September 2026 Newsletter
Features
Screen Reader User Survey #11 Results
The results of WebAIM's recent screen reader user survey are now available. These show interesting trends in assistive technology usage and online behaviors.
Tailoring Accessibility Training to Individual Roles
One of the best ways to ensure a successful web accessibility training effort is to more carefully consider the roles, tasks, tools, and skills people need to create more accessible digital products.
Upcoming WebAIM Events
- Accessibility in Technology Procurement and Use - October 22
- Virtual Web Accessibility Training - November 4–5
- Document Accessibility Course - October cohort is now open for registrations
Resources
Accessibility getting dropped in the process
Missing alt text, broken focus management, and missing announcements were symptoms. The real question was how a team could start with a design that could be implemented accessibly and still end up with a product that wasn't.
A11y 101 – 3.3.8 Accessible Authentication (Minimum)
Authentication is supposed to be a gateway. For too many users, it’s a gatekeeper. And that’s exactly what WCAG 3.3.8: Accessible Authentication is here to fix.
Foundations: the accessibility tree
Once you know what the accessibility tree is, and understand how to inspect it, a lot of the mystery around accessibility goes away.
Accessible Color Choices Are About So Much More Than Just Contrast
This article covers the color requirements that WCAG actually contains, followed by the color decisions that affect users and that no conformance requirement addresses.
When a disabled submit button becomes a dead end
Disabled buttons for sign up, login, password resets are often a lazy solution with giant possibility to block users out. Do not use disabled buttons please.
September accessibility focus: Tables and lists
Both tables and lists make it easier for users to read text and understand data. They are also an alternative way to represent data in most charts and graphs.
Deaf Awareness Month: What Digital Accessibility Requires
National Deaf Awareness Month is a timely opportunity for organizations to ask a harder question: does our digital content actually work for these audiences, or have we just checked a compliance box?
Understanding aria-details
The aria-details attribute is used when an element on a page has additional detailed information available elsewhere. It creates a connection between that element and the detailed information.
WCAG 3 update - conformance
We are excited to share a new draft of WCAG 3 that includes an updated approach to conformance!
WCAG 3's road to hell is paved with supplemental requirements
Conforming to anything remotely optional just won't happen. Quite the contrary: Being asked if all the issues to meet WCAG 2 AA conformance need to be fixed is an ongoing concern.
Using AI as Your Accessibility Testing Partner
AI can play a useful role in establishing the evidence for an auditing report and make auditors significantly more productive. However, an AI system or tool must not become the sole source of an audit conclusion.
Evaluating a Success Criterion
Until, and even when, you have built your own (potentially localized) references for how to apply an SC to whatever situation, it’s best to have a plan for how to interpret the uninterpretable.
The Dunning-Kruger effect in accessibility
If we have no signal or knowledge to tell us something is wrong, it’s easy to just assume we’ve got it right. I guess this is one of the main takeaways from the Dunning-Kruger paper, and I’ve seen this process play out in many teams, in a fairly predictable order.
Quick Tip: Design Form Labels with Sufficient Click Target Area
Users with motor impairments benefit significantly from larger click targets, including form labels associated with checkboxes and radio buttons. When labels are properly associated with form controls, clicking the label activates the control, effectively expanding the usable target area. This technique is particularly important for small controls like checkboxes, where the combined label-control area should ideally be at least 44x44 pixels.
