Web Design Update: September 15, 2026

[Laura Carlson]

+++ WEB DESIGN UPDATE.
- Volume 27, Issue 12, September 15, 2026.

An email newsletter to distribute news and information about web design and development.

SECTION ONE: New references.
What's new at the Web Design Reference site?
https://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/
New links in these categories:

01: ACCESSIBILITY.
02: CASCADING STYLE SHEETS.
03: COLOR.
04: EVENTS.
05: MISCELLANEOUS.
06: NAVIGATION.
07: USABILITY.
08: WEBWASTE & SUSTAINABILITY.

SECTION TWO:
09: What Can You Find at the Web Design Reference Site?

[Contents ends.]


++ SECTION ONE: New references.

+01: ACCESSIBILITY.

For Review: WCAG 3 Working Draft - September 2026
By Rachael Bradley Montgomery, Alastair Campbell, Adam Page, Kevin White, and Shawn Lawton Henry.
"…W3C WAI invites you to comment on the updated W3C Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 3.0 Working Draft…"
https://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-wai-announce/2026JulSep/0001.html

WCAG 3 Update - Conformance
By Alastair Campbell, Rachael Bradley Montgomery, and Adam Page.
"…We often refer to conformance as the ruler and compliance as the rule that uses the ruler…"
https://alastairc.uk/blog/2026/09/wcag3-update-conformance/
or
https://whollyaccessible.org/2026/09/10/wcag-3-new-draft/

WCAG 3'S Road to Hell Is Paved With Supplemental Requirements
By Eric Eggert.
"…Conforming to anything remotely optional just won't happen…In any case, a standard seems to be not the right place to codify good intentions…"
https://yatil.net/blog/wcag-3-road-to-hell-paved-with-supplemental-requirements

Understanding WCAG 1.3.4 Orientation in WordPress
By María José Maldonado.
"…Could someone access the content and complete the same tasks without rotating their device…"
https://equalizedigital.com/understanding-wcag-1-3-4-orientation-in-wordpress/

How to Test Touch Target Size for WCAG Compliance
By Raghavendra Satish Peri.
"…A button that is only a few pixels too small may seem like a minor design decision, but for some users it can mean the difference between completing a task independently and abandoning it altogethe…"
https://www.digitala11y.com/how-to-test-touch-target-size-for-wcag-compliance/

Support for "headers" Attribute
By Adrian Roselli.
"…The headers attribute is largely useless…"
https://adrianroselli.com/2026/09/support-for-headers-attribute.html

Inclusive Design: Make Video Accessible (Video)
By CANAXESS.
"Understand the principles of accessible design that make video easier for everyone to use……"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=39FH-Q7AN54

The Best Dark Mode Toggle Is Probably None
By Lea Verou.
"…Before any significant problem-solving task, it's always good practice to step back and ask ourselves 'is this a real problem worth solving?' You'd be surprised how often the answer is no…"
https://lea.verou.me/blog/2026/dark-mode-toggles-2/

Deaf Awareness Month: What Digital Accessibility Requires
By Dennis Deacon.
"…WCAG conformance is the floor. Multimodal communication is the design objective…"
https://www.dennisdeacon.com/accessibility/deaf-awareness-month-what-digital-accessibility-requires/

Mobile Accessibility Tells Half the Story
By Charles Berg.
"…A great design system will do all that and also define the interaction rules for blind and low-vision people as well…"
https://inclusionimpact.co/blog/mobile-accessibility-tells-half-the-story/

Foundations: Accessibility Roles and Responsibilities
By TetraLogical.
"…Accessibility is a team responsibility, but each role has a different job…"
https://tetralogical.com/blog/2026/09/08/roles-and-responsibilities/

Sustainable Accessibility: Compliance, Culture, and Capability
By Craig Abbott.
"…If compliance is the only thing your strategy measures, and assessments are the only way you measure it, it's likely you'll constantly burn a lot of your time and budget fixing the same accessibility issues over and over again…"
https://tetralogical.com/blog/2026/09/14/sustainable-accessibility-compliance-capability-culture/

Legal Update: August 2026
By Ken Nakata.
"…DOJ Still Threatens the ADA Regulations…The announcement, however, quietly threatens to unwind far more than just the ADA Title II web accessibility rule…"
https://convergeaccessibility.com/2026/08/31/legal-update-august-2026/

Agentic Web Accessibility Auditing: A Criterion-Specific Framework for Translating WCAG Requirements into Assessments
By Arjun Mishra, Pranav Karthik, Byungjun Bae, and Dongwook Yoon.
"…Rule-based checks and noninteractive model assessments can miss barriers requiring contextual or interactive evidence…"
https://arxiv.org/html/2609.09379v2

Using AI as Your Accessibility Testing Partner
By Ricky Onsman.
"…AI should be regarded as an auditor's partner, and a junior partner, at that…"
https://onsman.com/using-ai-as-your-accessibility-testing-partner/


+02: CASCADING STYLE SHEETS.

Using Maths to Balance Your Heading Styles
By Craig Abbott.
"…The whole hierarchy survives, even in forced-colors mode…"
https://www.craigabbott.co.uk/blog/2026/using-maths-to-balance-your-heading-styles/

Typography Scales
By Donnie D'Amato.
"…It's all about intention and reducing decisions making for a consistent and thoughtful experience."
https://blog.damato.design/posts/typography-scales/


+03: COLOR.

Accessible Colours Don't Exist
By Erik Kroes.
"…You can't have accessible colours, but you can have a palette of colours that makes it easier to create accessible experiences…"
https://www.erikkroes.nl/blog/accessible-colours-dont-exist/


+04: EVENTS.

Digital Accessibility Ethics with Lainey Feingold, Jess Moore Matthews, and Erin Brown (Knowbility)
September 17, 2026.
Online
https://events.zoom.us/ev/AutLHV79_cJ2GQiSOdqq39fNTHFkB9f5ZXeUfhxRNFWWA5PuUF86~AggvOR2TCnacOhNjvG0b7AU9wWCCBYFZAZgDUa1w_fZTebDh-M9TWS4UYw

APAC Digital Inclusion and Accessibility Leadership Summit
September 18, 2026.
Online and Taipei, Taiwan
https://apac-aia.org/adals-2026/

Accessible Content Creation with Malin Hammarberg and Susanna Lauin (Funka Foundation)
September 18, 2026.
Online
https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_2sL2ENX2RRi7op63TDf00A#/registration

Exclusion by Design: How Disability Gets Erased from Concept to Product (And How to Fix It) with Michele Williams.
September 30, 2026.
Online
https://a11ytalks.com/posts/2026-sep

Adobe MAX
November 10–12, 2026.
Miami Beach, Florida, U.S.A.
https://www.adobe.com/max.html

World Usability Day
November 12, 2026.
Global
https://worldusabilityday.org/

Disability Rights Advocates' 2026 Gala
November 17, 2026.
New York, New York, U.S.A.
https://dralegal.org/gala/

TechShare Pro
November 18-19, 2026.
London, England, United Kingdom
https://abilitynet.org.uk/techsharepro


+05: MISCELLANEOUS.

AI, Federal Regulations, Sign Language Tools, and Hyperblam (Video)
By Accessibility Breakdown.
"Mark Miller is joined by Justin Stockton and guest Steve Faulkner for a wide-ranging conversation that touches on AI-assisted legal research, sign language translation technology, and a browser-based music tool built with accessibility in mind…"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bK1MA7fyqkU


+06: NAVIGATION.

An Ode to Links
By Jim Nielsen.
"…We make links. Links make the web. The web makes Us."
https://blog.jim-nielsen.com/2026/ode-to-links/


+07: USABILITY.

The Death Of The Button: Why The Best Interface Is No Interface
By Carrie Webster.
"…How effectively did this software solve the problem and get out of the user's way?…"
https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2026/09/death-button-why-best-interface-is-no-interface/

Instagram's New Logo Has a Legibility Problem
By Simon Sterne.
"Instagram just redesigned its iconic wordmark-but there's a problem: a surprising number of people think it says 'Instagzam.' The controversy offers a perfect lesson in what happens when brand personality collides with one of design's most basic rules: people still need to be able to read it…"
https://webdesignerdepot.com/instagrams-new-logo-has-a-legibility-problem/


+08: WEBWASTE & SUSTAINABILITY.

Why Environmental and Ecological Researchers Who Use Models Should CARE
By Cassandra Sedran-Price, Rachel A. Ankeny, Riley Taitingfong, Jess Melbourne-Thomas, Rose Barrowcliffe, and Lydia Jennings.
"…The CARE Principles should be viewed as fostering opportunities for better and more impactful modeling and research, not as creating barriers or obstacles…"
https://www.cell.com/one-earth/fulltext/S2590-3322%2826%2900214-9


[Section one ends.]


++ SECTION TWO:

+09: What Can You Find at the Web Design Reference Site?

Accessibility Information.
https://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/accessibility.html

Association Information.
https://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/associations.html

Book Listings.
https://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/books.html

Cascading Style Sheets Information.
https://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/css.html

Color Information.
https://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/color.html

Drupal Information.
https://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/drupal.html

Evaluation & Testing Information.
https://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/testing.html

Event Information.
https://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/events.html

HTML Information.
https://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/html.html

Information Architecture Information.
https://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/architecture.html

JavaScript Information.
https://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/javascript.html

Miscellaneous Web Information.
https://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/misc.html

Navigation Information.
https://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/navigation.html

PHP Information.
https://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/php.html

Sites & Blogs Listing.
https://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/sites.html

Standards, Guidelines & Pattern Information.
https://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/standards.html

Tool Information.
https://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/tools.html

Typography Information.
https://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/type.html

Usability Information.
https://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/usability.html

WebWaste & Sustainability Information.
https://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/webwaste.html

XML Information.
https://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/xml.html

[Section two ends.]


++END NOTES.


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+ SIGN OFF.

Until next time,

Laura L. Carlson
Information Technology Systems and Services
University of Minnesota Duluth
Duluth, MN U.S.A. 55812-3009
mailto:lcar...@d.umn.edu


[Issue ends.]

Laura L. Carlson
Information Technology Systems and Services
University of Minnesota Duluth
Duluth, MN U.S.A. 55812-3009
http://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/

W3C Invited Expert
Accessibility Guidelines Working Group
https://www.w3.org/groups/wg/ag/participants

Pronouns: she/her/hers