+++ WEB DESIGN UPDATE. - Volume 25, Issue, February 5, 2025. An email newsletter to distribute news and information about web design and development. ++ISSUE 32 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: JAVASCRIPT. 07: TYPOGRAPHY. 08: USABILITY. 09: WEBWASTE & SUSTAINABILITY. SECTION TWO: 10: What Can You Find at the Web Design Reference Site? [Contents ends.] ++ SECTION ONE: New references. +01: ACCESSIBILITY. Tooltips are Presentational By James Edwards. "The ARIA tooltip role is functionally useless and semantically meaningless. The only legitimate use-case for tooltips is to show information that's already accessibly defined. So tooltips only benefit sighted users, and are therefore presentational…" https://www.tpgi.com/tooltips-are-presentational/ Accessibility Tooling and Good Intentions By Heather Buchel. "Your accessibility tooling deserves the same first class treatment as the rest of your stack…" https://heather-buchel.com/blog/2025/01/accessibility-tooling/ Generating Image Descriptions and Alt-Text With AI By Dries Buytaert. "I tested 12 LLMs - 10 running locally and 2 cloud-based - to assess their accuracy in generating alt-text for images…" https://dri.es/generating-image-descriptions-and-alt-text-with-ai GitHub: https://github.com/dbuytaert/image-caption/ Join the Discussion-From Your Inbox By George Joeckel. "Which WebAIM resource had its 25th birthday on November 1, 2024? The answer is our Web Accessibility Email Discussion List…" https://webaim.org/blog/join-the-discussion/ Highlights From the Fiscal Year 2024 Government-Wide Section 508 Assessment (Video) By ADA Great Lakes Center. "In late 2022, Congress enacted the Consolidated Appropriations Act, Section 752, requiring the General Services Administration (GSA), in consultation with the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), to report annually on the Section 508 compliance of the federal government and each federal agency. The presenters will review an overview of the 2024 report to Congress, including the assessment criteria, survey results, and a highlight of key recommendations…" https://www.accessibilityonline.org/cioc-508/archives/111147 The Politics of Accessibility By Brian DeConinck. "After last November, I heard a number of people in my professional life say things like 'good UX isn't political' or 'building products that work for everyone isn't political' or even 'accessibility isn't political'…" https://www.briandeconinck.com/the-politics-of-accessibility/ The DOJ Provides Practical Guidance on How to Implement a Digital Accessibility Program By Seyfarth Shaw. "he DOJ's new step-by-step guidance for state and local governments on how to comply with new regulations that mandate accessible web content is also useful for public accommodations looking to make their websites and mobile apps accessible to individuals with disabilities…" https://www.adatitleiii.com/2025/01/the-doj-provides-practical-guidance-on-how-to-implement-a-digital-accessibility-program/ New DOJ Title II Web Accessibility Guidance By Ken Nakata. "…This post reviews the good and the bad in the guidance. While complying with the new rule is required, nothing in the new guidance document is mandatory. Instead, the document is intended as high-level guidance to help state and local governments comply with the new regulation…" https://convergeaccessibility.com/2025/01/30/new-doj-title-ii-web-accessibility-guidance/ Which U.S. States Have Digital Accessibility Laws? A Comprehensive List By Lily Clark. "…we provide a brief overview of U.S. federal digital accessibility law, along with a list of digital accessibility laws and policies in each state…s" https://onlineada.com/articles/which-u-s-states-have-digital-accessibility-laws-a-comprehensive-list/ +02: CASCADING STYLE SHEETS. CSS Nesting: Use With Caution By Andy Bell. "…There are features that fill me with dread though and right at the top of that list is native CSS nesting. I know that opinion will be rather unpopular, but the whole deal of the site is front-end education for the real world, so I'm here to provide that for you today…" https://piccalil.li/blog/css-nesting-use-with-caution/ The Mistakes of CSS By Juan Diego Rodríguez. "Surely you have seen a CSS property and thought 'Why?'…" https://css-tricks.com/the-mistakes-of-css/ +03: EVALUATION & TESTING. Accessibility Research Frequently Asked Questions By Fable. "There's a misconception that accessibility research is complex and requires new skills and a large shift in how research is conducted. In fact, many UX research methods also apply to accessibility research. But, having questions about kickstarting a new process is natural - so we've got expert answers…" https://makeitfable.com/article/accessibility-research-faqs/ 3 Ways to Test Your Survey (Video) By Maddie Brown. "Test your survey with three methods: Cognitive Walkthroughs check question clarity with target users, Mechanical Tests ensure software functions like skip logic, and Usability Tests observe real user interaction." https://www.nngroup.com/videos/3-ways-to-test-surveys/ Measures of Central Tendency 101 (Video) By Rachel Banawa. "Discover how mean, median, and mode can impact your UX insights. Learn 3 key tips to consider when deciding which one to use for your data." https://www.nngroup.com/videos/measures-of-central-tendency-101/ +04: EVENTS. Web Accessibility Challenges Webinar with Lucy Greco February 11, 2025. Online https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/VEXZKMMCTF-varR9octW0w#/registration Ask the Professionals: W3C Digital Accessibility Maturity Model February 14, 2025. Online https://events.humanitix.com/ozewai-online-event-ask-the-professionals-14-february-2025 International JavaScript Conference London May 12-14, 2025. Online and London, England, United Kingdom https://javascript-conference.com/london/ +05: HTML. Foundations: Grouping Forms With
and By Demelza Feltham. "In this post, we explore how to use the
and elements to group and label form elements effectively, creating a more accessible and well-structured experience…" https://tetralogical.com/blog/2025/01/31/foundations-fieldset-and-legend/ HTML Element Test File Index By Steve Faulkner. "Last updated 03 February 2025…" https://stevefaulkner.github.io/AT-browser-tests/ +06: JAVASCRIPT. How to Use ARIA Alert Effectively By Florian Schroiff. "Boost web accessibility with ARIA alerts. Learn best practices, avoid pitfalls, and ensure compatibility across browsers and assistive tech…" https://www.a11y-collective.com/blog/aria-alert/ Notes on Google Search Now Requiring JavaScript By Jim Nielsen. "…Requiring JavaScript is all about control…" https://blog.jim-nielsen.com/2025/javascript-required/ +07: TYPOGRAPHY. Relative Units & Typography By OddBird. "Join Miriam Suzanne, Stacy Kvernmo, and special guest Alan Stearns - typography enthusiast, co-chair of the CSS Working Group, and self-described CSS Panjandrum - for a conversation about typography…" https://www.oddbird.net/2025/01/24/winging-it-15/ +08: USABILITY. Why Customers Hate Chatbots (And Why You Should Too) By Louise North. "Chatbots were supposed to revolutionize customer service. Instead, they've become a symbol of frustration and disconnection…" https://webdesignerdepot.com/why-customers-hate-chatbots-and-why-you-should-too/ +09: WEBWASTE & SUSTAINABILITY. How Do We Work Out the Environmental Savings From Accessibility? (Slides) By Chris Adam. Chris' FOSDEM slides: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/12DZnZsbtCrJ9K5iM8Th3CDiV1CRQLh08XOZ8NrN5O8c/ The Internet's Invisible Carbon Footprint By Xavier Harding. "Did you know that writing an email can send 17 grams or more of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere? Or that going audio-only on Zoom calls reduces carbon emissions by up to 96%?…" https://foundation.mozilla.org/en/blog/ai-internet-carbon-footprint/ Frugal Machine Learning: Making AI More Efficient, Accessible, and Sustainable By Taro Yamada. "…This paper presents a comprehensive survey on the emerging field of frugal machine learning, highlighting key approaches, challenges, and future research directions. We classify frugal techniques into categories such as model efficiency, data efficiency, and hardware efficiency, and provide an overview of notable methods and their applications. We also discuss open problems and potential avenues for advancing FML…" https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=5012869 AI Will Spew Gas Fumes for Years Before the Nuclear Revolution Takes Of By Matthew Gault. "Nuclear reactors take a long time to build and Big Tech will use gas power to bridge the gap and meet its energy demands…" https://gizmodo.com/ai-will-spew-gas-fumes-for-years-before-the-nuclear-revolution-takes-off-2000550092 [Section one ends.] ++ SECTION TWO: +10: 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.]