The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) released a new recommendation, "Accessible Name and Description Computation," that aims to help people using assistive technologies browse the web. So what does this new W3C recommendation mean for web accessibility — and what is a W3C recommendation, anyway?

Amazingly, online videos are still growing and aren’t going away anytime soon. According to Statista, the number of digital video viewers in the United States is currently at around 228 million, with projections at 236 million by 2020. This includes platforms like Netflix and YouTube — the latter of which receives over 72 hours of uploaded video a minute.

January 4 marks World Braille Day, a celebration of the reading and writing code used by some blind people. To honor this day and to spread some much-needed awareness, we're sharing five facts about Braille that many people who don't use the system may not yet realize.

On the web, we use images everywhere! Images can be an effective way to communicate information. But what happens when we use images of text instead of actual text? This is a design and development practice that’s been around a long time, but usually affects web accessibility negatively.

WAI-ARIA (Web Accessibility Initiative – Accessible Rich Internet Applications), often referred to as ARIA, is a defined technical specification for attributes in the HTML language. The goal of ARIA is to make web content and web applications more accessible to people with disabilities.

There are a number of accessibility tests and exercises you can perform on your own computer right now. One of those is simple: see how content performs when zoomed to 200%. WCAG 1.4.4 Resize Text requires the ability to zoom content to 200% without assistive technology and without loss of content or functionality. Give it a try!

By promising to change the way we live, work, and travel, the Internet of Things (IoT) is projected to have a more dramatic impact in the very near future. When IoT devices are built to be accessible, they can greatly enhance the quality of life for some people. But what happens when they aren't accessible?

WCAG 2.1 includes a new guideline for input modalities, helping to ensure that various input methods beyond keyboard input are functional. Read about the four Level A success criteria that support the new Input Modalities guideline.

You're an advocate for disability rights and digital accessibility and you want to introduce somebody to the reasons for and best practices of accessibility — but where do you even start? Here are seven tips to help you teach someone the importance of accessible websites and apps.

Did you know that an estimated 1-in-26 people in the United States will develop epilepsy at some point in their lifetime? Learn more about one of the most common neurological disorders and spread the word this National Epilepsy Awareness Month.

Screen readers and other assistive technologies must be able to quickly identify the natural human language that content is written in. WCAG checkpoints Language of Page and Language of Parts identify why this is important and how to achieve it so content is understandable to users.

National Disability Employment Awareness Month (NDEAM) is a celebration of the value and talents that people with disabilities bring to the workforce — but it's also a reminder of the challenges and discrimination employees with disabilities sometimes face. Read about NDEAM and get resources to help promote workplace equality.

The concepts of accessible web design empower designers to create beautiful and compelling experiences that everyone, including people with disabilities, can use. Here are some of the basics that new designers, or designers new to accessibility, should know.

Color contrast is a critical aspect of accessibility. Color contrast refers to the difference in light between text and its background. Make sure your website meets the minimum color contrast ratios to allow as many people as possible to view your content.

Published in June 2018, WCAG 2.1 adds to and does not replace WCAG 2.0. Because of this, adhering to WCAG 2.1 means you automatically also adhere to WCAG 2.0, as the existing guidelines and checkpoints remained unchanged.

In technology, something that is robust comes with a wide range of capabilities or is able to deal with many different situations. Robustness, as defined by WCAG, refers specifically to web content that is compatible with a variety of “user agents”: browsers, assistive technologies, and other means of accessing web content.

Content that is understandable can be read and comprehended by users without undue effort. This means that the content should be understandable both by the users themselves and by assistive technologies such as screen readers.

WCAG’s emphasis on perceivability ensures that users can passively take in and access the information on your website. Operability, on the other hand, also guarantees that users can interact with and make full use of the site.

With the release of the latest version in June, WCAG 2.1, now is the perfect time for a refresher on the four WCAG main principles. The first, perceivability, requires web content to be presented in a way that all users can recognize and understand.

The ongoing delay in the release of federal accessibility guidelines has contributed to the giant increase in website accessibility lawsuits in 2018. With the lack of a federal directive by the DOJ, law firms are actively pursuing suits, resulting in a large spike in the number of web accessibility cases being filed.

In America, the declaration of the nation’s commitment that people with disabilities are afforded the same levels of freedom and independence as everyone else is demonstrated by the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). The legislation details the ways in which the federal government ensures that state and local government services, public accommodations and commercial facilities must accommodate the needs of people with disabilities.

Nearly every author wants their work to be read by an audience that’s as large as possible — but when it comes to accessibility, this goal goes unmet all too often. 

People with Parkinson’s disease experience challenges using the Internet that aren’t always obvious to people without a motor or cognitive disability. For example, the hand tremors caused by Parkinson’s can make it hard for people to use a standard mouse or even a keyboard. 

Although digital marketers are constantly searching for new ways to reach out to their audience and broaden their company’s appeal, web accessibility remains overlooked and underutilized.

Although accessibility brings with it a wide range of advantages, many web developers still aren’t sure about the best ways to begin making websites more accessible. These four basic tips can help developers get started with their accessibility initiatives.