Our industry tends to place a lot of focus on how, often at the expense of why. An equivalent experience is one that has been deliberately conceived of and built to be able to be used by the widest possible range of people. To create an equivalent experience, you must understand all the different ways people interact with technology, as well as common barriers they experience. Once you have a common understanding established, Eric Bailey will then discuss how to go about implementing equivalent experiences for common accessibility-related issues.
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Creating accessible images seems like a simple topic at first glance — you just need to add alt text to an image, right? But the topic is much more nuanced than some people think. In this article, Carie Fisher will review the different types of images, dive into some real-world examples of inaccessible public service announcements (PSAs), and discuss which elements matter most when critical messages need to reach everyone.
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If you are thinking about distracting visitors of your website with a fancy, glittering particle animation for a few moments, while some data is loaded in the background, all you need is some basic knowledge of CSS and JavaScript and a lightweight animation library such as anime.js. In the end, we should have the following result: Particle animations belong to the most impressive animations that exist. In this article, Anna Prenzel will explain how you can to easily program a small trail of particles with anime.js.
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We are fortunate to have robust patterns to choose from when optimizing accessibility in SVGs — but most people stop there, focusing on code compliance and not actual users and their needs. If true inclusiveness lies beyond patterns — what other factors should we consider when designing and developing accessible SVGs?
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HTML comes with a bunch of input controls, and there are tons of component libraries that include many standard controls such as checkboxes, and radio buttons. But what happens when you need something unusual?
In this article, Uri Shaked will show you how to build custom HTML components that mimic physical objects, such as the Arduino Pushbutton. We’ll draw the component in Inkscape from scratch, optimize the generated SVG code for the Web, and wrap it as a standalone web component using the lightweight lit-element library, paying extra attention to accessibility and mobile usability considerations.
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To combat screen fatigue, voice assistants have entered the market to become a preferred option for quickly retrieving information. Voice assistants are hopping out of emerging tech and into everyday life. As a front end developer, you already have the skills to build one, so, in this article, Tris Tolliday will dive into the platforms.
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In this episode of the Smashing Podcast, we’re talking about inclusive components. What does it mean to be inclusive, or let alone a component? And what has that got to do with accessibility? Drew McLellan talks to Smashing author Heydon Pickering to find out.
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Our products become slower, clunkier and more painful to use — often simply unbearable for keyboard- and screen reader users, and as such fragile and vulnerable for legal disputes. Let’s fix it. IToday, we bring you Heydon Pickering’s new book Inclusive Components, which explores more accessible and robust solutions for the UI patterns we author, plug in, and use every day. Jump to table of contents or pre-order the book right away.Read more…
Today, Heydon will talk about the relationship between accessibility and design systems, and introduce his brand new book: Inclusive Components. During the session, he will explore how to create an accessible accordion using progressive enhancement, and answer your questions about inclusive interaction design.
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