+++ WEB DESIGN UPDATE. - Volume 25, Issue, May 28, 2025. An email newsletter to distribute news and information about web design and development. ++ISSUE 48 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. 05: EVALUATION & TESTING. 04: EVENTS. 05: HTML. 06: JAVASCRIPT. 07: MISCELLANEOUS. 08: TOOLS. 09: USABILITY. 10: WEBWASTE & SUSTAINABILITY. SECTION TWO: 11: What Can You Find at the Web Design Reference Site? [Contents ends.] ++ SECTION ONE: New references. +01: ACCESSIBILITY. My Request to Google on Accessibility By Adrian Roselli. "I'm asking this massive company to stop releasing features & products & ideas that are obvious barriers. And I want them to stop expecting free labor from the community. It's tiring, frustrating, and disrespectful." https://adrianroselli.com/2025/05/my-request-to-google-on-accessibility.html Testing Methods: Prerecorded Extended Audio Description By Dennis Deacon. "WCAG 1.2.7 Extended Audio Description (Prerecorded) is a Level AAA success criterion, requiring videos to include extended spoken descriptions of visual content…" https://www.dennisdeacon.com/web/accessibility/testing-methods-prerecorded-extended-audio-description/ How to Write Alt Text for Complex Images: A Guide to Clarity and Accessibility By Michael Beck. "…In this post, we'll break down the best practices for writing clear, concise, and useful alt text for complex images, ensuring that your content is accessible to everyone…" https://afixt.com/how-to-write-alt-text-for-complex-images-a-guide-to-clarity-and-accessibility/ Finding the Joy in Alt Text By Bryn Newell. "…My belief is that we should begin to care a little more deeply about alt text, not because it is mandatory or useful, but because it is a joyful little creation of the internet in its own right…" https://bryn.codes/writing/the-joy-in-alt-text/ The Role of Captions and Transcripts in Accessibility By Michael Beck. "…In this post, we'll explore why captions and transcripts are critical for accessibility, how they align with legal requirements like WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines) and ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act), and best practices for implementing them effectively…" https://afixt.com/the-role-of-captions-and-transcripts-in-accessibility/ Deploying Accessibility at Scale: Strategy, Tactics, and Battle Stories (Video) By Intopia. "We celebrated Global Accessibility Awareness Day with a webinar exploring what it takes to scale accessibility in different organisations, industries, and environments. …" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qqcxaUpGJb0 From Risk to Resilience: Bridging Legal Compliance and Technical Execution in Accessibility By James Thurston and Ken Nakata. "…Start where you are. Build capacity. Set goals. And partner with experts who know how to help. Together, we can build a more inclusive digital future." https://atos.net/en/blog/from-risk-to-resilience-bridging-legal-compliance-and-technical-execution-in-accessibility A Deep Dive into the Websites and Software Applications Accessibility Act of 2025 By Karl Groves. "…I've been given an advanced look at the eventual long-form content of this bill. Let's take a detailed look into what the bill proposes, why it matters, and what potential challenges and opportunities it presents…" https://karlgroves.com/a-deep-dive-into-the-websites-and-software-applications-accessibility-act-of-2025/ Colorado OIT Amends Accessibility Rule By Ken Nakata. "…This blog post goes line-by-line through the changes and some of the things I like and don't like about it…" https://convergeaccessibility.com/2025/05/21/news_colorado_oit_amends_oit_rule/ +02: CASCADING STYLE SHEETS. You Can Style Alt Text Like Any Other Text By Andy Bell. "…The alt text is surfaced on the page when an image fails to load. It's yet another reason to write good alt text and really hone your skills in creating a user-focused experience by being descriptive. The demo doesn't look great though, does it? I suppose the fact we're rolling default user agent styles isn't helping, so let's introduce the styles from Some simple ways to make content look good…" https://piccalil.li/blog/you-can-style-alt-text-like-any-other-text/ Masonry, Item Flow, and… GULP? By Eric A. Meyer. "There's a layout type that web designers have been using for a long time now, and yet can't be easily done with CSS: 'masonry' layout, sometimes called 'you know, like Pinterest does it' layout…" https://meyerweb.com/eric/thoughts/2025/05/21/masonry-item-flow-and-gulp/ The Height Enigma By Josh W. Comeau. "Unraveling the mystery of percentage-based heights in CSS…" https://www.joshwcomeau.com/css/height-enigma/ +03: EVALUATION & TESTING. Inclusive User Research: Building Rapport By Ela Gorla. "…This post explores additional ways to build rapport with participants…" https://tetralogical.com/blog/2025/05/23/inclusive-user-research-building-rapport/ +04: EVENTS. A11yNYC Goes to Civic Hall: Celebrating 35 Years of People and Technology June 3, 2025. Online and New York, New York, U.S.A. https://www.meetup.com/a11ynyc/events/307606966/ Managing Risk and Improving UX: How to Prioritize ADA Title II Digital Accessibility Efforts with David Sloan June 11, 2025. https://www.tpgi.com/webinar-managing-risk-and-improving-ux-how-to-prioritize-ada-title-ii-digital-accessibility-efforts/ Summer of Access Webinar Series: Design with Accessibility in Mind June 10-August 19, 2025. Online https://www.letoile-education.com/blog/summer-of-access-webinar-series-design-with-accessibility-in-mind UX Virtual Training July 21-25, 2025. Online https://www.nngroup.com/training/july/ A11y Camp October 28-30, 2025. Melbourne, Australia https://a11ycamp.com.au/ UX Brighton November 7, 2025. Brighton, England, United Kingdom https://uxbri.org/2025 Developer Summit November 19-20, 2025. Sydney, Australia https://webdirections.org/dev-summit/ +05: HTML. Are You Sure That Table Isn't a List? By Martin Underhill. "…The thing about a table is, it's rigid; necessarily so. All that information needs to be exactly where it is in that two-dimensional grid in order for the table to be useful for things like: * Comparing data * Finding patterns * Looking for relationships But that necessary rigidity comes at a cost; it makes things a bit awkward on small screens…" https://www.tempertemper.net/blog/are-you-sure-that-table-isnt-a-list +06: JAVASCRIPT. The Ultimate JavaScript Regex Guide By Adebayo Adams. "In this article, you will learn everything you need to know about writing a JavaScript regex, and you can start using them efficiently in your JavaScript code…" https://www.honeybadger.io/blog/javascript-regular-expressions/ Make Screen Readers Talk With the ARIA Notify API By Alexander Lehner. "…Microsoft Edge has recently implemented the new API as a developer and origin trial. So, I went ahead and created a demo project to test the new functionality. Here's what I think…" https://www.oidaisdes.org/aria-notify-first-look.en/ +07: MISCELLANEOUS. Stop Saying That AI Is Just a Tool and It Only Matters How It Is Used By Frank Elavsky. "I'm tired of this phrase and this simple way of thinking about tools. This blog post is a wandering train of thought on the topic of what tools are and why it matters to be even slightly more mature in how we think about them…" https://www.frank.computer/blog/2025/05/just-a-tool.html Tools By Jeremy Keith. "One persistent piece of slopaganda you'll hear is this: 'It's just a tool. What matters is how you use it.'…" https://adactio.com/journal/21926 +08: TOOLS. Slackwave By Karl Groves. "A Slack app/ slash command for using the WAVE API to test websites and get the results in Slack…" https://github.com/karlgroves/slackwave +09: USABILITY. Designing for Serial Task Switching By Megan Chan. "Serial task switching, or rapidly shifting attention between tasks, is a natural user behavior that lowers productivity and increases stress and the chance of errors." https://www.nngroup.com/articles/serial-task-switching/ Sorry, I Can't Read Your Visualization By Nancy Organ. "I'm very lucky to have excellent color vision and a laughably mild glasses prescription. However, even as a visualization professional with premium eyeballs, I struggle to read an alarming number of the visualizations that I encounter in the media and online…" https://www.trillianthealth.com/tech-blog/sorry-i-cant-read-your-visualization +10: WEBWASTE & SUSTAINABILITY. WSG Facts By Morgan Murrah. Facts about some efforts into the Web Sustainability Guidelines (WSG) to make the web work better for all people and the planet. https://wsg-facts.netlify.app/ We Did he Math on AI's Energy Footprint. Here's the Story You Haven't Heard By James O'Donnell and Casey Crownhart. "The emissions from individual AI text, image, and video queries seem small-until you add up what the industry isn't tracking and consider where it's heading next.…" https://www.technologyreview.com/2025/05/20/1116327/ai-energy-usage-climate-footprint-big-tech/ [Section one ends.] ++ SECTION TWO: +11: 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.]