by Jonathan Hassell
No Comments » Filed under: Accessibility aids for users, Innovation

What’s new in Accessibility in 2019 – enabling technologies and ATs

In my follow-up blog to ‘Inclusive Design goes mainstream in 2019’ I’m looking at the multiple layers of technology that are needed to deliver an accessible digital experience to people with impairments. Each year more and more organisations wake up to accessibility, in every layer of this ecosystem. Big breakthroughs and innovations are happening in Underlying Technologies & Devices, Operating System features, and Assistive Technologies. Here’s the latest on what’s happening in hearables, wearables, eHealth, VR, AR, AI and 5G, and how they could create opportunities for you in 2019…

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by Graham Armfield
No Comments » Filed under: Effective website creation, Hints and tips, Technical How-To

Accessible accordions part 2 – using <details> and <summary>

After a comment on my previous blog post about accessible accordion patterns, I decided to do some investigation on the details and summary HTML elements. They could be the best way of doing accordions natively in browsers, but how well is the pattern supported? And will they work with assistive technologies?

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by Jonathan Hassell
No Comments » Filed under: Uncategorized

Inclusive design goes mainstream – how could you benefit from it in 2019?

Happy New Year! It’s the time of year when people look ahead to what they think is going to be important in their part of the digital world this year. So we wanted to do the same for what is going to be important in digital inclusion in 2019. Here’s the first part, about why large organisations are seeing this year as the year inclusive design goes mainstream, and why they believe it’s so important…

by Gemma Pitman
5 Comments » Filed under: Accessibility testing, Technical How-To

Using Gherkin To Write Accessibility Tests

Numerous accessibility automation tools, libraries and APIs are already available (including aXe, Pa11y, Google Accessibility Tools) which can be used to check whether code has been marked up to meet accessibility standards. But these don’t cover many of the tests you’d wish to make against WCAG success criteria, which aren’t about code, but about the how the page should respond to the user’s behaviour, such as tabbing. This blog discusses how the popular Gherkin language, which is often used for defining user acceptance test scenarios, and integrates easily with many automation frameworks including Ruby/Cucumber, PHP/Behat and .NET/SpecFlow (amongst others), can be used to write acceptance tests for these user behaviour tests…

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by Jonathan Hassell
No Comments » Filed under: Accessibility Case Studies, Accessibility lawsuits, Accessibility legislation, Accessibility standards, BS8878

The wider picture of accessibility

Over Christmas I’ve been reflecting on this quote from Yacoob Woozeer in this month’s podcast: “Even where people are being taught accessibility, it’s at a component level. They need to see the wider picture. So you need to be more aware of that user journey throughout the system, not just looking at individual aspects of it.” This ‘wider picture’ of accessibility is key to individuals’ growing maturity in accessibility, as it is for organisations’ maturity. So my Christmas blog shares how my book on BS 8878, and the forthcoming ISO 30071-1, can help provide it. Enjoy…

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by Jonathan Hassell
No Comments » Filed under: Accessibility Case Studies, Accessibility legislation, Accessibility standards, Innovation

The future of accessibility – Digital Accessibility Experts Podcast Episode 2

Welcome to episode 2 of our Digital Accessibility Experts Podcast, on the future of accessibility. Could we get browser creators to create better native controls so people don’t have to roll their own? Are accessible component libraries going to change everything? Could personalisation give everyone interfaces that are fully designed for them? Is accessibility now cool? And do Hassell Inclusion’s team really want to be out of jobs because they’ve helped accessibility become “just the way people work”? Find out here…

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by Jonathan Hassell
No Comments » Filed under: Accessibility Case Studies, BS8878

Get our book on Kindle now

I’m delighted to announce that our 5 star-reviewed book on embedding accessibility into your business-as-usual processes is now available on Kindle. Those who have read it, love it. So if you want more Hassell Inclusion insights, and case-studies from 20 more top accessibility experts from all over the planet, it’s a must have. Find out more…

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by Jonathan Hassell
No Comments » Filed under: Accessibility Case Studies

Accessibility in developing countries – Insights from Ethiopia

As part of our company’s 10% giving, we have recently been to Ethiopia to raise money for Ethiopiaid. While we were there, we visited the local projects they support to find out what life for people with disabilities in Ethiopia is like, what accessibility looks like there, and what we could learn from to help this growing nation support the lives and ambitions of its disabled population. Here’s what we found out…

by Jonathan Hassell
No Comments » Filed under: Uncategorized

Routes into accessibility: how our team became experts

People arrive in accessibility from all sorts of directions. You don’t have to have a background in development, or testing. You could equally arrive from governance, user testing, or marketing. The beauty of accessibility is that it takes people with all sorts of skillsets. All you need is passion, a place to learn your skills, and a place to apply them. So we asked some of our podcast team how they arrived in accessibility, and what they love about it that makes them such passionate advocates. Here’s what they said…