Accessibility Notes

Accessibility: What It Means and Where HTML Fits

Most of accessibility is choosing the right element. The rest is a short list of habits. Here is the framework and the small number of things that fix...

HTML

Accessible Names and the Accessibility Tree

Every control has a name, a role and a state, and the browser works them out in a fixed order. Knowing that order explains almost every screen reader...

HTML

Keyboard Navigation, Focus and tabindex

If it cannot be reached with the Tab key it does not work. Focus order, visible focus indicators, the three values of tabindex and the traps to avoid.

HTML

ARIA Basics: Roles, States and Properties

ARIA fills gaps that HTML cannot. It also breaks pages when used carelessly. The rules, the attributes worth knowing, and the ones to leave alone.

HTML

Colour, Contrast and Motion

Contrast ratios that meet the guidelines, never relying on colour alone, and honouring the reduced motion preference. Mostly CSS, entirely part of the...

HTML

Testing a Page for Accessibility

Automated tools find about a third of problems. Here is what they catch, what they miss, and a manual routine that takes fifteen minutes.