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The Accessibility Newsletter

It's raining pine cones and everyone is getting one! Yes, everyone! But what is up with the winter atmosphere here? It's already Mars and that means spring. No? Well this newsletter is crafted in Sweden and we currently have massive amounts of snow. Spring has to wait a month or two.

React and a11y

It's a bit hidden under Advanced Guides but React do have a section on accessibility in their documentation. It's starts off with this sentence: React fully supports building accessible websites, often by using standard HTML techniques. As a person who have really tried to promote proper HTML for the past months this is a good sentence.

A11y Talks - an online meetup

An accessibility meetup on Youtube. Yes, this is what it is. If you have missed this you have some great talks to catch up on. Like Heydon talking about Taylor Swift and Nicolas talking about not turning off JavaScript.

How to start testing with a screenreader

Using a screenreader because that's your preferred way of accessing information is very different from using it because you want to test a website. This is a really nice article for people who like to dive into testing with a screenreader. It also got a good exercise that I think you should try out.

Don't miss our t12t meetup in Stockholm on Mars 8

How can companies do better?

Not everyone at my company think as much about accessibility as I would like them to do. I know, it's a bit of a shock or actually it isn't. I think many of us might recognize this situation.
If you are reading this newsletter I think you are one of the people who like to care more about accessibility and inclusion and you probably also want people at your workplace to care as well. But how do we do this?
There has been some really good articles on the topic lately. Viget released an article called how to implement accessibility in an agency. It's in two parts. Don't forget part two of the article.
Hugo Giraudel also wrote an article on how things work at his company N26. Hugos article got some hands-on tips for developers that are really useful. Maybe you can use some of them in your own company?
All in all I'm really happy about people writing about this. And I wouldn't mind more. Do you have a story? Share it!

Screenreader compatibility

When working with websites and struggling with a specific aria-attribute I often ask myself: how many screenreaders support this? And also is there any screenreader, who just like a browser, have implemented this attribute incorrectly? Until now I have just tried my best and then hoped that if I took the wrong decision someone will give me feedback. Maybe.
But a few days ago I got a tip about this site that was listing aria support for different screenreader combinations and browsers. It's nice and looking at some of the incompatible things here reminds us of the first rule of aria which is: don't use it!

Tip: New Accessibility Tools in Chrome

Digital voices

This is a long but really exciting read. So before you start reading go and make yourself a really nice cup of tea. Maybe a cup of Sencha or why not some really dark Earl Grey? Or just feel free to make a cup of anything you fancy drinking.
This article is about the creation of digital voices and how they can help people to communicate. I guess some of us might immediately think of a synthetic robot voice when we hear about this. But a digital voice doesn't need to sound synthetic. Did you know that you can even donate your voice? It's amazing!

This is the end of The Squirrels. If you liked this consider sending the subscription-link to your friends and colleagues. If you have suggestions or feedback you can email me or find me on Twitter as @t12t or @kolombiken.

- Ida

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