Digital Accessibility Watch February-March 2026

We're starting with the call for applications for THE French-language conference on web quality and accessibility. Get involved (fr): https://www.paris-web.fr/actualites/appel-a-sujets-edition-2026-ouvert.

Next, we have a lawsuit from an a11y overlay company against a11y experts we've been following for a long time, which ended badly, sadly (fr): https://www.lalutineduweb.fr/aide-frais-avocate-proces-contre-faciliti/#20260306.

While we wait for RGAA Version 5, which is in the works, we can take solace in the update to the Luxembourgish RaWeb: https://accessibilite.public.lu/en/news/2026-02-06-raweb-update or here (fr): https://www.temesis.com/blog/mise-a-jour-du-raweb-en-version-1-1/.

The WebAIM Million 2026 study has just been published, and it's getting worse and worse: https://webaim.org/projects/million/.

We can only observe that things are changing around AI and a11y. Between snake oil salesmen and genuine experts trying things out, not everything is worth taking. Let things settle; perhaps something good will come of it...

Finally, a more understandable version of WCAG, to be used without moderation: https://robertjmccaffery.com/fucking-wcag.

Accessibility in Laws, Standards, and Recommendations #

• WCAG is not easy to grasp, but it's a necessary step: https://yatil.net/blog/wcag-is-difficult-to-read-dont-read-it-is-a-self-fulfilling-prophecy
• A perspective on WCAG 3.0: https://afixt.com/what-i-like-about-wcag-3-0/
• Another: https://abilitynet.org.uk/resources/digital-accessibility/what-expect-wcag-30-web-content-accessibility-guidelines
• After 6 months of the EAA, we're still far from where we should be: https://www.ecommercemag.fr/techno-ux-1226/accessibilite-web-94-des-sites-europeens-recales-6-mois-apres-leaa-56386
• In the US, things are heating up regarding the federal ADA Title II law: https://www.lfilegal.com/2026/03/title-ii-action-needed/#Tell-the-federal-government-not-to-change-the-Title-II-web-and-mobile-rule
• A point of view on ADA Title II: https://www.deque.com/blog/ada-title-ii-update-what-we-know-what-we-dont-and-what-to-do-now/

Accessibility Strategy #

• Sometimes you have to change your UX to improve your website's accessibility: https://www.sheribyrnehaber.com/sometimes-the-best-accessibility-fix-is-a-usability-fix/
• The Scaled Accessibility Model: https://inklusivo.nl/blog/scaled-accessibility-model/
• Clarity of speech is also accessibility: https://the-word.news/2026/0205/clarity/
• Soft skills are key to the success of an a11y program: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/other-half-accessibility-why-soft-skills-determine-sheri-pzqnc/
• PDFs are not the best way to present content: https://ozewai.org/blog/technical-articles/part-two-why-pdfs-are-not-a-suitable-solution/
• Involving developers in a11y: https://buttondown.com/access-ability/archive/getting-developers-to-care-about-accessibility/
• Lack of a11y, what's the problem?: https://gbbns.co/journal/accessibility-problem-isnt-design/
• Lack of a11y prioritization in digital: https://gbbns.co/journal/organisation-that-never-prioritised-it/
• Update your accessibility statements: https://buttondown.com/nic-steenhout/archive/wcag-a-vs-aa-outdated-accessibility-statements/
• Make agile teams more involved and autonomous in a11y: https://equalentry.com/every-jira-ticket-is-your-accessibility-policy/

Testing Accessibility #

• Examples for the Images of Text criterion, well explained: https://vispero.com/resources/does-it-fail-1-4-5-images-of-text/
• WCAG-EM 2.0, More than just web: https://hidde.blog/wcag-em-apps/
• Details on WCAG 2.5.2 pointer cancellation: https://tarnoff.info/2026/03/02/a11y-101-2-5-2-pointer-cancellation/
• Keyboard testing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zx8hN95vYaY&t=292s
• Keyboard testing for dummies: https://www.sitepoint.com/accessibility-testing-with-keyboard-navigation/
• Testing a11y with users: https://a11ywithdiana.substack.com/p/how-to-organize-a-testing-with-users

Technical Points #

• Popover API and a11y: Progress is being made: https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2026/03/getting-started-popover-api/
• Role="presentation" is not equivalent to aria-hidden="true", to read: https://www.matuzo.at/blog/2026/role-presentation-no-alternative-for-aria-hidden
• Aria-haspopup: When and how, an important clarification: https://www.matuzo.at/blog/2026/aria-haspopup-menu
• All about the focus indicator, must read: https://blog.pope.tech/2026/03/04/a-guide-to-accessible-focus-indicators/
• aria-hidden="true" is still needed on decorative SVGs: https://matuzo.at/blog/2026/put-aria-hidden-on-presentational-svgs
• No tabindex="-1" for skip links, confirmation: https://matuzo.at/blog/2026/skip-links-tabindex
• How not to do nested interactive controls, important: https://piccalil.li/blog/accessible-faux-nested-interactive-controls/
• Choosing between combobox, listbox, and multiselect: https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2026/02/combobox-vs-multiselect-vs-listbox/
• The complete history of the visually-hidden class: https://dbushel.com/2026/02/20/visually-hidden/
• Creating accessible PDFs with free tools: https://piccalil.li/blog/a-guide-to-creating-accessible-pdfs-using-free-tools/
• Automatically generated PDF: https://axesslab.com/system-pdf-a11y/
• Difference between figcaption and alt text for an image: https://www.tempertemper.net/blog/figcaptions-versus-alt-text
• Dialog and a11y, everything you need to know: https://vispero.com/resources/mastering-dialog-accessibility/
• Explanation of WCAG 2.5.4 Motion Actuation: https://tarnoff.info/2026/03/23/a11y-101-2-5-4-motion-actuation/

Feedbacks #

• Sustainable a11y Program: https://equalentry.com/accessibility-program-sustainability/
• Changing the mindset of a company that offers an overlay, teaser doesn't work: https://chrisyoong.com/blog/educating-accessibility-overlay-companies
• Reading a page aloud is native on our browsers: https://adrianroselli.com/2026/03/your-browser-can-already-speak-a-page.html

Mobile app, mobile web #

• Update to the Ultimate Mobile Accessibility Guide: https://dev.to/steady5063/the-ultimate-mobile-accessibility-resource-guide-53gh

• Testing the structure and semantics of an iOS app: https://dev.to/steady5063/accessibility-snapshot-testing-in-ios-408e

• The German testing center BIK BITV-Test offers three blog articles on mobile accessibility testing:

  • https://bitvtest.de/en/blog/blog-article/testing-mobile-apps-what-differs-from-web-testing-part-1
  • https://bitvtest.de/en/blog/blog-article/android-und-ios-should-i-test-both-part-2
  • https://bitvtest.de/en/blog/blog-article/keyboard-operability-why-is-it-important-part-3

• Respect the text size of mobile operating systems. Clear and precise examples, as Adrian Roselli so expertly provides: https://adrianroselli.com/2026/02/honoring-mobile-os-text-size.html

• An old-school but accessible video game, created for iOS by Daniel Devesa, a talented developer and a11y expert: https://accessibilityupto11.com/post/2026-02-22-01/

• Daniel Devesa offers us another gem on iOS: Xarra!, a document (or web content) reader that allows you to combine reading and listening as needed: https://apps.apple.com/fr/app/xarra/id6759402266

• Abra has compiled an excellent list of essential resources for mobile accessibility, from the most general to the most specialized: https://abra.ai/blog/key-mobile-app-accessibility-resources

• Supporting the native option "Time to React" in Android apps: https://buttondown.com/inclusive-android-apps/archive/inclusive-android-apps-4-the-problem-of-time-based-actions/

• TapType, a virtual keyboard for visually impaired users on Android: https://github.com/aaron-gh/taptype-releases/releases

Technical Aids #

• To avoid repetition by screen readers: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/screen-reader-stutter-why-your-content-repeats-itself-sheri-6rnlc/
• Improvement in Office 365 for reading with keyboard navigation: https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/blog/microsoft365insiderblog/more-logical-navigation-through-word-documents-for-screen-readers/4471937
• Explanation of WCAG 2.5.3 Label in Name: https://tarnoff.info/2026/03/16/a11y-101-2-5-3-label-in-name/

Ergonomics, UI & UX #

• A Figma plugin for a11y annotations, it looks quite complete: https://github.blog/changelog/2025-09-22-open-sourcing-the-github-annotation-toolkit/
• Designing for the visually impaired, educational: https://tetralogical.com/blog/2026/03/24/designing-for-people-with-low-vision/
• Designing for anxiety: https://tetralogical.com/blog/2026/03/10/designing-for-people-with-anxiety/
• A decision tree to avoid modals: https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2026/03/modal-separate-page-ux-decision-tree/
• No scroll fade on your pages: https://dbushel.com/2026/01/09/death-to-scroll-fade/
• Designing for stress and emergency, best practices: https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2025/11/designing-for-stress-emergency/
• Focus order annotations, really necessary?: https://ericwbailey.website/published/you-probably-shouldnt-be-annotating-focus-order/
• Designers have an a11y culture problem: https://gbbns.co/journal/design-brief-that-never-mentioned-disabled-people/

Artificial Intelligence (AI) #

• AI does not replace human experts: https://buttondown.com/access-ability/archive/ai-will-eliminate-the-need-for-accessibility/
• How to create an AI agent specializing in a11y on GitHub: https://accessibility.github.com/documentation/guide/getting-started-with-agents/
• Referencing the ARIA Authoring Practices Guide (APG) to train an LLM: https://ericwbailey.website/published/heres-how-to-instruct-a-llm-to-reference-the-aria-authoring-practices-guide/
• Properly training your a11y AI: https://www.last-child.com/build-ai-brain-a11y.html
• Is AI magic or not: https://adactio.com/journal/22399
• AI and a11y advances: https://webaim.org/blog/a-new-path/
• AI can help shift a11y to the left: https://cerovac.com/a11y/2026/02/the-newest-shift-left-is-to-shift-accessibility-into-ai-model-generation/
• Implementing an AI agent skill to code a11y: https://intopia.digital/articles/can-ai-agent-skills-help-developers-ship-accessible-code/
• State of the art of AI and a11y: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/current-state-digital-accessibility-research-ai-what-137-robert-dodd-qb7ie/
• Alternative text for images and AI: https://www.curbcuts.co/blog/2026-3-29-using-ai-to-automate-more-accessible-alt-text
• AI and human expertise, the on-mix for A11y: https://www.grackledocs.com/en/why-good-enough-is-the-greatest-risk-in-digital-accessibility/
• A great collection of AI resources for iOS development - skills, MCP, Agents...:http://github.com/Techopolis/awesome-ios-ai

Resources #

• Accessible videos explaining how to make accessible web components, Inception: https://tetralogical.com/blog/2026/02/06/accessible-building-blocks-for-web-videos/
• Audio description reviewed: https://www.3playmedia.com/events/wbnr-03-11-2026-audio-description/
• Order in HTML structure and user impact: https://a11ywithdiana.substack.com/p/why-order-matters-in-accessible-web
• An interview with Matt May, a11y guru: https://html5accessibility.com/stuff/2026/02/22/matt-may-speaks/
• Interview with an a11y production manager at a pure player: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/interview-kahina-hadjou-access42-access42-mmelf/
• All about HTML tables: https://blog.frankmtaylor.com/2026/03/05/you-dont-know-html-tables/
• A library of a11y and responsive components: https://opensource.ebay.com/evo-web/
• The basic building blocks of a11y videos: https://tetralogical.com/blog/2026/02/06/accessible-building-blocks-for-web-videos/
• Elena, an accessible progressive web components library, worth checking out: https://arielsalminen.com/2026/progressive-web-components/
• A bookmarklet for semantic structure, a must-have: https://a11y-tools.com/blog/2026/03/new-bookmarklet-structure-revealer/

Other #

• Everyone must act against ableism: https://piccalil.li/blog/applying-accessibility-fixes-with-stealth-for-the-greater-good/
• Calculating the accessible Chrome DOM tree: https://www.maxdesign.com.au/articles/axtree.html
• One content, but different ways of approaching it: https://a11yblog.com/2026/01/30/how-the-same-content-always-has-multiple-different-versions/