+++ WEB DESIGN UPDATE. - Volume 26, Issue 13, September 24, 2025. An email newsletter to distribute news and information about web design and development. ++ISSUE 13 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: NAVIGATION. 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. Digital Accessibility is a Journey, Not a Destination By Dennis Deacon. "…Accessibility is not about crossing a finish line, it is about staying committed to continual improvement and inclusion over time. Organizations that treat accessibility as a journey create stronger, more innovative, and more welcoming digital products…" https://www.dennisdeacon.com/web/accessibility/digital-accessibility-is-a-journey-not-a-destination/ Simple Ways to Make Your Workplace Communications Accessible By Josh Crawford. "This article explores simple accessibility techniques that make workplace communications more accessible to people with disability…" https://www.digitalaccesstraining.com/pages/articles?p=simple-ways-to-make-your-workplace-communications-accessible Captioning Videos in Vimeo By Ken Nakata. "…I'm going to demonstrate two workflows. The first workflow is the one we typically don't use because we have a subscription to Descript. The second workflow shows how we usually caption videos in Descript. You shouldn't think that Descript is an essential tool but it is very handy in our workflow…" https://convergeaccessibility.com/2025/09/22/captioning-videos-in-vimeo/ Understanding Focus Indicators for Web Accessibility By Team A11Y Collective. "Master focus indicator design for web accessibility. Learn WCAG-compliant techniques for clear visual feedback and keyboard navigation…" https://www.a11y-collective.com/blog/focus-indicator/ Be a Digital Ally: Accessibility Conformance Report (ACR) What it is, Why you need it, and How it works By Ian Sinclair. "…I want to go through a completed accessibility conformance reports, talk about completed ones, and validity of ACRs. are they accurate? Does the information provided make sense? And so on. Just because a vendor has provided an accessibility conformance report to you does not mean it's valid…" https://knowbility.org/blog/2025/accessibility-conformance-report-acr-what-it-is-why-you-need-it-and-how-it-works A Quick Primer on Accessible Pagination By Karl Groves. "…In this primer, we'll look at what it means to build pagination that is truly accessible and demonstrate how to do so with clean, semantic HTML and just enough CSS to make it practical…" https://afixt.com/a-quick-primer-on-accessible-pagination/ Universal Design vs. Inclusive Design (Video) By Ricky Onsman. "On 16 September, I gave this presentation online to the Perth Digital Accessibility Meetup…" https://onsman.com/universal-design-vs-inclusive-design-september-2025/ Embedding Accessibility (Video) By Australian Web Accessibility Initiative. The August 25 session of Ask the Professionals. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gYA3zqzROvM CAPTCHA, When Security Takes Precedence Over Accessibility "According to the latest WebAIM survey of screen reader users, CAPTCHAs are still the number one accessibility issue for this audience. We take a look at this technology and its impact on accessibility in general and in Luxembourg in particular…" https://accessibilite.public.lu/en/news/2025-09-22-captchas Crystal Preston-Watson Senior Digital Accessibility Analyst at Salesforce By Neil Milliken. "Crystal believes that accessibility is a civil and human right and is passionate about building accessible and inclusive applications…" https://www.axschat.com/crystal-preston-watson-senior-digital-accessibility-analyst-at-salesforce/ Why Now Is Not the Time to Think About WCAG 3 By Karl Groves. "…WCAG 3 is the future, but it's still a moving target. The conformance model is unsettled, the testing methods aren't finalized, and no regulator has adopted it. It's interesting to follow and important to understand, but it's not something you can-or should-anchor your compliance strategy on right now. WCAG 2.2 AA, on the other hand, is clear, enforceable, and already widely recognized. It provides the structure your organization needs to stay compliant, protect against lawsuits, and actually make your products usable for people with disabilities. By doubling down on WCAG 2.2 now, you'll be ready for whatever WCAG 3 becomes later…" https://afixt.com/why-now-is-not-the-time-to-think-about-wcag-3/ +02: CASCADING STYLE SHEETS. Custom Carets and Users: When The Caret Is No Longer a Stick (Yes, That's a Poor Attempt at a Pun) By Adrian Roselli. "…I am talking about the navigation symbol (or insertion caret), typically a vertical line, that shows the position of the cursor in a chunk of text or text entry box. The most common kind of caret most users see is a simple vertical line; a stick. Yes, I am trying to make the post title work by calling it a stick. But new CSS features will allow you to change properties of the insertion caret, specifically its shape, color (ok, not new, but see next property), and animate it…" https://adrianroselli.com/2025/09/custom-carets-and-users-when-the-caret-is-no-longer-a-stick-yes-thats-a-poor-attempt-at-a-pun.html Taking a Shot at the Double Focus Ring Problem Using Modern CSS By Eric W. Bailey. "The double focus ring problem is something you might run into when you are trying to make a large, complicated website or web app accessible at scale. It is also a bit of a problem buried inside a solution. Confused? Intrigued? Let's break it down.…" https://piccalil.li/blog/taking-a-shot-at-the-double-focus-ring-problem-using-modern-css/ CSS to Speech: Alternative Text for CSS-Generated Content By Sara Soueidan. "This is a 101 post on when and how to use the slash content property syntax in CSS to provide alt text for CSS-generated content, and why it is important…" https://www.sarasoueidan.com/blog/alt-text-for-css-generated-content/ Forced-Color-Adjust: None Is an Unavoidable Foot Gun By Sarah Higley. "…By default, forced color modes work by converting UI from author-defined colors into a reduced palette of system colors based on HTML semantics, not authored CSS. Static text will adopt a CanvasText color against a Canvas background. Buttons will use ButtonText on ButtonFace, and disabled controls will have content and borders appear as GrayText…" https://sarahmhigley.com/writing/forced-color-adjust-none/ Integrating CSS Cascade Layers To An Existing Project By Victor Ayomipo. "The idea behind this is to share a full, unfiltered look at integrating CSS Cascade Layers into an existing legacy codebase. In practice, it's about refactoring existing CSS to use cascade layers without breaking anything…" https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2025/09/integrating-css-cascade-layers-existing-project/ We Keep Reinventing CSS, but Styling Was Never the Problem By Den Odell. "…CSS wasn't built for encapsulated components. It wasn't built for dynamic theming or runtime configuration or hydration mismatches. So we've spent years bolting on strategies to make it work…" https://denodell.com/blog/we-keep-reinventing-css +03: EVALUATION & TESTING. How Participants Are Integrated Into Community-Driven Research for Accessibility: A Systematic Review By Juho-Pekka Mäkipää, Teemu Mäenpää, Duong Dang, and Tomi Pasanen. "Community-driven research, including citizen science and crowdsourcing, offers effective approaches for addressing accessibility challenges…" https://firstmonday.org/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/14291 +04: EVENTS. GMU's Assistive Technology Initiative: The Highs, Lows, and "I Don't Knows" of our ADA Title II Efforts September 25, 2025. Online https://go.3playmedia.com/wbnr-09-25-2025-gmu Agile and Accessible User Experiences with AT User Flow Testing October 1, 2025. Online https://www.tpgi.com/webinar-agile-and-accessible-user-experiences-with-at-user-flow-testing/ Virtual Web Accessibility Training October 14-15, 2025. Online https://webaim.org/training/virtual/ Basics of Creating Accessible PowerPoint Presentations - Remediation and Testing October 15, 2025. Online https://accessingenuity.com/pages/webinar/basics-of-creating-accessible-power-point-presentations-remediation-and-testing-digital-accessibility-webinar New York Public Library's Accessible Technology Conference October 18-19, 2025. New York, New York. U.S.A. https://www.nypl.org/events/programs/2025/10/18/nypls-accessible-technology-conference-2025-connect-innovate-act-day-1 +05: HTML. HTML/SR Lookup Milker By Steve Faulkner. "Below is a list of links to each of the HTML elements in the screen-reader-HTML-support tables following an element named link will display the Screen Reader HTML Support - Lookup app with the data for that element…" https://html5accessibility.com/stuff/2025/09/16/html-sr-lookup-milker/ +06: JAVASCRIPT. Finally, Safe Array Methods in JavaScript By Matt Smith. "There's a good reason that many developers pause before using .sort(), .reverse(), or .splice() in JavaScript: those methods mutate the original array. That single side effect can lead to subtle, hard-to-trace bugs, especially in apps with shared or reactive state. The good news is that in the last couple of years we've gotten new array methods that make working with arrays safer and cleaner by avoiding mutation altogether…" https://allthingssmitty.com/2025/09/08/finally-safe-array-methods-in-javascript/ +07: MISCELLANEOUS. The Web Behind Glass By Thomas Günther. "iOS 26 and its Safari introduced exciting new features for web designers. Most importantly a completely new design language for the frame around on top of the websites we build. I've been using it for a few months now and collected some advice for designing and developing websites for the delightful and elegant new design language, Liquid Glass…" https://medienbaecker.com/articles/the-web-behind-glass Threats and Opportunities for Mature Design Systems By Erin White. "My day job for the past couple of years has been design governance for a very large website. Put simply, my team helps keep this giant website consistent and accessible for our millions of users…" https://erinrwhite.com/design-systems-threats +08: NAVIGATION. 2.4.4 Link Purpose (In Context) By Nat Tarnoff. "Links are what make the internet the world wide web. The original idea was that the internet is a set of digital documents. The link allows you to move between them. To make them as effective as they can be, we want to make them clear in what they do. Often though, the simple link doesn't provide a clear purpose. Let's look at what it takes to pass 2.4.4 Link Purpose (in Context)…" http://tarnoff.info/2025/09/22/a11y-101-2-4-4-link-purpose-in-context/ +09: USABILITY. How to Spot Signs of UX Maturity Regression By Kate Kaplan. "Recognizing signs of UX maturity regression early and addressing them quickly helps organizations sustain momentum and avoid backsliding." https://www.nngroup.com/articles/signs-of-ux-maturity-regression/ +10: WEBWASTE & SUSTAINABILITY. Adding the W3C's New ARRM To Improve Your Project's Accessibility (Video) By Mike Gifford. "…In this session, we'll explore how ARRM can help open source maintainers, designers, developers, content contributors, and community leaders collaborate more effectively on accessibility goals…" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SE--M33HmZU How To Minimize The Environmental Impact Of Your Website By James Chudley. "As responsible digital professionals, we are becoming increasingly aware of the environmental impact of our work and need to find effective and pragmatic ways to reduce it. James Chudley shares a new decarbonising approach that will help you to minimise the environmental impact of your website, benefiting people, profit, purpose, performance, and the planet…" https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2025/09/how-minimize-environmental-impact-website/ The Politics of AI: We'll Need More Sustainability, Community and Democracy By Hidde de Vries. "This week I attended a symposium called 'The Politics of AI: governance, resistance, alternatives' at Goldsmiths in London. In this post, I'll share some takeaways…" https://hidde.blog/ai-politics/ [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.]