+++ WEB DESIGN UPDATE. - Volume 23, Issue 15, October 9, 2024. An email newsletter to distribute news and information about web design and development. ++ISSUE 15 CONTENTS. SECTION ONE: New references. What's new at the Web Design Reference site? https://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/ New links in these categories: 01: ACCESSIBILITY. 02: CASCADING STYLE SHEETS. 03: EVALUATION & TESTING. 04: EVENTS. 05: HTML. 06: MISCELLANEOUS. 07: USABILITY. 08: WEBWASTE & SUSTAINABILITY. SECTION TWO: 09: What Can You Find at the Web Design Reference Site? [Contents ends.] ++ SECTION ONE: New references. +01: ACCESSIBILITY. Alt Text for Avatars or User Photos By Nicolas Steenhout. "User photos and avatars are informational images. Do use clear and concise alternate text to describe them. Otherwise blind screen reader users won't have access to the same information as sighted people…" https://nicolas-steenhout.com/alt-text-for-avatars/ Practical Accessibility Tips You Can Apply Today By Kevin Andrews. "…In this article, I'll share practical advice on marking up three common UI patterns the right way…" https://piccalil.li/blog/practical-accessibility-tips-you-can-apply-today/ JAWS (only) NO MORE By Steve Faulkner. "In 2017 I embarked on a journey to improve and open the reporting of issues with JAWS support for Web Standards…" https://html5accessibility.com/stuff/2024/10/02/jaws-only-no-more/ 57/30 By Steve Faulkner. "What is the measure of integrity in the marketing of accessibility testing tools? I would expect that while marketing bumpf extolls the virtues of a companies software, it is factual. This is not always the case…" https://html5accessibility.com/stuff/2024/10/07/57-30/ "Straight to the Pool Room": The Pitfalls of Placing Accessibility Issues in the Backlog By Charlii Parker. "…In this article, we'll explore why digital accessibility issues should not be relegated to the backlog and the pitfalls of doing so…" https://intopia.digital/articles/straight-to-the-pool-room-the-pitfalls-of-placing-accessibility-issues-in-the-backlog/ How A Bottom-Up Design Approach Enhances Site Accessibility By Eleanor Hecks. "You can't overstate the importance of accessible website design. By the same token, bottom-up philosophies are crucial in modern site-building. A detail-oriented approach makes it easier to serve a more diverse audience along several fronts. Making the most of this opportunity will both extend your reach to new niches and make the web a more equitable place…" https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2024/10/how-bottom-up-design-approach-enhances-site-accessibility/ IAAP Accessible Document Specialist Body of Knowledge (PDF) By International Association of Accessibility Professionals. "…This Body of Knowledge document outlines the skills expected of candidates seeking to obtain the Accessible Document Specialist (ADS) designation…" https://www.accessibilityassociation.org/resource/Ads_Book WCAG2ICT - W3C Group Note Published By The Accessibility Guidelines Working Group. "We are pleased to announce that WCAG2ICT is published as a completed W3C Group Note: Guidance on Applying WCAG 2 to Non-Web Information and Communications Technologies (WCAG2ICT)…" https://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-wai-announce/2024OctDec/0001.html +02: CASCADING STYLE SHEETS. Feature Detect Style Queries Support in CSS By Bramus Van Damme. "The other day on X, Adam Wathan wondered how to feature detect (Custom Property) Style Queries…" https://www.bram.us/2024/10/06/feature-detect-style-queries-support-in-css/ The New Stylable element we can fully control with CSS…" https://offthemainthread.tech/episode/stylable-select-element/ +03: EVALUATION & TESTING. What You Get with Specific Sample Sizes in UX Problem Discovery Studies By Jim Lewis and Jeff Sauro. "…In this article, we present a table (a kind of size chart for sample sizes for discovery studies) and walk through how to use it and the associated graphs to see what you can expect to get with different sample sizes for problem discovery studies…" https://measuringu.com/specific-sample-sizes-in-problem-discovery-studies/ +04: EVENTS. Just Ask: Accessibility & Disability at UND Conference October 14-15, 2024. Grand Forks, North Dakota, U.S.A. https://campus.und.edu/equal-opportunity/campus_accessibility_working_group.html ACTCP Fall ADA Coordinator Conference October 21-22, 2024. Madison, Wisconsin, U.S.A. https://www.adacoordinator.org/events/EventDetails.aspx?id=1883536 IAAP Nordic: What's new in WAI-ARIA 1.3 October 22, 2024. Online. https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_t67rVhUyRO-XKruOZgLIng Accessibility in Technology Procurement and Use December 2, 2024. Online https://webaim.org/training/procurement/ +05: HTML. Call for Papers: The 2024 HTMHell Advent Calendar By Manuel Matuzović. "…Instead of a full-length article, I'd love to see your favorite code snippet in HTML and a few words explaining what you like about it. Any piece of HTML code you love or recently discovered that improves accessibility, performance, security, SEO, or UX qualifies…" https://buttondown.com/htmhell/archive/call-for-papers-the-2024-htmhell-advent-calendar/ +06: MISCELLANEOUS. Smashing Hour With Heydon Pickering By Geoff Graham. "I sat down with Heydon Pickering in the most recent episode of the Smashing Hour…" https://css-tricks.com/smashing-hour-with-heydon-pickering/ AI: A Means to an End or a Means to Our End? By Stephen Fry. "…Machines are capable of bias, hallucination, drift and overfitting on their own, but a greater and more urgent problem in my view is their use, abuse and misuse by the three Cs. They are Countries with their specific ambitions, paranoias, enmities and pride; Corporations with their unaccountable rapacity and of course Criminals. All of them united by one deadly sin: greed. Greed for power, for status, for money, for control. … We are the danger. Our greed. Our enmities, our greed, pride, greed, hatreds, greed and moral indolence. And greed…" https://stephenfry.substack.com/p/ai-a-means-to-an-end-or-a-means-to Announcing BCD Watch By Eric A. Meyer. A way to keep track of new web development features and their browser support. https://meyerweb.com/eric/thoughts/2024/09/23/announcing-bcd-watch/ +07: USABILITY. Sneaking: The Deceptive UX Pattern You Never Saw Coming By Connor Chan. "Sneaking is a deceptive practice that includes three main patterns: forced continuity, hidden costs, and sneak into basket." https://www.nngroup.com/articles/sneaking/ Icon Usability: When and How to Evaluate Digital Icons By Kate Kaplan. "Effective icons depend on recognizability and interpretation. Evaluate them with methods appropriate for your specific research questions." https://www.nngroup.com/articles/how-to-test-digital-icons/ +08: WEBWASTE & SUSTAINABILITY. Sorry, AI Won't 'Fix' Climate Change By James Temple. "OpenAI's Sam Altman claims AI will deliver an "Intelligence Age," but tech breakthroughs alone can't solve global warming." https://www.technologyreview.com/2024/09/28/1104588/sorry-ai-wont-fix-climate-change/ Thinking About Using AI? By The Green Web Foundation. "This briefing is intended to help people with a responsibility for AI projects understand the considerations around their direct negative environmental impact arising from AI. We cover what to be mindful of, what mitigating strategies are available today, and their limitations." https://www.thegreenwebfoundation.org/publications/report-ai-environmental-impact/ [Section one ends.] ++ SECTION TWO: +09: What Can You Find at the Web Design Reference Site? Accessibility Information. https://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/accessibility.html Association Information. https://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/associations.html Book Listings. https://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/books.html Cascading Style Sheets Information. https://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/css.html Color Information. https://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/color.html Drupal Information. https://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/drupal.html Evaluation & Testing Information. https://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/testing.html Event Information. https://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/events.html HTML Information. https://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/html.html Information Architecture Information. https://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/architecture.html JavaScript Information. https://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/javascript.html Miscellaneous Web Information. https://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/misc.html Navigation Information. https://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/navigation.html PHP Information. https://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/php.html Sites & Blogs Listing. https://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/sites.html Standards, Guidelines & Pattern Information. https://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/standards.html Tool Information. https://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/tools.html Typography Information. https://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/type.html Usability Information. https://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/usability.html WebWaste & Sustainability Information. https://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/webwaste.html XML Information. https://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/xml.html [Section two ends.] ++END NOTES. + SUBSCRIPTION INFO. WEB DESIGN UPDATE is available by subscription. For information on how to subscribe and unsubscribe please visit: https://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/webdev_listserv.html The Web Design Reference Site also has a RSS 2.0 feed for site updates. + TEXT EMAIL NEWSLETTER (TEN). As a navigation aid for screen readers we do our best to conform to the accessible Text Email Newsletter (TEN) guidelines. Please let me know if there is anything else we can do to make navigation easier. For TEN guideline information please visit: http://www.headstar.com/ten + SIGN OFF. Until next time, Laura L. Carlson Information Technology Systems and Services University of Minnesota Duluth Duluth, MN U.S.A. 55812-3009 mailto:lcarlson@d.umn.edu [Issue ends.]