Web Design Update: January 27, 2026

[Laura Carlson]

+++ WEB DESIGN UPDATE.
- Volume 26, Issue 31, January 27, 2026.

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

++ISSUE 31 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: NAVIGATION.
10: TOOLS.
11: USABILITY.

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

[Contents ends.]


++ SECTION ONE: New references.

+01: ACCESSIBILITY.

Accessibility 101 + Core Concepts (Video)
By Knowbility.
"Thomas Brunet, Jess Lin and Phill Jenkins present Accessibility 101 and core concepts that provide a stronger understanding of technical and design foundations. This includes making the case for accessibility, describing a UI component, native applications, navigation and design."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yqwK9InqW2I

Demystifying Screen Reader Use for Manual Testing
By Deneb Pulsipher and Kosi Asabere.
"Accessibility professionals all know screen reader testing is important, but the barrier to entry is fairly high: before you can test with a screen reader, you have to know how to use a screen reader. Wrapping your mind around all those keystrokes and what they do can be difficult…"
https://equalizedigital.com/demystifying-screen-reader-use-for-manual-testing-deneb-pulsipher-and-kosi-asabere/

Revisit (Reflow?) the Past to Prepare for the Future
By Minnesota IT Services.
"PDF accessibility is still a hot topic. Get tips to prepare for April 2026 and beyond…"
https://mn.gov/mnit/media/blog/?id=38-720082

Creating Accessible PDF Forms (Video)
By Knowbility.
"Creating accessible PDF forms doesn't have to be overwhelming. In this one-hour introductory session, you'll learn the fundamentals of PDF form tagging, including key form elements, structure, and accessibility considerations. Attendees will leave with a clearer understanding of how to get started with accessible PDF forms…"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d7LEArEEZhA

Using Maturity Models to Build Accessibility That Lasts
By Ted Drake.
"Accessibility work often begins with urgency, but lasting change requires structure. This article explains how maturity models help organizations build accessibility over time instead of relying on one-off fixes or a few experts…"
https://www.last-child.com/using-maturity-models-to-build-accessibility-that-lasts.html

10 Digital Accessibility Predictions for 2026
By Ricky Onsman.
"…I decided to cobble together my own set of 10 predictions. Some are variations on other people's opinions, some are my own work (or at least I haven't seen anyone else make them). I could, of course, be very wrong but, anyway, here goes…
https://onsman.com/10-digital-accessibility-predictions-for-2026/

Visual Design and Interface Guidelines of Web User Interfaces for Illiterate Users (Bachelor's Thesis)
By Siiri Kemppainen.
"…This thesis aims to find visual methods and design solutions to the problems illiterate users face, when they use web user interfaces. The work on this thesis was conducted through a thorough literature review, where the results are based on already defined design solutions and considerations…"
https://aaltodoc.aalto.fi/server/api/core/bitstreams/a0d72304-bcd7-4422-a07a-0d40f014c4b6/content

Mobile App Accessibility Under EN 301 549 v4.1.0
By Abra.
"…EN 301 549 v4.1.0 introduces a combination of conceptual clarifications and changes in both the definitions and Clause 11 that directly affect how mobile apps are assessed for accessibility…"
https://abra.ai/blog/mobile-app-accessibility-en-301-549-v4-1-0


+02: CASCADING STYLE SHEETS.

Lowering the Specificity of Multiple Rules at Once
By Manuel Matuzović.
"You probably already knew that you can use :where() to lower the specificity of a single selector, but did you know that you can achieve a similar effect on multiple rules at once?…"
https://www.matuzo.at/blog/2026/lowering-specificity-of-multiple-rules

The Incredible Overcomplexity of the Shadcn Radio Button
By Paul Hebert.
"The other day I was asked to update the visual design of radio buttons in a web app at work. I figured it couldn't be that complicated. It's just a radio button right?…"
https://paulmakeswebsites.com/writing/shadcn-radio-button/

CSS Stats
"Visualize your cascading style sheets…"
https://cssstats.com/


+03: COLOR.

Do We All See the Same Colors?
By Tatyana Bayramova.
"Discovering how color blindness affects color perception and accessibility…"
https://tatanotes.com/blog/do-we-all-see-the-same-colors/


+04: EVALUATION & TESTING.

Straight Talk What Disabled Users Want You to Know When Designing Your Product (Video)
By Knowbility.
"User Experience Research makes a profound difference when creating products for all. People with disabilities are important to include in these sessions to ensure that our products work well for everyone, but researchers may have questions about how to include them. We will discuss how to find and interact with disabled user research participants. Next we will cover planning and facilitating our sessions to ensure we get the information we need, and our users feel like valued members of our team."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MLCSdjmK1Ns

User Panels 101
By Lola Famulegun.
"A well-built internal user panel saves time, reduces costs, and strengthens your organization's connection to real users…"
https://www.nngroup.com/articles/user-panels-101/


+05: EVENTS.

EAA Empowers Users - the Beauty of Enforcement, Funka Foundation
January 30, 2026.
Online
https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_BHBM57CXQuuFtvTaTiby3w#/registration

Accessibility and AI with Jaunita Flessas, Wilco Fiers, Andrew Downie, and Ricky Onsman.
February 11, 2026.
Online
https://ozewai.cmail20.com/t/y-e-aydwyk-ihdjkkkkhy-uy/

Title II Digital Access: Be Practical, not Perfect! What You Can Get Done Before the April Deadline
February 11, 2026.
Online
https://www.ahead.org/events/event-description?CalendarEventKey=a486e11f-57aa-458e-ab37-019bc1d87159

Multiple Perspectives 2026
April 13-14, 2026.
Columbus, Ohio, U.S.A.
https://ada.osu.edu/multiple-perspectives-conference/multiple-perspectives-2026

Information Architecture Conference
April 16-18, 2026.
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.A.
https://www.theiaconference.com/

JS Naked Day
April 24, 2026.
Online
https://js-naked-day.org/

Beyond Tellerrand
April 27-28, 2026.
Düsseldorf, Germany
https://beyondtellerrand.com/events/dusseldorf-2026


+06: HTML.

Opening and Closing Dialogs Without JavaScript Using HTML Invoker Commands
By Schalk Neethling.
"Learn how to use HTML invoker commands to open and close dialogs without writing any JavaScript."
https://schalkneethling.com/posts/opening-and-closing-dialogs-without-javascript-using-html-invoker-commands/

Jeremy Keith found a <datalist> bug in iOS 26
By Adrian Roselli.
"…It sucks '<datalist>' is still not ready for wide use. This is one more blocker…"
https://toot.cafe/@aardrian/115923140218111472


+07: JAVASCRIPT.

ARIA Roles Can Remove Their Children's Semantics
By Stefan Judis.
"…Incorrect role="menu" usage can not only be confusing but might remove the list item count and nuke the item semantics. Don't mess with ARIA unless you know what you're doing."
https://www.stefanjudis.com/today-i-learned/aria-roles-can-remove-their-childrens-semantics/

I Learned The First Rule of ARIA the Hard Way
By Hashim Quraishi.
"…ARIA attributes are used to define the nature of something but they do not redefine the behavioral default of the native elements. When we override semantics, we quietly take responsibility for: keyboard interactions, focus management, expected announcements, and platform‑specific quirks.
That's a large surface area to maintain, and it's why small ARIA changes can have outsized and unpredictable effects…"
https://css-tricks.com/i-learned-the-first-rule-of-aria-the-hard-way/


+08: MISCELLANEOUS.

Bruce Lawson - Fireside Chat
By Steve Faulkner.
"In 2010 I travelled around Australia on a speaking tour with Bruce Lawson, since then I have managed to keep a respectful distance from him, but no longer. Today we spoke on various topics for an hour…"
https://html5accessibility.com/stuff/2026/01/23/the-return-of-mr-fist-chatting-fireside-with-bruce-lawson-20-01-2026/


+09: NAVIGATION.

Barriers from Links with ARIA
By Adrian Roselli.
"…Three key takeaways here (yes, I know your use case is special):
* Don't use aria-label on links;
* Don't use aria-hidden within links;
* Don't split the letters of a word across elements…"
https://adrianroselli.com/2026/01/barriers-from-links-with-aria.html

Common Journey Mapping Mistakes (Video)
By Sarah Gibbons.
Journey mapping often goes wrong when teams use broad scopes, skip research, or forget user need. Clarity, focus, and insight are key to creating actionable UX maps.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PIw-ooBJLS0


+10: TOOLS.

ANDI for Chrome (Extension)
By Corey Moore.
"Community port of the Accessible Name & Description Inspector (ANDI) bookmarklet as a Google Chrome extension…"
https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/andi-for-chrome/hlhogngcegklobjjplimpmgeomjapelj

O-Hat Standalone Scanner
By Mike Gifford.
"This is a companion project to O-Hat Scanner, providing a local test environment for accessibility scanning. This site contains multiple pages with intentional accessibility issues for testing and evaluation purposes…"
https://mgifford.github.io/o-hat-standalone/

APCA + WCAG 2 Contrast Checker
By Mike Gifford.
"Enter colors using any modern CSS color format supported by your browser. This tool evaluates WCAG 2.x & APCA Lc contrast ratios…"
https://mgifford.github.io/contrast-plus/

Accessible Color Palette Generator
By Mike Gifford.
"This tool helps design accessible UI color palettes that work consistently in both light and dark modes…"
https://mgifford.github.io/ui-palette-generator/

Accessibility Contrast Disagreement Explorer (APCA vs WCAG)
By Mike Gifford.
"Explore how different color combinations respond to APCA & WCAG testing…"
https://mgifford.github.io/apca-wcag2/

A11y Mermaid Studio
By Mike Gifford.
"Transform Mermaid diagrams into WCAG 2.2 AA-compliant, accessible SVGs…"
https://mgifford.github.io/a11y-mermaid-studio/

A11y-SVG-Studio
By Mike Gifford.
"Drag an SVG here or click to pick a file…"
https://mgifford.github.io/a11y-svg/


+11: USABILITY.

Why So Many Info Tips Are Bad (and How to Make Them Better)
By Kate Kaplan.
"Information tips can clarify complex UIs, but they should not hide essential information, trigger redundant information, or disrupt the current workflow."
https://www.nngroup.com/articles/info-tips-bad

Rethinking "Pixel Perfect" Web Design
By Amit Sheen.
"Amit Sheen takes a hard look at the 'Pixel Perfect' legacy concept, explaining why it’s failing us and redefining what 'perfection' actually looks like in a multi-device, fluid world."
https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2026/01/rethinking-pixel-perfect-web-design/

[Section one ends.]


++ SECTION TWO:

+12: 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