WebAIM - Web Accessibility In Mind

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Re: AccessiBe?

for

From: Birkir R. Gunnarsson
Date: Jan 5, 2020 12:01PM

I opened the webpage, pressed alt-1 to get the ADA compliant screen
reader mode and ran Axe on the homepage.
Any guesses for how many violations I found (if the page is accessible
vilations should be 0)?

...

54

If they have 54 violations on their own homepage, with their own
accessibility layer turned on, well, that speaks for itself.

A 30 second test shows they do not understand ARIA (instead of
aria-expanded to indicate accordions they use the alt text "arrow
down" on an image in the button element.
They don't use landmarks.
Their alt texts are often unnecessary and confusing.
They place instructions on labels.

It's roughly the equivalent of an 800 pound individual promoting magic
weight loss formula.
(nothing wrong with being 800 pounds, but if you are promoting a
weight loss formula or lifestyle you probably should find a way that
it works on your own body first)
Here's a more general article why accessibility overlays don't work:
https://blog.tenon.io/web-accessibility-overlays-dont-work

Yes, we hope AI will develop and we can actually get more powerful
accessibility tools, more than that, we hope browser/AT support for
HTML will improve (e.g. accessible browser validation messages), both
are a huge step towards accessibility, but I find a solution like this
dangerous to both the accessibility profession and more so to the end
users.
(sure, I make my living as an accessibility expert, but honestly, if a
product could take my place I would happily move on to do something
else, I almost made it in investment banking, worked in the field for
7 years actually, but gave up because I couldn't access the study
materials I needed for the CFA certification that I needed for the
next step, if accessibility tools are good enough to replace me I
could access the study materials and give that another try).


On 1/5/20, Colleen Gratzer < <EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:
> Happy new year.
>
> I was wondering if anyone here has used AccessiBe
> (http://accessibe.com). If so, I wanted to see what you thought of it.
>
> (FWIW, I don't plan to use it. I was asked about it by a student of my
> website accessibility course.)
>
>
> Colleen Gratzer
> Certified Branding Expert + Accessibility Specialist, Gratzer Graphics LLC
> https://gratzergraphics.com
> Design Mentor and Host of the Design Domination podcast
> http://creative-boost.com
>
> > > > >


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