Blog posts from 2023

1. Screen reader users and the tab key

   Article posted 21st December 2023 in Accessibility

   People who use a screen reader on a laptop/desktop generally use the keyboard, but that doesn’t mean they use it like a keyboard-only user.

2. Not all screen reader users are blind

   Article posted 30th November 2023 in Accessibility

   There’s a common misconception that everyone who uses screen reader software is blind; that’s mostly the case, but not always.

3. Accessibility by degrees

   Article posted 31st October 2023 in Accessibility

   Retro-fitting accessibility is far from ideal but usually the only way digital products are able to reach all of their potential users.

4. Own your own content

   Article posted 20th September 2023

   Posting valuable content to social media or other platforms you have no control over can be risky; just look at the mess over on Twitter…

5. Mastodon and me

   Article posted 31st August 2023

   Mastodon has enjoyed a spike in popularity lately. It took me a while to wrap my head around the basic concept, but it feels like the right way to do social networking.

6. What has happened Twitter!?

   Article posted 8th August 2023

   Twitter, for all its flaws, was my social media platform of choice, but since it has been taken over it has gone from bad to worse, and I’m out.

7. Accessibility represents maturity

   Article posted 31st July 2023 in Accessibility

   Accessibility is a great measure of mature, disciplined software production, and Twitter have become a good example of the opposite.

8. WWDC 2023 roundup

   Article posted 11th June 2023 in Apple

   Around this time every year I make a pizza, close the living room door, open a cold beer, and sit down to watch WWDC (Apple’s World Wide Developers Conference). Here are my thoughts.

9. Don’t meddle with user input

   Article posted 29th May 2023 in Accessibility and Design

   Every idea comes from a good place, but some well-intended features are actually bad for usability; limiting form field input is one of those things.

10. Getting VoiceOver to shut up

    Article posted 30th April 2023 in Accessibility and Apple

    The whole point of VoiceOver is that it talks out loud, but sometimes you need it to be quiet for a moment.

11. VoiceOver’s Trackpad Commander on Mac

    Article posted 21st April 2023 in Accessibility and Apple

    Did you know there’s a way to make VoiceOver on a Mac behave like VoiceOver on an iPhone or iPad? No? Let me introduce you to Trackpad Commander!

12. The difference between Increased Contrast Mode and Windows High Contrast Mode (Forced Colours Mode)

    Article posted 27th March 2023 in Accessibility and CSS

    I’ve written about Increased Contrast Mode and Windows High Contrast Mode, but what’s the difference? And where does Forced Colours Mode come in?

13. Windows high contrast mode and focus outlines or: My focus indicators were inaccessible

    Article posted 22nd March 2023 in Accessibility, CSS and Development

    In order to make my website’s keyboard focus outlines pretty in Safari, I inadvertently broke things for people who use Windows High Contrast Mode.

14. If you’re going to do a job, do it properly

    Article posted 17th February 2023 in Accessibility

    I often hear the phrase “forward fix” used when referring to accessibility. It sounds fancy, but what it really means is “We’ll come back to the accessibility bit later”.

15. Buttons, links, and focus

    Article posted 16th February 2023 in Accessibility and Design

    Knowing when to use a button or link is important, and there’s some great guidance out there. Here’s another way to work out when to use which.

16. If you need a link, don’t use a button

    Article posted 23rd January 2023 in Accessibility, Design and Development

    Links sometimes need to look like buttons, but what about the other way round? Spoiler alert: it’s a terrible idea!

Other years

2024, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2012, 2011.