Web Design Update: July 28, 2026

[Laura Carlson]

+++ WEB DESIGN UPDATE.
- Volume 27, Issue 05, July 28, 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: BOOKS.
03: EVENTS.
04: MISCELLANEOUS.
05: TOOLS.
06: USABILITY.
07: WEBWASTE & SUSTAINABILITY.

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

[Contents ends.]


++ SECTION ONE: New references.

+01: ACCESSIBILITY.

Resize Text and What We Learned About "Conformance" and "Techniques"
By Minnesota IT Services.
"Simple in theory: Why resizing text for accessibility is more complex than it looks…"
https://mn.gov/mnit/media/blog/?id=38-760437

Create QR Codes for Everyone
By Minnesota IT Services.
"Guidance on making QR code usage inclusive and accessible…"
https://mn.gov/mnit/media/blog/index.jsp?id=38-760099

A11y 101 - 3.3.3 Error Suggestion
By Nat Tarnoff.
"…Don't just say something's wrong. Say what to do about it…"
https://tarnoff.info/2026/07/27/a11y-101-3-3-3-error-suggestion/

Should Native App Screen Titles Be Headings?
By Graeme Coleman.
"…Due to its positioning on the screen and its styling, the screen title is conveyed through presentation as a heading and thus must be programmatically determined as such…"
https://tetralogical.com/blog/2026/07/22/should-the-screen-title-be-a-heading/

Ed Summers on Making Open Source Accessible to Everyone (Video)
By All Things Open.
"…Jason from All Things Open interviews Ed Summers, a blind developer and head of accessibility at GitHub. They discuss the critical importance of improving web accessibility for open-source developers, focusing on how assistive technology like a screen reader can enhance productivity. This conversation highlights the commitment to making technology inclusive for everyone, particularly within the open-source software community, offering valuable developer resources for digital inclusion…"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bm1XS9u563I

WCAG Evaluation Methodology (WCAG-EM) 2.0
Hidde de Vries, Jeroen Hulscher, and Steve Faulkner, Editors.
"This document describes a methodology with a step-by-step process to evaluate how well digital products conform to Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2…"
https://www.w3.org/TR/wcag-em-2/

Thirty-Six Years Later: The ADA at a Crossroads
By Dennis Deacon.
"…Civil rights laws rarely die from a single dramatic vote, they erode through underfunded enforcement, narrowed interpretation, and the slow normalization of noncompliance…"
https://www.dennisdeacon.com/accessibility/thirty-six-years-later-the-ada-at-a-crossroads/

Five Lessons From 1776 That Leaders and Teams Need Now
By Meryl K. Evans.
"…Accessible communication helps teams to collaborate better. When communication excludes people, organizations lose talent, insight, and trust…"
https://meryl.net/leadership-lessons-from-1776/

Pride, WCAG 3, and Another Podcast Episode
By Nicholas Steenhout.
"…What pride refuses is the idea that disability itself is something to be ashamed of…"
https://buttondown.com/nic-steenhout/archive/pride-wcag-3-and-another-podcast-episode/#Pride

The Cost of Accessibility Remediation Is Only Part of the Picture
By Vispero Team.
"…accessibility is not simply a compliance activity. It is an operational capability that becomes more efficient, sustainable, and cost-effective when it is integrated into everyday processes rather than addressed after problems emerge…"
https://vispero.com/resources/cost-of-accessibility-remediation/


+02: BOOKS.

* Jacko, Julie, editor. Human Computer Interaction Handbook, 4th edition. CRC Press, 2026. (Chapter 36 is "ICT Design for Disability, Aging, and Situational Impairment: Today and Tomorrow" by Gregg Vanderheiden and Crystal Marte.


+03: EVENTS.

Metrics That Unite Your Team to Achieve and Sustain Accessibility with Glenda Sims and Joshua McClure
August 6, 2026.
Online
https://accessibility.deque.com/metrics-that-unite-your-team-to-achieve-and-sustain-accessibility

Virtual UX Training
September 14-25, 2026.
Online
https://www.nngroup.com/training/september/

Insights from Real-World Accessibility Audit Data
September 15, 2026.
Online
https://www.accessibilityassociation.org/webinar/a16IV00000Bl2ZdYAJ/wbn0303

WeAreDevelopers World Congress 2026
September 23-25, 2026.
San Jose, California, U.S.A.
https://www.wearedevelopers.com/world-congress-us


+04: MISCELLANEOUS.

Robin Berjon - Fireside
By Steve Faulkner.
"…The entire digital space or close to the entire digital space is currently under the private government of a small number of companies…"
https://html5accessibility.com/stuff/2026/07/21/robin-berjon-fireside/

A 10th-Anniversary Reflection for Accessibility in the News Subscribers
By Jack McElaney.
"Over the past decade, I have watched accessibility move from the margins of compliance into the center of public life. What began as a weekly effort to gather important accessibility stories has become a living archive of law, technology, policy, advocacy, innovation, persistence, progress, and frustration…"
https://www.microassist.com/digital-accessibility/a-10th-anniversary-reflection-for-accessibility-in-the-news-subscribers/


+05: TOOLS.

aViewer - Moderno
By Steve Faulkner.
"A free, open source, modern Windows accessibility API inspection tool inspired by the original aViewer…"
https://html5accessibility.com/stuff/2026/07/27/aviewer-moderno/


+06: USABILITY.

Following the Eye-Tracking Evidence: Established Web-Search Assumptions Fail in Carousel Interfaces
By Jingwei Kang, Maarten de Rijke, Harrie Oosterhuis.
"…Our findings reveal an urgent need to rethink the behavioral assumptions for carousel recommendations and provide valuable insights for building more realistic, behavior-based models and metrics that can truly capture user experiences…The examination data disproves Assumption 1: in carousel interfaces, user attention does not follow a consistent F-pattern…"
https://arxiv.org/abs/2604.21019


+07: WEBWASTE & SUSTAINABILITY.

An Open Framework for AI Emissions Measurement
By John Bistline.
"…The same AI usage can look dramatically different depending on how it is counted…"
https://watershed.com/blog/ai-emissions-framework

The Dalles Tries to Keep Water Secrets for Google
By Gerry McGovern.
"…Like everywhere else, Big Tech demands that its data must drink its fill before people get to drink…"
https://gerrymcgovern.com/the-dalles-tries-to-keep-water-secrets-for-google/


[Section one ends.]


++ SECTION TWO:

+08: 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