I’m just getting the release candidate for Able Player 4.8 ready. This isn’t as large a release as the last one, but it does include some pretty significant changes! The most significant changes are in internationalization and in my progress towards removing jQuery and cookies. The release is currently scheduled for February 2nd, 2026; but could get pushed if there are new bugs in the release candidate that need fixing first. Internationalization Until this release, translations have existed as properties […]
Continue reading “Able Player 4.8 – Release Candidate & Call for Translators” »Category: Accessibility
Judging severity in accessibility issues
We tend to agree easily that all accessibility issues are important, but we also acknowledge out of necessity that some issues are more critical than others. What we don’t always agree on is how to judge severity. There are very good reasons for that: it’s complicated! There’s no pretending that figuring out how important something is has an undercurrent of judging who matters more. But that’s not really what we’re doing when we try to decide what issues are more […]
Continue reading “Judging severity in accessibility issues” »Is it an evil overlay? How can you tell?
I’m approaching this story from the starting assumption that accessibility overlays are a problem. So I’m not going to spend time on arguments for or against the technology. I’m also making the assumption that we all agree that the tool itself must be accessible, and won’t discuss that question here. I am interested in one key question: where do we draw the line between a potentially useful tool and an evil overlay? What are the characteristics that make an overlay […]
Continue reading “Is it an evil overlay? How can you tell?” »Why WordPress Themes Require Underlines on Links
Jeff Chandler posted a link in the Post Status Slack yesterday leading to an article complaining about the underlined link requirement for WordPress themes. It’s an interesting read, and it makes some good points about what kinds of link decorations can pass the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines and be fundamentally more interesting than an underline. If you read Nick Hamze’s article, I recommend doing it on a mobile device; the readability on desktop is more than a little bit iffy. […]
Continue reading “Why WordPress Themes Require Underlines on Links” »“The primary threat for accessibility on the web is neglect.”
The title of this post is a direct quote from an article Alice Boxhall just published: A threat model for accessibility on the web. The post talks about the challenges in creating web standards that successfully support accessibility needs, and how frustrating that process is. You should read this article. It will help you understand how standards are created. It will also help you understand why many accessibility practitioners actively oppose using some standard features. It’s easy to believe that […]
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