@mikemccaffrey@a11y.social
@mikemccaffrey@a11y.social avatar

mikemccaffrey

@mikemccaffrey@a11y.social

Web developer with a strong focus on #accessibility and how assumptions baked into technology can intersect with #disability. Writes about the impact #disasters can have on website #usability.

Additional interests: #UX #UserTesting #Screenreaders #AltText #HTML #CSS

This profile is from a federated server and may be incomplete. Browse more on the original instance.

mikemccaffrey, to random
@mikemccaffrey@a11y.social avatar

I really hope devices like this are being given to and kids these days, so they have more control over their than previous generations.

https://youtube.com/shorts/BwgkPciXPGM?si=_ZTZxrPKp3kh9WkN

mikemccaffrey, to random
@mikemccaffrey@a11y.social avatar

Wow, apparently can not only cause sudden hearing loss, but also sudden vision loss. This disease truly is like a wheel of prizes, but you win .

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2024-05-virus-covid-penetrate-blood-retinal.html

mikemccaffrey, to random
@mikemccaffrey@a11y.social avatar

Well, a client site is being dinged by the Google Search Console for trying to be .

We are having the mobile nav open on initial page load, and then close as soon as javascript is enabled and starts running, so if scripts fail on the site for some reason the user can still navigate the site.

Seems like another good reason to use for nav menus, so they can start close and aren't dependent on javascript.

mikemccaffrey, to random
@mikemccaffrey@a11y.social avatar

Sorry, but "assigned sex at birth" is still not the right question to be asking people because almost 2% of the population is #intersex or born with some intersex traits, and their genetics and/or physiology do not match whatever snap decision that was made in the delivery room after a few moments of a dude eyeballing the baby's junk.

RobW, to random
@RobW@iosdev.space avatar

Them: Pointer control on iPadOS isn’t an accessibility feature.
Me: https://www.augmental.tech/

mikemccaffrey,
@mikemccaffrey@a11y.social avatar

@RobW My argument these days is that it is an interface, it is an accessibility requirement for someone.

heydon, to random
@heydon@front-end.social avatar

Another bizarre pattern I keep seeing a lot of is having multiple skip links to different parts of the page. Total overkill. If you actually use headings, there's no real need.

mikemccaffrey,
@mikemccaffrey@a11y.social avatar

@heydon That works for screenreaders, but keyboard users without assistive software don't have heading or region navigation available.

However, I guess you shouldn't be seeing links for those users, since they can be visually hidden until focused.

mikemccaffrey, to random
@mikemccaffrey@a11y.social avatar

As someone who tries every day to anticipate the needs of users and build the best possible website for them, this photo causes me such sympathetic pain in my heart.

https://mas.to/@Orewoet/112353054448222290

mikemccaffrey, to iPod
@mikemccaffrey@a11y.social avatar

Most of these tests to ensure someone is a seem like things that anyone can figure out, but I don't see any possible way for kids these days to understand the scroll wheel without seeing someone else use it first.

https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/the-millennial-captcha

mikemccaffrey, to accessibility
@mikemccaffrey@a11y.social avatar

Fantastic to hear a story on about !

https://www.npr.org/2024/04/23/1197964005/the-indicator-from-planet-money-the-last-of-us-accessibility-gaming-04-23-2024

mikemccaffrey, to accessibility
@mikemccaffrey@a11y.social avatar

Do any folks have good resources about how to ensure there is adequate color contrast for materials?

When you take RGB colors in an additive system and turn them into CMYK colors in a subtractive system are there cases where color combinations that have adequate contrast in the former results in inaccessible colors in the latter?

What about when you are converting to greyscale before printing?

mikemccaffrey,
@mikemccaffrey@a11y.social avatar

@aardrian Looking at print stylesheets from an accessibility/equity perspective, I'm not comfortable with the traditional advice to just make everything black and white and remove most of the graphics and layouts. Just because someone can't look at a screen (perhaps because of light sensitivity, or needing to bring printouts home from a public library) I think they should still be able to get as much of the designed experience as possible.

mikemccaffrey,
@mikemccaffrey@a11y.social avatar

@aardrian People are not thinking about printers themselves as an assistive technology, and are getting away with providing a sub-par experience under the guise of "saving ink".

mikemccaffrey,
@mikemccaffrey@a11y.social avatar

@yatil @aardrian The specific case I was addressing with a client was around heading styles. Keeping a dark blue color on a big ol h2 would not run much risk of it washing out if printed in greyscale, while breaking up the black and white text visually to make it easier to scan for the right section.

In terms of navigation, I agree that the site nav should be hidden, but some header elements such as the logo should be retained so people can actually tell what site it was printed from.

mikemccaffrey, to Disney
@mikemccaffrey@a11y.social avatar

What could go wrong with staff deciding on a case-by-case basis whose qualifies for special .

https://people.com/woman-with-eye-disorder-does-not-feel-welcomed-disney-with-disability-guideline-change-exclusive-8635464

mikemccaffrey,
@mikemccaffrey@a11y.social avatar

I guess this is footage of 's staff now determining who is actually and who is not on a case-by-case basis.

https://youtube.com/shorts/5KvcR73Bd4o?si=xzAFYlspS9vMbhg3

sarajw, to cycling
@sarajw@front-end.social avatar

My god, I'm only trying to buy a new helmet and I'm so bewildered.

Virginia Tech helmet ratings, MIPS, the recent German ADAC trials that basically said the Uvex Urban Planet is the only helmet worth having (no MIPS tho) and now that one helmet is out of stock everywhere...

Ugh. What do I doooooo? I didn't want to have to think about this so haaaaaard. I'll accept recommendations. I have a decades old Giro helmet, and it's high time to upgrade.

mikemccaffrey,
@mikemccaffrey@a11y.social avatar

@sarajw If you wear a carved pumpkin on your head it is better for the environment and also provides healthy vitamins to your hair.

mikemccaffrey, to random
@mikemccaffrey@a11y.social avatar

Well, I suppose that it is good that we are inventing new social to deal with the lingering health problems and disabilities caused by letting "the flu" run amok.

https://youtube.com/shorts/4J9YnMA_3iM?si=tnbg9Z35YNjMG98q

mikemccaffrey, to random
@mikemccaffrey@a11y.social avatar

These -looking 3D printed glasses that let you adjust light levels by rotating polarized lenses are so absolutely simple and awesome looking, I'm not sure why they aren't commonly available, even if you don't need them as an because you are going .

https://youtube.com/shorts/NNBQ_CmykC8?si=QbwO5I7LfXhfuKDF

vic, to accessibility
@vic@howcyborgs.chat avatar

If your "AI powered color palette generator" has as much trouble understanding color requirements as human designers, then you are doing the opposite of helping.

Now I am promised 2 problems, and 2 conversations where I'm trying to explain what WCAG AAA means and why it matters: one with your Spicy Clippy, and one with an actual human who'll clean up after your gizmo is done.

Hard pass. I reckon my odds are better with the human.
Do better or GTFO.

Got some colors, but they are mostly not passing WCAG AAA. Trying to get the color picker to fix WCAG AAA normal text passing against the first color in the feedback prompt.
aaaand... nope. Still not passing on the revision.

mikemccaffrey,
@mikemccaffrey@a11y.social avatar

@aardrian @vic I'm having enough trouble convincing humans to start using APCA for determining contrast, and I don't relish trying to explain it to a computer.

mikemccaffrey, to ai
@mikemccaffrey@a11y.social avatar

Absolutely do not listen to about any issues.

mikemccaffrey,
@mikemccaffrey@a11y.social avatar

At least let's you send them feedback when their says something absolutely wrong.

carnage4life, to random
@carnage4life@mas.to avatar

Really awkward timing for shareholders to be voting on a $56 billion pay package for the CEO.

mikemccaffrey,
@mikemccaffrey@a11y.social avatar

@carnage4life @clayton Hey, Warner Brothers Discovery just gave David Zaslav a 26.5% compensation increase to $50m, even though their stock has declined 65.51% under his leadership over the past two years.

themaskerscomic, to random
@themaskerscomic@forall.social avatar

If you do not provide a virtual option, you shouldn't be allowed to say the words "accessibility". God knows you aren't providing a masked and ventilated area, or testing and educating people on proper isolation, all while is blooming out there, still killing 1000/wk, injuring and disabling more-- so the least you can do is open a lap top and zoom it live, it takes minimal effort to have a person do that and give space to those with the "disability" of not being a callous ignorant jerk.

mikemccaffrey,
@mikemccaffrey@a11y.social avatar

@themaskerscomic Yuuuuuup

mikemccaffrey, to accessibility
@mikemccaffrey@a11y.social avatar

Just had a fairly tense discussion about for a public utility website, where some folks were very eager to just hide a bunch of the elements on the page, since "no one would print the page to see that".

Personally, I feel that approach runs contrary to all the efforts we have been making to ensure that people can access all the content on a page no matter what type of technology they are using, and printers seem like just one more assistive device to support.

mikemccaffrey,
@mikemccaffrey@a11y.social avatar

@patrick_h_lauke Yeah, a lot of the discussion was about content itself, and they were looking to hide whole sections.

One very small example was the "sign up for our newsletter" section. Obviously, no one can fill out a form on a printout, but it is easy enough to replace the form elements with a url where they can go fill it out and sign up.

mikemccaffrey,
@mikemccaffrey@a11y.social avatar

Another disagreement is over how much color to provide on the page when creating .

Obviously big blocks of color are unnecessary and can be wasteful of paper and ink, but I don't see a reason to render everything in black and white because some people don't have color printers (so long as you ensure that contrast issues aren't created if they are printed in greyscale or black and white).

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