Anna J McDougall

This is a really good article about common techniques of browsing the web with only a keyboard. I consider this a prereq for anyone working in the accessibility field. Martin does a beautiful job keeping the concepts simple and straightforward. #Accessibility #Keyboard https://lnkd.in/eQGKbADX

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Accessibility Tip of the Day 198: If you find that your visible focus indicators are being cut off due to other elements on the page, z-index issues, or CSS overflow issues, one handy trick is to adjust the outline offset to a negative value using the outline-offset CSS property like this: outline-offset: -2px This will bring the focus outline for the element slightly inside the element instead of outside it, which can be useful in situations like in the screenshot below where some sides of the outline are not being shown properly. #accessibility #a11y #accessibilityTipOfTheDay

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I just put this list up on Medium with some of my most frequently referenced resources about accessibility https://lnkd.in/dBDdAja3

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Here’s the information TorontoJS members and other devs have been looking for about alt text. For context, TorontoJS has blind and low vision members in our Slack. So I’ve been gently reminding people to include alt text for all images they post. Doing so isn’t something most devs are used to. This naturally has led to wider conversations about alt text when coding - including what is a decorative image. Having the history of why the exception for alt text for decorative images exist provides much needed context. Having grown up with my mom becoming night blind and needing large print when I was four, then legally blind in her left eye and low vision in her right I’m in the use alt text for everything camp. It gives people a choice to listen or skip it. For images in Slack, it includes everyone. It’s especially important when sharing screenshots of code. Doing so is as simple as copying and pasting the code into the bottom of the post. E.g. “Can anyone help me with this please? I’ve tried x and y, saw z in the docs and it still doesn’t work on my computer. Alt text for screenshot of code: async param => expression async (param1, param2, ...paramN) => { statements } “ [end of Slack post] Thanks to Jen C. for using alt text this week! It was noticed in a good way by several people. #WCAG #WCAG2 #Accessibility #A11y #JavaScript #DevCommunity #DeveloperCommunity #SoftwareEngineering #React Slack #Inclusion #Coding

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Should you worry about accessibility when you have a crisis on your hands? Surely not! ...or should you? The classic example is when you've been pulling a double to get that new feature out the door. You made your deadline, Hooray! Then critical bugs pop out faster than you can fix them. You're overwhelmed with customer complaints. Your product team is struggling to find and squash all these annoyances. And now you've got the business breathing down your neck as well. In times like these, it's easy to fall into panic mode and think there's no time to worry about accessibility. Here's the thing though. A crisis is the reason to make time! When people are relying on your product more than ever, the last thing you want is to shut out a portion of your audience. Whether it's someone with a disability trying to access vital information or a stressed-out customer struggling to navigate your site, accessibility matters. Plus, there's a bonus. When you make time to fix accessibility issues in a crisis, you're also preventing future crises from happening. So you're actually saving time and headaches. Fixing accessibility during a crisis is like trying to fix a leaky boat in the middle of a storm. It's not ideal. But if you don't fix the wholes, you're going to sink eventually, no matter how hard you paddle. #Accessibility #ShipAccessible ---- Thank you for taking time out of your day to read this! ❤️ Did you enjoy this? Join like-minded peeps learning and contributing to authentic conversations on accessibility. 📬 Click "Get the free daily newsletter" on my profile to subscribe. ♻️ Repost if you enjoyed this! It costs nothing and helps me spread the knowledge.

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It's going to sound crazy... But did you know you don't need permission for accessibility? I've never heard anyone berating developers or designers: - Who told you that you could work on accessibility? - Who gave you permission to test with a screen reader? - Who said you could solve this? What? Did you think that accessibility work requires some form of special authorisation? Heck no! It may sound crazy, but you don't need anyone's permission to prioritise accessibility. It's part of the job description. It's already your responsibility. I've never heard of a developer asking for permission to write secure code. Or a designer needing a special mandate to create a user-friendly interface. It's not any different with accessibility. If you’re the designer, developer, or any stakeholder in a product, you already have the authority to ensure that your product is usable by everyone. You don't need to ask for permission. Just start. Read up on the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG). These guidelines are publicly available and meant to be used by anyone creating digital content. Try out tools and techniques used by people with disabilities. Testing with a screen reader or any other assistive technology is something anyone can and should do. Share your findings, collaborate with others and keep learning. Solving accessibility issues should be seen as part of good practice in web development. It's just like ensuring your code is secure or your design is user-friendly. For accessibility, all you need is awareness, empathy and a commitment to inclusivity. If you're passionate about making digital spaces accessible, don't wait for permission. Go ahead and start. #Accessibility #A11y #Webdevelopment #InclusiveDesign #ShipAccessible

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Accessibility Tip of the Day 171: Building accessible tables and grids can be hard, especially if they contain editable or interactive content. I spent a good bit of time thinking about this problem a couple years ago and put together some demos in a Storybook app. You can check it out here! Demo: https://lnkd.in/g75Q3Usc GitHub repo: https://lnkd.in/gris6Qqq #accessibility #a11y #accessibilityTipOfTheDay

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Accessibility quick tips:  1)- Even if you use "aria-hidden="true", most screen readers will still disregard it for a parent element if its children can be focused. Solution: If you don't have animations, use display:none on parent; else use visibility:hidden: div[aria-hidden:"true"]{  visibility:hidden;  } 2)- Accessibly Hiding Focus Outlines: by default all browsers put a focus ring on elements which Devs are asked to remove. Here's an accessible way to hide it ! Add the following JS code: document.body.classList.add('u-no-focus-outline')  document.addEventListener('keyup', function (event) {  if (event.code === 9) {  document.body.classList.remove('u-no-focus-outline')  document.body.classList.add('u-focus-outline')  }  }) Now you can use outline:none property: .u-no-focus-outline *:focus {  outline: none;  } 3)- Form elements have duplicate ID's: some page builders inject form elements (with same ID's) when used at multiple locations on same page. we can use for-each loop's index value to remove this error: jQuery('input[type=”text”]').each(function( index ) {              jQuery(this).attr('id', `${index}+input`).before(`<label class="visually-hidden" for="${index}input">input field</label>`);        }); 4)- Want to add a low level heading but afraid of Heading hierarchy issue ? Add <h2> instead of h3, h4 or h6 and use relevant class (.h3, .h4, .h6) to achieve the desired font-sizes. e.g., <h2 class="h3">some text</h2> Happy Coding 😊

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#CoDesign according to the #NDIA #NDIS Doesn't look like #CoDesign. No mention of #UNCRPD in *OUR* (ie #NDIA's) #CoDesign principles. A little hint: the #UNCRPD is *THE* design determinant. #CoDesign *CAN'T* happen without explicit commitment to #UNCRPD. Explains why the #NDIS Bill breaches #HumanRights The #CoDesign Advisory Group - which "provides strategic advice to the NDIA on the implementation of co-design and engagement processes in the disability community" -  hasn't met in 9 months. As I explained in my recent article, #CoDesign has been weaponised. https://lnkd.in/d8VMKkvZ Take a look. #NothingAboutUsWithoutUs #RoboNDIS #ClassAction #RoyalCommission robondis.org Mark Toomey Tony Ridley, MSc CSyP FSyI SRMCP Karen Kline Samantha Connor Mark Sweeney Nick Avery Graham Taylor Tara Hannon Muriel Cummins Georgia van Toorn Dr George Taleporos (GAICD, PhD) Shirley Humphris Peter Gregory Jordon Steele-John #BillShorten David Pocock Vinod Ralh Paul Flintoft 👇 👇👇 https://lnkd.in/dKq7mdzZ

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Developers, here's method #4399 on how to strike dread in this accessibility expert's heart: "We put tabindex="0" on everything and styled visible focus but now it looks really weird". Why? Why? WHYYYYYYYY? Ok, first, for those who don't know this, using tabindex="0" on any element means that you can tab to it with the keyboard. But you do not need to make everything tabable to make it accessible. In the case of a list of messages, if you make it so the keyboard cursor can stop, you better make it interactive. If you can use a mouse to click on the element, you must be able to use a keyboard to replicate the mouse behavior.

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Accessibility Tip of the Day 200: Accessibility best practices aren't always clear cut rules. Even a lot of the guidelines in the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) can be interpreted in a variety of ways. Listen to your users and what they're telling you their needs are. If someone reaches out to let you know that a piece of content isn't accessible or that they're having a hard time using it, they're probably right! (Also, happy 200th tip! We've been doing this since August 2, 2023, so nearly a year now. I hope these tips have been helpful to you all, and thanks everyone who's been following along so far. If you have suggestions for more accessibility topics you'd like me to dig into, please let me know!) #accessibility #a11y #accessibilityTipOfTheDay

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💡 Remote work tip: your bar for “whether or not to have a meeting” should be very high. Where possible, opt for async collaboration that can be done across time-zones. When it comes to sync meetings: 1️⃣ Don’t join the ones you aren't contributing to or benefiting from 2️⃣ Avoid recurring meetings. They're a crutch and interruption   3️⃣ When you *do* meet, make sure there’s a set agenda 4️⃣ All that said: it’s okay to enjoy meetings. Sometimes they're just a good way to connect. BTW, these are things I learned in the Remote Async Masterclass

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“Can we just use an overlay widget to fix our accessibility issues?” As an accessibility consultant, this is a question I’ve heard many times and it’s certainly a valid one. Creating a list of accessibility issues is fairly easy and inexpensive, but fixing those issues can be a costly endeavor. This is especially true if accessibility was not a consideration from the start. However, I (and many accessibility specialists) don’t consider overlay widgets to be a sustainable fix for accessibility issues. In this article, I’ll cover four reasons why web accessibility overlays are not a reliable solution for fixing accessibility issues. I’ll also give you some cost-effective alternatives to improve accessibility on your website. https://lnkd.in/eZ_r_5Th #accessibility #a11y #automation #AI #technology

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☝🏾How to niche up (+ why this matters NOW) 1. do interesting stuff outside of work (increase your surface area of luck) 2. build your spiky skillset - go deep on *multiple* domains, industries, roles 3. identify what drains you, and what energizes you (double down on the latter) 4. create your own category (eg: mine is.. generalist careers + community building + bootstrapping + rural entrepreneurship) 5. the more comfy you can be in uncomfy, novel territory, the more likely your success 6. create content in the exact same voice you chat to your friends with 7. for the love of all things good, stop copy pasting AI generated content 8. get regular, deep rest 9. Like Greg said yesterday, zig when others zag (IMO, it's easier to monetize a zag) 🌀Why this matters now: Till now, the world of work has been built for specialists. But 65% of young people will be employed in jobs that don't exist yet (stat: British Council). Everything is temporary. Your hyper-specialised niche? A robot might be able to do it 10x faster, better and cheaper in 6 months. Sorry 🤐 Being known for, and owning, multiple spiky themes makes you a hard-to-replace hire. Someone who's resilient, who has proven self-efficacy. The age-old advice was to niche down. But to be future-proof, you've gotta niche UP 🌀 What do you think? Agree / disagree? Lmk in the replies! Follow along Generalist World for more 🌀

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There are no silly accessibility questions - color contrast version! In accessibility we talk a lot about color contrast, and we assume everyone knows what that means. We usually think that if someone isn’t choosing colors with high contrast then they’re doing that on purpose. But none of us were born knowing what color contrast is, so here's a quick intro! When we talk about color contrast we mean the difference between two different colors. Sometimes we mean text and a background color, and sometimes we’re talking about an element (like a button, form field, or focus indicator) with the background color. Other times we might be talking about two colors that are next to each other in a pie chart. In accessibility we use a specific way of determining color contrast. The scores are written as __:1 (like 4.2:1). If the score is higher it means the contrast is higher, and lower scores mean lower contrast. The highest score is 21:1, which is the score black and white get when they’re compared to each other. The lowest score is 1:1, which is the score a color has with itself. There’s a formula to determine the ratio, but my brain shuts down when math is involved, so I’ll link a resource below in case you want to learn more. And we don’t need to know how to calculate the ratio, because there are tools that can do that for us! You can use the tools by getting the code for the colors (usually a hex or RGB code) and inputting it into the fields. The tool will calculate the ratio and tell you whether it’s high enough. If the contrast is between text and a background color then the size of the text matters too. To meet the accessibility standard most companies aim for, the ratio between the colors should be: - 3:1 for large text (it’s considered large text if it’s 18 pt or larger or bold text that’s 14 pt and larger) and also for non-text elements - 4.5:1 for regular or small sized text Generally higher contrast is better, but having white text with black text can be difficult to read, so the goal isn’t to just make everything white and black. Having a color that’s close to white and a color that’s close to black will help make sure lots of people can read it. People can't do something if they don't know it exists, so color contrast is important! Color Contrast Resources: - WebAIM Contrast Checker - https://lnkd.in/e6D6xNEb - Colour Contrast Analyzer (CCA) - https://lnkd.in/e_kAgShu - Contrast plugin for Figma - https://lnkd.in/eGzATeAA - Coolors Contrast Checker - https://lnkd.in/eX9upvSz - How to calculate colour contrast (article) - https://lnkd.in/e9ArEZ8Z - Accessible color palette generator from Venngage - https://lnkd.in/eHACA3Jm #Accessibility #A11y #ColorContrast

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Something different for my LinkedIn connections and friends – some lessons from my 20+ years as an independent UX Consultant👇🏼 YOUR INDEPENDENT CONSULTANT WORK TOOLKIT: TIPS FOR SUCCESS AND GROWTH Sharpening Your Skills - Teaching opportunities are gifts; don’t decline them - Everyone has their favourite tools– just don’t get too attachedto yours - Try one new technique every project,and view itas an experiment - Don’t believe the hype about multi-tasking– prioritize and time-box tasks instead - Learning andresearch timeneeds to be a recurring weekly appointment Communication & Collaboration - Engage stakeholders as early as possible, and don’t forget the critical questions of project success and concerns - Speak aboutyour processas a toolkit - Communicateearly and often, especially when you havebad news - Connect with your professional community, but freely sharewith a broader audience Project Management - Track when work makes you feel energized and use this list to help guide your pursuit of future work - It will often feel“too early” to startwhen really it is the right time Client Selection & Marketing - Be more thoughtful about client selection and start by envisioning the perfect client/project - Recognize the power ofword of mouthbut don’t overly rely on it - Being booked solid is good for your ego and is also a sign that it’s time to raise your rates - Continually update and refine your portfolio, and remember it is a venue for storytelling Competitive Advantage - Defining what you are not is often easier than defining what you are - Define your competitive advantage excluding years of experience, location,and cost - Example competitive advantages: specialization, way of working, innovation, personality and relationships Do these still resonate in 2024? Does one tip standout for you? Please leave any feedback and suggestions in the comments.

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There's so much LinkedIn advice out there. And it's confusing. (Especially for beginners) Listen... When you're unsure what to do, go for quantity. 1. Post more frequently: min. 5 posts per week 2. Leave comments everywhere: Focus on visibility 3. Get that authority score: Focus on growing followers (I did all these things in Year 1) When you finally know what to do, go for quality. 4. Post only when you have to: Quality insights 5. Comment strategically: Limit your hours spent 6. Grow your bank account: Focus on leads and DMs (That's me today) Remember: Social media growth comes in stages. It's a game. So keep playing → 1 level at a time :) (Repost for others if this is useful ♻️) P.S. Which one (1-6) are you focused on right now? Credit : Jasmin Alić

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Gaming AI and ATS systems is a false economy. Here's why: There's a lot of talk around how AI screening tools and ATS systems are wreaking havoc in the design hiring community. There's also a lot of terrible advice out there surrounding key words and formatting. The truth is, most of the rumors around how much these tools are being used are pretty exaggerated. At least for Design jobs. But let's assume it's all true for a moment. While trying to game AI and ATS systems might seem smart, it often backfires. Leading to a generic application that lacks your unique voice and creativity. Leaving you lost in sea of 'same same, but different'. And ultimately, your profile will ALWAYS land in front of a real human. After almost a decade of building design teams, I've seen how great work and personality speak for themselves. The designers seeing success right now don’t rely on tricks or shortcuts—they focus on these two things. Because the best design teams value human connection in hiring. They want to see your individuality and how your creativity can bring fresh perspectives. So instead of gaming the system, let your skill set and personality shine through. This is the real path to standing out in the design job market. What are your thoughts? #design #designhirig #recruitment #designrecruitment #ats #ai #designjobs #designcareers

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Hoo boy! We have a live one. My post about UX needing to professionalize attracted lots of attention, not all of it the good kind. I know that my posts stir up a few nutcases, but this is something else entirely. If you're reading this, you know the state of UX is dire. In fact the state of technology is dire. The lunatics have taken over the asylum, the chaff have risen to the top, and they have molded tech orgs in their own image. None of this is news. BUT with the rising tide of outrage in our community and indeed in the wider world, I expect the absolute worst opinions to be kept mum. My appraisal of the current situation was that the bad guys were still very much in power but starting to feel enough fear that they'd at least refrain from, oh, I don't know, openly defending ageism. But apparently, I'm naive. Because along came some guy named Simonas Maciulis, and he said the quiet part out loud. By his words, the "older generation of UX folk" are "stuck with outdated ways" and have "ignorance" of all sorts of things. How far gone do things have to be that someone feels totally comfortable, totally immune from consequences, saying this? If this guy could back up his outrageous statements with any sort of excellence, I'd understand how he ended up with 31,000 followers. Buuuut, the thing is, our friend Simonas is a "senior product manager" at Wix, a company INFAMOUS for UX so bad, a 5 year old could design it better. In fact, just this past week, I've lost 10+ hours dealing with Wix's tech support because their trash fire of an editor can't even make a TAB CONTAINER work. I've also had like five people asking "why are you still using Wix??" Good question. Other than the fact I have some legacy stuff built in it, there's no reason at all. And this week, I'm migrating everything into Framer. So yeah, this guy spews bigoted word salad and defends the lack of professionalism in our industry, all without any sort of body of work to demonstrate that he's anything more than a talking head, but 31,000 people think he's worth listening to. THAT is why UX today is a joke. Because the hydra has thousands of heads. I know because they liked his reply on my post. These people have overrun our profession and I, for one, will not take this lying down. It's time to publicly call out, publicly shame, in fact, those who do us the favor of exposing their complicity with the system that has made technology products so terrible, and even jeopardized civil society. It's rare someone makes it this easy. Look, I could be overly pessimistic. Entrenched power follows a bell curve of class consciousness. When they're safe, they don't feel a need to justify themselves to the masses, so they stay quiet. When they're an endangered species, they are also quiet as a survival strategy. But in the middle? Right when they start to sense a threat, that's when they're the loudest. That's where we are in the cycle. We're drawing them out. Don't stop now.

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