+++ WEB DESIGN UPDATE. - Volume 20, Issue 40, March 30, 2022. An email newsletter to distribute news and information about web design and development. ++ISSUE 40 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: EVALUATION & TESTING. 04: EVENTS. 05: HTML. 06: JAVASCRIPT. 07: MISCELLANEOUS. 08: NAVIGATION. 09: TYPOGRAPHY. 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. Spotlight: What Happens When a Project Team Shifts Accessibility Left? By Jennie Delisi. "A project's accessibility success story…" http://mn.gov/mnit/about-mnit/accessibility/news/index.jsp?id=38-522146 4 Accessibility Mistakes Plaguing Most Government Websites By Mike Gifford. "…our research has illuminated the government's most common accessibility pitfalls, which are… Missing alternative text (alt text)… Bad Accessible Rich Internet Applications (ARIA), Third-party integrations, Web forms…" https://www.govloop.com/community/blog/4-accessibility-mistakes-plaguing-most-government-websites/ There Are No Bad Questions in Accessibility By Mark Steadman. "…All accessibility advocates want the same thing. A world where all digital content is accessible for everyone to use. That all starts with you as the developer reaching out and asking the questions you need answered!" https://dev.to/steady5063/there-are-no-bad-questions-in-accessibility-o9p Haben Girma, a deafblind woman, shares her struggle against ableism and encourages advocacy to improve accessibility By Carolina Orduno. "In honor of Women's History Month, Emory University's Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion held a conversation with Haben Girma, the first deafblind person to graduate from Harvard Law School (Mass.), on confronting ableism…" https://emorywheel.com/haben-girma-a-deafblind-woman-shares-her-struggle-against-ableism-and-encourages-advocacy-to-improve-accessibility/ Maybe Don't Use Flow Charts on GitHub By Adrian Roselli. "…That was a sign that nobody had done any testing with a screen reader, let alone understood how they worked. I looked at some sample charts and found screen readers announce them as nothing but run-on text. There are no relationships, no structure, nothing to give context to the chart…" https://adrianroselli.com/2022/03/maybe-dont-use-flow-charts-on-github.html ADA Web Site Compliance Still Not a Thing By Adrian Roselli. "…For years I have worked with clients who refer to digital/web accessibility as ADA work. They have talked about ADA testers, ADA reviews, ADA requirements, and so on. My efforts to correct that have been ruined by overlay vendors who promise ADA compliance in their marketing materials. Except the ADA is silent about the web.…" https://adrianroselli.com/2022/03/ada-web-site-compliance-still-not-a-thing.html Overlays Underwhelm By Adrian Roselli. "Accessibility overlays bring promises of accessible sites in one line of code, but experiences from users tell us the opposite." https://equalentry.com/overlays-underwhelm-accessibility-nyc-recap/ +02: CASCADING STYLE SHEETS. Windows High Contrast Mode, Forced Colors Mode And CSS Custom Properties By Eric Bailey. "CSS Custom Properties can be used for far more than just color, and their values update in realtime, both via display mode updates and JavaScript logic. This is powerful stuff. Eric explains how modern CSS is a powerful piece of assistive technology that can thread into it to create flexible, maintainable and adaptive digital experiences…" https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2022/03/windows-high-contrast-colors-mode-css-custom-properties/ You're Unselectable By Adrian Roselli. "This block of code came across my Twitter timeline today framed as a CSS tip to prevent text selection on a web page…" https://adrianroselli.com/2022/03/youre-unselectable.html The Hidden Fundamentals of CSS (Video) By Josh W. Comeau. "CSS can sometimes feel like a very inconsistent language. Why is this snippet I've used countless times suddenly behaving differently…" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xt1Cw4qM3Ec +03: EVALUATION & TESTING. You Say 'Potato,' I Say 'Focus Group' By Steve Krug. "There's one phenomenon you really should be prepared for when you introduce the idea of usability tests in your organization: People will think you mean you're going to be doing focus groups…" https://sensible.com/you-say-potato-i-say-focus-group/ Get More Insight From Smaller Surveys By Patchworking By Caroline Jarrett. "There's a dilemma in the world of surveys: people do not want to answer Big Honkin' Surveys any more, but we want to find out lots of things from them. My answer is to try patchworking…" https://www.effortmark.co.uk/surveys-and-patchworking/ +04: EVENTS. Building an Accessibility-First Generation March 31, 2022. Online https://www.meetup.com/A11YCollective/events/283188672/ The Business Case for Accessibility April 7, 2022, 1pm AEST. Online. https://intopia.digital/articles/intopia-webinar-the-business-case-for-accessibility-7-april-2022/ 31 Days of Universal Design for Learning (UDL) April 21, 2022. Online https://go.3playmedia.com/wbnr-04-21-2022-udl What the Pandemic Has Taught Us About How to Make Every Meeting More Accessible: Online or Hybrid Learning that Leaves No One Behind May 5, 2022. Online https://go.3playmedia.com/wbnr-05-05-2022-hybrid 2022 Web Accessibility Training with Dennis E. Lembrée May 11, 2022. Online https://eastersealstech.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_oqidZtPHTW6iXWon7yOO3w WordPress Accessibility Day Returns November 2-3, 2022. Global https://www.lireo.com/wordpress-accessibility-day-returns-november-2-3-2022/ https://wpaccessibilityday.org/ +05: HTML. Those HTML Attributes You Never Use By Louis Lazaris. "In this article, Louis Lazaris describes and demonstrates some interesting HTML attributes that you may or may not have heard of and perhaps find useful enough to personally use in one of your projects.…" https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2022/03/html-attributes-you-never-use/ HTML Concepts: Commands and Facets By Jens Oliver Meiert. "In the HTML concepts series I'm presenting lesser known ideas from the huge HTML specification. In this episode, let's have a quick look at commands and facets…" https://meiert.com/en/blog/html-commands-and-facets/ +06: JAVASCRIPT. Working with Forms with Vanilla JavaScript By Chris Ferdinandi. "Today, we're going to look at some modern JavaScript methods for working with forms and form data…" https://gomakethings.com/working-with-forms-with-vanilla-javascript/ What WAI-ARIA "Hidden" Warnings Mean For Your Website By Bureau of Internet Accessibility. "…One of the most common automated accessibility warnings is 'ARIA Hidden,' which occurs when the aria-hidden attribute is set to aria-hidden='true.' The attribute hides content from the accessibility API, which can be useful in some circumstances, but it can also create serious usability concerns…" https://www.boia.org/blog/what-wai-aria-hidden-warnings-mean-for-your-website +07: MISCELLANEOUS. Living History Through Judy Heumann By Adam Cord Scott. "I'm a 28 year old adult with a deafness disability who uses a cochlear implant to help me hear…" https://knowbility.org/blog/2022/living-history-through-judy-heumann +08: NAVIGATION. Descriptive Links and Plain Language (Video) By Molly Moore. "All right. Hello, everyone. Good evening. Welcome to Knowbility's Be A Digital Ally. Today, we are going to be talking about descriptive links and plain language…" https://knowbility.org/blog/2022/descriptive-links-and-plain-language +09: TYPOGRAPHY. The Easy Way to Host Google Fonts Locally By Eric Karkovack. "…there are also compelling reasons to host Google Fonts locally on your web server. Privacy is one… Performance is another … If you're looking to host Google Fonts locally, we'll introduce you to an easy way to implement them. Seriously - you could be up and running within a few minutes…" https://speckyboy.com/easy-way-to-host-google-fonts-locally/ +10: USABILITY. You ≠ User (UX Slogan #1) (Video) By Jakob Nielsen. "The foundation of user experience is the difference between the people on the design team and the people using the product. You can't ask users to design, but you also can't ask the designers whether their own design will be easy for the target audience to use." https://www.nngroup.com/videos/you-are-not-user-slogan/ 6 Tips for Improving Language Switchers on Ecommerce Sites By Feifei Liu. "The language-switching feature on ecommerce sites should be placed in the top corners on desktop sites and above the fold on mobile, with enough details and flexibility to satisfy user needs." https://www.nngroup.com/articles/language-switching-ecommerce/ +11: WEBWASTE & SUSTAINABILITY. Create Low-Carbon Images By Climate Action Tech. "… 1.) Remove unnecessary images that do not enhance the user experience (or use an alternative method to integrate them like svg code, base64 link). 2.) Use the design to reduce the image weight (image size, positioning, number of images). 3.) Use the right format for an image and optimize the image (proper size, compression, remove metadata). 4.) Use more advanced enhancements (lazy loading, new formats, click to load) with a fallback to support all the devices and browsers. 5.) Make sure the image is accessible to all users (alt text) and to users without javascript…" https://climateaction.tech/actions/create-low-carbon-images/ The Dark Side of Green Web Design By Tom Greenwood. "…As the climate crisis deepens, we need to save every drop of energy that we can. Shifting websites away from generic white backgrounds towards darker tones can only be a good thing environmentally…" https://www.wholegraindigital.com/blog/dark-colour-web-design/ Need for Long-Term Thinking By Gerry McGovern. "Most of our best and brightest minds are focused on creating trash. Practically nothing tech is built to last…" https://gerrymcgovern.com/need-for-long-term-thinking/ [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.]