Dispatches From The Internets

Anachronistic Beard: a new methodology to make sites work anywhere

[A] revolutionary way of making websites so they look good in iOS 9 with external fonts turned off, work well for Opera Mini’s 250+ million users, and in Chrome, Opera, Firefox, IE, Edge, whether you’re using a computer, a phone, a tablet, a phablet (you’re not, are you?), with or without assistive technology.

Thank you Bruce!


Strategic Planning for Web Accessibility

I could not have said it better myself:

A successful plan for web accessibility addresses many areas of your organization and projects: training, quality assurance, recruiting, purchasing, marketing, content development, visual design, and more. As with other important aspects of website development, such as performance, accessibility is best approached as an integral and ongoing activity.


WAI-ARIA - Screen Reader Compatibility

Screen reader compatibility is complex because it relies on a browser and a screen reader to work in tandem. As browsers can be combined with different screen readers, it makes testing a challenge. This matrix goes through a few key ARIA options and approaches, identifying which ones work and which ones don’t using a bunch of combinations. Narrator is sadly missing from the matrix, but this is still a useful resource that I hope continues to grow and get updated. In fact, to that end, I’d love to see it move to Github for more contributions.



On the Device Context Continuum

Smart thinking (as always) from Jason Grigsby. This time he’s asking the right questions about context in the age of tiny screens (smartwatches) and giant ones (smart TVs).


Moved to HTTPS

I’ve been complaining about “man in the middle” attacks brought on by internet service providers a bunch over the last year. The only way to keep uninvited third parties from injecting JavaScript and more—potentially screwing up your page—is to move to HTTPS. So, as much as it pains me to abandon good old fashioned HTTP, I’ve decided to lock things down a bit.




Mobile 2015: UI/UX Trends

A nice overview of small screen design trends with backgrounds as to why these approaches work well.