Finally catching up with Axe-con and absolutely loved @annaecook.com 's presentation about deterministic design - an excellent case for why accessibility is still vital in an age of AI. www.deque.com/axe-con/sess... (free registration needed)
Soft launch of a lil tool I've been working on: You plug in a list of hex colours and it'll give you previews, the contrast ratios and WCAG scores for each possible combination of those colours.
colors.beeps.gay/
Please don't hug […]
If your venn diagram niche is
public benches
service design
accessibility
then I have a short blog post for you
What's with all of the missing park benches? – Rich Blake share.google/CkdeSUmPbX7T...
WCAG map close-up showing an AA station on two lines, plus text "1.4.5 Images".
The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines transport map is now in vector format, and Brazilian Portuguese. Vector code is on GitHub. Map: AndrewHick.com/wcag Big thanks to Bruno Pulis, Ana Cuentro and Josh W Comeau for the vector tutorial!
This is really well written - so many subtle ways organisations can use to manipulate your decisions. Removing "stopping cues" can definitely add anxiety.
It's common to hear "fully accessible" to describe products which pass WCAG 2.2 AA. But, are they really?
In this post, I explore 5 examples of why WCAG, as awesome as it is, is not a measure of great usability or performance.
www.craigabbott.co.uk/blog/2025/5-...
#accessibility #a11y #wcag
My webinar on making printed and digital content #accessibility is now available as a standalone video with descriptions and captions in: English, Ukrainian, Malay, Arabic, Czech, German, French, Hindi, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, Serbian, Spanish.
youtu.be/AO9XXkrACtU?...
This Halloween, the Dept. for Supernatural Affairs* invites you to take part in a haunted accessibility exercise.
ghost-sighting.lorithomson.co.uk password = ‘Halloween’
Each page contains accessibility issues and clues.
*Definitely (not) a made-up department and service.
Happy Ghost Spotting!
Little reminder that an inaccessible website means lost customers, and lost revenues.
From the article: "Research shows UK businesses collectively lose £17.1 billion a year because shoppers using assistive technology abandon websites that don’t work for them...
Catching up on Inclusive Design 24 and can strongly recommend Kaye Moors' presentation on Brain Overload - great points about cognitive accessibility and stakeholder buy in 👏 m.youtube.com/watch?v=Ij_y...
"Can the iPhone do that yet?"
Back in 2008, Stephen Fry published a list of things that he wished the iPhone could do.
Has the future caught up?
shkspr.mobi/blog/2023/09...
It's only 4 weeks until the first Access:Given, a one-day digital accessibility conference in Newcastle Upon Tyne.
We're excited to be supporting this event and its female founders.
There are only a few tickets left - you can find out more information on the website:
buff.ly/plgNx4u
We need a new term for “best practice”. It feels optional. Like “what you’ve done is fine, but here’s how others do it.”
In reality, when we say best practice, we mean “this is a definite accessibility barrier, we just can’t log it as a failure in the scope of this standard.”
#accessibility #a11y
every team should have a little bit of internet to call their own, where they can publish texts, images, ideas, experiments, etc
it doesn't sound like a lot to ask.
but in most organisations, it's very hard to make happen.
Thanks so much Adrian, all great points. I'll have another look at the wording soon and I didn't know Audio Description was in doubt. Also wondering, given the nuances of WCAG, if some sort of general caveat at the start might be useful.
Colourful stripes
Introducing WCAG for humans: the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines manually summarised on one page in 7 practical themes: AndrewHick.com/humans ♿️ Feedback welcome! Many thanks to Martin Glancy for reviewing the draft and @tempertemper.bsky.social for the initial inspiration. #accessibility #wcag
What’s one thing you wish was more widely known about digital accessibility?
I’ll go first.
I wish more developers knew how to check elements for accessible names, roles and values.
#accessibility #a11y
Infographic titled "Music Sales 1973-2022" showing total revenue by format. A circular chart displays relative sizes of revenue from CD ($367B), vinyl, cassette, paid streaming, and other formats. Below, a timeline graph illustrates revenue trends, highlighting the dominance of CDs, the decline of physical formats, and the rise of digital and streaming services. Notes on vinyl's resurgence and digital formats' current dominance are included.
Music Sales by format from 1973+
www.visualcapitalist.com/music-indust...
A thing I wrote and I want to share again:
Don’t stop being creative because of some silly narrative about being replaceable. Create because you exist, share as an act of humanity, and create because you can. Selfishly, I want to see what you make.
That will always matter. It is the best of life.
Black fluffy cat amusingly spreadeagled on its back in the middle of a bed
There's no "why" in AI. It's getting better at reading an image to predict its alt text - but can't yet know why the image is there. Is this cat here for comedy, or is the bed for sale?
Check your auto generated alt text before publishing! (That's my #AI hot take quota for this year) #accessibility
Photo of the sky above a hill in silhouette, a gradient from dark blue to light blue to white (or light grey) to pinkish-orange
Sky says trans rights
Thanks so much! I might have to trademark WunCAGround 😁
262 colour blobs in mainly concentric circles, from red at the top and clockwise in rainbow order. Greys are in the middle. Full description on AndrewHick.com/colour
Enjoy colours and accessible design? Here’s a mosaic of 262 curated colours inspired by art, nature, travel and culture. They’re in rough rainbow order, and text is black or white depending on which has the best contrast. AndrewHick.com/colour 🌈 #colour #color #noAI
If you had to change your bio to a song lyric what would it be?
I'm torn between
"I'm a humble guy with healthy desire" (pixies)
Or
"I'm not a prophet or a stone age man just a mortal with potential of a superman" (Bowie)
Let's hear yours x
Maybe "raised on a diet of broken biscuits" (Pulp) 🍪
A lot of good points. I understand IAAP are looking into recent feedback but agree that the current requirements for gaining credits seem unnecessarily strict.
★ New blog post: The (not quite new) GOV.UK brand
The refreshed GOV.UK logo and brand design has launched today. Here's some background on it, from my perspective working on it.
beeps.website/blog/2025-06-25-the-not-...
@gerireid.com - Shift left on accessibility
londonwebstandards.org/talks/shift-...
#a11y
Nice post from @tempertemper.bsky.social about Focus Priming - clicking a webpage to continue tabbing or reading from that point - which there was previously no word for. www.tempertemper.net/blog/focus-p... ⏭️ #accessibility #testing
