Microsoft has a service called the Computer Vision API (Application Programming Interface). It’s a simple system: feed it an image, and it analyzes the image and returns text feedback. This is not a simple analysis task, but the actual process for a user is amazingly streamlined. Naturally, very little time passed before this service was called up to provide automatic alternative text. And, honestly, this seems like an awesome way to do this! Who needs to take the time and […]
Continue reading “Computer Vision API: What does it see?” »Tag: wpa11y
Themes are not web sites
Periodically, somebody asks me whether the themes reviewed for accessibility at WordPress.org are compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines. The simple answer is no; but the real answer is a little more complicated. The only real answer I can give is that the question isn’t applicable to themes. The clue is in the name of the guidelines themselves: they are Web Content Accessibility Guidelines. They aren’t guidelines that cover only navigation, design, and structure: they cover content and the […]
Continue reading “Themes are not web sites” »WordPress goes WCAG – what does it mean?
I would love to be able to say that the recent announcement that WordPress has embraced WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines) 2 level AA as a guideline for new code means that WordPress is going to instantly become amazingly accessible. But that wouldn’t be true. In fact, it doesn’t even guarantee that every new bit of code released will actually conform with WCAG AA. What it means is that our principles and our goals are to meet the standards required […]
Continue reading “WordPress goes WCAG – what does it mean?” »Everybody should write a CMS
I’m not joking, although I’m sure that’s the first impression from this post’s title. But there’s a crucial caveat: everybody should write their own JavaScript framework or content management system; but very few should ever let their tool get used. There’s an enormous learning value in programming a large, complex system. You get a strong sense of accomplishment, while learning just how complicated it is to create a flexible theming system, menu structuring tool, and content editor – let alone […]
Continue reading “Everybody should write a CMS” »New in Access Monitor: Test before you post
In today’s release of Access Monitor, I’ve added two powerful new features for keeping your site accessible: the ability to test your posts before you publish them and the ability to prevent a post from being published if it doesn’t meet your required accessibility criteria. Right now, the accessibility criteria I’m using is crude. It’s a percentage score based on error density, using the formula described in the Tenon.io blog. This is a great formula for getting a general sense […]
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