Web Design Update: March 10, 2026

[Laura Carlson]

+++ WEB DESIGN UPDATE.

Volume 26, Issue 37, March 11, 2026.

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

++ISSUE 37 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: HTML.
06: JAVASCRIPT.
07: MISCELLANEOUS.
08: NAVIGATION.
09: USABILITY.
10: WEBWASTE & SUSTAINABILITY.

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

[Contents ends.]

++ SECTION ONE: New references.

+01: ACCESSIBILITY.

W3C Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 3.0
W3C Working Draft 03 March 2026.
Rachael Bradley Montgomery, Alastair Campbell, Chuck Adams, Kevin White, Giacomo Petri, Julie Rawe, Francis Storr, Makoto Ueki, and Hidde de Vries (Editors).
"This draft includes an updated list of the potential guidelines, requirements, and assertions that have progressed to Developing status. While this draft has moved closer towards completion, it still has several years of work. Details will change and we encourage comments based on the questions below…"
https://www.w3.org/TR/2026/WD-wcag-3.0-20260303/

WCAG 3 March Update
By Rachael Bradley Montgomery.
"…The draft includes questions for public feedback but as co-chairs, we would particularly like feedback on the following…"
https://whollyaccessible.org/2026/03/03/wcag-3-march-update/

What I Like About WCAG 3.0
By Karl Groves.
"The W3C published an updated Working Draft of WCAG 3.0 on September 4, 2025, and I've spent considerable time pulling it apart…"
https://afixt.com/what-i-like-about-wcag-3-0/

Designing for People With Disabilities
By Demelza Feltham.
"At the heart of inclusive design are people. Not technology, and not standards…"
https://tetralogical.com/blog/2026/03/03/designing-for-people-with-disabilities/

A Guide to Accessible Focus Indicators
By Elle Smith.
"Have you ever lost your mouse cursor on your screen? This is what it is like when keyboard users don't have focus indicators. It's like navigating with an invisible cursor. This means focus indicators aren't just a 'feature' but a necessity for those who navigate the internet with keyboards…"
https://blog.pope.tech/2026/03/04/a-guide-to-accessible-focus-indicators/

A11y 101: 2.5.2 Pointer Cancellation
By Nat Tarnoff.
"Last week I wrote about gestures and pointers. This week we look at the next criteria, Pointer Cancellation. I mentioned that we wanted events to fire on the 'Up' or 'release' action. And that's what this criteria is all about. We need to make sure that if a user creates a down event on a control, we need to allow them to cancel. Let's look at the methods used…"
http://tarnoff.info/2026/03/02/a11y-101-2-5-2-pointer-cancellation/

Finding an Accessibility-First Culture in npmx
By Abbey Perini.
"…It's hard to put into words how lonely it is when you're the only person ensuring that there aren't click handlers on generic elements. I've come to accept that the bar for 'accessibility advocate' is just 'still cares about accessibility in spite of it all.'…"
https://piccalil.li/blog/finding-an-accessibility-first-culture-in-npmx/

Every Jira Ticket Is Your Accessibility Policy
By Equal Entry.
"Charlie Triplett explains how accessibility becomes sustainable when it is built into the everyday tools teams already use…"
https://equalentry.com/every-jira-ticket-is-your-accessibility-policy/

When Inclusion Arrives: A Product Launch With a Specific Goal
By Alicia Jarvis.
"As product leaders, we talk a lot about inclusion. But every so often, we get to ship it…"
https://fr.alicia.design/post/quand-l-inclusion-arrive-un-lancement-de-produit-avec-un-objectif-pr%C3%A9cis

"Harmless" Website Updates Can Create Serious Problems for Your Users - Here's How It Happens
By Goran Paun.
"…Most accessibility failures happen long after your website launches. Small, routine updates — like content edits or adding marketing assets — can unintentionally create barriers for users…"
https://www.entrepreneur.com/science-technology/how-minor-website-updates-can-cause-major-problems-for-users/502410

The US Digital Accessibility Legal Update (Video)
By Lainey Feingold.
"We'll also be honest about the challenges and find hope in the strong legal foundation that supports digital accessibility and in the advocacy and resistance of disabled people, disability organizations, and allies. This is a talk for everyone: whatever your role.  Let's put the law in our pockets to help build an inclusive digital world…"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZeYjRXpzZrs&t=232s

Your Browser Can Already Speak a Page
By Adrian Roselli.
"Is an 'AI' company offering to provide spoken versions of your pages for users? Is an overlay company promising to make your content more accessible by its overlay speaking it? Is some other vendor pitching you on some kind of thing that reads your web pages aloud to users? You don't need it…"
https://adrianroselli.com/2026/03/your-browser-can-already-speak-a-page.html

Do You Know Your ADA Digital Accessibility Risk?
By Sheri Byrne-Haber.
"The first half of 2025 brought another surge in digital accessibility lawsuits…"
https://www.sheribyrnehaber.com/do-you-know-your-ada-digital-accessibility-risk/

Message From the GSA Administrator
By Edward C. Forst.
"…The FY 2025 Governmentwide Section 508 Assessment establishes a new baseline for information and communication technology (ICT) accessibility across the federal government following significant revisions to the assessment criteria and changes in the federal digital environment. GSA developed this assessment using responses from 212 agencies, parent agencies, and components…"
https://www.section508.gov/manage/section-508-assessment/2025/message-from-gsa-administrator/

Locking In Accessibility: How Smart Procurement Language Protects Your Organization
By Sheri Byrne-Haber.
"Your organization works hard to build accessible digital experiences. But all of that effort can be undermined the moment you sign a contract with a vendor who hasn't done the same, or maybe is accessible at the beginning of the contract but not after an update…"
https://www.sheribyrnehaber.com/locking-in-accessibility-how-smart-procurement-language-protects-your-organization/

Legal Update: February 2026
By Ken Nakata.
"…it seems like the ADA Title II web accessibility rule is safe; if the administration issues an interim final rule, it could get easily overturned in court and, if it decided to pursue an NPRM, they wouldn't have the staff to create a final regulation. There is something strangely satisfying in knowing that this administration's inability to undermine disability rights is due to obstacles of its own creation…"
https://convergeaccessibility.com/2026/03/02/legal-update-february-2026/

Tell the Federal Government Not to Change the Title II Accessibility Regulations and Remember: The Rule Is the Rule Until It Isn't
By Lainey Feingold.
"…Tell the federal government not to change the Title II web and mobile rule…"
https://www.lflegal.com/2026/03/title-ii-action-needed/#Tell-the-federal-government-not-to-change-the-Title-II-web-and-mobile-rule

The Digital Door is Closing on Disabled Americans: Please Help Us Keep It Open
By Darrell Hilliker.
"…The changes could push back or eliminate the April 2026 deadline. They could hollow out other requirements. No one outside the agencies knows yet…"
https://blindaccessjournal.com/2026/03/the-digital-door-is-closing-on-disabled-americans-please-help-us-keep-it-open/

2026 Crystal Ball:  What to Expect in the ADA Title III Universe This Year
By Seyfarth Shaw.
"ADA Title III controversies continue unabated but there will be no new regulations…"
https://www.adatitleiii.com/2026/03/2026-crystal-ball-what-to-expect-in-the-ada-title-iii-universe-this-year/


+02: CASCADING STYLE SHEETS.

Three Reasons Your scroll-snap Container May Be Overflowing on Mobile
By Schalk Neethling.
"Take a fieldset, pour some radio buttons and visually hidden labels into it, wrap it in scroll-snap, and you have a clean, semantic horizontal scroller on mobile. What could go wrong? Well... there is nuance we need to talk about…"
https://schalkneethling.com/posts/three-reasons-your-scroll-snap-container-may-be-overflowing-on-mobile/

The Bigest CSS Web Dev Battle Tournament Ever, Round 1, Left Bracket (Video)
By Syntax.
"We brought 16 of the worlds best CSS developers to compete head to head…"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nuxSFTjXrhI


+03: EVALUATION & TESTING.

Statistical Significance Isn't the Same as Practical Significance
By Rachel Banawa.
"Statistical significance helps establish whether a result is reliable, while practical significance helps determine whether it is worth acting on."
https://www.nngroup.com/articles/practical-significance/

Why You Should Not Compute Medians for Individual Rating Scales
By Jim Lewis and Jeff Sauro.
"In this article, we explain why taking the median of rating scale data is a poor practice.…"
https://measuringu.com/means-vs-medians-for-rating-scales/

Post-Task vs. Post-Test Questionnaires in Quantitative Usability Testing (Video)
By Nielsen Norman Group.
"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

Visualize Raw Data to Make Better Decisions (Video)
By Nielsen Norman Group.
"Looking at and visualizing your raw, primary data is not a waste of time, quite the contrary. In fact, it can be the highest value action and the biggest return on investment that you can do…"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JLdQeE4I5YM


+04: EVENTS.

DHS Trusted Tester Study Group 2: Auto-Playing and Auto-Updating Content + Flashing
March 6-July 10, 2026.
Online.
https://gdg.community.dev/events/details/google-gdg-vienna-presents-dhs-trusted-tester-study-group-2-auto-playing-and-auto-updating-content-flashing-1/

Meetup: Scaling Accessibility: Treating Accessibility as Frontend Architecture and a Leadership Responsibility
March 17, 2026.
Online.
https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/5917715999400/WN_zuZ0UbDCTZ6OLpMN8-lsQQ#/registration

PDF to Accessible Markdown: Introducing Equalify Reflow, an Open Source AI Tool
April 7, 2026.
Online and New York, New York, U.S.A.
https://www.meetup.com/a11ynyc/events/313558345/

Virtual Web Accessibility Training
April 15-16, 2026.
Online
https://webaim.org/training/virtual/


+05: HTML.

You Don't Know HTML Tables
By Frank M. Taylor.
"I want to deep dive into HTML specifics so that you don't have to. And we're kicking this off with a banger: Tables…"
https://blog.frankmtaylor.com/2026/03/05/you-dont-know-html-tables/

Popover API or Dialog API: Which to Choose?
By Zell Liew.
"…I hope these give you some ideas on when to choose the Popover API and the Dialog API! Remember, there’s no need to use both. One will do."
https://css-tricks.com/popover-api-or-dialog-api-which-to-choose/


+06: JAVASCRIPT.

Notes on Relying on the ARIA Authoring Practices Guide
By Stefan Judis.
"…So if you've been treating APG as the definitive source of truth, think again. Its examples demonstrate what ARIA can do, not necessarily what you should do…"
https://www.stefanjudis.com/notes/notes-on-relying-on-the-aria-authoring-practices-guide/

Confession Time…
By Eric Eggert.
"…I am (part of) the reason the ARIA Practices Guide looks so deceptively authoritative…"
https://yatil.social/@yatil/116096277840793137


+07: MISCELLANEOUS.

By The Fire With Natalie Patrice Tucker
By Steve Faulkner.
"I first met Natalie at CSUN in San Diego around 2016, we hung out and socialised a bit. Natalie has been a prominent Accessibility advocate for much of the 2000's…"
https://html5accessibility.com/stuff/2026/03/03/by-the-fire-with-natalie-patrice-tucker/

Karl Stokes the Fireside
By Steve Faulkner.
"Karl (Groves) and I have been fellow accessibility travellers for many years. We worked together at TPGi in the 2010's. Although we don't always agree I have immense respect for Karl and his contributions to accessibility…"
https://html5accessibility.com/stuff/2026/03/06/karl-stokes-the-fireside/


+08: NAVIGATION.

Your Skip Link Targets May Not Need tabindex=-1 to Work Properly
By Manuel Matuzovic.
"Recently, someone posted on LinkedIn that skip links are often broken because their target elements are missing a tabindex attribute. I was really surprised to see that because I thought that was an issue of the past. That's why I decided to test it…"
https://www.matuzo.at/blog/2026/skip-links-tabindex

Making Keyboard Navigation Effortless
By Patrick Brosset.
"Do you use a keyboard to navigate websites? If so, you've probably run into countless accessibility issues where groups of inputs or widgets are not easy, or even possible to get to with just the keyboard…"
https://blogs.windows.com/msedgedev/2026/03/05/making-keyboard-navigation-effortless/


+09: USABILITY.

Nested Scroll Bars Are the One of the Biggest Accessibility Evils, Ever
By Sheri Byrne-Haber.
"You can violate many WCAG Success Criteria and still have your website be nominally usable by users with disabilities…"
https://www.sheribyrnehaber.com/nested-scroll-bars-are-the-one-of-the-biggest-accessibility-evils-ever/

Don't Make Me Think… Like a Designer
By Ted Drake.
"When products do not behave the way people expect, they do more than create confusion. They burn energy, raise anxiety, and can make already difficult moments much worse. Good design should reduce effort and uncertainty, not ask people to spend more of themselves just to understand what is happening…"
https://www.last-child.com/dont-make-me-think.html


+10: WEBWASTE & SUSTAINABILITY.

display: green; Applying the Web Sustainability Guidelines (Video)
By Hidde de Vries.
"The tech sector has an elephant in the room: we use too much energy. In 2024, the World Bank estimated the internet to account for 1-4% of global greenhouse emissions, similar to aviation. The good news is: there are documented and measurable opportunities to improve. From code to infrastructure. In this talk, we'll look at best practices from the W3C's new Web Sustainability Guidelines and beyond, focusing on lessons you can apply today…"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u76IcrzZPwc

Web Sustainability Guidelines Update (December 2025) (Video)
By Tzviya Siegman.
"Tzviya Siegman, Director of Sustainability at W3C and team contact for the W3C Sustainable Web Interest Group, talks about what digital sustainability is and provides an overview of the Web Sustainability Guidelines that are being developed…"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xmm1jRAb6qQ

[Section one ends.]


++ SECTION TWO:

+11: 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.

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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