+++ WEB DESIGN UPDATE. - Volume 26, Issue 11, September 9, 2025. An email newsletter to distribute news and information about web design and development. ++ISSUE 11 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: INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE. 08: JAVASCRIPT. 09: MISCELLANEOUS. 10: NAVIGATION. 11: PHP. 12: STANDARDS, GUIDELINES & PATTERNS. 13: TOOLS. 14: TYPOGRAPHY. 15: USABILITY. 16: WEBWASTE & SUSTAINABILITY. SECTION TWO: 17: What Can You Find at the Web Design Reference Site? [Contents ends.] ++ SECTION ONE: New references. +01: ACCESSIBILITY. For Review: WCAG 3 Working Draft - September 2025 By Shawn Lawton Henry. @wai@w3c.social "W3C WAI invites you to comment on the updated: W3C Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 3.0 Working DraftÉ" https://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-wai-announce/2025JulSep/0004.html An Accessible Guide to WCAG 3.3.8: Authentication Without Frustration By Ramona Schwering. "Logging in can be tough for users with cognitive disabilities. WCAG's Success Criterion 3.3.8, "Accessible Authentication," provides guidanceÉ" https://auth0.com/blog/an-accessible-guide-to-wcag-3-3-8-authentication-without-frustration/ Testing Methods: Low or No Background Audio By Dennis Deacon. @deconspray@mastodon.social "WCAG 1.4.7 Low or No Background Audio is a Level AAA conformance level Success Criterion. It states that audio content (like speech or dialogue) must not have background sounds that make the speech hard to hearÉ" https://www.dennisdeacon.com/web/accessibility/testing-methods-low-or-no-background-audio/ How to Perform a Comprehensive WCAG Audit By Team A11Y Collective. "Master WCAG audits with our comprehensive guide. Discover pro tips for efficient testing, result interpretation, and ongoing accessibility maintenanceÉ" https://www.a11y-collective.com/blog/wcag-audit/ How to Scope Accessibility Remediation By Chris Hinds. "Being asked to scope accessibility remediation can feel like a daunting, if not outright impossible, tasksÉ" https://equalizedigital.com/how-to-scope-accessibility-remediation/ Accessible Writing Techniques for Web Content By Team A11Y Collective. "Master accessible writing with expert strategies for inclusive web content. Transform your writing workflow with actionable tips for reaching every readerÉ" https://www.a11y-collective.com/blog/accessible-writing/ Steps for Converting a Microsoft Word File to PDF to Include the Tag Structure By Michael Vitagliano. "The following article will outline how to convert a Microsoft Word document into a PDF so you can start sharing your documents with others without worrying about edits and formatting differencesÉ" https://accessingenuity.com/blogs/articles-resources-briefs/steps-for-converting-a-microsoft-word-file-to-pdf-to-include-the-tag-structure How Designing for Disability Benefits Everyone By Vision Australia. "The curb-cut effect demonstrates how solutions designed for people with disabilities often benefit everyone, revealing a powerful design principle. This article explores the historical origins in Berkeley, California, the business benefits, and examines modern examples like closed captioning and audiobooks that serve broader audiences than intended." https://www.digitalaccesstraining.com/pages/articles?p=the-curb-cut-effect-how-designing-for-disability-benefits-everyone Beyond Barriers - An Accessibility Podcast By Ricky Onsman. @onsman@aus.social "It's been a year since I recorded this for the Beyond Barriers webcast, but after a hiatuts it's finally airing as the first in a new series. 'We're kicking things off with an important question: 'Is accessibility a checklist to comply with the law or are we actually trying to make the world more accessible?' Our first guest, Ricky, brings 30+ years of accessibility expertise to the table." https://onsman.com/beyond-barriers-an-accessibility-podcast/ Unfinished Business 134 with LŽonie Watson (Video) By Andy and Rich. "This week on Unfinished Business, Andy and Rich are joined by accessibility consultant, co-founder, and bundle of enthusiasm, LŽonie Watson." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Mv8MxDTJ4g America by Design is Deplorable for All By Frank M. Taylor. "On August 21 President Donald Trump issued an executive order for a national initiative to improve digital experiences for Americans called 'America by Design'. After establishing a National Design Studio, one of the first products was AmericaByDesign.gov -which is deplorable for all. And I'm going to explain why.É" https://blog.frankmtaylor.com/2025/08/28/america-by-design-is-deplorable-for-all/ Principles of Web Accessibility By Heydon Pickering. @heydon@mastodon.social "A set of high-level guiding principles for approaching web accessibilityÉ" https://github.com/Heydon/principles-of-web-accessibility For Wide Review: Accessibility Maturity Model - Updated Draft Note By Tamsin Ewing. "The Accessibility Maturity Model provides a framework to assess an organization's policies and procedures to deliver accessible products and services. It can be used to measure current capabilities, identify gaps, and plan improvementsÉ" https://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-wai-announce/2025JulSep/0003.html How to Minimize Legal Risks in Accessibility Compliance By Nat Tarnoff. "I've been doing accessibility work long enough that I can confidently say, you cannot avoid lawsuits about accessibility. What you can do is minimize your risk. If you do not have an accessibility effort going on in your company, start one. This guide will help you prioritize where you should be looking first. If you have a program going, this can help focus your efforts into where most lawsuits look firstÉ" http://tarnoff.info/2025/09/01/how-to-minimize-legal-risks-in-accessibility-compliance/ A (Not So Swift) RantÉ By Lauren Sherrard. "I've got a BIG rant for you this week, about Taylor Swift's new website. A site this high-profile, with a huge design budget, backed by of one of the biggest record labels in the world, still bypasses accessibility standards. Here's what I spotted (and how you can do better!)É" https://www.laurensherrard.com/blog/a-not-so-swift-rant Legal Update: August 2025 By Ken Nakata. "Just like last month, there was nothing to report. Then, in the third week of August, a few cases started popping upÉ" https://convergeaccessibility.com/2025/09/02/legal-update-august-2025/ +02: CASCADING STYLE SHEETS. CSS Properties By Nikolai Shabalinn. "Complete reference of CSS properties with their release dates and documentation links. Explore the evolution of web styles from the beginning to the present dayÉ" https://nikolai-shabalin.github.io/css-properties/en/ Don't Inherit the Box Model By Miriam Suzanne. @mia@front-end.social @OddBird@front-end.social "Setting the box-sizing model to border-box is one of the few remaining CSS 'resets' used across most projects. But there are two common approaches, and the more popular choice will cause more problems than it solvesÉ" https://www.oddbird.net/2025/09/04/box-model/ The Fundamentals of CSS Alignment By Temani Afif. @css@front-end.social "ÉThrough this exploration, you will understand the logic behind all the alignment properties and how they work in each layout. It's not another article about centering, we are going beyondÉ" https://css-tip.com/explore/alignment/ +03: COLOR. Baby Steps Accessibility - Color Contrast of Text By Dennis Deacon. "Low contrast text represents 79.1% of all errors. Find out how to make a dent on these issues.É" https://www.dennisdeacon.com/web/accessibility/baby-steps-accessibility-color-contrast-of-text/ +04: EVALUATION & TESTING. By "É" +05: EVENTS. Arrrr! - A Pirate's Guide to Accessibility September 16, 2025. Durham, North Carolina, U.S.A. https://www.meetup.com/durham-raleigh-a11y/events/309801724/ Using ChatGPT and Claude Artificial Intelligence to Create Complex Alternate Text September 17, 2025. Online https://accessingenuity.com/pages/webinar/using-chat-gpt-and-claude-artificial-intelligence-to-create-complex-alternate-text-digital-accessibility-webinar Accessibility Conformance Report (ACR) - What It Is, Why You Need It, and How It Works September 18, 2025. @knowbility@mastodon.social Online https://knowbility.org/programs/be-a-digital-ally/september-2025 7 Core Skills of Digital Accessibility September 25, 2025. Online https://umn.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_HrijFaCcTwC09bk_V0onDg#/registration Part 1: Web Accessibility Basics - Manual Testing: Color Contrast, Keyboard Access, and Reflow October 1, 2025. Online https://accessingenuity.com/pages/webinar/part-1-web-accessibility-basics-manual-testing-color-contrast-keyboard-access-and-reflow-digital-accessibility-webinar Accessibility in Technology Procurement and Use October 2, 2025. Online https://webaim.org/training/procurement/ ICT Accessibility Testing Symposium October 6-8, 2025. Washington D.C., U.S.A https://www.ictaccessibilitytesting.org/ +06: HTML. Screen Reader HTML Support By Steve Faulkner. @SteveFaulkner@mastodon.social "The VoiceOver (Mac and iOS) HTML support tables are now availableÉ" https://github.com/TetraLogical/screen-reader-HTML-support/blob/main/README.md#screen-reader-html-support +07: INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE. By "É" +08: JAVASCRIPT. active-descendant Console Debugger By Steve Faulkner. "Let me be perfectly clear, this script was generated by ChatGPT. It came to be from a problem I encountered when QAing a WCAG 2.2 assessment. I knew that the advice provided was not right, but didn't know what was going on. I suspected it was something to do with aria-activedescendant implementation (in a custom menu in this case). But could not work out what, so I asked ChatGPT to help create a script to help debug aria-activedescendantÉ" https://html5accessibility.com/stuff/2025/09/03/active-descendant-console-debugger/ Learning Web Development: Asynchronous JavaScript - Promises and Async Functions By Axel Rauschmayer. @rauschma@fosstodon.org "In this chapter, we learn how to handle tasks that take a long time to complete - think downloading a file. The mechanisms for doing that, Promises and async functions are an important foundation of JavaScript and enable us to do a variety of interesting thingsÉ" https://2ality.com/2025/09/javascript-async.html +09: MISCELLANEOUS. By "É" +10: NAVIGATION. By "É" +11: PHP. By "É" +12: STANDARDS, GUIDELINES & PATTERNS. By "É" +13: TOOLS. By "É" +14: TYPOGRAPHY. By "É" +15: USABILITY. Anatomy of Good Icons (Video) By Nielsen Norman Group. "Icon clarity is shaped by consistent layout, stroke thickness, and the handling of exterior and interior corners." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9MRTqn9tRl8 "Your" vs "My" in User Interfaces By Adam Silver. @theadamsilver@mastodon.world "ÉIt's a trick question because often you don't need any prefixÉ" https://adamsilver.io/blog/your-vs-my-in-user-interfaces/ What is the Rule of Thirds in the UX Mobile Design Process? By Dakota Murphey. "ÉThe Rule of Thirds offers mobile UX designers a valuable framework for creating balanced, engaging interfaces that guide user attention effectively. That said, like any design principle, it's only as valuable when it's thoughtfully applied, as opposed to rigidly adhering to it in every design processÉ" https://www.loop11.com/what-is-the-rule-of-thirds-in-the-ux-mobile-design-process/ Smart-Device Apps: 7 Best Practices to Make By Tim Neusesser. Summary: Smart-device apps need to support remote usage and input of complex settings, while promptly displaying feedback and status information. https://www.nngroup.com/articles/smart-device-best-practices/ The VR Hype Cycle: Lessons for the Age of AI By Caleb Sponheim. "Hype happens when messaging becomes divorced from good experiences. Learning from the virtual reality hype cycle can help us avoid future distractions" https://www.nngroup.com/articles/vr-hype-cycle-lessons-for-ai/ +16: WEBWASTE & SUSTAINABILITY. Why Inclusive Products Are Green Products By Ela Gorla. @TetraLogical@a11y.social "More and more organisations are conscious about the environmental impact of their products - both physical or digital - and are trying to make positive changesÉ" https://tetralogical.com/blog/2025/09/01/why-inclusive-products-are-green-products/ AI Has a Hidden Water Cost - Here's How to Calculate Yours By Leo S. Lo. "Artificial intelligence systems are thirsty, consuming as much as 500 milliliters of water - a single-serving water bottle - for each short conversation a user has with the GPT-3 version of OpenAI's ChatGPT system. They use roughly the same amount of water to draft a 100-word email message." https://theconversation.com/ai-has-a-hidden-water-cost-heres-how-to-calculate-yours-263252 [Section one ends.] ++ SECTION TWO: +17: 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.]