Web Design Update: September 29, 2026

[Laura Carlson]

+++ WEB DESIGN UPDATE.
- Volume 27, Issue 14, September 29, 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: EVALUATION & TESTING.
04: EVENTS.
05: HTML.
07: MISCELLANEOUS.
08: TOOLS.
09: USABILITY.

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

[Contents ends.]


++ SECTION ONE: New references.

+01: ACCESSIBILITY.

Foundations: The Accessibility Tree
By Craig Abbott.
"…Once you know what the accessibility tree is, and understand how to inspect it, a lot of the mystery around accessibility goes away…"
https://tetralogical.com/blog/2026/09/22/foundations-the-accessibility-tree/

A11y 101 – 3.3.8 Accessible Authentication (Minimum)
By Nat Tarnoff.
"…Authentication should be a door, not a puzzle. Offer multiple paths. Let password managers work. Skip CAPTCHA when possible. Support biometrics, magic links, and token-based verification. Make recovery obvious and accessible…"
https://tarnoff.info/?p=3647

The Dunning-Kruger Effect in Accessibility
By Craig Abbott.
"…The people that can't use it usually won't file a bug report. They'll just close your website or delete your app…"
https://www.craigabbott.co.uk/blog/2026/the-dunning-kruger-effect-in-accessibility/

A Trump Team Wants to Automate U.S. Web Design System Accessibility Testing. Experts Are Worried.
By Madison Alder.
"GitHub community and accessibility experts are concerned about a reversal of progress amid potential AI reliance and plans to 'automate as much accessibility testing as possible.'…"
https://fedscoop.com/trump-team-automate-uswds-accessibility-testing-ai/

USWDS Is Dead. Long Live USWDS.
By Matt Henry.
"…No one should use nu-SWDS. Or at least, if you choose to use it, you should understand that it is no longer the project it used to be, and you will not have the same assurance of accessibility or usability that you used to have. It won't have been tested with real users, and it won't have been battle-tested on thousands of .gov sites. If I can repurpose a line I used on bluesky, it's the private equity husk of USWDS…"
https://matthenry.fyi/posts/long-live-uswds/

Automating All Accessibility Testing Is a Pipe Dream
By Nicolas Steenhout.
"…A transcript of screen-reader output records what the software announced. Human testing tells us whether a person could understand and use it…AI can cover those gaps with plausible explanations, making a bad assessment look more complete…"
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/automating-all-accessibility-testing-pipe-dream-nicolas-steenhout-118dc/

Frustration Is Part of Accessibility Work
By Nicolas Steenhout.
"…We can't keep asking disabled people to work around these decisions and treating each encounter as an isolated bug…"
https://buttondown.com/nic-steenhout/archive/upcoming-book-frustration-and-accessibility-and/#frustration

You Can't Be Accessible if People Can't Understand You (Video)
By Jamila Savoy and Jess Mathew.
"Accessibility doesn't stop at code. You can meet every technical standard and still leave people confused. This session explores why unclear language is one of the most overlooked accessibility barriers. Through practical examples and real-world insights, we'll show how plain language improves understanding, reduces cognitive load and helps people actually use information. Because if people can't understand it, it isn't accessible…"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hTtS34JwO7o

Designing for Cognitive Difference: Reducing Friction in Digital Interfaces
By Karimot Isiaka.
"Every web page exists for a purpose, but whether a user can fulfill it depends on how the interface is designed. For people with cognitive differences, that decision means the difference between access and exclusion…This session equips designers, developers, and product teams with practical strategies to reduce friction and build inclusively, grounded in real Wikipedia accessibility project experience…"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JfUr791MgLI

Accessible By Design: Documents That Work for Everyone (Video)
By Samantha Merrett.
"…In this session, we'll explore what it really means to design documents with accessibility in mind from the very beginning. Rather than relying on checklists or last-minute fixes, we'll focus on building accessibility into workflows so it becomes a natural part of how content is created on a routine basis…"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7uz1HxQWml4&list=PLFbG3UWnuE3U

Easier and Better Accessibility for Complex Experiences (Video)
By Michel Joanisse.
"…This talk explores what accessibility can mean in the context of complex experiences without sacrificing ingenuity…The talk is understandable to a technical and non-technical audience. Attendees will walk away from this talk with theoretical knowledge and practical examples all based on successfully tried, tested, and deployed solutions…"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ahJiVlRoOms

Digital Accessibility Ethics: A New Framework to Advance Accessibility (Video)
By Lainey Feingold, Léonie Watson, Shilpi Kapoor, Meena Das, Jutta Treviranus, Sheri Byrne-Haber.
"This session will introduce the Digital Accessibility Ethics Framework and show how it is applied to several aspects of tech and accessibility. These include procurement, development, leadership, speech to text, and more. The Framework is a 3-part actionable strategy made up of values, actions, and questions. It is the subject of a book published this year called Digital Accessibility Ethics: Disability Inclusion in All Things Tech. All presenters are co-authors in the book…"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gVTGHP5m0a8

Accessibility Scores Explained: What a 98% Actually Means (Video)
By Natalie MacLees.
"Your site scores 98% accessible. What did that number measure, and what did it skip?…"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ucS9QQAY82o

Crafting WCAG 3 for More Accessible User Experiences
By Shawn Lawton Henry.
"In this post, I cover some of the stakes and challenges in developing W3C Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 3. I use "websites" as an example, yet this information generally applies to apps, software, documents, and other digital content and technologies…"
https://www.w3.org/blog/2026/crafting-wcag-3-for-more-accessible-user-experiences/

How We Want to Make WCAG Better (Video)
By Hidde de Vries.
"WCAG is a standard most digital accessibility professionals will have used in one way or another. Many have thoughts on how to make it better. The good news is: a new version is in progress. In this talk, you'll hear more about the transition from WCAG 2 to WCAG 3, and find out what's not working today and how a new standard attempts to close the gaps…"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tDvdzcbo_tU

Process Matters: Europe's New Design for All Standard  (Video)
By Wilco Fiers.
"…WCAG is fantastic, but it has the weaknesses all product standards have. EN 17161 Design for All adds a new dimension to accessibility compliance. One that works in the reality of bugs, of compliance over time, and that understands user needs aren't static or perfectly definable. Security has paved the way for process compliance. Accessibility should follow…"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VFtAYNrgAjg


+02: CASCADING STYLE SHEETS.

Designing Accessible Keyboard Focus States With CSS
By Ilknur Eren.
"…The focus outline is not decoration. It's how a whole group of people navigate…"
https://hackernoon.com/designing-accessible-keyboard-focus-states-with-css

Remove Start and End Margins With the Margin-Trim Property
By Rachel Andrew.
"A frequently asked multiple-column layout question is why a new paragraph at the start of the column has additional space above it…"
https://rachelandrew.co.uk/archives/2026/09/15/remove-start-and-end-margins-with-the-margin-trim-property/


+03: EVALUATION & TESTING.

Trauma-Informed Design Research for Inclusive Practice (Video)
By Hitomi Yokota.
"…In this session, participants will explore how trauma shapes people's experiences of user research engagement, particularly in complex and sensitive topics. The talk introduces core concepts of trauma-informed design research…"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dUw7F95ympM


+04: EVENTS.

Assistive Tech User Research with Cindy Merrill
October 7, 2026.
Online and Portland, Oregon U.S.A.
https://chifoo.org/event/assistive-tech-user-research-with-cindy-merrill-hybrid/

Blue Beanie Day
November 30, 2026.
Online
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Beanie_Day

International Day of People with Disability
December 3, 2026.
Global
https://www.idpwd.gov.au/


+05: HTML.

2026: 2 of the Global Top 200 Websites Use Valid HTML
By Jens Oliver Meiert.
"…As things stand, professional web development is still in a state of crisis, not using conformance-checking as a tool to deliver professional, error-free work and to strengthen the craft and the profession itself…"
https://meiert.com/blog/html-conformance-2026/

New Things You Should Know About HTML Here in Mid 2026
By Chris Coyier.
"The foundational language of the web is getting plenty of love lately! While HTML moves a bit more slowly than its buddies, CSS and JavaScript, that tends to be a good thing…"
https://blog.master.dev/new-things-you-should-know-about-html-here-in-mid-2026/

19½ Things You Didn't Know about Accessibility in HTML and CSS (Video)
By Manuel Matuzović.
"Manuel skips the "Alt Text" lectures and dives straight into the deep end, exploring the hidden mechanics of the Popover API, keyboard navigation, and ARIA…"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h3JhFyOyzK0


+07: MISCELLANEOUS.

Nobody Wants Your Damn App
By Simon Sterne.
"…The web already solved this problem…"
https://webdesignerdepot.com/nobody-wants-your-damn-app/

The Groanings, Travails and Weepings of Teaching Accessibility in HE (Video)
By Belén Barros Pena.
"…In this presentation, I will speak about the challenges we face teaching accessibility and inclusive design to higher education students in the UK; and how our industry colleagues could help…"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_fupTnI4NVs

Building the Next Generation of Accessibility Professionals (Video)
By Cynthia Shelly and Delphinium Barta.
"…What happens when a long-time accessibility expert leaves big tech, moves to a different country, and founds a family-business accessibility consultancy? We have some funny stories, but we also have a serious subject - how to retain the digital accessibility knowledge built over the last 30 years, and pass it down to the next generation of professionals…"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2wzdoEjjsvw

Broke with Accessible Taste: The Economics of Access (Video)
By Crystal Preston-Watson.
"Accessibility doesn't begin when a disabled person opens an app or visits a website; it begins with income, employment, broadband access, and the cost of assistive technology…"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6sAYPl_y5S4


+08: TOOLS.

POUR
By David Yarham.
"One in six people experience the web differently than you think. pour shows you what's getting in the way, and exactly how to fix…"
https://pour.dev/


+09: USABILITY.

Are You Supporting Legacy Users?
By Kate Kaplan.
"Legacy users aren't always expert users. Consider these legacy user tips when updating your designs, so no one gets left behind."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tnZtSbJR0_E

UX Writing and User Experience: An Evidence-Based Review of Microcopy, Usability, Accessibility and User Behaviour (PDF)
By Mustafa Jamal Nasser.
"…The central implication for both practice and research is the same: UX writing's demonstrated effects are real but narrower than commonly claimed…"
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Mustafa-Jamal-Nasser/publication/414564864_UX_Writing_and_User_Experience_An_Evidence-Based_Review_of_Microcopy_Usability_Accessibility_and_User_Behaviour/links/6ab21a4cb6ed527629198e02/UX-Writing-and-User-Experience-An-Evidence-Based-Review-of-Microcopy-Usability-Accessibility-and-User-Behaviour.pdf


[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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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