Posts by Dan
Take the #NoMouse Challenge! The #NoMouse Challenge is a global effort to raise awareness about accessible web design. nomouse.org #accessibility
Gave designingforaccessibility.com a fresh new look π
Still the same mission: accessibilty, vpat, acr etc. and some good guidance.
come check it out if accessibility is your thing π
Over the past two weeks I've generated rapid prototypes for all my app work in Figma Make. I can't see myself ever needing Design again outside of small asset/component creation. Unless of course, the "ai credits" for an enterprise account count for nothing. I guess time will tell. #figma
Quick update: I added Level AA and AAA to my success criteria look up page. Hopefully its useful to someone. #accessibility
designingforaccessibility.com/criteria-loo...
Title II of the ADA requires state and local governments to ensure all digital content, including web-based documents (PDFs, Word, Excel, PowerPoint), conforms to
WCAG 2.1 Level AA standards by April 24, 2026. Your documents must be accessible!
Alright, my Success Criteria look up is live. Its only Level A for now but if people like it I'll do AA, and AAA. Its just a nice and simple lookup to explain criteria in its simplest terms.
designingforaccessibility.com/criteria-loo... #accessibility
Spent a few weeks designing and coding a Level A Success Criteria lookup. Type in the number, 1.1.1 for example and you get the criteria description and a layman's term explanation with an example. I'll share it soon #accessibility #vpat
New UX article for December in my practical UX perspectives section - "Reassuring your UX team about AI" - designingforaccessibility.com/reassuring-u... #ux
www.forbes.com/councils/for... Why Accessibility Is The Next Competitive Advantage #accessibility
We once got dinged by a state for removing the instructions pages, I kid you not. Asked us to put it all back in. I actually produce a completed "full" and "abbreviated" version of the VPAT to avoid that in the future. Ridiculous I know.
Are you waiting to publish your VPAT until all your defects are fixed? Don't. A VPAT is a disclosure document. An old VPAT looks worse than a new one with an acknowledgement of gaps and a mitigation plan.
#vpat #accessibility
My second "UX Perspectives" article is live. Head over to theuxperspective.com to see the list. This time its, "Handling Conflict in UX: From Design Debate To Real Solutions"
I'm getting a lot of questions about who's responsibility it is to produce the VPAT. Well, it depends: In smaller orgs (no a11y team), it's often a collaboration between devs, UX, and QA, with one person owning the VPAT documentation (usually someone on product or compliance). #vpat #accessibility
Next UX article coming in a couple of days: Handling Conflict in UX: From Design Debate To Real Solutions. I also registered a specific domain for the UX perspectives. I'll share that soon too. (its just a redirect for now) #ux
First #ux related article is live from my "UX Perspectives" category. Its entitled - The Hill Worth Dying On. Any feedback or opinion is appreciated. π designingforaccessibility.com/ux-perspecti...
Finally got some time to start work on my "Practical UX Perspectives" section of the website. First article is, "The Hill Worth Dying On". Knowing when to fight for a design decision and when to let it go. π
A VPAT shows how accessible a product is.
WCAG is the standard those reports are measured against.
The numbers (2.0, 2.1, 2.2) are just versions, with newer ones adding more coverage.
The levels (A, AA, AAA) show how complete the accessibility effort is, with AA being the most common requirement
Had some time to add a quick top 5 tips article, check it out - designingforaccessibility.com/accessibilit...
Sharing options on the pages is now complete and accessible. I think that's it for the site upgrades for now, back to some article research
Search added to the homepage. Simple js file for now but it works well. Now I'm working on the ability to share the articles.
After hours of work, I've now updated the website to include a light and dark theme switcher. Phew.
Next up: Search!
I spent some time reorganizing and redesigning the website to better suite consumers. I'm not quite done but its live you wanna check it out. I need to add a search and a "dark mode" switcher but that'll come in time. - designingforaccessibility.com
Quick reminder (because I needed it myself) - Disabled elements are exempt from color contrast. π #accessibility www.w3.org/WAI/WCAG21/U...
Put together another article today - Building Accessible Government Licensing Software: A Developer's Guide to Pre-Built Components. Very specific you might think, but this topic is the majority of my work life. Figured I would share - designingforaccessibility.com/pre-built-co...
Did some clean up today and moved some things around. I also published, Accessibility Is Everyone's Job: Defining Responsibilities Across the SDLC #accessibility π
An example of a good error message best practices:
- Say what happened
- Say why it happened
- Provide reassurance
- Give them a way out
- Help them fix it
When it comes to the development of software, Accessibility should be everybody's responsibility. That means, specifics should come from Product and BA. UX Libraries and guides should be compliant. Dev components should be tested at the source, and QA procedures in place.
My article, 'Make a Mitigation and Remediation Plan', is now live. Check it out. Feedback appreciated. - #accessibility designingforaccessibility.com/mitigation-r...
Spent the morning writing a document called Accessibility Mitigation and Remediation for VPATs. I've also added some specifics for UAT and Releases. I'll be updating the website soon. π