WebAIM - Web Accessibility In Mind

August 2025 Newsletter

Feature

Web Accessibility in Mind Conference

Presented by WebAIM and Pope Tech, this free virtual conference unites diverse speakers, actionable tips, and peers from every sector. Sharpen your skills and ship with confidence!

Upcoming WebAIM Events

Resources

Testing Methods: Identify Purpose

WCAG 1.3.6 Identify Purpose is a Level AAA conformance level Success Criterion. It aims to make web content more personalizable and adaptable, particularly for users with cognitive or learning disabilities.

Don't Change the Company—Reflect It

Every company is different. To make accessibility last, connect it to what your company already cares about—like speed, trust, or great design. Help teams do their jobs better, not harder. Use familiar tools and goals. When accessibility feels like part of the mission, people support it—and it sticks.

Foundations: types of assistive technology and adaptive strategies

This post provides an overview of common assistive technologies (AT) used by people with seeing, hearing, moving, and thinking disabilities. It also explains what adaptive strategies are, and how these approaches work together to support accessibility and inclusive experiences.

Horizontal Scrolling Containers Are Not a Content Strategy

Adrian Roselli outlines the numerous accessibility and usability challenges that can be introduced when content is presented within an element with horizontal scrolling.

Quick tip: Use fewer links

Product cards or widgets increasingly present numerous links which can negatively impact the screen reader and keyboard navigation experience.

WCAG vs EAA: Understanding where WCAG stops and where the EAA starts

The EAA isn't just "WCAG plus." It's a shift in how accessibility is treated across the lifecycle of a product or service.

Can components conform to WCAG?

We can build UI components with accessibility in mind. We can also document accessibility specifics alongside them, or review them for obvious barriers during development. All helpful and recommended. What about claiming conformance?

The needs of people with cognitive disabilities

There are some simple things you can do to ensure that your site is accessible to people with cognitive disabilities.

"Best practice" is just your opinion

Like most things, the term started off with good intentions. A way to suggest fixes for things which are definitely accessibility barriers, but don't technically fail. This post highlights why the term "best practice" is somewhat problematic.

Accessibility pushback - Talking openly and debunking some common pushback

Pushback or objections when advocating for accessibility is unfortunately very common. The less mature a company is in its journey, the more often pushback will be encountered, and the more nonsensical this pushback can be.

August accessibility focus: Headings

Accessible heading guidelines are good for developers and content editors to know. They’ll help developers as they make designs a reality and content editors as they create and edit pages.

On Dashes, A.I., and Screen Readers

Is the use of the em dash making our posts look like they were generated by A.I.? How do screen readers convey dashes, hyphens, etc.?

How much should you spend on accessibility?

In a business environment increasingly shaped by regulation, risk, and reputation, the question "How much should you spend on digital accessibility?" is more than a budgeting decision—it's a strategic one.

Focus not obscured

According to the level AA criterion 2.4.11, elements in a focused state must be at least partially visible when they are overlapped by others.

Yellow, Purple, and the Myth of "Accessibility Limits Color Palettes"

So, let's address the myth head-on. Accessibility does not limit your color palette choices. What feels limiting is often a lack of knowledge about WCAG color contrast criteria, how to build accessible color palettes in tools like Figma. And sometimes, a lack of creativity.

Quick Tip: Alternative Text for Linked Images

When an image is the only thing within a link, it must have alternative text. If alt text is missing, there will be no useful information to describe the link. The alternative text should typically present a combination of the content of the image and, if different, the function of the link.