Notices by Accessibility Awareness (a11yawareness@disabled.social), page 3

Hyperlink text should make sense when read out of context. Screen reader users can navigate from link to link, and can listen to links in a list. When navigating this way, only the link is read. So "click here" or "read more" won't make sense.

Your site's users need enough time to interact with content and fill out forms. People with disabilities such as blindness, low vision, dexterity impairments, and cognitive disabilities might need more time for things such as forms. Allow users to turn off or extend time limits.

If possible, use "direct labeling" in your data visualizations and charts. This means positioning the labels directly beside or adjacent to the data points. This is better than color coding your charts, as your information would likely be lost to someone who can’t see color.

Everyone who works on a website has a role to ensure the site and its content are accessible. This resource from Vox Media breaks down some accessibility tasks by job role, including content creators, designers, developers, project managers, and testers.

https://accessibility.voxmedia.com/

Automated captions and transcripts can save time so that you don't have to manually transcribe on your own. But automated captions and transcripts aren't 100% accurate, so they need manual editing before you publish them.

https://www.w3.org/WAI/media/av/captions/#positioning-and-styling-captions

Many struggle with writing alt text for charts and other other data visualizations. Amy Cesal's "Writing Alt Text for Data Visualization" hammers home the importance of explaining the chart type, the type of data, and the reason for the chart.

https://medium.com/nightingale/writing-alt-text-for-data-visualization-2a218ef43f81

Some people have disabilities that are directly based on the way they understand and interpret numbers. In this post, Ricky Onsman explains some of these disabilities, who is affects and how, and what web creators can do about it.

https://www.tpgi.com/making-numbers-in-web-content-accessible/

Don't use headings to arbitrarily style text. If you apply “Heading 4” style, you add a <h4> heading tag to the item. When screen reader users navigate from heading to heading, the item will be treated as a heading. This will be confusing. Only treat actual headings as headings.

ANDI (Accessible Name & Description Inspector) is a free accessibility testing tool used by people testing for Section 508 compliance. ANDI can't detect everything, but can find some issues and give some suggestions to improve the issues it detects.

https://www.ssa.gov/accessibility/andi/help/install.html

Are you adding alt text to the images you upload on Slack? Here's how to do so.

https://slack.com/help/articles/4403914924435-Add-descriptions-to-images

The difference between closed captions and open captions: Closed captions are on a separate track that can be turned on or off. Open captions are captions that are burned into the video, so that they are always showing. The viewer cannot turn them off.

https://www.w3.org/WAI/media/av/captions/#positioning-and-styling-captions

If you're looking to hire people with accessibility knowledge and experience, the Accessibility Skills Hiring Toolkit created by Teach Access can help you. The toolkit provides language to use when writing job ads, and questions to ask when interviewing.

https://teachaccess.github.io/accessibility-skills-hiring-toolkit/

The No Mouse Challenge is a global effort to raise awareness about accessible web design. Try using your website without a mouse. Use the keyboard instead. Is it possible to access all features and operate all buttons, sliders, and other controls?

https://nomouse.org/

Beware of companies promising to make sites completely accessible, compliant, and immune from lawsuits with just a few lines of code. This just isn't possible. Disabled users have long said these tools don't actually help them, and can often make things worse.

"Can I Play That?" is a website focusing on the intersection of web accessibility and video games. The site is a resource of reviews, features, and news coverage of accessibility within video games. The site is aimed at both players and developers.

https://caniplaythat.com/

In charts and data visualizations, avoid overwhelming people with information. Keep the design simple and clear. Avoid animations as they can be distracting and disorienting. If you must include some type of movement or animation, provide a way for people to turn it off.

When considering rainbow text, don't forget to consider readability and legibility. Text filled with rainbows can be difficult to read. Same with complex rainbow backgrounds. Putting each word or letter in a different color of the rainbow could force readers to work harder.

When writing alt text, ask yourself if you would picture an approximation of the image if it was described to you over the phone using the alt text you've written. Doing that exercise can be a good way to determine if you're on the right track.

When creating PDFs, avoid using "Print to PDF." A screen reader user may still be able to access the text of PDFs created this way, but heading structure, alternative text, and any other tag structure will be lost. Using "Save As" or "Export" can preserve these tags.

Get in the habit of bringing up accessibility at meetings, in stand-ups, and in demos. Bring up things you've done to address accessibility. Likewise, don't be afraid to ask, "Have we tested this on a keyboard?" or "What's the experience like on a screen reader?"