Web Design Update: September 16, 2025

[Laura Carlson]

+++ WEB DESIGN UPDATE.
- Volume 26, Issue 12, September 16, 2025.

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

++ISSUE 12 CONTENTS.

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: DRUPAL.
04: EVENTS.
05: MISCELLANEOUS.
06: TOOLS.
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.

How to Make Complex Data Accessible for Users With Disabilities
By Elle Smith.
"How you present data shapes how people understand it and ultimately act on it. Simple data can often be conveyed in a straightforward list or table, but complex data needs more. Sharing data requires careful consideration to ensure it is accessible to users with disabilities…"
https://blog.pope.tech/2025/09/08/how-to-make-complex-data-accessible-for-users-with-disabilities/

Make Complex Data Accessible for Users With Disabilities (Video)
By Whitney Lewis.
"In this video, we'll focus on two design strategies for making your data more accessible:
1. Analyzing the purpose of your data to pick the data format that meets your goals.
2. Creating multiple pathways to the same data, so users have options for accessing your data…"
https://blog.pope.tech/2025/09/08/making-complex-data-accessible-for-users-with-disabilities-video/

Testing Methods: Visual Presentation
By Dennis Deacon.
"WCAG 1.4.8 Visual Presentation is a Level AAA conformance level Success Criterion. It ensures that users can control and adjust the visual presentation of text to improve readability and accessibility, especially for those with visual or cognitive disabilities…"
https://www.dennisdeacon.com/web/accessibility/testing-methods-visual-presentation/

Digital Accessibility: Start Now, Don't Wait
By Dennis Deacon.
"Waiting for executive sign-off or a vendor budget only delays the immense benefits of digital accessibility. By taking immediate, low-cost actions, like alt text, semantic markup, and color contrast, you demonstrate measurable impact…"
https://www.dennisdeacon.com/web/accessibility/digital-accessibility-start-now-dont-wait/

Avoid Adding Modals to Other Modals or Dropdowns
By Melanie Sumner.
"I ran into some UI patterns that raised some red flags; one was having a modal/dialog triggered from…some other element that is already 'on top' of the current page (e.g., other modals, dropdown menus, flyout panels/drawers)…"
https://melsumner.github.io/avoid-modals-in-nested-contexts

Accessible Time Format
By Andrew Normand.
"…This is a test to see how screen readers treat time with a colon (hh:mm) versus a period (hh.mm) … Conclusion… Hours and minutes should be formatted on the web using a colon (hh:mm)…"
https://ozewai.org/blog/newsletter/accessible-time-format/

The Accessibility Show #8: Keyboard, Keyboard, Who's Got a Keyboard…
By Joe Dolson.
"…What did I find? About what I expected. Among the six sites, four of them had severe and obvious keyboard accessibility problems. These are issues that will have a significant impact on users and are easy to identify…"
https://www.joedolson.com/2025/09/the-accessibility-show-8-keyboard-keyboard-whos-got-a-keyboard/

WCAG 3.0 (W3C Working Draft, September 8, 2025)
By Kazuhiko Tsuchiya.
"In this article, I would like to review the outline of WCAG 3.0 again and take a bird's-eye view of the changes in the Working Draft and the current guidelines (provisional)…"
https://accessible-usable.net/2025/09/entry_250915.html

Screen Readers Do Not Need to Be Saved by AI
By Craig Abbott.
"Imagine listening to your favourite podcast. You rewind it to go over something you missed, but each time you replay it, it's somehow different…"
https://www.craigabbott.co.uk/blog/screen-readers-do-not-need-saved-by-ai/

Navigating the World of Web Accessibility", with Sara Soueidan (Video)
By Kevin Powell.
"I recently had the pleasure of chatting with Sara Soueidan, a renowned expert in web accessibility. Our conversation was a deep dive into the nuances of making the web more inclusive and accessible for everyone…"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ndGKjhzmLXc

An Introduction to the PDF/UA Standard
By Josh Crawford.
"This guide explains PDF/UA (PDF/Universal Accessibility), an international standard that ensures PDFs work for everyone through proper tagging and structure. It explores how PDF/UA complements broader WCAG guidelines with specific technical requirements for PDF documents, and demonstrates some of the key elements that make PDFs truly accessible, from meaningful alternative text to logical reading order…"
https://www.digitalaccesstraining.com/pages/articles?p=an-introduction-to-the-pdfua-standard

Reviewing the Logic and Value of the W3C's Accessibility Maturity Model
By Karl Groves.
"…So does accessibility deserve its own maturity model? On balance, the answer is yes, but with caveats…"
https://afixt.com/reviewing-the-logic-and-value-of-the-w3cs-accessibility-maturity-model/

Making Content Accessible for People with Limited English Proficiency
By Meryl K. Evans.
"This article is based on Irina Morozova's talk at A11yNYC. She talked about how to make content accessible through thoughtful content and inclusive design for people who aren't fluent in English. Irina is an accessibility experience designer. She has a linguistics and teaching background…"
https://equalentry.com/accessible-content-limited-english-proficiency/


+02: CASCADING STYLE SHEETS.

Subgrid: How to Line Up Elements to Your Heart's Content
By Saron Yitbarek.
"…Subgrid is not new, but the recent State of CSS survey results showed that it was something that was still confusing to people, so we thought we'd circle back and show an easy way to understand what's happening…"
https://webkit.org/blog/17339/subgrid-how-to-line-up-elements-to-your-hearts-content/

Follow-the-Leader Pattern With CSS Anchor Positioning
By Una Kravets.
"There's a pattern I've been implementing lately that creates a little 'follow-the-leader' effect using anchor positioning…"
https://una.im/follow-the-anchor/

One List To Rule Them All
By Adam Argyle.
"Whether I'm giving a talk or on a podcast, these two things constantly pop up:
* how do I find what to study to keep up?
* what's new in CSS?
If you've wondered those things before, then this list is for you…"
https://nerdy.dev/cascading-secret-sauce

Un-Sass'ing My CSS: Compiling Multiple CSS Files into One
By Stuart Robson.
"…There are lots of things I like and love about Sass, and there's a lot that can be done (or can soon to be done) using new CSS features. However, one thing that won't reach CSS, and something that I think we would always need some aspect of 'tooling' for, is to compile various Sass (or CSS) files into one…"
https://www.alwaystwisted.com/articles/UnSassing-my-CSS-CSS-imports


+03: EVENTS.

Live Accessibility Demo: Can Someone with Vision Loss Use Your Website?
September 24, 2025.
Online
https://register.gotowebinar.com/register/8513390340338067030

When Accessibility Isn't Easy: Website Features That Need Extra Love with Suzanne Dergacheva
September 24, 2025.
Online
https://a11ytalks.com/posts/2025-sep

SmashingConf New York
October 6-9, 2025.
Online and New York, New York, U.S.A.
https://smashingconf.com/ny-2025

Literacy Beyond Print: Accessible Reading, Tech and Graphics at the NYPL
October 7, 2025.
Online and New York, New York, U.S.A.
https://www.meetup.com/a11ynyc/events/310613846/


+04: HTML.

Baby Steps Accessibility - Page Titles
By Dennis Deacon.
"Let's look at the frequently overlooked page title…"
https://www.dennisdeacon.com/web/accessibility/baby-steps-accessibility-page-titles/

Just Use HTML
By Chris Ferdinandi.
"I've worked on so many projects recently that were more complicated than they needed to be because they used JavaScript to generate HTML…"
https://gomakethings.com/just-use-html/

2025: 0 of the Global Top 200 Websites Use Valid HTML
By Jens Oliver Meiert.
"It's time for the annual check on HTML conformance, reviewing whether the HTML code in our field is error-free and valid. The short version: None of the most-frequented sites on this planet uses valid HTML…"
https://meiert.com/blog/html-conformance-2025/


+05: MISCELLANEOUS.

Championing Inclusive Language
By Felicity Miners-Jones.
"…Language reflects culture. It shapes how people perceive themselves and one another; whether they belong, whether they're valued, and whether the space is designed with them in mind. Inclusive language isn't just polite; it's powerful. It builds clarity, signals respect, and becomes part of what defines your organisation at every level…"
https://tetralogical.com/blog/2025/09/09/championing-inclusive-language/

Disability Inclusion Requires More Than a Lanyard
By Sheri Byrne-Haber.
"…Inclusive access is not about placing the burden on individuals with disabilities to make themselves visible. Inclusive access is about designing systems, environments, and policies that don't require someone to ask for the bare minimum of human decency…"
https://buttondown.com/access-ability/archive/why-the-sunflower-lanyard-scheme-misses-the-point/


+06: TOOLS.

Colour Contrast Analyser v3.5.5
By The Paciello Group.
"New version of CCA released…"
https://github.com/ThePacielloGroup/CCAe/releases/tag/v3.5.5


+07: USABILITY.

Experience Design: The Next Iteration of UX? (Video)
By Kate Moran.
"As an umbrella term for UX/CX work, 'experience design' reflects blended roles and core human-centered principles."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N6mj0KsgVlw

A Millennial's DVD Collection: I'm Returning to Physical Discs
By Kate Moran.
"Frustrating streaming apps and smart TV design pushed at least one user (me) back to physical discs for reliability, ownership, and simpler choices"
https://www.nngroup.com/articles/physical-discs-streaming-experience/


+08: WEBWASTE & SUSTAINABILITY.

Green Digital Certificate
By INCO.
"INCO Academy's free Green Digital Certificate online programs equip you with the knowledge and skills to build sustainable digital solutions…"
https://greendigitalcertificate.inco-group.co/

Defining the Environmental Budget for a Digital Service
By Laurent Devernay.
"The RGESN [PDF, 2.8 MB] (General policy framework for the ecodesign of digital services) requires limits to be set on page size and the number of HTTP requests on a page via criterion 6.1…"
https://greenspector.com/en/defining-the-environmental-budget-for-a-digital-service/

Google quietly removes net-zero carbon goal from website amid rapid power-hungry AI data center buildout - industry-first sustainability pledge moved to background amidst AI energy crisis
By Sunny Grimm.
"Google's goal to be net-zero in carbon emissions by 2030 is still apparently company policy, it's just not broadcasting it anymore…"
https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/google-quietly-removes-net-zero-carbon-goal-from-website-amid-rapid-power-hungry-ai-data-center-buildout-industry-first-sustainability-pledge-moved-to-background-amidst-ai-energy-crisis

[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