Web Design Update: November 4, 2025

[Laura Carlson]

+++ WEB DESIGN UPDATE.
- Volume 26, Issue 19, November 4, 2025.

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

++ISSUE 19 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: COLOR.
04: EVALUATION & TESTING.
05: EVENTS.
06: HTML.
07: JAVASCRIPT.
08: MISCELLANEOUS.
09: TOOLS.
10: TYPOGRAPHY.
11: USABILITY.

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

[Contents ends.]


++ SECTION ONE: New references.

+01: ACCESSIBILITY.

A11y 101: 2.4.5 Multiple Ways
By Nat Tarnoff.
"In the physical world we understand that not everyone can climb 20 flights of stairs, so under the ADA we created rules to overcome these situations. …"
https://tarnoff.info/2025/10/27/a11y-101-2-4-5-multiple-ways/

Video Without Vision (Video)
By TabAble.
"Video Without Vision shows how to make videos informative and accessible for blind audiences. Each episode supports a different group, from content creators to developers, and draws on the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), including its Principles, Guidelines, and Success Criteria…"
https://tab-able.co.uk/video-without-vision/

Testing Methods: Keyboard (No Exception)
By Dennis Deacon.
"WCAG 2.1.3 Keyboard (No Exception) is a Level AAA conformance level Success Criterion. It ensures that all content is operable from the keyboard…"
https://www.dennisdeacon.com/web/accessibility/testing-methods-keyboard-no-exception/

Get Started With Manual Testing (Video)
By Pope Tech.
"In this video, we define what manual testing is, demonstrate four basic manual tests, and show how to incorporate sampling strategies into your accessibility workflow…"
https://blog.pope.tech/2025/10/29/manual-testing-webinar/

Actually Shifting Left: Technical Accessibility for Designers (Video)
By Sam Hobson.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LOW8mlNorPY

Never Delegate Understanding: Foundations of Digital Accessibility (Video)
By Sarah Horton.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YcE471Dku4o

Creating Accessible Documents and Slides: Microsoft, Google, and Canva (Video)
By Terrill Thompson, Gaby de Jongh, and Alaina Foust.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQZQ0ehzgB0

Word and PowerPoint Alt Text Roundup
By Jonathan Whiting.
"We tested the alternative text of everything that we could think of in Word and PowerPoint and then converted these files to PDFs using Adobe's Acrobat PDFMaker (the Acrobat Tab on Windows), Adobe's Create PDF cloud service (the Acrobat tab on Mac), and Microsoft's built-in PDF exporting feature (save as PDF). With over 100 test cases tested first in in Word and PowerPoint and then in three different PDFs (over 400 checks), here are the main takeaways…"
https://webaim.org/blog/word-and-powerpoint-alt-text-roundup/

ULEARN Accessibility Guide
By Cidi Labs.
"The ULEARN Accessibility Guide is a companion to our Accessibility Assistant, UDOIT Advantage. It highlights each issue UDOIT can detect, explains how these issues affect students, and provides guidance on how to fix them. By focusing on accessibility and Universal Design for Learning (UDL) principles, the guide supports the creation of more inclusive and effective learning environments…"
https://cidilabs.instructure.com/courses/12453

AI and Alt Text (Video)
By Ted Drake and Marco Salsiccia.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x9J3LIgq8Q4

AI Prompts For Web Accessibility Testing
By Ran Ronen.
"…Here are seven common high-impact accessibility issues often flagged in audits and lawsuits, along with AI prompts and practical guidance you can use to resolve them…"
https://www.forbes.com/councils/forbesbusinesscouncil/2025/10/31/ai-prompts-for-web-accessibility-testing/

Better Accessibility Context for Your Artificial Intelligence Agents - Help Them Help You
By Bogdan Cerovac.
"Model Context Protocol (MCP) is not perfect, but it is a good start - as it can provide reality for Artificial Intelligence (AI). Less hallucinations help with inclusion…"
https://cerovac.com/a11y/2025/10/better-accessibility-context-for-your-artificial-intelligence-agents-help-them-help-you/
Understanding Burnout in Accessibility Work (Video)
By Annie Ross.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ppkuweHxUHc

DOJ To Re-Examine All ADA Title II and III Regulations on a "TBD" Timetable
By Seyfarth Shaw.
"DOJ's regulatory agenda includes intent to conduct economic impact reviews of Title II and III 2010 regulations and re-examine the Title II website accessibility regulations…"
https://www.adatitleiii.com/2025/10/doj-to-re-examine-all-ada-title-ii-and-iii-regulations-on-a-tbd-timetable/

Federal Pro Se ADA Title III and FHA Lawsuit Numbers Surge, Likely Powered by AI
By Seyfarth Shaw.
"Pro se plaintiffs are filing more ADA Title III and FHA complaints using AI tools that enable harassing litigation tactics…"
https://www.adatitleiii.com/2025/10/federal-pro-se-ada-title-iii-and-fha-lawsuit-numbers-surge-likely-powered-by-ai/

Legal Update: October 2025
By Ken Nakata.
"In earlier posts, we've discussed the Southern District's wavering interpretations regarding whether online-only companies are places of public accommodation and can be sued for maintaining inaccessible websites…"
https://convergeaccessibility.com/2025/10/27/legal-update-october-2025/


+02: CASCADING STYLE SHEETS.

The Entire "Principles" Module of Complete CSS is Now Free
By Andy Bell.
"…You can learn about communication, feedback, pacing your work, letting the browser work hard for you, fluid typography and space, layout, organising CSS code and progressive enhancement…"
https://piccalil.li/links/the-entire-principles-module-of-complete-css-is-now-free

Parenthetical Asidenotes
By Eric A. Meyer.
"It's not really a secret I have a thing for sidenotes, and thus for CSS anchored positioning…"
https://meyerweb.com/eric/thoughts/2025/10/28/parenthetical-asidenotes/


+03: COLOR.

Grayscale Testing: The Missing Step in Color Accessibility
By Elle Smith.
"…even when you pass contrast tests, your design might lose its message. This is where a quick grayscale test can reveal weak spots…"
https://blog.pope.tech/2025/11/03/grayscale-testing/

Two Tools for Testing Use of Color (Videos)
By Whitney Lewis.
"An important color accessibility requirement is that your designs make sense without color. That means they shouldn't rely on only color to communicate information…"
https://blog.pope.tech/2025/11/03/use-of-color-tools-videos/


+04: EVALUATION & TESTING.

Practicing Accessibility Research with Confidence (Video)
By Kavana Ramesh.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iy-lQjkUlsw

Win with Metrics: How to Track and Show the Value of Your Program (Video)
By Jaunita Flessas.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lKft6dIG5qM

Scatterplot Jitter-Why and How?
By Jim Lewis and Jeff Sauro.
"Scatterplots are powerful tools for visualizing data, especially when data is continuous and unbounded (or nearly so)…"
https://measuringu.com/scatterplot-jitter/


+05: EVENTS.

Title II Video Accessibility Compliance 101: What You Need to Know
November 12, 2025.
Online
https://go.3playmedia.com/wbnr-11-12-2025-video-accessibility-compliance-101

How Colleges Can Comply With Web-Accessibility Laws
November 19, 2025.
Online
https://www.chronicle.com/events/virtual/how-colleges-can-comply-with-web-accessibility-laws

WCAG 3.0 - Status and Review with Rachael Bradley Montgomery
November 20, 2026.
Online
https://knowbility.org/programs/be-a-digital-ally/november-2025

Virtual UX Training
January 20-January 29, 2026.
Online
https://www.nngroup.com/training/january/

W3C Workshop on Smart Voice Agents
Online
February 25-27, 2026.
https://www.w3.org/2025/10/smartagents-workshop/


+06: HTML.

ChatGPT Sez Build With Semantics First
By Steve Faulkner.
"I turned to ChatGPT and asked a question: Question: what is the HTML coding advice for developers who want to ensure that it works with the openai Atlas browser? Its response…"
https://html5accessibility.com/stuff/2025/10/28/chatgpt-sez-build-with-semantics-first/

Just Use a Button
By Chris Ferdinandi.
"One of the weirdest 'debates' I seem to perpetually have with framework-enthusiastic developers is whether or not a <div> is 'just as good' as a <button>…"
https://gomakethings.com/just-use-a-button/

Screen Reader HTML Support - Lookup
By Steve Faulkner.
"A Work in progress: Last updated 03 November 2025…"
https://tetralogical.github.io/screen-reader-HTML-support/lookup/lookup.html


+07: JAVASCRIPT.

A Tangled Web of ARIA (Video)
By Mark Steadman.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Mbjj3SX1Ck

Is it Time to Regulate React?
By David Bushell.
"…React exists as a profound perversion of the web platform. React has failed upwards to widespread adoption because it provides a 'developer experience' that bypasses the hard parts. Like learning HTML, or CSS, or JavaScript. Even learning React itself is discouraged; that's for adults, you should use meta-frameworks. React devs are burdened with multi-megabyte monstrosities before they've written a single line of code. You cannot fix 'too much JavaScript' with more JavaScript and yet React devs are trained to npm install until their problems become their users' problems…"
https://dbushell.com/2025/10/23/react-regulation/

Custom Asidenotes
By Eric A. Meyer.
"Basically, we can write a little bit of JavaScript to take an invented element and Do Things To It.  What things?  Anything JavaScript makes possible…"
https://meyerweb.com/eric/thoughts/2025/10/29/custom-asidenotes/


+08: MISCELLANEOUS.

A Brief Professional History of Me
By Steve Faulkner.
"Brief history…"
https://html5accessibility.com/stuff/2025/11/02/a-brief-professional-history-of-me/


+09: TOOLS.

Image Description Toolkit 3.5 Beta Featuring Geolocation Data and Web Image Downloads
By Kelly Ford.
"With more AI-driven development I have another sizable update for my Image Description Toolkit or IDT…"
https://theideaplace.net/image-description-toolkit-3-5-beta-featuring-geolocation-data-and-web-image-downloads/


+10: TYPOGRAPHY.

The Hidden Rules of Wrapping Text on the Web (Video)
By The W3C.
"Have you ever resized your browser and watched the text reflow? Behind that, automatic wrapping is a world of linguistic and technical complexity. What happens when a language has no spaces between words? In this video, Fuqiao gives a summary of the diverse typographic strategies of text wrapping. We explore the main approaches to line breaking and uncover the fascinating edge cases that make for a truly "World Wide" Web. This is a must-watch for web developers, UI/UX designers, digital publishers, and anyone curious about the intersection of language and technology…"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pk2S2VXVFuI


+11: USABILITY.

Sometimes the Best Accessibility Fix is a Usability Fix
By Sheri Byrne-Haber.
"…In practice, accessibility gains often come from fixing ordinary UX friction points that already frustrate people who don't have disabilities (yet)…"
https://buttondown.com/access-ability/archive/sometimes-the-best-accessibility-fix-is-a/

The Edge Cases that Break Hearts (And Products)
By Laura Klein.
"Edge cases aren't rare; they're real life. Design for messy situations like name changes, shared accounts, and bad actors from day one…"
https://www.nngroup.com/articles/edge-cases/

Humanizing AI Does Not Help Your Users (Video)
By Caleb Sponheim.
"Humanizing AI is a quick trick, but will prevent your users from getting the most from the AI experiences you design…"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SgYj7gxhmtE


[Section one ends.]


++ SECTION TWO:

+17: 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