dieUX Accessibility Statement

1. Accessibility

1.1. Pat's dieUX cartoon pages are designed to fulfil the purposes of accessibility research. Some pages mimic popular coding strategies that may challenge accessibility for some users.        

“Accessibility is our human right: an inclusive experience should be too.”

2. Images

2.1. The dieUX cartoon strips are presented in a number of different ways to challenge a variety of web coding and accessibility strategies.

2.2. The strips are chosen for this study as they:

• Contain image texts, which are longer than the 120 characters recommended for alternative texts.
• Are responsive and being wide landscape, the images shrink too small to read the texts from in narrower viewports.
• Have contexts and 'text', the accuracy of which is essential to their understanding and the enjoyment of their humour or irony, etc.

2.3. Where thought correct, images are:

• Given a short alternative text informing of the series, the format, and outline topic area.
• Given width and height attributes.
• Made responsive using the <picture> element and CSS styling.
• Presented with the figure tag.
• Accompanied by a figcaption element with the cartoon strip heading and descriptive version of the strip.

2.4. Where thought correct, images are optimised for ease of loading and given meaningful file names.

2.6. For the purposes of the study, it may not always be immediately obvious which page is, or is not purposefully accessible or inaccessible. Study participants will report on their experience.

3. Design Patterns

3.1. For the purposes of this study, some design patterns will prove difficult to access. These are based on industry common practice and may, or may not conform to accessibility guidelines or legislation.

3.2. Where thought correct, some patterns are engineered to be highly accessible and may fail under testing.

Top

4. Scripting

4.1. Where thought correct, the accessible content is created to the following mantra:

• HTML for content.
• CSS for presentation.
• JavaScript for functions.

4.2. This mantra ensures:

• JavaScript updates CSS classes and not presentational attributes within the HTML.
• CSS is responsible for all presentation. Certain HTML tags are employed to give emphasis to text including:
  • <strong>
  • <em>
  • <mark>

4.3. Chosen content is sometimes made available only to screen-readers and Braille displays (i.e. made always available to the DOM). This is not to discriminate visual users and only supports cognition for our visually impaired and other users employing assistive browsing technologies.

5. Insult to digital production teams

5.1. Some digital production team members may feel insulted when criticised for poor practice within the wider study or when implied in the satirical dieUX cartoons.

5.2. The solution is to do your jobs better. There is little sympathy here. I am basically an idiot and if I can out-manoeuvre your professional practice then it can only be improved?

5.3. That all said, if you can improve my accesibility practice then please do reach out to me. I am here to serve.