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Adrian Roselli
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All Posts Tagged: UX

Sortable Table Column Mad Libs

Visually and functionally sortable column headers on tables are straightforward (I have a post on that coming soon). However, making them accessible can be a bit frustrating. To clarify, making them accessible to screen readers is frustrating. I wrote the post I promised in the opening: Sortable Table Columns There…

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Tags: accessibility, ARIA, html, pattern, standards, tables, usability, UX

Speech Viewer Logs of Lies

The headline is intentional hyperbole, chosen mostly for the sloppy alliteration. When sighted users test with a screen reader it is common to rely on the visual output — checking to see where focus goes, confirming that controls behave, watching the spoken output in a text log. The problem is…

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Tags: accessibility, usability, UX

ARIA Grid As an Anti-Pattern

First I will cover what an ARIA grid is per the ARIA specification, and then I will discuss two patterns proposed by the ARIA Authoring Practices. ARIA 1.1 Data Grids Layout Grids As Defined The Provided Examples 1. Simple List of Links 2. Pill List For a List of Message…

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Tags: accessibility, ARIA, ARIAbuse, rant, standards, UX

#accessiBe Will Get You Sued

Disclaimer: This post and the headline is my opinion. I provide facts throughout to inform that opinion. I say this because accessiBe managed to get $40 million in two rounds of funding from K1 Capital and I am guessing some of that money will be allocated to attorney fees. I…

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Tags: accessibility, overlay, rant, standards, UX

How Not to Deploy a Twitter Feature

Twitter announces a new feature is rolling out for iOS, the ability to record audio tweets. It demonstrates this with an uncaptioned video of its Twitter avatar making bird noises: Tweets with audio are rolling out on iOS and we only have one thing to say about it pic.twitter.com/CZvQC1fo1W Twitter…

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Tags: accessibility, rant, Twitter, UX

Avoid aria-roledescription

HTML has all sorts of built-in features that, when used correctly, are accessible, will localize, and which just work. For example, if I want a button, I use <button>, and a screen reader will announce it as button. For users in other languages, they will hear whatever is their word…

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Tags: accessibility, ARIA, ARIAbuse, browser, rant, standards, UX

When Is a Vetted Pattern No Longer a Vetted Pattern?

The moment you change it. As soon as you start to tweak the underlying code or aspects of the design, you run the risk of introducing bugs. That part should be easy for any developer to understand. The tougher part to get your arms around is that once you add…

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Tags: pattern, usability, UX

I Don’t Care What Google or Apple or Whoever Did

Please do not use this post as an excuse to beat up the devs at Apple or Google. If you are doing that, you have missed the point of this post and you are being unnecessarily mean to individuals who may have no control over broader organizational decisions. Do not…

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Tags: Apple, Google, usability, UX

Block Links, Cards, Clickable Regions, Rows, Etc.

Whether you call them cards, block links, or some other thing, the construct of making an area of content clickable (tappable, Enter-key-able, voice-activatable, etc.) is not new. While hit area size is mostly a usability issue, marketers often want a larger click area around their calls to action (CTAs) to…

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Tags: accessibility, css, design, html, pattern, tables, usability, UX

Link Targets and 3.2.5

TL;DR: Regardless of what accessibility conformance level you target, do not arbitrarily open links in a new window or tab. If you are required to do so anyway, inform users in visible text. Overview Throughout this post I am going to use the terms browser window and tab interchangeably. While…

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Tags: accessibility, html, usability, UX, WCAG

Defining ‘Toast’ Messages

In current user interface terms a toast is a message that appears on the screen; it is often short, often appears only briefly, and often animates up from the bottom (like a piece of ghostly yet precisely-crafted toast), though other directions and a fade-in/-out is common. The Name When Google…

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Tags: accessibility, ARIA, pattern, usability, UX

My Priority of Methods for Labeling a Control

Here is the priority I follow when assigning an accessible name to a control: Native HTML techniques, aria-labelledby pointing at existing visible text, Visibly-hidden content that is still in the page, aria-label. Too often folks will grab ARIA first to provide an accessible name for a thing. Or they may…

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Tags: accessibility, ARIA, ARIAbuse, css, pattern, usability, UX