+++ WEB DESIGN UPDATE.
- Volume 22, Issue 12, September 12, 2023.

An email newsletter to distribute news and information about web design and development. 

++ISSUE 12 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: USABILITY.
09: WEBWASTE & SUSTAINABILITY.

SECTION TWO: 
10: What Can You Find at the Web Design Reference Site?

[Contents ends.]


++ SECTION ONE: New references.

+01: ACCESSIBILITY.

How to Make Charts and Graphs More Accessible
By Whitney Lewis.
"Charts and graphs are powerful tools that help us understand complex information at a glance, so we can easily come to conclusions about that data and make informed decisions…No matter how a user interacts with data, the goal is to make sure everyone can perceive the trend or information the data conveys…"
https://blog.pope.tech/2023/08/31/how-to-make-charts-and-graphs-more-accessible/

Accessibility Testing with WCAG 2.2 (Video)
By James Edwards.
"…I'm going to talk today about Accessibility Testing with WCAG 2.2…"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XcSSTBaegi8
Transcript:
https://www.tpgi.com/wp-content/uploads/Accessibility-Testing-with-WCAG-2.2.txt
PowerPoint Slides:
https://7192965.fs1.hubspotusercontent-na1.net/hubfs/7192965/files%20for%20email/Accessibility%20Testing%20with%20WCAG%202.2.pptx

A Screen Reader User's Weird Tricks to Make Accessible Websites. Number Four Will Shock You!
By Bruce Lawson.
"…Léonie is a web standards mover and shaker, a business owner, a total grooving cat, and also a screen reader user. Some of her top tips for making sites accessible…"
https://brucelawson.co.uk/2023/a-screen-reader-users-weird-tricks-to-make-accessible-websites-number-four-will-shock-you/

Browser Video Players Review
By Adrian Roselli.
"Browsers each provide built-in video players for the <video> element. Nearly four years ago Scott Vinkle wrote How accessible is the HTML video player?, where he compared these to one video player product. I decided it was time to test for myself. I structured my test and reporting a bit differently and I am not comparing to any product, so this is not a true follow-up on Scott's work…"
https://adrianroselli.com/2023/09/browser-video-players-review.html

Screen Readers Support for Text Level HTML Semantics
By Steve Faulkner.
On 7th September 2023 Steve updated his article with correct information about JAWS (lack of support) for role=insertion and role=deletion.
https://www.tpgi.com/screen-readers-support-for-text-level-html-semantics/

Equivalent Experience Can Cut Both Ways 
By Eric Bailey.
"…We can, and should strive to make experiences that are not only operable by everyone, but also intuitive."
https://ericwbailey.website/published/equivalent-experience-can-cut-both-ways/

First, Do No Harm: Mistakes to Avoid in Creating Accessible User Experiences
By Jason Nakai. 
"…we can inadvertently lose sight of the people we serve if we don't question our assumptions or continuously work to better understand our audience…"
https://18f.gsa.gov/2023/09/05/first-do-no-harm/

Changes and Additions in Pointer Events Level 3
By Patrick H. Lauke.
"Patrick gives overview of the Pointer Events WorkingGroup, and goes over changes and additions with short demos brought in the Pointer Events Level 3 specification."
https://www.w3.org/2023/09/TPAC/demos/pointer-events.html

The Perpetual Circle of Accessibility
By Todd Libby.
"…Every time someone ignores a suggestion, I get ill. Because that person doesn't care. Accessibility is a right, NOT a privilege…"
https://dev.to/colabottles/the-perpetual-circle-of-accessibility-5df4

I'm a Spotless Giraffe
By Ben Myers.
"This post contains no AI-generated text or images, but does discuss experiments I've done in the past with AI art generator…"
https://benmyers.dev/blog/spotless-giraffe/

Is AI the Silver Bullet of Accessibility?
Summary
By Ellen DeCesare.
"AI has expanded into the digital accessibility industry. Automated AI accessibility testing is growing in popularity, but it isn't a replacement for manual accessibility testing done by testers living with disabilities…"
https://theweco.com/is-ai-silver-bullet-of-accessibility/

Legal Update: August 2023
By Ken Nakata.
"There has been a real slowdown in my Lexis feed this month. Are the courts are issuing fewer opinions? Does Lexis have fewer people collecting and entering opinions? Are both factors at work…"
https://convergeaccessibility.com/2023/09/05/legal-update-august-2023/

Federal Agencies Should Not Follow DOJ's Lead Right Now
By Ken Nakata.
"I'll keep this post short. Yesterday, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced a new Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) that amends HHS's Section 504 regulation. Overall, this is a positive step…"
https://convergeaccessibility.com/2023/09/08/federal-agencies-should-not-follow-dojs-lead-right-now/


+02: CASCADING STYLE SHEETS.

Enough Healthy Overlap
By Chris Coyier.
"I like that phrase 'enough healthy overlap' when it comes to web platform features…"
https://chriscoyier.net/2023/09/04/enough-healthy-overlap/


+03: EVALUATION & TESTING.

When Thinking Aloud Fails
By Kate Kaplan.
"To understand the needs of work-domain experts, use retrospective testing, expert walkthroughs, and interviews instead of think-aloud usability-testing studies."
https://www.nngroup.com/videos/when-thinking-aloud-fails/

UX-Research Methods: Glossary
By Raluca Budiu. 
"Use this glossary to quickly clarify key terms and concepts related to research methods in UX."
https://www.nngroup.com/articles/research-methods-glossary/

Essential Metrics for Click Testing
By Jeff Sauro, Dylan Atkins, and Jim Lewis.
"…While looking at click maps and heat maps can be insightful, you can take click testing to the next level by understanding and using these essential metrics…"
https://measuringu.com/essential-metrics-for-click-testing/


+04: EVENTS.

The Human Side of Neurodivergence - A Technologist's Journey
September 20, 2023.
Online
https://a11ytalks.com/posts/2023-SEP/

Evolving Beyond Personas
September 21, 2023.
Minneapolis, Minnesota, U.S.A.
https://uxpamn.org/event-5391998

DOJ Listening Session: Notice of Proposed Rulemaking Title II Website/App Accessibility
September 26, 2023.
Online
https://www.accessibilityonline.org/ada-tech/session/?id=111080

How to Involve People With Nonapparent Disabilities in Inclusive Design
September 27, 2023.
Online
https://www.meetup.com/a11ytokyo/events/295943982/

Virtual Strategic Web Accessibility Workshop 
October 25-26 and November 1-2, 2023
Online
https://webaim.org/training/strategica11y/

Virtual Web Accessibility Training
November 15-16, 2023
Online
https://webaim.org/training/virtual/


+05: HTML.

Web Components Accessibility FAQ
By Manuel Matuzović.
"…When I first learned about web components, I had a lot of questions, especially regarding accessibility. While I found answers to many of them, I didn't know everything I would've wanted to know. I wish I had a catalog of all the essential questions and answers when I started. That's why I decided to design this post in a Q&A format. I'll ask a question regarding the accessibility of web components, and then I'll answer it…"
https://www.matuzo.at/blog/2023/web-components-accessibility-faq/

State of Web Accessibility, ARIA in HTML, and Missing UI Patterns with Léonie Watson (Podcast)
By Bruce Lawson, Vadim Makeev.
"…I'm an accessibility specialist, currently one that has teamed up with some good friends from the industry to create a company called TetraLogical. And I spend a lot of my time helping big organizations, curious individuals, and anyone who's willing to get stuck in find out more about accessibility and how to make things work mostly on the web for people with different kinds of disabilities."
https://f-word.dev/episodes/19/


+06: JAVASCRIPT.

Progressively Enhanced Form Validation, Part 4: Custom Validation Messages
By Gerardo Rodriguez.
"…This article explores the ValidityState API, a powerful, approachable, and well-supported API we can use to define custom validation messages…"
https://cloudfour.com/thinks/progressively-enhanced-form-validation-part-4-custom-validation-messages/

The Array.prototype.every() Method Always Returns True for an Empty Array
By Chris Ferdinandi.
"My friend Nicholas Zakas made an interesting observation on Mastodon this week: the Array.prototype.every() method always returns true for an empty array…"
https://gomakethings.com/the-array.prototype.every-method-always-returns-true-for-an-empty-array/

Role-Playing Game
By Marcus Herrmann.
In order to better explain the danger posed by the wrong approach to ARIA, here are two short but important basics:
https://marcus.io/blog/role-playing-game


+07: MISCELLANEOUS.

Memories of Molly
By Eric A. Meyer.
"The Web is a little bit darker today, a fair bit poorer: Molly Holzschlag is dead…"
https://meyerweb.com/eric/thoughts/2023/09/06/memories-of-molly/

Dear Molly
By Todd Libby.
"…If you knew Molly and knew her well, I envy you. She was a bright light and a magnum opus all her own. If you did not know Molly, or are new to the game of the Web, familiarize yourself with what Molly was able to accomplish in her lifetime that would take others countless lifetimes. We would not be here if it was not for the tour de force Molly was…"
https://dev.to/colabottles/dear-molly-46jc

An Interview with Molly Holzschlag (Video)
By Russ Weakley.
"It was terrible news to hear of the passing of Molly Holzschlag. For those interested, here is an interview I did with the amazing Molly from 2021…"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LaeWj5cIqrQ

Remembering Molly, One of the Greats
By Jay Hoffmann.
"I just learned that Molly Holzschlag has passed. She was a tireless advocate for the principles of the open web…"
https://thehistoryoftheweb.com/remembering-molly-one-of-the-greats/

Remembering Molly Holzschlag
By Deborah Edwards-Oñoro.
"Heartbreaking news to read last night: Molly Holzschlag died at the age of 60 years old…"
https://www.lireo.com/remembering-molly-holzschlag/

Goodbye Molly Holzschlag-a Memoriam Post 
By Bruce Lawson. 
"…'may her teachings about an open, inclusive and humane web be passed on'. They will be."
https://brucelawson.co.uk/2023/goodbye-molly-holzschlag/

Remembering Molly
By Aaron Gustafson.
"…She truly was a force of nature and, as such, has left an indelible mark on this industry…"
https://www.aaron-gustafson.com/notebook/remembering-molly/

Vale Molly Holzschlag
By John Allsop.
"…I want to remember Molly with gratitude, for what she did as an advocate for the Web, and an educator of countless in its earliest generation, and for the time I got to spend with her-20 years later she would still laugh abut my appalling pronunciation of chutzpah (much better now thanks to Molly!)"
https://webdirections.org/blog/vale-molly-holzschlag/


+08: USABILITY.

Rewriting Digital Content for Brevity
By Taylor Dykes. 
"Writers always get the advice to be concise, but doing so is easier said than done. These tips and tricks help reduce your word count."
https://www.nngroup.com/articles/rewriting-content-brevity/

A Faster Horse
By L. Jeffrey Zeldman.
"'The user is never wrong' means, when a user snags on a part of your UX that doesn't work for her, she's not making a mistake, she's doing you a favor…"
https://www.zeldman.com/2023/09/04/a-faster-horse/


+09: WEBWASTE & SUSTAINABILITY.

Introducing Web Sustainability Guidelines
By Tzviya Siegman.
"The Sustainable Web Design Community Group is excited to announce a draft Community Group Report on Sustainable Web Design…"
https://www.w3.org/blog/2023/introducing-web-sustainability-guidelines/

Web Sustainability Guidelines (WSG) 1.0
Alexander Dawson and Tim Frick, editors.
"Web Sustainability Guidelines (WSG) 1.0 covers a wide range of recommendations for making websites and products more sustainable…"
https://w3c.github.io/sustyweb/

Google's Chromebooks Thrive in US Classrooms but Generate Waste, Costs, Critics Say
By Max Zahn and Lilia Geho.
"…Chromebooks require security updates every four weeks, he added, but over time some of the components become incapable of such updates, rendering the product unusable…The environmental impact is pretty severe'… 'The reality is that at the rate that we are consuming technology, we cannot recycle our way out of the problem…"
https://abcnews.go.com/Business/googles-chromebooks-thrive-us-classrooms-generate-waste-costs/story?id=102844506 

Water: We Value Least What Matters Most
By Gerry McGovern.
"…Data is physical. Every byte requires the support of multiple atoms to exist and be used. Data growth is exploding. We are only at the beginning of the massive negative impact that data centers will have on the environment. Millions more people will go thirsty in order to feed TikTok habits."
https://gerrymcgovern.com/water-we-value-least-what-matters-most/

Google Is Using a Flabbergasting Amount of Water on AI
By Victor Tangermann.
"The company's water use is soaring in large part thanks to AI."
https://futurism.com/the-byte/google-water-ai

Artificial Intelligence Technology Behind ChatGPT Was Built in Iowa - With a Lot of Water
By Matt O'Brien and Hannah Fingerhut.
"The cost of building an artificial intelligence product like ChatGPT can be hard to measure. But one thing Microsoft-backed OpenAI needed for its technology was plenty of water, pulled from the watershed of the Raccoon and Des Moines rivers in central Iowa to cool a powerful supercomputer as it helped teach its AI systems how to mimic human writing…"
https://apnews.com/article/chatgpt-gpt4-iowa-ai-water-consumption-microsoft-f551fde98083d17a7e8d904f8be822c4

[Section one ends.]


++ SECTION TWO:

+10: 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.


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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:
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+ 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.]