+++ WEB DESIGN UPDATE. - Volume 26, Issue 05, July 30, 2025. An email newsletter to distribute news and information about web design and development. ++ISSUE 05 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: EVALUATION & TESTING. 05: EVENTS. 06: HTML. 07: JAVASCRIPT. 08: MISCELLANEOUS. 09: USABILITY. 10: WEBWASTE & SUSTAINABILITY. 11: XML. SECTION TWO: 12: What Can You Find at the Web Design Reference Site? [Contents ends.] ++ SECTION ONE: New references. +01: ACCESSIBILITY. The "Accessibility" Link is a Lie: My Adventures in Weaponizing Corporate Virtue Signaling By Robert Kingett. "In the corporate world, there's a special kind of lie…" https://sightlessscribbles.com/posts/20250724/ How to Create Audio Description VTT Files for Free: No Fancy Tools Needed By Meryl K. Evans. "Creating captions is easy. Tools abound. But audio description? Not so much…" https://meryl.net/audio-description-vtt-files/ A11y 101: 2.3.1 Three Flashes or Below Threshold By Nat Tarnoff. "You've seen the warnings before TV shows and movies. 'This show contains flashing lights.' This warning on visual media also applies web sites and apps. Guideline 2.3.1 addresses this by implementing a requirement that reduces the potential for severe damage. Let's discuss why…" https://tarnoff.info/2025/07/28/a11y-101-2-3-1-three-flashes-or-below-threshold/ Testing Methods: Audio Control By Dennis Deacon. "WCAG 1.4.2 Audio Control is a Level A conformance level Success Criterion. It ensures that when audio plays automatically for more than 3 seconds on a web page, users must be able to either pause or stop it, or adjust its volume separately from the system’s overall volume…" https://www.dennisdeacon.com/web/accessibility/testing-methods-audio-control/ Foundations: Types of Assistive Technology and Adaptive Strategies By Demelza Feltham. "This post provides an overview of common assistive technologies (AT) used by people with seeing, hearing, moving, and thinking disabilities. It also explains what adaptive strategies are, and how these approaches work together to support accessibility and inclusive experiences…" https://tetralogical.com/blog/2025/07/28/foundations-types-of-assistive-technology-and-adaptive-strategies/ Looking Deeper After Automated Testing By Joe Dolson. "The seventh episode of The Accessibility Show is now out! This one was an interesting change of pace. I was asked to take a look at the site for another of Nathan's podcasts: The No Script Show, the brain child of David Waumsley…" https://www.joedolson.com/2025/07/accessibility-show-7-after-automated-testing/ From Today to Tomorrow: Navigating the Shifting Landscape of Digital Access (Video) By Knowbility. "Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced"-James Baldwin. Crystal Preston-Watson will lead this Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD) panel with friends, colleagues, and AccessU attendees. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wt_JdF9jFVY Advancing Digital Accessibility with W3C WAI (Video) By Shawn Lawton Henry and Kevin White. "W3C's new tagline is: "Making the web work, for everyone". Accessibility is a key aspect and you play a key role. This session provides practical guidance on using W3C accessibility resources to expand your skills and your effectiveness in advancing accessibility…" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LWOiKSLIn58 Reply to "Why I Don't Trust WCAG 2.2 and What I'm Hoping From 3.0" By Adrian Roselli. "I appreciate that you feel WCAG 2 doesn't go far enough, but I think this post fails to recognize *when* WCAG 2 was written and *how* consensus happens. It also assumes WCAG 3 will somehow achieve more and avoid manipulation of its scoring model. To very briefly address each of your complaints with WCAG 2…". https://blog.logrocket.com/ux-design/wcag-3-vs-2-ux/#comment-49756 aria-label Does Not Translate (Update: 25 July 2025) By Adrian Roselli. "Callum McMenamin asked Do ARIA attributes get translated? and found that aria-label (the topic of this post) does get translated. Based on my own experience, the methodology seemed to miss a few points. So I re-ran my own tests…" https://adrianroselli.com/2019/11/aria-label-does-not-translate.html#Update07 Embedding Accessibility SMEs in Remote Teams By Sheri Byrne-Haber. "…Embedding accessibility resources into product teams can accelerate progress when it's done intentionally…" https://buttondown.com/access-ability/archive/embedding-accessibility-smes-in-remote-teams/ Accessibility and Friction By Tommy Palmer. "Minimum Viable Product means different things to different people. Shipping a first version of a digital product is easy, but qualifying what exactly is minimally viable is hard…" https://www.tommyp.org/blog/accessibility-and-friction/ Disability Sparks Innovation (Video) By Zuby Onwuta. "Let's shine a spotlight on the extraordinary contributions of disabled tech innovators. Society often overlooks the profound impact these individuals have had on shaping our technological landscape. Join us as we celebrate their groundbreaking achievements and ignite inspiration for the innovators of tomorrow…" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yVK1PkUjhyw The 2025 AccessU Legal Update (Video) By Eve Hill. "This class will offer the fundamentals of why accessibility is a civil right of people with disabilities and share up-to-date developments in the digital accessibility legal space relevant to the public, private, and education sectors…" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i8n722yVIts Preparation for the Update to ADA's Title II Series: Strategic Planning & Prioritization By Minnesota IT Services. "Get some tips on strategies and tactics to prepare your organization…" https://mn.gov/mnit/media/blog/?id=38-698989 +02: CASCADING STYLE SHEETS. Designing for User Font-size and Zoom By Miriam Suzanne. "Using modern CSS units and math functions…" https://www.oddbird.net/2025/07/22/size-preferences/ Setting Line Length in CSS (and Fitting Text to a Container) By Daniel Schwarz. "First, what is line length? Line length is the length of a container that holds a body of multi-line text. 'Multi-line' is the key part here, because text becomes less readable if the beginning of a line of text is too far away from the end of the prior line of text. This causes users to reread lines by mistake, and generally get lost while reading…" https://css-tricks.com/setting-line-length-in-css-and-fitting-text-to-a-container/ A Handy Use of Subgrid to Enhance a Simple Layout By Andy Bell. "We've got this pattern on the Set Studio website. It's three summaries with headings that render in a three column grid which as the viewport reduces in space, automatically stack…" https://piccalil.li/blog/a-handy-use-of-subgrid-to-enhance-a-simple-layout/ +03: COLOR. Testing Methods: Use of Color By Dennis Deacon. "WCAG 1.4.1 Use of Color is a Level A conformance level Success Criterion. It requires that color alone must not be used to convey information. In other words, if you're using color to indicate meaning, state, or action, like red text to indicate an error or green to show success, you must provide another visual cue as well…" https://www.dennisdeacon.com/web/accessibility/testing-methods-use-of-color/ +04: EVALUATION & TESTING. How to Get Comfortable with Quantitative UX Research By Jeff Sauro and Jim Lewis. "…We can't solve all your math problems, but we hope we can get you more comfortable with quantitative research. Here are five ways… " https://measuringu.com/how-to-get-comfortable-with-quantitative-ux-research/ Mixed-Methods Research: Combining Qualitative and Quantitative Data By Rachel Banawa. "Mixed-methods research combines qualitative and quantitative methods to explore a single research question." https://www.nngroup.com/articles/mixed-methods-research/ +05: EVENTS. ADA Title II Compliance: Strategies, Solutions, and Best Practices August 5, 2025. Online https://accessibility.deque.com/ada-title-ii-compliance-strategies-solutions-and-best-practices Introduction to Digital Accessibility October 2, 2025. Online https://abilitynet.org.uk/training/introduction-digital-accessibility-free UX Virtual Training October 6-10, 2025. Online https://www.nngroup.com/training/october/ +06: HTML. State of HTML "The annual developer survey about the web platform…" https://stateofhtml.com/en-US +07: JAVASCRIPT. How Semantics and ARIA Attributes Support Accessible Design By Melissa Morse. "Most accessibility issues aren't related to flashy visual content. Instead, they start with missing meaning…" https://www.tpgi.com/how-semantics-aria-attributes-support-accessible-design/ +08: MISCELLANEOUS. What Do We Have That AI Doesn't? By Tom Greenwood. "Thoughts on the evolutionary advantages of being human…" https://tomgreenwood.substack.com/p/what-do-we-have-that-ai-doesnt? +09: USABILITY. UX Strategies for Complex-Application Design By Kate Kaplan. "UX in complex, specialized domains requires adapting familiar methods across the design lifecycle to address domain constraints and expert-user needs…" https://www.nngroup.com/articles/strategies-complex-application-design/ +10: WEBWASTE & SUSTAINABILITY. Reimagining the Browser for a Green Web By Michelle Thorne and Dietrich Ayala. "…we wanted to survey the current browser landscape, its possibilities and constraints, and see what threads might be interesting to follow. Come along this exploration of what sustainable browsing could look like…" https://branch.climateaction.tech/issues/issue-9/reimagining-the-browser-for-a-green-web/ Imposing AI: Deceptive Design Patterns Against Sustainability (PDF) By Anaëlle Beignon, Thomas Thibault, and Nolwenn Maudet. "Generative AI is being massively deployed in digital services, at a scale that will result in significant environmental harm. We document how tech companies are transforming established user interfaces to impose AI use and show how and to what extent these strategies fit within established deceptive pattern categories. We identify two main design strategies that are implemented to impose AI use in both personal and professional contexts: imposing AI features in interfaces at the expense of existing non-AI features and promoting narratives about AI that make it harder to resist using it. We discuss opportunities for regulating the imposed adoption of AI features, which would inevitably lead to negative environmental effects…" https://computingwithinlimits.org/2025/papers/limits2025-beigon-imposing-ai.pdf Rehersal Talk Video: https://vimeo.com/1103486136 +11: XML. A Friendly Introduction to SVG By Josh W. Comeau. "SVGs are one of the most exciting technologies we have access to in-browser. We can do so many cool things with SVG. It's an absolutely critical part of my toolkit…" https://www.joshwcomeau.com/svg/friendly-introduction-to-svg/ [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.]