Web Design Update: January 20, 2026
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Laura Carlson
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+++ WEB DESIGN UPDATE.
- Volume 26, Issue 30, January 20, 2026.
An email newsletter to distribute news and information about web design and development.
++ISSUE 30 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: EVALUATION & TESTING.
04: EVENTS.
05: JAVASCRIPT.
06: NAVIGATION.
07: TOOLS.
08: USABILITY.
SECTION TWO:
09: What Can You Find at the Web Design Reference Site?
[Contents ends.]
++ SECTION ONE: New references.
+01: ACCESSIBILITY.
Web Almanac, Part II Chapter 6, Accessibility
By Bogdan Lazar and Mike Gifford.
"…Throughout this chapter, you will find actionable links and practical solutions to help you improve accessibility on your own sites…"
https://almanac.httparchive.org/en/2025/accessibility
When Design Kills Usability (Video)
By Malin Hammarberg, Funka Foundation.
"Join us for a journey through the wildest custom cursors on the web - and discover why they are a nightmare for accessibility. We will show how these 'creative' design choices clash with magnification, inverted colours, and user settings. Expect some laughs, some horror, and one simple request: please stop making custom cursors."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mgTdX8_8Bik
Alt Text: When Real Life Is More Nuanced Than the Guidelines
By Diana Khalipina.
"Over the past months, I've written several posts about alt text and several times I received comments saying: 'even decorative images should have alt text, because people with low vision may see the image, but not clearly enough to understand it'…"
https://a11ywithdiana.substack.com/p/alt-text-when-real-life-is-more-nuanced
Common Accessibility Misconceptions
By Ela Gorla.
"Our Common accessibility misconceptions series sheds light on many misunderstood aspects of accessibility…"
https://tetralogical.com/blog/2026/01/15/common-accessibility-misconceptions/
AI Captions Do Not Conform to WCAG
By Steve Faulkner.
"…they usually require a lot of work to make them usable. The highest-risk areas for real harm are: (1) named entities/numbers, (2) multi-speaker attribution, (3) timing/readability, and (4) hallucinated 'corrections.'"
https://mastodon.social/@SteveFaulkner/115922036586875262
Beyond Manual Audits: How Automation Strengthens Accessibility
By Meryl K. Evans.
"Accessibility issues often appear quietly: After a plugin update, a new comment, or a small content change no one notices…"
https://equalentry.com/accessibility-audits-automation/
Three Accessibility Assumptions
By Russ Weakley.
"Below are three accessibility assumptions that can quietly shape how we test, debug, and interpret results…"
https://www.maxdesign.com.au/articles/assumptions.html
Digital Accessibility: The Strategic Imperative Hiding in Plain Sight
By Dennis Deacon.
"We stand at an inflection point. The question is no longer whether digital accessibility matters, it's whether your organization will lead or follow as this imperative reshapes competitive dynamics across every industry…"
https://www.dennisdeacon.com/accessibility-2/digital-accessibility-the-strategic-imperative-hiding-in-plain-sight/
Last Week in WAI #3
By Steve Faulkner.
"From reading the draft minutes for the AGWG meeting 13th January 2026, there is skepticism about the working groups ability to get WCAG3 to Candidate Recommendation status (CR) within 4 years…"
https://html5accessibility.com/stuff/2026/01/16/last-week-in-wai-3/
Understanding ADA Title II and Digital Accessibility Requirements
By David Sloan.
"While Title II has been law for decades, the Department of Justice (DoJ) final ruling of 2024 clarified how these obligations apply to digital services, prompting many public entities to reassess what compliance requires and how to demonstrate usable digital accessibility programs…"
https://vispero.com/resources/ada-title-ii-and-digital-accessibility/
+02: CASCADING STYLE SHEETS.
Accessible Faux-Nested Interactive Controls
By Eric W. Bailey.
"…Modern CSS lets you have it all: resilient, adaptable, fault-tolerant experiences that recreate the affordances of contemporary app-like experiences without sacrificing accessibility. Considered and thoughtful applications of CSS - like Andy Bell's semantic breakout button technique - can mesh harmoniously with newer features to create all sorts of new and exciting experiences."
https://piccalil.li/blog/accessible-faux-nested-interactive-controls/
Better Defaults for Popovers
By Manuel Matuzović.
"I recently added a rule to my reset style sheet UA+ that I wanted to share with you. When you add a popover to a page and open it, it looks similar to a dialog in terms of its styling. It's positioned at the center of the viewport…"
https://www.matuzo.at/blog/2026/better-defaults-for-popovers
+05: EVALUATION & TESTING.
Semantic Differential Scales: Measure User Attitudes with Nuance (Video)
By Rachel Banawa.
"In UX surveys, semantic differential scales help measure user attitudes with nuance. This video covers what they are, their pros and cons, and how to write clear, balanced adjective pairs for UX research studies…"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kIg3YRqoh5s
UX-Lite Sample Sizes for Confidence Intervals
By Jim Lewis and Jeff Sauro.
"…In this article, we demonstrate how to compute the right sample size for UX-Lite confidence intervals by controlling the size of the margin of error (i.e., the desired level of precision)…"
https://measuringu.com/ux-lite-sample-sizes-for-confidence-intervals/
+04: EVENTS.
Every Jira Ticket Is Your Accessibility Policy
February 3, 2026.
Online and New York, New York, U.S.A.
https://www.meetup.com/a11ynyc/events/312256022/
Durham-Raleigh A11y: The Accessibility Meetup-Triangle Style
February 17, 2026.
Durham-Raleigh, North Carolina, U.S.A.
https://www.meetup.com/durham-raleigh-a11y/events/312453072/
Virtual UX Training
March 16-27, 2026.
Online
https://www.nngroup.com/training/march/
+05: JAVASCRIPT.
Live Region Support
By Adrian Roselli.
"This post does not discuss whether live regions are good, nor is it a post about the best way to use them. This post only covers how they are exposed to the audience who experiences them - screen reader users. Written by a non-screen-reader user…"
https://adrianroselli.com/2026/01/live-region-support.html
+06: NAVIGATION.
A Beginner's Guide to Link Accessibility
Updated: January 12, 2026
By Whitney Lewis.
"Links are an important part of how keyboard users navigate a web page. Some best practices include underlining links that are in the page's content and opening links in the same tab.…"
https://blog.pope.tech/2023/01/01/link-accessibility/
+07: TOOLS.
O-Hat Scanner
By Mike Gifford.
"Oobee-style accessibility reports powered by GitHub Actions & Pages…"
https://mgifford.github.io/o-hat-scanner/
+08: USABILITY.
Why Disabled Buttons Hurt UX (and How to Fix Them) (Video)
By Huei-Hsin Wang.
"Disabled buttons often confuse users by appearing clickable but providing no response or feedback. Designers should use them sparingly, ensure they're accessible, and clearly explain why the button is disabled…"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uEjidraxhAw
4 Things GenAI Needs for Better Content Design (Video)
By Taylor Dykes.
"Product-specific genAI needs to follow common digital writing practices in order to better fit users' scanning needs."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WfHBINzB0Ps
[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.
+ SUBSCRIPTION INFO.
WEB DESIGN UPDATE is available by subscription. For information on how to subscribe and unsubscribe please visit:
https://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/webdev_listserv.html
The Web Design Reference Site also has a RSS 2.0 feed for site updates.
+ TEXT EMAIL NEWSLETTER (TEN).
As a navigation aid for screen readers we do our best to conform to the accessible Text Email Newsletter (TEN) guidelines. Please let me know if there is anything else we can do to make navigation easier. For TEN guideline information please visit:
http://www.headstar.com/ten
+ 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.]
- Volume 26, Issue 30, January 20, 2026.
An email newsletter to distribute news and information about web design and development.
++ISSUE 30 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: EVALUATION & TESTING.
04: EVENTS.
05: JAVASCRIPT.
06: NAVIGATION.
07: TOOLS.
08: USABILITY.
SECTION TWO:
09: What Can You Find at the Web Design Reference Site?
[Contents ends.]
++ SECTION ONE: New references.
+01: ACCESSIBILITY.
Web Almanac, Part II Chapter 6, Accessibility
By Bogdan Lazar and Mike Gifford.
"…Throughout this chapter, you will find actionable links and practical solutions to help you improve accessibility on your own sites…"
https://almanac.httparchive.org/en/2025/accessibility
When Design Kills Usability (Video)
By Malin Hammarberg, Funka Foundation.
"Join us for a journey through the wildest custom cursors on the web - and discover why they are a nightmare for accessibility. We will show how these 'creative' design choices clash with magnification, inverted colours, and user settings. Expect some laughs, some horror, and one simple request: please stop making custom cursors."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mgTdX8_8Bik
Alt Text: When Real Life Is More Nuanced Than the Guidelines
By Diana Khalipina.
"Over the past months, I've written several posts about alt text and several times I received comments saying: 'even decorative images should have alt text, because people with low vision may see the image, but not clearly enough to understand it'…"
https://a11ywithdiana.substack.com/p/alt-text-when-real-life-is-more-nuanced
Common Accessibility Misconceptions
By Ela Gorla.
"Our Common accessibility misconceptions series sheds light on many misunderstood aspects of accessibility…"
https://tetralogical.com/blog/2026/01/15/common-accessibility-misconceptions/
AI Captions Do Not Conform to WCAG
By Steve Faulkner.
"…they usually require a lot of work to make them usable. The highest-risk areas for real harm are: (1) named entities/numbers, (2) multi-speaker attribution, (3) timing/readability, and (4) hallucinated 'corrections.'"
https://mastodon.social/@SteveFaulkner/115922036586875262
Beyond Manual Audits: How Automation Strengthens Accessibility
By Meryl K. Evans.
"Accessibility issues often appear quietly: After a plugin update, a new comment, or a small content change no one notices…"
https://equalentry.com/accessibility-audits-automation/
Three Accessibility Assumptions
By Russ Weakley.
"Below are three accessibility assumptions that can quietly shape how we test, debug, and interpret results…"
https://www.maxdesign.com.au/articles/assumptions.html
Digital Accessibility: The Strategic Imperative Hiding in Plain Sight
By Dennis Deacon.
"We stand at an inflection point. The question is no longer whether digital accessibility matters, it's whether your organization will lead or follow as this imperative reshapes competitive dynamics across every industry…"
https://www.dennisdeacon.com/accessibility-2/digital-accessibility-the-strategic-imperative-hiding-in-plain-sight/
Last Week in WAI #3
By Steve Faulkner.
"From reading the draft minutes for the AGWG meeting 13th January 2026, there is skepticism about the working groups ability to get WCAG3 to Candidate Recommendation status (CR) within 4 years…"
https://html5accessibility.com/stuff/2026/01/16/last-week-in-wai-3/
Understanding ADA Title II and Digital Accessibility Requirements
By David Sloan.
"While Title II has been law for decades, the Department of Justice (DoJ) final ruling of 2024 clarified how these obligations apply to digital services, prompting many public entities to reassess what compliance requires and how to demonstrate usable digital accessibility programs…"
https://vispero.com/resources/ada-title-ii-and-digital-accessibility/
+02: CASCADING STYLE SHEETS.
Accessible Faux-Nested Interactive Controls
By Eric W. Bailey.
"…Modern CSS lets you have it all: resilient, adaptable, fault-tolerant experiences that recreate the affordances of contemporary app-like experiences without sacrificing accessibility. Considered and thoughtful applications of CSS - like Andy Bell's semantic breakout button technique - can mesh harmoniously with newer features to create all sorts of new and exciting experiences."
https://piccalil.li/blog/accessible-faux-nested-interactive-controls/
Better Defaults for Popovers
By Manuel Matuzović.
"I recently added a rule to my reset style sheet UA+ that I wanted to share with you. When you add a popover to a page and open it, it looks similar to a dialog in terms of its styling. It's positioned at the center of the viewport…"
https://www.matuzo.at/blog/2026/better-defaults-for-popovers
+05: EVALUATION & TESTING.
Semantic Differential Scales: Measure User Attitudes with Nuance (Video)
By Rachel Banawa.
"In UX surveys, semantic differential scales help measure user attitudes with nuance. This video covers what they are, their pros and cons, and how to write clear, balanced adjective pairs for UX research studies…"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kIg3YRqoh5s
UX-Lite Sample Sizes for Confidence Intervals
By Jim Lewis and Jeff Sauro.
"…In this article, we demonstrate how to compute the right sample size for UX-Lite confidence intervals by controlling the size of the margin of error (i.e., the desired level of precision)…"
https://measuringu.com/ux-lite-sample-sizes-for-confidence-intervals/
+04: EVENTS.
Every Jira Ticket Is Your Accessibility Policy
February 3, 2026.
Online and New York, New York, U.S.A.
https://www.meetup.com/a11ynyc/events/312256022/
Durham-Raleigh A11y: The Accessibility Meetup-Triangle Style
February 17, 2026.
Durham-Raleigh, North Carolina, U.S.A.
https://www.meetup.com/durham-raleigh-a11y/events/312453072/
Virtual UX Training
March 16-27, 2026.
Online
https://www.nngroup.com/training/march/
+05: JAVASCRIPT.
Live Region Support
By Adrian Roselli.
"This post does not discuss whether live regions are good, nor is it a post about the best way to use them. This post only covers how they are exposed to the audience who experiences them - screen reader users. Written by a non-screen-reader user…"
https://adrianroselli.com/2026/01/live-region-support.html
+06: NAVIGATION.
A Beginner's Guide to Link Accessibility
Updated: January 12, 2026
By Whitney Lewis.
"Links are an important part of how keyboard users navigate a web page. Some best practices include underlining links that are in the page's content and opening links in the same tab.…"
https://blog.pope.tech/2023/01/01/link-accessibility/
+07: TOOLS.
O-Hat Scanner
By Mike Gifford.
"Oobee-style accessibility reports powered by GitHub Actions & Pages…"
https://mgifford.github.io/o-hat-scanner/
+08: USABILITY.
Why Disabled Buttons Hurt UX (and How to Fix Them) (Video)
By Huei-Hsin Wang.
"Disabled buttons often confuse users by appearing clickable but providing no response or feedback. Designers should use them sparingly, ensure they're accessible, and clearly explain why the button is disabled…"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uEjidraxhAw
4 Things GenAI Needs for Better Content Design (Video)
By Taylor Dykes.
"Product-specific genAI needs to follow common digital writing practices in order to better fit users' scanning needs."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WfHBINzB0Ps
[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.
+ SUBSCRIPTION INFO.
WEB DESIGN UPDATE is available by subscription. For information on how to subscribe and unsubscribe please visit:
https://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/webdev_listserv.html
The Web Design Reference Site also has a RSS 2.0 feed for site updates.
+ TEXT EMAIL NEWSLETTER (TEN).
As a navigation aid for screen readers we do our best to conform to the accessible Text Email Newsletter (TEN) guidelines. Please let me know if there is anything else we can do to make navigation easier. For TEN guideline information please visit:
http://www.headstar.com/ten
+ 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
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
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