accessibility

Understanding SC 2.2.2 Pause, Stop, Hide

Last Modified on April 30, 2018 by Raghavendra Satish Peri 1 Comment

2.2.2 Pause, Stop, Hide: For moving, blinking, scrolling, or auto-updating information, all of the following are true: (Level A)

Moving, blinking, scrolling: For any moving, blinking or scrolling information that (1) starts automatically, (2) lasts more than five seconds, and (3) is presented in parallel with other content, there is a mechanism for the user to pause, stop, or hide it unless the movement, blinking, or scrolling is part of an activity where it is essential; and
Auto-updating: For any auto-updating information that (1) starts automatically and (2) is presented in parallel with other content, there is a mechanism for the user to pause, stop, or hide it or to control the frequency of the update unless the auto-updating is part of an activity where it is essential.

This success criterion intends to avoid distractions when the users are interacting with any web page. Moving. Blinking an automatically updating contents such as motion pictures, animations, real-time games, multimedia presentations and auto-updating stock tickers cause problems for screen reader users, users with reading difficulties, low vision users, users with attention deficit disorder and other cognitive disabilities while they operate and consume the content.

This success criterion doesn’t prevent such contents with such designs being used. But it just instructs that Blinking, moving & scrolling content that lasts more than 5seconds and Parallelly presented must be provided with pause, stop or hide button. While blinking content is not equivalent to flashing content if the content that blinks more than 3 times per second it is considered as flashing content. It is a best practice to avoid content that is blinking, moving or scrolling.

When Auto updating content is found on news websites, live sports sites that update scores etc., even this content should be provided with pause button or provide a mechanism where the user can set the interval of when the update of the live region can take place. Sometimes the auto updating content might refresh entire page or only the portion of the content that is being updated. Note that when a live score or such live update happens and if the user resumes from pause state, it is not necessary to resume where the user has paused but to resume where the live event is at the point of resume.

Points to remember

Avoid moving, blinking scrolling content if possible.
Content should not blink more than 3 times per second, if it does blink 3times per second then it is considered as flashing & will fail WCAG.
Auto updating content should be provided with a pause button or provide a mechanism for the user to specify when the update can happen.
If the entire page contains moving, blinking, scrolling & auto updating content then pause, stop or hide buttons are not required as there is no parallel content.
Animation that conveys the users that a page or content is loading doesn’t require to meet this success criterion.

References

Understanding Success Criterion 2.2.2

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Infinite Scroll & Accessibility! Is It Any Good?

Last Modified on May 25, 2019 by Raghavendra Satish Peri Leave a Comment

I was thinking of implementing infinite scroll on my home page & remove pagination but then I thought I need to make this accessible. There is no point providing a feature & later realizing that it is not accessible for majority of users. My main goal was to see if I can make infinite scroll accessible for people with disabilities to use & then I went on bit of hunt to research on Google. What I found changed my mind & I think infinite scroll is bad for people with disabilities & wide variety of users.

What is Infinite Scroll

Infinite scrolling is a web-design technique that loads content continuously as the user scrolls down the page, eliminating the need for pagination. The success of infinite scrolling on social media sites such as Twitter have made this technique popular, but that doesn’t mean you should do it too.
Source: Infinite Scrolling is Not for Every Website

While ARIA1.1 introduced a Feed role which enables infinite scroll accessible for screen reader users, reading the blog post by Adrian “So You Think you’ve built a Good Infinite Scroll” changed my mind.
Here is a checklist that Adrian provided that one can refer before implementing infinite scroll.

Can the user hit “back” and return to the exact same place?
Is there paging for when the JavaScript breaks?
Does the page have footer?
Can a keyboard user access all other content on the page?
Can you share a URL to a specific place on the page?
Can a user easily jump ahead a few “pages” to quickly get to content much further down the list?
Does the memory footprint of the page dramatically increase after just a couple new “pages?”
Is there a way to disable automatic infinite scrolling and lean on standard paging?
Have you conducted any user tests?
Are you satisfying a use case that has come from research or user request?
Do you have any analytics/tracking to measure success?

As a screen reader user I wanted to experience this for myself & found an accessible infinite scroll example here & here are my thoughts.

Screen Reader Users Perspective Using a Infinite Scroll

I was unable to figure out if there is footer or not.
Screen reader kept on going through the content & I got little frustrated after few minutes. There was no end.
When I activated the keystroke ctrl+end key to move to end of the page & then use up arrow to navigate the content. Content is not exposed to screen reader. It looks like focus doesn’t move into feed region using this method. It works fine while navigating from top of the page using down arrow. (Scenario fails with Jaws! Works as expected with NVDA)
There is no way I can guide another assistive technology user on where the content is or in how many keystrokes he might need to reach that particular content. My current blog shows 5-6 posts on a page & it is easy to guide someone.
If infinite scroll is must then I prefer a load more button to load new results in to the feed. But then I might not know how many pages of content is available & how many times I need to activate load more button.
I cannot start from where I left off. Suppose I am on 30th post & left the site I need to scroll all 30 posts to get to that content.
Each article region is provided with tabindex=0 so that’s an extra tab stop that assistive technology & keyboard only users have to go through. Not ideal but there is no work around for it.
Infinite scroll is more distracting on mobile as it is touch dependent.

While infinite scroll can be made accessible for people who use screen readers using various ARIA Roles, States & Properties it is not a great user experience for other users. For more information refer to the following posts & make your own judgement.

Accessibility Forums Roundup

Last Modified on May 27, 2019 by Raghavendra Satish Peri 2 Comments

A lot of times I get the question I have gone through about an X accessibility problem on the web & I am not satisfied with what I found, where can I go & get other experts to comment on this? At my workplace at Deque we have an internal discussion mailing list called TeamA11Y where all the accessibility consultants come together & provide their views. This is a great way to learn. So I went on a bit of a hunt & found the public places where we can ask for accessibility help & get our questions answered. Add these Accessibility forums & discussion mailing lists to your A11Y resources sheet & let us know if any of them were helpful.

Adobe Acccessibility Forum

Adobe has a dedicated accessibility forum “Standards & Accessibility (tagged PDF)”. Ask your PDF Accessibility questions & get them answered by the document accessibility experts.
Adobe Accessibility Forum

WebAIM

WebAIM mailing list is one of the oldest mailing lists that contributed to the accessibility field since 1999. People at Webaim are helpful & will share their perspectives which will get us started in a new direction.

Top tip: Have a look through the archives to get a flavour of the discussions.
WebAIM Mailing List

Stack Overflow

Stack overflow has a dedicated accessibility tag to find the accessibility related questions easily. There is a wealth of knowledge already there on stack overflow & if you think your question is not answered then go ahead & ask a new question. It is a great place to get started & get some real good developer help.
Accessibility On Stack Overflow

Apple Accessibility Forum

Apple has a dedicated official support forum where you can raise questions & concerns related to Apple products. The forum discussions seem informative & I think your questions related to Apple products can be answered quickly here. Check them out & let us know how it goes.
Apple Accessibility Forum

IAAP Connections

IAAP Connections is maintained by International Association of Accessibility Professionals & is one of the largest member only forums. One need to have a membership with IAAP in order to be part of the connections platform & it membership is worth the money. There are more than 1000 members on the platform with more than 2000 discussions on wide variety of accessibility topics. Check them out.
IAAP Connections

WordPress Accessibility Forum

Using WordPress for your project & got stuck with an accessibility problem specific to the CMS? Then look no further check out the official accessibility forum of WordPress. Lot of questions are being answered by WordPress team, theme & plug-in developers.
WordPress Accessibility Forum

LinkedIn Groups

LinkedIn is a great way to connect with fellow accessibility professionals & their groups contain some amazing discussions. Check these LinkedIn groups & you can always join other A11Y groups on LinkedIn that works for your needs.

Facebook

Check out these Facebook groups & let us know if there are any groups that need to be added.

Twitter

If you are on twitter & want to connect instantly with other A11Y tweeple then look no further. Just search for A11Y & see who are actively using the hashtag. It is a great place also to ask questions, get opinions & raise concerns with brands on their A11Y implementation.
#A11Y on Twitter

Others

Use the comments section & let us know if we missed any resources. We will be updating this list as & when we come across new resources so don’t forget to bookmark it.

Related Accessibility Resources

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TechAccessOK 2018 Registration

Last Modified on April 15, 2018 by Raghavendra Satish Peri Leave a Comment

Oklahoma ABLE Tech is thrilled to once again bring you TechAccessOK, Oklahoma’s information and communication technology accessibility conference!

This year’s event takes place at the Skirvin Hilton Hotel in downtown Oklahoma City on June 28th and 29th. Thanks to our generous sponsors, the event is once again FREE to attend!

Thursday, June 28th will be a one day workshop on creating accessible PDF forms. Bevi Chagnon is back with us again this year to lead the workshop. This will be a bring-your-own-device session. A limited number of laptops will be available to use, but please bring your own laptop if you want to make the workshop hands-on.

June 29th brings in ICT accessibility experts from across the country to share their knowledge. We are working to finalize the schedule, but our speakers include:

Jessica Anderson, Sean Dixon and Nate Marshall from OU’s Center for Public Management speaking about building an accessibility program
Ashley Bischoff from The Paciello Group, speaking about using plain language
Luis Garcia from eBay, speaking about testing for accessibility
Glenda Sims from Deque Systems, speaking about the new Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.1
Lainey Strange from the State of Missouri speaking about writing effective alternative text
Jay Wyant and Jennie Delisi from the State of Minnesota, speaking about accessible multimedia and captioning

We will offer break refreshments in the morning and afternoon both days. Lunch is on your own, but being in downtown Oklahoma City there are lots of options.

There is a room block reserved at the Skirvin Hilton Hotel for those coming in from out of town. The rate is $95 for the night of June 28th.

Thank you to the Oklahoma State Department of Education, the Oklahoma Department of Rehabilitation Services and iPro Oklahoma for your generous support of this year’s TechAccessOK!

The full schedule for TechAccessOK 2018 will be published soon on the website.

Register Here to Avail Your Free Pass

Continue reading TechAccessOK 2018 Registration