html Drupal Information. https://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/drupal.html Evaluation & Testing Information. https://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/testing.html Event Information. https://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/events.html HTML Information. https://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/html.html Information Architecture Information. https://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/architecture.html JavaScript Information. https://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/javascript.html Miscellaneous Web Information. https://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/misc.html Navigation Information. https://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/navigation.html PHP Information. https://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/php.html Sites & Blogs Listing. https://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/sites.html Standards, Guidelines & Pattern Information. https://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/standards.html Tool Information. https://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/tools.html Typography Information. https://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/type.html Usability Information. https://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/usability.html WebWaste & Sustainability Information. https://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/webwaste.html XML Information. https://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/xml.html [Section two ends.] ++END NOTES. + SUBSCRIPTION INFO. WEB DESIGN UPDATE is available by subscription. For information on how to subscribe and unsubscribe please visit: https://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/webdev_listserv.html The Web Design Reference Site also has a RSS 2.0 feed for site updates. + TEXT EMAIL NEWSLETTER (TEN). As a navigation aid for screen readers we do our best to conform to the accessible Text Email Newsletter (TEN) guidelines. Please let me know if there is anything else we can do to make navigation easier. For TEN guideline information please visit: http://www.headstar.com/ten + SIGN OFF. Until next time, Laura L. Carlson Information Technology Systems and Services University of Minnesota Duluth Duluth, MN U.S.A. 55812-3009 mailto:lcarlson@d.umn.edu [Issue ends.]