+++ WEB DESIGN UPDATE. - Volume 21, Issue 41, April 5, 2023. An email newsletter to distribute news and information about web design and development. ++ISSUE 41 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: COLOR. 03: EVALUATION & TESTING. 04: EVENTS. 05: HTML. 06: INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE. 07: JAVASCRIPT. 08: MISCELLANEOUS. 09: NAVIGATION. 10: PHP. 11: TOOLS. 12: USABILITY. 13: WEBWASTE & SUSTAINABILITY. SECTION TWO: 14: What Can You Find at the Web Design Reference Site? [Contents ends.] ++ SECTION ONE: New references. +01: ACCESSIBILITY. The WebAIM Million (Survey Results) By WebAIM. "…Our 2023 analysis saw small decreases in the number of detected accessibility errors and WCAG conformance failures…" https://webaim.org/projects/million/ We Need Accessibility Action. And We Need It Now. By Eric Eggert. "…We have standards for almost a quarter of a century and people are unable or unwilling to follow them… After many, many, years of trying to make the web accessible doing the same things, maybe it is time to re-evaluate. Take a look at the list of issues and develop a strategy on how to address each of them…" https://yatil.net/blog/accessibility-action Alternate Visions for Accessibility in the Future (Video) By Gregg Vanderheiden, Sina Bahram, et. al. "Our current approach to accessibility has been successful for some technologies and for some disabilities. But penetration or adoption has been estimated at only 5 to 10% of products or websites and then only for people with some types degrees and combinations of disability. This presentation and panel was therefore included to explore whether emerging technologies might allow us to address accessibility in new ways…" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mn1eryXvNkU Exposing Field Errors By Adrian Roselli. "This post is about exposing field errors programmatically. I have already shared some opinions (such as a caution about displaying messages below fields or avoiding default browser field validation), but this post dives into using ARIA to convey them to screen reader users…" https://adrianroselli.com/2023/04/exposing-field-errors.html Accessible Forms By Script Raccoon. "This repository includes two forms which are very similar, but one is accessible while the other one is not…" https://github.com/ScriptRaccoon/accessible-form-comparison Developer Feedback About ARIA Live Regions (Survey) By Chrome's and Microsoft's A11y Teams. "Love or hate live regions? We want your feedback. Chrome's a11y team is working with Microsoft to try to improve them. We need your input so that we solve the actual probelms out there". http://aka.ms/LiveRegionDevSurvey WCAG 2.1 - Improving Digital Accessibility By Chad Miller. "Improving Navigation Menus and Focus Indicators…" https://mn.gov/mnit/media/blog/?id=38-570818 Alternative Text in the Wild: 5 Alternative Text Examples By Whitney Lewis. "…In this article, we'll go through 5 alternative text examples found on real websites. We'll explain why the example is right or could be better to help you make the best alternative text choices for your own images…" https://blog.pope.tech/2023/03/31/alternative-text-in-the-wild-5-alternative-text-examples/ Accessibility for Designer: Where Do I Start? By Stéphanie Walter. "When talking about accessibility, especially to designers, I'm often asked 'where should I start if I am interested in the topic and want to learn more?'. If you know my content, you know I'm hoarding many resources. So, here we are: I put together (and will update) this list of resources, articles, blog posts, and checklists to help you, designers, get started on your 'building more accessible products' journey…" https://stephaniewalter.design/blog/accessibility-resources-tools-articles-books-for-designer/ GitHub Accessibility: Bridging the Disability Divide through Code Collaboration (Video) By Ed Summers. "…Join Ed Summers, Head of Accessibility at GitHub, for a celebration of disabled developers and a peak at some of the technology that empowers them to do their best work…" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=44tLtOcHoRk Accessibility Asked and Answered: What is a Web Accessibility Audit? By Hiram Kuykendall. "A web accessibility audit evaluates a digital asset for accessibility to people with disabilities…" https://www.microassist.com/digital-accessibility/what-is-a-web-accessibility-audit/ Web Accessibility Laws Set To Enter New Era As DOJ Gears Up For Spring Rulemaking By Gus Alexiou. "This May the U.S. Department of Justice's Civil Rights Division will kickstart a rulemaking procedure some 13 years in the making aimed at codifying technical standards to assist public entities in complying with obligations to make their websites accessible to individuals with disabilities…" https://www.forbes.com/sites/gusalexiou/2023/03/24/web-accessibility-laws-set-to-enter-new-era-as-doj-gears-up-for-spring-rulemaking/ Legal Update: March 2023 By Ken Nakata. "March started out slowly with hardly any cases, but then by the middle of the month, some interesting cases started showing up in my Lexis feed. All in all, I'd say it was one of the more interesting months in the last year for web accessibility…" https://convergeaccessibility.com/2023/04/03/legal-update-march-2023/ +02: COLOR. When I Get That Low Contrast Feeling, I Need Non-Textual Healing By Ian Lloyd. "…Does it fail 1.4.11?…" https://www.tpgi.com/when-i-get-that-low-contrast-feeling-i-need-non-textual-healing/ +03: EVALUATION & TESTING. Building an R&D Agenda (From the Future of Interface Workshop) (Video) By Gregg Vanderheiden et.al. "…The purpose of the whole 2-Day workshop was to kick off the development of an R&D Agenda that would allow us to develop the knowledge and tools needed so that 20 years from now, as these predicted interface technologies emerged, they could be born accessible instead of having access to them follow years later…" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wnYoF0-Uuw4 Five Tips for Focus Groups With People Who Are Blind or Have Low Vision By Vision Australia. "…I want to give anyone reading this the confidence to have a go at making their focus groups more inclusive. So here are 5 learnings for you to add to your tool box…" https://www.visionaustralia.org/business-consulting/digital-access/blog/five-tips-for-running-focus-groups +04: EVENTS. Accessible Events and Conferences - How Accommodating Are You? April 18, 2023. Online https://accessibilityonline.org/ADA-Audio/session/?id=111052 TechAccess Oklahoma April 15-21, 2023. Online https://techaccessok.org/ Creating Accessible iOS Apps: An Action Plan April 20, 2023. Online and New York, New York, U.S.A. https://www.meetup.com/a11ynyc/events/292133959/ International Ally User Group April 27, 2023. Online https://usergroup.ally.ac/s/discussion/calendar/entry/view?id=235 Accessibility Camp Bay Area May 5, 2023. San Francisco, California, U.S.A. https://www.accessibilitycampbay.org/ Web Accessibility Webinar for Developers with Dennis Lembrée May 10, 2023. Online https://eastersealstech.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_b6xeyAeWTvWlkReypabAug +05: HTML. What is Semantic HTML? By David A. Kennedy. "on refrain comes up often in the accessibility field. "Use semantic HTML," people say. But what does that mean and why does it matter? More importantly, what do you get with semantic HTML…" https://www.a11yproject.com/posts/what-is-semantic-html/ Getting Started with HTML Tables By Mark Harbottle. "HTML tables are intended for displaying tabular data on a web page. They're great for displaying information in an organized way, and can be styled with CSS to match the look and feel of our website. In this tutorial, we'll cover the basics of creating HTML tables and adding styles to make them responsive and mobile-friendly…" https://www.sitepoint.com/html-tables-get-started/ +06: INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE. Information Architecture: 3 Key Models (Video) By Page Laubheimer. "Navigation, taxonomies, and the full IA structure are different ways of modeling a product's structure. We review the differences and similarities between these three different IA models." https://www.nngroup.com/videos/information-architecture-models/ +07: JAVASCRIPT. Defaulting on Single Page Applications (SPA) By Zach Leatherman. "…You can't JavaScript your way out of an excess-JavaScript problem. These large JavaScript bundles are costly to site performance…" https://www.zachleat.com/web/single-page-applications/ The Rise and Fall of JavaScript Libraries By Chris Ferdinandi. "This week, I joined Paul Mikulskis on the LogRocket podcast to talk about the rise and fall of JavaScript libraries…" https://gomakethings.com/the-rise-and-fall-of-javascript-libraries/ Mastering the JavaScript switch Statement By Mark O'Neill. "The JavaScript switch statement is a way to make decisions in your code based on different conditions. It is a more organized and concise alternative to using multiple if-else statements…" https://www.sitepoint.com/javascript-switch-statement/ +08: MISCELLANEOUS. Artificial nor Intelligent By Hidde de Vries. "Large Language Models (LLMs) and tools based on them (like ChatGPT) are all some in tech talk about today. I struggle with the optimism I see from businesses, the haphazard deployment of these systems and the seemingly ever-expanding boundaries of what we are prepared to call 'artificially intelligent'. I mean, arguably they are artificial nor intelligent…" https://hidde.blog/artificial-nor-intelligent/ Modern Web Development: Centering DIVs in New Exciting Wrong Ways With AI! By Christian Heilmann. "Earlier today I spoke at the Microsoft Reactor meetup in Berlin about frontend development, LLMs, ChatGPT, GitHub Copilot and what it means to our work and careers. In this 32 minute talk and 5 minutes of Q&A, I covered a lot of ground…" https://christianheilmann.com/2023/03/31/modern-web-development-centering-divs-in-new-exciting-wrong-ways-with-ai/ +09: NAVIGATION. Mega-Accessible - Mega Menus (Video) By Stephanie Andrecovich. "…In this talk, we'll discuss menu design patterns and the usage for each. We'll then dive into accessible menu implementations for keyboard, mouse and screen reader interactions and review live examples of these best practices…" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YrTSjAxGnig Stephanie's Slides (PDF): https://www.deque.com/axe-con/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/SA_Accessible-MM_Final-1.pdf 50.1% Empty Links By Manuel Matuzović. "…More than half of the websites tested contained empty links (links with no text). That usually happens when you link an image, but it has no alt attribute or the alt attribute has no value…" https://www.matuzo.at/blog/2023/empty-links/ +10: PHP. Using PHP Arrays: A Guide for Beginners By Matt Mickiewicz. "In this article, we'll cover the basics of PHP arrays along with some advanced concepts. We'll start by introducing you to what an array is, before moving on to the basic syntax of arrays and the different types of indexes available…" https://www.sitepoint.com/php-arrays-tutorial/ 39 PHP String Functions You Can't Live Without By Mark Harbottle. "In this article, we'll take a quick look at the most popular PHP string functions and provide simple examples…" https://www.sitepoint.com/php-string-functions/ +11: TOOLS. Color Contrast Tool By Shimanta Krishna Bhuyan. "A tool to check for color contrast using APCA…" https://www.color-contrast.dev/ +12: USABILITY. Aligning Jakob Nielsen's 10 Usability Heuristics with the WCAG 2.1 By Homer Gaines. "After speaking with a team of designers who referenced using Jakob Nielsen's 10 Usability Heuristics for interface design while working on a redesign project, I wondered how these guidelines aligned with the current Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG)…" https://rightbadcode.com/aligning-jakob-nielsens-10-usability-heuristics-with-the-wcag-21 Impact on UX: Individual Designers vs. Systematic Methodology (Video) By Jakob Nielsen. "How is the quality of the final design impacted by the contribution of individual designers vs. the outcome of following systematic UX methodology?" https://www.nngroup.com/videos/impact-on-ux/ Lean UX & Agile Glossary By Anna Kaley and Rachel Krause. "Unsure of what a word means and how it applies to UX in-practice? Use this glossary to quickly clarify key terms and Agile concepts." https://www.nngroup.com/articles/agile-glossary/ Provide a "Fully Automatic Address Lookup" Feature (55% Don't) By Edward Scott. "Typos and other entry errors are common occurrences for users entering their address information in checkout. Such errors slow users' progress through checkout and increase the amount of friction. A 'Fully Automatic Address Lookup' feature can resolve the issues for most users…" https://baymard.com/blog/automatic-address-lookup +13: WEBWASTE & SUSTAINABILITY. A Sustainability First Digital Build for the Voice of the UK's Sustainable Built Environment By Wholegrain Digital. "We're excited today, to share the launch of a brand new website for the UK Green Building Council (UKGBC). A superlight, sustainable online space that truly reflects the organisation's vision for a more sustainable future.…" https://www.wholegraindigital.com/blog/sustainability-first-built-environment/ [Section one ends.] ++ SECTION TWO: +14: 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.]