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Tales of Accessibility Failures
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Eva Ferreira
October 12, 2022
Programming
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Tales of Accessibility Failures
Eva Ferreira
October 12, 2022
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Transcript
Tales of Accessibility Failures Eva Ferreira – SmashingConf, 2022
Hi, I’m Eva! Front-end Engineer at mabl Google Developer Expert
& CSSConf Argentina organizer @evaferreira92
Not another “This is how you do a11y” talk Good
intentions gone bad. @evaferreira92
@evaferreira92 YOU DON’T HAVE TO LEARN FROM YOUR MISTAKES IF
YOU CAN LEARN FROM MINE
⚠️WARNING⚠️ This is a work in progress. I will, most
definitely, keep on messing up. @evaferreira92
Lesson 1
A11y personas Understanding disabilities and assistive technologies
What is a disability? “Accessibility is for blind people”
Disability: A failed interaction between the environment and a person
with a medical condition.
Diverse group of people, a wide range of needs. @evaferreira92
15% of world’s population. has a permanent disability.
None
None
Assistive Technologies * Also known as AT
Hearing Hearing aids Captions
Visual Preference of keyboard over mouse
Screen readers • JAWS • NVDA • Narrator • VoiceOver
• Orca
Mobility Preference of keyboard over mouse
Mobility Sip-and-puff Eye tracking
Mobility Sip-and-puff Eye tracking 💸
Mobility Switches
None
Lesson 2
Simplest things tend to have the biggest impact. I went
ALL IN into aria and screen readers
I wrongly prioritized screen readers over keyboard navigation Begin your
a11y journey with simple and impactful changes. @evaferreira92
Simple, impactful • Color contrast • Semantics • Keyboard navigation
Outlines 💅 Skip navigation links @evaferreira92
Outlines
None
@evaferreira92
But they are ugly! Yes, they are!
https://www.sarasoueidan.com Use outlines on your focusable elements
https://mabl.com
Skip navigation links
https://www.sarasoueidan.com
None
Skip navigation links
None
Lots impact, Low code.
Sometimes simple is not that simple “Code debt just called;
it wants your happiness back.” @evaferreira92
Prioritize Impact and easy to solve @evaferreira92
Prioritize • Big impact, easy to solve • Mix with
small impact, easy to solve Ideal for Fridays 💃 • Big impact, hard to solve • Small impact, hard to solve @evaferreira92
Lesson 3
People mean well … Most of the time.
Aria-label all the things! The Infobae & the React Testing
Library stories @evaferreira92
@evaferreira92
@evaferreira92
@evaferreira92
@evaferreira92
Why?
@evaferreira92 https://webaim.org/blog/aria-cause-solution
“Every image should have an alt text!” @evaferreira92
Rules for alternative texts • The alt attribute is compulsory
• It can be empty if the image is decorative (alt=“”) • Do not be redundant • If it has an action, describe the action, not the image @evaferreira92
https://www.w3.org/WAI/tutorials/images/decision-tree
The SEO in the room And the story of how
every image had the same alt text. @evaferreira92
Lesson 4
Testing correctly Having 98/100 on Lighthouse won’t save you.
None
None
Manual tests @evaferreira92
Manual tests • Axe Developer tools • WAVE • Keyboard
navigation • Screen readers @evaferreira92
What do we test? We test users’ stories. @evaferreira92
Can a user with [assistive technology] do [action]? @evaferreira92
Test users’ stories • Can a user with keyboard navigation
- create an account? • Can a user with a screen reader - add a product to the cart? • Can a user watch this video - using captions? @evaferreira92
Test for people. @evaferreira92
Automated tests WCAG
None
WCAG • Set of rules created by W3C a long
time ago. • Standard in the industry • What gives the foundation for a11y laws all around the globe • Different success criteria depending on target audience, target country, type of company, etc. @evaferreira92
Of course, always aim for no errors. @evaferreira92
How many websites do you think pass with no errors?
5%? 20%? 40%?
3.2% WebAIM Million, 2022 https://webaim.org/projects/million
Automated tools • Axe-core by Deque • Lighthouse • Mabl
• Storybook add-on @evaferreira92
Automated tools • Add these to your pipelines • CI/CD
should fail when requirements are not met. @evaferreira92
Lesson 5
The community & A11y ownership Team effort and gate-keeping
None
None
You cannot out-code bad design. Accessibility is a team effort.
No gate-keeping allowed. @evaferreira92
So, You made a mistake. What happens when you mess
up.
You try again! * Easier said than done @evaferreira92
None
Mistakes are: • Temporal • Localized • Changeable @evaferreira92
You don’t need to be always right. Aim for making
new mistakes instead of repeating old ones. @evaferreira92
You need to try, you need to care. @evaferreira92
Thanks! @evaferreira92