+++ WEB DESIGN UPDATE. - Volume 22, Issue 07, August 9, 2023. An email newsletter to distribute news and information about web design and development. ++ISSUE 07 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: COLOR. 04: DRUPAL. 05: EVALUATION & TESTING. 06: EVENTS. 07: HTML. 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. How Does Reflowing Content Affect People With Screen Magnification? By Andrew Nevins. "Website authors can help meet the needs of people with low vision, with or without screen magnification software, by testing web content against WCAG Success Criterion Reflow 1.4.10…" https://www.tpgi.com/how-does-reflowing-content-affect-people-with-screen-magnification/ Inspecting WCAG 2.2: Focus Not Obscured with David Cox, Imran Hussain, and Chris Ballantine-Thomas (Video) By Government Digital Service (GDS). "This was the first in a series of workshops focussing on the new Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2 criteria, run by the GOV.UK Design System team. This particular workshop concentrated on the drafted 'Focus not Obscured' criteria from WCAG 2.2." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_fi7SsSkBtM&t=710s Testing a Component's Accessibility with David Cox, Imran Hussain, and Chris Ballantine-Thomas (Video) By Government Digital Service (GDS). "In this 90-minute workshop, the GOV.UK Design System team demonstrates how they test components and patterns for accessibility…" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C770bSvGr_E?t=657 In the Thick of It - a Comprehensive Approach to Accessibility and Inclusive Design With Jeff Wiesner (Video) By Jeff Wiesner. "Across the accessibility community, groups will get some but not all aspects of accessibility and inclusive design correct. We each have our own vantage point regarding accessibility and tend to do well according to our own standards. As we learn more about the broad spectrum of our field, we realize that we have glaring gaps. This talk will cover a range of accessibility topics to be used as a sort of checklist for each participating entity to identify their areas of weakness. We will then provide guidance and "next steps" to make improvements. " https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=slOoDeztWD0 5 Heading Accessibility Issues and How to Fix Them By Whitney Lewis. "A heading structure is how headings are used to organize content in a document or on a webpage. Typically, a heading structure follows an organized and systematic order starting with an H1 and then having H2, H3, and H4 below that…" https://blog.pope.tech/2022/08/04/5-heading-accessibility-issues-and-how-to-fix-them/ 8 Common Heading Questions By Whitney Lewis. "Most of the time, an accessible heading structure follows the typical guidelines of starting with an h1, only one h1 on a page, and no skipped headings. But, when we develop websites, it isn't always that straightforward…" https://blog.pope.tech/2023/07/31/8-common-heading-questions/ How to Create Better (And More Accessible) Heading Structures (Video) By Pope Tech. "Learn what a heading hierarchy is, tips for when to create a new subheading, and accessibility mistakes to avoid when creating heading structures…" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y7V__NE8xjk Designing Accessible Text Over Images: Best Practices, Techniques, And Resources (Part 1) By Hannah Milan. "In this two-part series of articles, Hannah Milan covers the best practices when using various accessible text over images techniques for designing your web and mobile app content. These practices can help you to make the text over images more accessible while retaining an aesthetically pleasing look. Get ready to deep-dive through the subtle changes in your design, such as the text's position, size, and background style, and explore the importance of using real text for accessibility purposes, as opposed to using images of text" https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2023/08/designing-accessible-text-over-images-part1/ Alt Text Hall of Fame By Stefan Bohacek. "My new project, Alt Text Hall of Fame is a celebration of the effort, ingenuity, and creativity that goes into making the web a friendlier and more inclusive place, one captioned image at a time…" https://alttexthalloffame.org/ Designing for Accessibility: Creating Inclusive and User-Centric Products By Stéphanie Walter. "Panel Notes with Léonie Watson and Rakesh Paladugula…" https://stephaniewalter.design/blog/designing-for-accessibility-creating-inclusive-and-user-centric-products/ Reacting To The Walt Disney Pictures Logo With Audio Description For Blind People (Video) By Tommy Edison. "Tommy, who's been blind since birth, reacts to the audio description of the Walt Disney Pictures animated logo." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-QSJS6QyCFQ Nondiscrimination on the Basis of Disability; Accessibility of Web Information and Services of State and Local Government Entities By U.S. Department of Justice. "The Department of Justice ('Department') is proposing to revise the regulation implementing title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act ('ADA') in order to establish specific requirements, including the adoption of specific technical standards, for making accessible the services, programs, and activities offered by State and local Government entities to the public through the web and mobile apps…" https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2023/08/04/2023-15823/nondiscrimination-on-the-basis-of-disability-accessibility-of-web-information-and-services-of-state Fact Sheet: Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on Accessibility of Web Information and Services of State and Local Government Entities By U.S. Department of Justice. "…This fact sheet gives a plain language summary of the NPRM…" https://www.ada.gov/notices/2023/07/20/web-nprm/ Hot Off the Presses: DOJ Issues Proposed ADA Regulations for State and Local Government Websites By John W. Egan, Minh N. Vu & Kristina M. Launey. "…here are some key points from the NPRM…" https://www.adatitleiii.com/2023/08/hot-off-the-presses-doj-issues-proposed-ada-regulations-for-state-and-local-government-websites/ New DOJ Web Accessibility Regulation is a Disaster By Ken Nakata. "Life seems so much brighter a week ago when the Disability Rights Section (DRS) at the Department of Justice (DOJ) sent their new web accessibility regulation to the Federal Register…" https://convergeaccessibility.com/2023/08/03/new-doj-web-accessibility-regulation-is-a-disaster/ Public Comment Sought on Proposed New "Access to Video Conferencing" Rule Published by the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) By Lainey Feingold. "This is an article about a proposed accessibility rule in the United States. The rule is proposed by the Federal Communications Commission, known as the FCC. If it becomes final, the rule will make it easier for disabled people to participate in video conferences. This is an article about a proposed accessibility rule in the United States. The rule is proposed by the Federal Communications Commission, known as the FCC. If it becomes final, the rule will make it easier for disabled people to participate in video conferences…" https://www.lflegal.com/2023/08/fcc-video-conferencing-access/ +02: CASCADING STYLE SHEETS. An Overview of CSS Sizing Units By Tiffany B. Brown. "In this article, we'll explore the four broad categories of CSS sizing units. We'll look at what the sizing units are for, where they work best, and how to choose the best ones in each scenario, so that our layouts will be optimized across a range of media and device dimensions…" https://www.sitepoint.com/css-sizing-units/ +03: COLOR & CONRAST. The Easy Intro to the APCA Contrast Method By Andrew Somers. Visual readability is a key part of web content, affecting 99% of internet users. For years, the WCAG 2.x contrast standard provided basic guidance for designers. Today, WCAG 2.x contrast is out of step with modern technology, and needs a replacement. Here is an overview of the need for this change, and the candidate replacement. https://git.apcacontrast.com/documentation/APCAeasyIntro +04: DRUPAL. Treat Accessibility Issues as Bugs, Not Feature Requests By Mike Gifford. "…In this Guide, you will learn: * Elements that shifted Drupal's culture to prioritize accessibility. * How involving users with disabilities helped us set bigger goals. * That you are not alone, and your approach to addressing accessibility should embrace that. …" https://github.com/readme/guides/fix-accessibility-bugs +05: EVALUATION & TESTING. Cognitive Walkthroughs Help Assess Interface Learnability (Video) By Kim Salazar. "A cognitive walkthrough is a task-based usability-inspection technique used to evaluate the learnability of a system from the perspective of a new user." https://www.nngroup.com/videos/cognitive-walkthroughs/ Visual Design of UX Maps (Video) By Sarah Gibbons. "Don't make a UX map pretty for the sake of making it pretty. Invest in creating a visual system for your map then testing it and getting feedback." https://www.nngroup.com/videos/visual-design-ux-maps/ Why We Need 11 Usability Heuristics By Jim Ekanem. "…In this article, I reason as to why the current number of 10 Usability Heuristics is not enough and present an additional heuristic called 'Accessibility and Inclusivity' which complements the other heuristics to ensure that everyone can interact with good interface designs in a satisfactory manner…" https://uxmag.com/articles/why-we-need-11-usability-heuristics Validating a Tech Savviness Metric for UX Research By Jeff Sauro and Jim Lewis. "…In this article, we report the results of four studies in which participants who completed a technical activity checklist attempted a variety of technical tasks. This allowed us to further explore the validity of the checklist approach by seeing how well it predicted task completion rates…" https://measuringu.com/validating-a-tech-savviness-metric-for-ux-research/ +06: EVENTS. The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C): Introduction to Web Accessibility Now-December 31 2023. Online. https://www.edx.org/learn/web-accessibility/the-world-wide-web-consortium-w3c-introduction-to-web-accessibility OZeWAI - Ask the Professionals August 10, 2023. Online. https://events.humanitix.com/ozewai-online-event-ask-the-professionals-august-2023 Accessible Research and Design Practices: Creating Experiences August 16, 2023. Online. https://www.eventbrite.com/e/accessible-research-and-design-practices-creating-experiences-tickets-647082419937 How to Create Accessible Videos August 23, 2023. Online. https://accessingenuity.com/blogs/access-ingenuity-webinars/how-to-create-accessible-videos-digital-accessibility-webinar UX Measurement Bootcamp September 12-October 5, 2023. Online https://measuringu.com/events/ux-measurement-bootcamp-2023/ Introduction to Alternative Text Tags October 13, 2023. Online https://www.eventbrite.com/e/introduction-to-alternative-text-tags-tickets-523900559677 Deep Dive into Focus Styles November 27, 2023. Online https://www.meetup.com/accessibility-twin-cities/events/292848121/ WebDev Day November 29, 2023. Online https://www.wearedevelopers.com/event/webdev-day-november-2023 +07: HTML. A Blog Post With Every HTML Element By Patrick Weaver. "After learning a little bit more about web accessibility last year I had been exploring some of the less common HTML elements, and making changes to this website…" https://www.patrickweaver.net/blog/a-blog-post-with-every-html-element/ Progressively Enhanced Form Validation, Part 1: HTML and CSS By Gerardo Rodriguez. "Browsers nowadays have built-in form validation (or 'constraint validation') features that are super helpful for highlighting when the entered data satisfies the necessary criteria…" https://cloudfour.com/thinks/progressively-enhanced-form-validation-part-1-html-and-css/ HTML: How to Make Loveliness/How Timbo Made Loveliness (Video) By Bruce Lawson. "Sir Uncle Timbo (AKA Tim Berners-Lee) designed the web with some core principles in mind. These still hold true today, and ensure that sites from 30 years ago still work, and will continue to do so. This talk isn't very technical, but is vital to understand the philosophy behind the foundational language of the web, HTML, how it evolves, what version it's at now and - most importantly for your future as a web engineer - how you should use it." https://www.youtube.com/embed/9by3vY_tXcc?start=150 +08: MISCELLANEOUS. Coding Accessibility: Anton Audio Descriptive Version (Video) By The ReadME Project. "In the latest episode of GitHub's 'Coding Accessibility' video series, we meet Anton Mirhorodchenko, a software developer hailing from Ukraine…" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XAUvaRdCIa4 GPTBot By OpenAI Platform. "To disallow GPTBot to access your site you can add the GPTBot to your site's robots.txt: User-agent: GPTBot Disallow: /" https://platform.openai.com/docs/gptbot Not Using Zoom By Simon Phipps. "…the terms they introduced from April 2023 in section 10 of their Terms of Service which seem to force every user, with no opt-out to the Terms available and with recourse only via arbitration, to agree that Zoom can: Train their AI on anything uploaded or created on Zoom (including transcripts and recordings) and use the consequent model for absolutely anything; Have indefinite and ownership-equivalent rights to do so in the future and Be indemnified by me if it turns out someone else owns the IP or has their rights infringed (for example to confidential materials everyone on the call is entitled to review)…" https://the.webm.ink/not-using-zoom Splitting the Web By Lionel Dricot. "There's an increasing chasm dividing the modern web…" https://ploum.net/2023-08-01-splitting-the-web.html Running Better Meetings (Video) By Wendy Reid. "Learn from experienced group chair @reidmore_online in a 30-minute captioned session covering the basics of effective meeting facilitation and running better meetings." https://www.w3.org/events/happenings/2023/meeting-facilitation-training/#part1 +09: NAVIGATION. Understanding Link Accessibility By Ellen Liebert, Liz Thomas, Rachael Bradley Montgomery, Viviana Moreno, Winnie Bosibori. "…Accessible links, or hyperlinks, provide a key functionality in websites and documents and, for that reason, are a critical component of accessibility…" https://www.ta11y.org/learning/topic?key=design.link_a11y Tree Testing: Fast, Iterative Evaluation of Menu Labels and Categories By Kathryn Whitenton. "Follow these tips to effectively evaluate a site's navigation hierarchy and to avoid common design mistakes…" https://www.nngroup.com/articles/tree-testing/ +10: TOOLS. Alt Text Decide-O-Matic By Scottish Enterprise's Service Design Team. "Writing alternate text for non-text can be hard. This widget can help you decide which approach to take…" https://design.scotentblog.co.uk/toolbox/alt-text-decide-o-matic/ Alfred WCAG Workflow By Eric Bailey. "This Alfred Workflow allows you to search through Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) Success Criterion (SC), and then copy a link to the selected SC to your clipboard or open its Understanding page in your default browser.…" https://github.com/ericwbailey/alfred-wcag-workflow +11: USABILITY. The Problem With Disabling Paste and What to Do Instead By Adam Silver. "…But disabling paste degrades UX and is a terrible way to stop users from making mistakes. Here's why…" https://adamsilver.io/blog/the-problem-with-disabling-paste-and-what-to-do-instead/ Scrolljacking 101 By Sara Ramaswamy. "Altering the normal pace or direction of scrolling can contradict user expectations, control, and freedom. If businesses adopt the pattern, they can minimize usability risks by weighing it against functional value, cognitive load, and user efficiency." https://www.nngroup.com/articles/scrolljacking-101/ +12: WEBWASTE & SUSTAINABILITY. Data Can't Keep Growing Like This By Gerry McGovern. "…In the middle of multiple environmental crises, we have a technology industry that has grown rich on producing and storing crap data. We are destroying our environment for crap and waste." https://gerrymcgovern.com/data-cant-keep-growing-like-this/ [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.]