Mark Steadman
@steady5063.bsky.social
550 followers 160 following 170 posts
Squad Leader, Accessibility Squad at Fidelity Investments Accessibility automation, Mobile iOS/Android A11y Check out my articles: http://dev.to/steady5063
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Reposted by Mark Steadman
aardrian.bsky.social
“A threat model for accessibility on the web”
alice.boxhall.au/articles/a-t...

A deep, well-researched & cited piece detailing systemic failures down the web stack (standards bodies, browsers vendors, etc) which marginalize #accessibility and its voices — but with proposed solutions.

#a11y
A threat model for accessibility on the web - Alice
A explanation of the primary threat to accessibility on the web, and a call to action for the web standards community
alice.boxhall.au
steady5063.bsky.social
So if you use a hint to associate an error message and a user has the preference shut off… welp, no error message will be announced
steady5063.bsky.social
If you are developing native applications. Please remember that #Accessibility hints are made for extra context. NOT for key information.

Believe it or not, plenty of users of Talkback and VoiceOver disabled hints as they have become to cumbersome
steady5063.bsky.social
4) Focus management.

My goodness. If I have Talkback or Voice over on, view to view I’d be lucky to find apps that have consistent focus placement.

But when trays/modals appear, focus becomes a nightmare, and makes a lot of apps so difficult to understand
steady5063.bsky.social
3) Icon buttons like down arrows, X for close buttons, and profile icons not having proper description and therefore making the buttons purpose not clear at all

This issue persists EVERYWHERE and it alarming.

An example today: “down arrow sprite 2, button”. COME ON
steady5063.bsky.social
2) Adding the word “button” and “heading” to #Accessibility labels. Instead of using proper semantics to make them identifiable.

Headings especially will not work with screen readers in iOS and Android if you add them as a label
steady5063.bsky.social
1) Social media apps grouping content, but not allowing assistive tech users to access specific functionality like:

* comments
* likes
* reposts

Grouping content helps a TON but when it’s done incorrectly it can actually hurt more!
steady5063.bsky.social
It is maddening how many mobile applications currently have so many fundamental issues when being used with assistive technologies

Here are trends I am seeing: (a thread)
steady5063.bsky.social
The iOS Automated #Accessibility Example Lib is FINALLY here! I have been working on this for a bit, and I finally have my first example pushed. This library will house the different types of automation you can use with #iOS native application development.

github.com/Steady5063/i...
GitHub - Steady5063/iOS-Automated-Accessibility-Example-Lib: Example iOS project testing our accessibility issues.
Example iOS project testing our accessibility issues. - GitHub - Steady5063/iOS-Automated-Accessibility-Example-Lib: Example iOS project testing our accessibility issues.
github.com
Reposted by Mark Steadman
matthiasott.com
🎧 Listening (at 1.5x speed … 😅) to a wonderful conversation of two of my favourite people: @kevinpowell.co navigating the world of web #accessibility with @sarasoueidan.com 👏 #webdev #a11y
www.youtube.com/watch?v=ndGK...
Navigating the World of Web Accessibility with Sara Soueidan
YouTube video by General Musings with Kevin Powell
www.youtube.com
steady5063.bsky.social
Been messing with Guidepup this week, it is super cool!

It has it's flaws, but it is a really cool concept of trying to do some automated testing for screen reader functionality. Keyword, functionality, doesn't replace actual screen reader testing

www.guidepup.dev
Screen reader driver for test automation | Guidepup
Reliable automation for your screen reader accessibility test workflows with Guidepup. Drive VoiceOver and NVDA a11y tests with ease
www.guidepup.dev
steady5063.bsky.social
There is an old term that comes to mind with AI, and that is "Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?", which means "Who watches the watchers".

An #Accessibility problem i can already see, are developers taking suggestions of tools and not knowing the impact. So who is watching AI to make sure its right?
Reposted by Mark Steadman
motherjones.com
“Eliminating this option through an executive order would not only be unconstitutional, it would add to the barriers many disabled voters already face, from inaccessible polling places to health risks.

Elected leaders should be expanding accessible voting options, not dismantling them.”
Trump's promise to end vote-by-mail is yet another attack on disabled voters
The president credits democracy superfan Vladimir Putin with the idea. Yes, really.
www.motherjones.com
steady5063.bsky.social
Dev teams are always looking for something that is fully automated. "Can we fully automate #A11y?" is always asked to me. No, we cannot.
However, are there ways to maximize the results to get the most value out of it to enforce good #Accessibility coding practices? You bet!

dev.to/steady5063/c...
Creating Effective Automated Accessibility Test Cases
One of the biggest fallacies in UI testing, especially when it comes to accessibility testing, is...
dev.to
steady5063.bsky.social
On vacation in Northern Wisconsin. Might not come back with these temps!
49 degrees in birchwood Wisconsin
Reposted by Mark Steadman
rnib.bsky.social
📣 We’d like to hear from you!

Bluesky is rolling out age verification as part of the Online Safety Act, which aims to reduce the risk of children seeing harmful content.

We’ve heard that blind and partially sighted folks are unable to verify their age because it’s inaccessible. Have you tried?
steady5063.bsky.social
Its pretty amazing the trend of testing frameworks for web flipping over the last 5 years. In years past, WDIO, selenium and Puppeteer were tops. Now Cypress, Playwright are far and away the leaders. The dope part is Cypress and Playwright both have #Accessibility testing features :)
Chart comparing Cypress, playwright, puppeteer, selenium, and webdriverio. Where WDIO, selenium are at the bottom and Playwright and cypress are at the top
Reposted by Mark Steadman
retconnc.bsky.social
For National Disability Awareness month we wanted to share the site caniplaythat.com. This site is dedicated to writing reviews and publishing news for all things related to video game accessibility. Keep up with what the industry is doing to keep their games accessible for the community!
steady5063.bsky.social
Super pumped to be doing this talk at WebAIM's, 'Web Accessibility in Mind' Conference. It's virtual and free on September 16th and 17th!

If you wanna see what happens when you don't care about semantic HTML and just use ARIA, then check this talk out!

#Accessibility #A11y
WebAIM Accessibility in Mind Conference, Mark Steadman Fidelity Investments 'A Tangled Web of ARIA'
Reposted by Mark Steadman
inclusivedesign24.bsky.social
We're happy to finally unveil the full schedule for the upcoming Inclusive Design 24 #id24 24 hour online event on the 25 September 2025 inclusivedesign24.org/2025/schedule/ #a11y #accessibility #inclusiveDesign
Inclusive Design 24 (#id24)
A free 24-hour online community event on accessibility and inclusion
inclusivedesign24.org
steady5063.bsky.social
I don't think the education and push to make things accessible changes, its more the "how" we give solutions.

Very generic example, if i put into Claude "hey make me CSS for my opening page", but i forget the word "accessible" in there, the color scheme won't include accessible colors
steady5063.bsky.social
Also just another thing, it’s great how much time you can save with Claude. But at same time, I do miss just building everything from scratch myself. And I wonder if future devs will miss that grind and not learn the hard lessons.