The final installment of the three-part saga on the technical details of how screen readers communicate with other software.
A Deep Dive into Accessibility APIs, Part 1 — Knowbility
In this first Deep Dive into Accessibility APIs installment, we'll start from absolute scratch and recount the widely available basic story. It's written for beginners, but the fact that I describe web accessibility in the broader context of software accessibility might offer a different twist for current practitioners as well. Parts 2 and 3, on the other hand, are more technical. Although those discussions may largely be of interest only to "inquiring minds that want to know", understanding the history and variety of the specialized protocols at the heart of this process sheds light on why screen readers sometimes perform differently in the same application or on the same web site while also providing a glimpse of a likely future.
The Road to Good Intentions Is Paved with Hell: A Deep Dive into Accessibility APIs, Part 2 — Knowbility
This post is the second in a three-part series about how screen readers obtain what users need from applications and operating systems.
brief history of browser accessibility support
Author: steve faulkner The Paciello Group contact: [email protected]
An introduction to screen readers
A screen reader allows people who are blind or visually impaired to use their computer. This factsheet provides an overview of the main screen readers available for people to use with their computer
Ubiquitous Accessibility for People with Visual Impairments: Are We There Yet?
Ubiquitous access is an increasingly common vision of computing, wherein users can interact with any computing device or service from anywhere, at any time. In the era of personal computing, users with visual impairments required special-purpose, assistive technologies, such as screen readers, to interact with computers. This paper investigates whether technologies like screen readers have kept pace with, or have created a barrier to, the trend toward ubiquitous access, with a specific focus on desktop computing as this is still the primary way computers are used in education and employment. Towards that, the paper presents a user study with 21 visually-impaired participants, specifically involving the switching of screen readers within and across different computing platforms, and the use of screen readers in remote access scenarios. Among the findings, the study shows that, even for remote desktop access—an early forerunner of true ubiquitous access—screen readers are too limited, if not unusable. The study also identifies several accessibility needs, such as uniformity of navigational experience across devices, and recommends potential solutions. In summary, assistive technologies have not made the jump into the era of ubiquitous access, and multiple, inconsistent screen readers create new practical problems for users with visual impairments.
React component for screen reader accessibility • Josh W. Comeau
A convenient component for contextualizing visual content for screen readers
Fact Sheet: New Rule on the Accessibility of Web Content and Mobile Apps Provided by State and Local Governments
The Department of Justice published a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) on July 20, 2023 explaining how we propose updating the regulations for Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) to add more specific requirements about web and mobile application accessibility. This fact sheet gives a plain language summary of the technical standards that state and local governments would have to follow to meet their existing obligations under Title II of the ADA.
A threat model for accessibility on the web - Alice
A explanation of the primary threat to accessibility on the web, and a call to action for the web standards community
recommended techniques for accessibility champions - A11y Toolkit
An open-source library of techniques to avoid the most common accessibility failures.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Accessibility Research Symposium 2023
Accessibility resources free online from the international standards organization: W3C Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI).
A History of Accessibility at IBM
If you are reading this article, there is a good chance that you are using a screen reader, a term that is as generic to assistive technology as Kleenex is to facial tissues or Jell-o is to gelatin desserts. What you may not know, however, is that Screen Reader was once a proprietary product of IBM, rather than the generic term for the way people who are blind or have low vision gain access to computer screens. In fact, our terminals became "talkies" just 20 years ago, in 1984, largely because of the work of Jim Thatcher, then a mathematician for IBM, the world's largest technology company. This auspicious anniversary is an appropriate time to look back on the pioneering efforts of IBM and what it plans for the future.
The Browser Sensorium • Grace Kind
Half of AI agents are blind; the other half are deaf.
Browser AI API for Utilizing On-Device Models · Issue #178 · WICG/proposals
Introduction The Browser AI API is a proposal for a new browser feature that makes AI models accessible directly on users' devices through the browser. By offering a simple API available on the...
How an accessibility designer adds keyboard shortcuts to a web app
Keyboard shortcuts occupy a strange area for web design.
Digital accessibility is real and tangible
A workshop using real-life examples and first-hand experience of how assistive technology works can result in a deeper understanding of accessibility needs
To elaborate, assistive technology tend to necessitate rich and open representations to capture authorial intent that can be interacted with in multimodal ways. HTML is the canonical example. For example, every application having to manually script with a screen reader doesn't scale.
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The intersection between accessibility technology and malleable software seems under explored.