Web Design Update: April 21, 2026

[Laura Carlson]

+++ WEB DESIGN UPDATE.
- Volume 26, Issue 43, April 21, 2026.

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

++ISSUE 43 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: EVALUATION & TESTING.
05: EVENTS.
06: HTML.
07: JAVASCRIPT.
08: MISCELLANEOUS.
09: USABILITY.

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

[Contents ends.]


++ SECTION ONE: New references.

+01: ACCESSIBILITY.

DOJ Delays the Title II Web Accessibility Deadline - Don't Sit Back
By Ken Nakata.
"…The deadline moved. The underlying obligation to make web content
and mobile apps accessible under Title II did not - that obligation
has existed since 1992, long before any specific technical standard
was adopted…"
https://convergeaccessibility.com/2026/04/17/doj-delays-t2-rule/

AAPD Statement on DOJ Title II Web Rule Interim Final Rule
By American Association of People with Disabilities.
"…Every year of delay is another year that a person who is blind
cannot apply for the benefits they're owed, that a person with an
intellectual or developmental disability cannot navigate a local
agency's website, that a deaf constituent cannot access critical
public safety information…"
https://www.aapd.com/aapd-statement-title-ii-doj-web-rule-ifr/

ADA Title II Update: The Key Takeaway From the April 20 Compliance
Date Extension From the DOJ Is to Keep Going!
By Glenda Sims.
"…this is not an invitation to pause. It is an opportunity to get this right…"
https://www.deque.com/blog/ada-title-ii-update-the-key-takeaway-from-the-april-20-compliance-date-extension-from-the-doj/

Still, Don't Stop!
By Nat Tarnoff.
"In the United States of America there was to be a final ruling going
to effect on April 24th, 2026 that was going to make WCAG 2.1 A and AA
the standard under ADA Title II. As of the morning of April 17th, this
has now changed."
https://tarnoff.info/2026/04/17/still-dont-stop/

How to Prioritize ADA Title II Accessibility Efforts
By David Sloan.
"…The significance of a WCAG conformance issue depends on how it
affects people with disabilities attempting to access a service…"
https://vispero.com/resources/ada-title-ii-accessibility-prioritization-guide/

ADA Title II Compliance Is Here: What Public Agencies Must Do Now
By Brooke Porter.
"…If a user cannot complete a transaction independently, the
experience is not compliant…"
https://blog.usablenet.com/ada-title-ii-compliance-2026-public-agencies

What the ADA Title II Extension Really Means (Podcast)
By Chad Chelius and Dax Castro.
"In this special episode, legal expert Judith Risch returns for her
second appearance this week to walk through the Department of
Justice's one-year extension, and what it signals now that the update
is official…"
https://a11ychax.libsyn.com/what-the-ada-title-ii-extension-really-means

10 Usability Heuristics: From Theory to Practice
By Eleanor Hecks.
"Poorly handled session timeouts are more than a technical
inconvenience. They can become serious accessibility barriers that
interrupt essential online tasks, especially for people with
disabilities. Here is how to implement thoughtful session management
that improves usability, reduces frustration, and helps create a more
accessible and respectful web…"
https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2026/04/session-timeouts-accessibility-barrier-authentication-design/

Signed, Sealed, Accessible: Accessibility in Public Procurement
By Peter Kemeny.
"Procuring accessible products and services is an essential part of
ensuring and promoting accessibility - but did you know that EAA is
also affecting the legal requirements on procurement…"
https://stiftelsenfunka.org/whats-up/free-friday-webinars/signed-sealed-accessible-accessibility-in-public-procurement/

A11y 101: 3.1.1 Language of Page
By Nat Tarnoff.
"…The requirement is simple but powerful: The default human language
of each web page must be programmatically determinable…"
https://tarnoff.info/2026/04/20/a11y-101-3-1-1-language-of-page/

Accessibility Is Not a Feature, It's Infrastructure
By Ashok Kumar Yadav.
"Accessibility is not something systems have. It is something systems
are built upon…"
https://gritdaily.com/accessibility-is-not-a-feature-its-infrastructure/

Revealed or Reinforced: How Assistive Technologies Shape the
Experience with Dark Patterns for Blind and Low-Vision Users (PDF)
By Agata Stanczyk, Mindy Tran, Tarini Saka, Yixin Zou, and Veelasha Moonsamy.
"…This study investigated how BLV users interact with dark patterns in
social media applications when relying on ATs…"
https://yixinzou.github.io/publications/pdf/dis2026-stanczyk-preprint.pdf

Last Week in WAI #4
By Steve Faulkner.
"HTML in Canvas. I am interested in this as I always expected it to
happen at some point, but appreciate that in this proposal (and
experimental implementation) content drawn to the canvas is expressed
in the canvas sub-DOM as HTML which makes it usable by assistive
tech…"
https://html5accessibility.com/stuff/2026/04/14/last-week-in-wai-4/

You Can't Audit Your Way Into Accessibility Culture Change
By Sheri Byrne-Haber.
"Cultural accessibility does not come from inspecting for defects at
the end of the release train. It comes from integrating inclusive
thinking into planning, design, development, and testing so that fewer
issues reach the audit stage. When that shift takes hold, the audit
becomes a confirmation of intent rather than a catalog of missed
opportunities…"
https://www.sheribyrnehaber.com/you-cant-audit-your-way-into-accessibility-culture-change/

Think About What You Feed Into Generative AI BEFORE The Demand Letter Arrives
By Sheri Byrne-Haber.
"…You are not a lawyer. You do not need to become one. But you do need
to understand that the tools you use to do your job create a record,
and that record matters when the law gets involved…"
https://www.sheribyrnehaber.com/think-about-what-you-feed-into-generative-ai-before-the-demand-letter-arrives/

Don't Waste Money on an Accessibility Audit
By Dennis Deacon.
"…The VPAT matters. But the work behind it matters more."
https://www.dennisdeacon.com/accessibility-2/dont-waste-money-on-an-accessibility-audit/


+02: CASCADING STYLE SHEETS.

box-shadow is No Alternative to outline
By Manuel Matuzović.
"…People like to use the box-shadow property for styling focus
outlines because it gives them more flexibility…"
https://www.matuzo.at/blog/2026/box-shadow-no-alternative-to-outline

Demystifying Block Formatting Contexts
By Peter-Paul Koch.
"I found an example of how we web developers wield CSS as black magic
and reinforce its image as a weird and impossible language. Also, I
learned to explain block formatting contexts…"
https://quirksmode.org/quirksblog/2026/0416-bfcs.html


+03: COLOR.

Colour, Contrast, and Creativity
By Bobby Ly.
"In this blog, Bobby Ly contemplates whether accessible colour
combinations have to feel limiting, or whether they can be a creative
spark. Using colour contrast comparisons as a practical tool, he shows
how setting constraints early makes the design process smoother and
more intuitive…"
https://intopia.digital/articles/colour-contrast-and-creativity/


+04: DRUPAL.

How to Do an Accessibility Review?
By Drupal.org.
"…we have listed necessary considerations into a logical, step by step
process for reviewing the accessibility of your module theme or site.
Remember that just like every other bug, a developer usually needs to
be able to replicate it to be able to fix it…"
https://www.drupal.org/node/3064837


+04: EVALUATION & TESTING.

Post-Task vs. Post-Test Questionnaires in Quantitative Usability Testing (Video)
By Rachel Banawa.
"Learn when and why to use post-task and post-test questionnaires in
quantitative usability testing - and how combining both can help you
pinpoint issues and improve UX…"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kRT8p81oXqs

A Review of Experiments with Synthetic Users
By Jim Lewis and Jeff Sauro.
"…In this article, we briefly review 12 recent peer-reviewed research
papers on the use of synthetic users in UX and UX-adjacent research…"
https://measuringu.com/review-of-experiments-with-synthetic-users/


+05: EVENTS.

You Ask, Experts Answer: A Community Q&A on ADA Title II Compliance
April 29, 2026.
Online.
https://go.3playmedia.com/wbnr-04-29-2026-ask-the-experts

The Clarity of Social Accessibility
May 5, 2026.
Online and New York, New York, U.S.A.
https://www.meetup.com/a11ynyc/events/313792318/

Practical Steps for Document Accessibility
May 21, 2026.
Online
https://events.gcc.teams.microsoft.com/event/148be5cf-c613-47c9-9371-3e8d7f59c84a@50f8fcc4-94d8-4f07-84eb-36ed57c7c8a2

National Congress on Digital Accessibility
May 28, 2026.
Antropia, Driebergen, The Netherlands
https://www.ncdt.nl/


+06: HTML.

The Community Has Spoken, Now We Need Browsers Vendors to Help: a
<rangegroup> Update
By Brecht De Ruyte.
"About half a year ago I wrote about the idea to have multi-handle
range sliders as a native HTML element…"
https://utilitybend.com/blog/rangegroup-needs-you-community-feedback-and-a-call-for-browser-support/


+07: JAVASCRIPT.

The Accordion Pattern Telstra Uses (Video)
By CANAXESS.
"Let's see how the details behind Telstra's use of aria-expanded (in
this example arranged in an accordion) communicates its state to a
screen reader…"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y1y-32BY2Aw


+08: MISCELLANEOUS.

Gerard Does Fireside
By Steve Faulkner.
"I had the absolute pleasure of talking with my friend Gerard Cohen by
the Fireside a few weeks ago…"
https://html5accessibility.com/stuff/2026/04/20/gerard-does-fireside/


+09: USABILITY.

10 Usability Heuristics: From Theory to Practice (Video)
By Hoa Loranger.
"The 10 usability heuristics are foundational knowledge for any UX
practitioner - but knowing them by name isn't the same as being able
to apply them…"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WmmBLgtkjN4

[Section one ends.]


++ SECTION TWO:

+10: 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.]