+++ WEB DESIGN UPDATE. - Volume 20, Issue 30, January 19, 2022. An email newsletter to distribute news and information about web design and development. ++ISSUE 30 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: CASCADING STYLE SHEETS. 03: DRUPAL. 04: EVALUATION & TESTING. 05: EVENTS. 06: HTML. 07: JAVASCRIPT. 08: MISCELLANEOUS. 09: NAVIGATION. 10: TOOLS. 11: USABILITY. 12: WEBWASTE & SUSTAINABILITY. SECTION TWO: 13: What Can You Find at the Web Design Reference Site? [Contents ends.] ++ SECTION ONE: New references. +01: ACCESSIBILITY. Building an Accessible Digital World By Sarah Horton. "Who is responsible for making sure the digital world is accessible to people with disabilities? Examined through the lens of the physical built world, those of us who design and construct the digital environment have a significant role to play. But are we prepared?…" https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9681668 How People with Disabilities Browse the Web Using Assistive Technologies [Video Series] By Deborah Edwards-Onoro. "…One resource I highly recommended was recently published: the Browsing with assistive technology video series from TetraLogical…" https://www.lireo.com/how-people-with-disabilities-browse-the-web-using-assistive-technologies-video-series/ Writing Great Alt Text: Emotion Matters By Jake Archibald. "…The relevant parts of an image aren't limited to the cold hard facts. Images can make you feel a particular way, and that's something that should be made available to a screen reader user.…" https://jakearchibald.com/2021/great-alt-text/ Short Note on Emoji Text Alternative Variations By Steve Faulkner. "…The following table has examples of some (of the many) emojis and how they are described in text by some popular screen readers. Note that there are differences in how they are described in some cases…" https://html5accessibility.com/stuff/2022/01/17/short-note-on-emoji-text-alternative-variations/ One Giant Leap for Accessibility: Meet the New Photo Metadata Standards By Melanie Mudge. "ICYMI, the International Press Telecommunications Council's (IPTC) newest photo metadata standards went into effect in October 2021 and include two new properties: Alt Text (Accessibility) and Extended Description (Accessibility)…" https://www.scribelytribe.com/blog/one-giant-leap-for-accessibility-meet-the-new-photo-metadata-standards Do I Need to Write Podcast Transcripts for Accessibility? By Bureau of Internet Accessibility. "…we'll explain why text alternatives for audio-only content are helpful - and provide some best practices for creating and publishing…" https://www.boia.org/blog/do-i-need-to-write-podcast-transcripts-for-accessibility Accessibility Data Is Not The Enemy By Gareth Ford Williams. "…If you want good data then think about the questions you are asking. Make sure they are about user experience and not marketing or diversity, and make sure that you track changes overtime with statistically significant user data so you can prove the impact of your accessibility programme, and give weight to the statement that Accessibility Benefits Everyone." https://garethfordwilliams.medium.com/accessibility-data-is-not-the-enemy-9e93961b437a Full Accessibility Tree in Chrome DevTools By Johan Bay. "Chrome DevTools is launching a full accessibility tree making it easier for developers to get an overview of the whole tree. In this post find out how this tree is created and how to use it in your work…" https://developer.chrome.com/blog/full-accessibility-tree/ The Real Added Costs of Accessibility By Joe Dolson. "For many years, I've seen repeated - and have myself repeated - the idea that an accessible website is not more expensive…" https://www.joedolson.com/2022/01/the-real-added-costs-of-accessibility/ NHL Anaheim Ducks Ask Judge to Toss Disability Suit Over Website By Peter Hayes. "The Anaheim Ducks Hockey Club told a federal court that a proposed Americans with Disabilities Act class action alleging its website fails to accommodate visually-impaired people should be dismissed because the named plaintiff is 'not a bona fide patron.'…" https://news.bloomberglaw.com/litigation/nhl-anaheim-ducks-say-serial-plaintiff-filed-website-access-suit Web Accessibility Lawsuits Dramatically Rose in 2021. Here's Why. By Bureau of Internet Accessibility. "…we'll take a closer look at key statistics from the report - and explain how brands can limit their chances of litigation"…" https://www.boia.org/blog/web-accessibility-lawsuits-dramatically-rose-in-2021.-heres-why +02: CASCADING STYLE SHEETS. Make Beautiful Gradients By Josh W. Comeau. "…In this blog post, we're going to learn about why this happens, and how we can use color theory to create rich, vivid, thoroughly-alive gradients…" https://www.joshwcomeau.com/css/make-beautiful-gradients/ Creating Accessible CSS Art By Alvaro Montoro. "…In this post, we will not see how to create CSS drawings and illustrations (there are plenty of those posts). Instead, we will focus on some tips and best practices to make that CSS art more accessible for everyone…" https://alvaromontoro.com/blog/67979/creating-accessible-css-art Learn Responsive Design By Jeremy Keith. "A course exploring all aspects of responsive design. Learn how to make sites that look great and work well for everyone… https://web.dev/learn/design/ Writing Better CSS By Aleksandr Hovhannisyan. "CSS has come a long way since the early days of web development, when tables and various other hacks were used for layout and positioning…" https://www.aleksandrhovhannisyan.com/blog/writing-better-css/ Comparing CSS Specificity Values By Kilian Valkhof. "CSS Specificity is usually written out as [a,b,c] for ID's, classes and elements respectively…" https://kilianvalkhof.com/2022/css-html/comparing-css-specificity-values/ +03: DRUPAL. 9 Frequently Asked Questions About Drupal 7 End of Life By Evolving Web. "If your organization is still using Drupal 7, it's time to get serious about migrating to Drupal 9. Drupal 7's end of life is quickly approaching, and there is a lot for you to think about. So we've assembled some commonly asked questions to help guide your next steps…" https://evolvingweb.ca/blog/9-frequently-asked-questions-about-drupal-7-end-life +04: EVALUATION & TESTING. Completion Times and Preference for Sliders vs. Numeric Scales By Jeff Sauro and Jim Lewis. "…In this article, we report how long it took participants to complete ratings with slider and numeric scales and examine user preference for the scale formats…" https://measuringu.com/time-and-preference-numeric-slider-desktop-mobile/ +05: EVENTS. Taking Your Accessibility Statement To The Next Level February 24, 2022. Online https://www.tpgi.com/webinar-february-25-at-12pm-et-taking-your-accessibility-statement-to-the-next-level/ Pitfalls of Machine Generated PDFs June 9, 2022. Online https://www.accessibilityassociation.org/s/webinar-details?id=a0A3p0000183egREAQ UXPA 2022 Conference June 21-23, 2022. San Diego, California, U.S.A. https://uxpa2022.org/ HCI International 2022 June 26-July 1, 2022. Gothenburg, Sweden. https://2022.hci.international/ +06: HTML. Boolean Attributes in HTML and ARIA: What's the Difference? By Hidde de Vries. "Some attributes in ARIA are boolean(-like). These attributes may seem a lot like boolean attributes in HTML, but there are some important differences to be aware of…" https://hiddedevries.nl/en/blog/2022-01-12-boolean-attributes-in-html-and-aria-whats-the-difference HTML is General, ARIA is Specific By Dave Rupert. "…There's a tension there, but I think that's what you get in a robust language designed to be liberal in what it accepts but conservative in what it does." https://daverupert.com/2022/01/html-is-general-aria-is-specific/ HTML5 Accessibility By Steve Faulkner. "Get the current accessibility support status of HTML5 features across major browsers…" https://html5accessibility.com/ On the Difficulty of Counting the Number of HTML Elements By Jens Oliver Meiert. "How many HTML elements are there? What looks like a fairly simple question, isn't one…" https://meiert.com/en/blog/the-number-of-html-elements/ +07: JAVASCRIPT. The Optional Chaining Operator, 'Modern' Browsers, and My Mom By Jim Nielsen. "…The real-life impact of our technical decisions really hit home to me once again: my Mom had trouble volunteering and participating in her local community because somebody shipped the optional chaining operator in their production JavaScript. Reminds me of this line, which I love, from the W3C's design principles: 'The internet is for end users: any change made to the web platform has the potential to affect vast numbers of people, and may have a profound impact on any person's life.'" https://blog.jim-nielsen.com/2022/a-web-for-all/ +08: MISCELLANEOUS. How To Hire For Digital Accessibility Roles By Kate Kalcevich. "Accessibility must be a permanent program within organizations, much like security. In this article, Kate Kalcevich shares tips on which skills and questions to keep in mind when hiring for digital accessibility roles…" https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2022/01/how-hire-digital-accessibility-roles/ My First Impressions of Web3 By Moxie Marlinspike. "…given all of the recent attention into what is now being called web3, I decided to explore some of what has been happening in that space more thoroughly to see what I may be missing…" https://moxie.org/2022/01/07/web3-first-impressions.html Is It Time to Consider Web V3? By David Strom. "I am not so sure…" https://blog.strom.com/wp/?p=9059 +09: NAVIGATION. Revisiting Why Hyperlinks are Blue By Elise Blanchard. "…I love knowing that the original blue was chosen with care and through testing, that this research and knowledge was shared through a community…" https://blog.mozilla.org/en/internet-culture/why-are-hyperlinks-blue-revisited/ +10: TOOLS. WAI-ARIA Usage By Gez Lemon. "A bookmarklet to evaluate WAI-ARIA according to the ARIA in HTML specification: * Document conformance requirements for use of ARIA attributes in HTML * Allowed ARIA roles, states, and properties Grab the bookmarklet from this page to add it to your browser's bookmarks…" https://github.com/ThePacielloGroup/WAI-ARIA-Usage +11: USABILITY. Scroll to Top: Does it Need to be Accessible? By Raghavendra Satish Peri. "…Do we need to even expose the scroll to top button to keyboard & assistive technology user groups? … If the scroll to top element is not being exposed, do we need to fail against accessibility guidelines? …" https://www.digitala11y.com/scroll-to-top-does-it-need-to-be-accessible/ Content Management Models (Video) By Anna Kaley and Maria Rosala. "There are 3 ways to structure digital content production in an organization: centralized (a single team owns creation, management, and publication) or decentralized (domain experts manage their own content), as well as hybrids between these two…" https://www.nngroup.com/videos/content-management-model/ The State of UX Maturity: Data from Our Self-Assessment Quiz By Kate Moran. "Half of 5,371 UX professionals were in stage 3 (emergent maturity) out of the 6-stage UX maturity model, and very few scored at the highest end. The lowest-maturity organizations are likely not captured." https://www.nngroup.com/articles/state-ux-maturity-quiz/ +12: WEBWASTE & SUSTAINABILITY. Digital Waste Explained By Gerry McGovern. "… Really think before you use images or video. Are they truly necessary? Are they genuinely adding something? If you're using video, really focus on making it as short as possible. Compress those images and make sure and choose the right format to save them in. Stay well under 100 KB, and ideally under 50 KB. Use lazy loading so that the image is not loaded until you scroll down to it. Consider image blurring, whereby only a blur of the image is initially loaded, and the person has to click on the image to see it at proper resolution …" http://digitalwasteaudit.com/digitalwasteexplained.html 8 Video Optimization Tips for Faster Loading Times By Cody Arsenault. "…This guide to video optimization explains how to make sure your multimedia content is increasing conversions instead of driving away users…" https://www.keycdn.com/blog/video-optimization More Than 1,000 Substances Go into One Smartphone By Gerry McGovern. "…One assumption I've long had is that new technology is better. But is it? We have reached a point where we have more than enough technology. We don't need faster speeds to save the climate. We need the opposite. We need slower speeds. Slowing down will be good for our physical and mental health and good for the climate. Move slowly and repair things." https://gerrymcgovern.com/more-than-1000-substances-go-into-one-smartphone/ [Section one ends.] ++ SECTION TWO: +13: 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.]