A couple of unexpected, unexciting but nevertheless important to note building issues: 1) The Burton will close at 5pm on the 30th for essential works. We expect it to reopen 31st as usual 2) All the toilets in the Morrell will close now until the 31st also, again for essential works 😬

Consistent layout makes websites easier to navigate and understand as it helps users learn what elements to expect and in what order. This is especially helpful to low vision users or blind users using a screen reader. It also helps those with cognitive and learning disabilities.

Accessibility testing the VLE. All fine till the screen reader. A tale as old as time.

Chartability is a resource to help make data visualizations and charts more accessible. It's organized into principles with testable criteria aimed at making sure people with disabilities are able to access data. chartability.fizz.studio

Chartability

Chartability is a set of heuristics (testable questions) for ensuring that data visualizations, systems, and interfaces are accessible. Chartability is organized into principles with testable…

chartability.fizz.studio

Overlays are widgets or technologies that promise to improve a site's accessibility with third-party source code. More than 1,000 accessibility advocates and web developers have signed an open letter to explain the limitations and dangers of these products. overlayfactsheet.com

For screen readers to recognize headings, heading text can't just be body text or normal text that's been made to look bigger and bolder. It must be formatted as a heading. In Microsoft Word and Google Docs, this can be done in the styles box. In HTML, use the tags h1 through h6.

Many struggle with writing alt text for charts and other other data visualizations. Amy Cesal's "Writing Alt Text for Data Visualization" hammers home the importance of explaining the chart type, the type of data, and the reason for the chart. medium.com/nightingale/...

Writing Alt Text for Data Visualization

How do you write text that conveys the whole meaning of a visualization? You probably can’t. But that doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t try

medium.com

Alt text must provide context for people who cannot see the image. Describe the image's context and purpose. Do not write alt text for cute or clever jokes based on visual content you expect users can see. This is an abuse of alt text, as it violates the whole point of alt text.

It's a big day in our small charity’s history. A huge welcome to Visably – and a new era for the charity that was British Wireless for the Blind Fund. We exist to give our community the right tech, and confidence that changes everything. www.visably.org.uk/about-us/new... [1/5]

In this house, we don't use ASCII art in social media posts (because it's potentially really confusing for anyone using assistive tech).

Accessibility Awareness@a11yawareness.bsky.social · 2w ago

ASCII art is illustrations made out of letters, numbers, punctuation, and other characters from the American Standard Code for Information Interchange (ASCII). Folks using screen readers or text-to-speech will hear gibberish.

Overlays are widgets or technologies that promise to improve a site's accessibility with third-party source code. More than 1,000 accessibility advocates and web developers have signed an open letter to explain the limitations and dangers of these products. overlayfactsheet.com

Top tips when looking at assistive technology are to first to establish it actually exists; establish that it isn't somehow defying the laws of physics; and consider if it would actually help someone perform the function it claims to.

TerryLeopard@terryleopard.bsky.social · 3w ago

Got this ai advert for 'stairlifts' How in the hell is this even conceptually supposed to work?

Good advice here from RNIB - use emojis in moderation! And a great emoji resource is emojipedia - it lets you see what platforms an emoji is supported on and how it looks on each, as well as both official and unofficial meanings, which can help avoid any awkward misunderstandings: emojipedia.org

RNIB@rnib.bsky.social · 3w ago

Let's talk about red flags, and now We're not talking about dating. We're talking about emojis. Emojis are fun, but every emoji is read aloud by screen readers. Too many, or using them within sentences, can make posts much harder to follow. Are your emoji habits are giving green or red flags?

Very disappointing news - there was some really innovative work and the peripherals could be adapted for other PC controls. This is a real shame.

Accessibility in the News@a11ynews.bsky.social · 3w ago

Xbox layoffs hit accessibility leadership, calling into question Microsoft's continued commitment to accessibility initiatives www.pcgamer.com/gaming-indus... #a11y

The best time to start thinking about and talking about making a website accessible is at the very beginning, before any content or code has been written. But the second best time is right now.

Automatic transcription can be much faster than manual transcription, but it's not as accurate. Humans can catch errors that software may miss because of background noise or poor audio quality. Always review and edit transcripts before publishing.

Lovely to see good accessible conference practices

International Medieval Congress Leeds@imc-leeds.bsky.social · last mo.

#IMC2026 is a exciting time, but it can also be tiring. 😴 The IMC has rooms in the University of Leeds: University House and the Esther Simpson Building which will allow delegates to take a break, have 5 minutes in the quiet, and recharge to be able to enjoy the Congress as much as possible. 🙂

Excellent stuff from @chemistryatyork.bsky.social

David K Smith@professor-dave.bsky.social · last mo.

One of the things @chemistryatyork.bsky.social has been thinking about in terms of inclusion, has been making laboratories more neuroinclusive. In this article, our EDI lead, Dr Julia Sarju, explains more. @york.ac.uk www.nature.com/articles/s41...

It's #DisabilityPride month, so what better time to offer tips on making your social media more accessible? It's really easy to make your posts more accessible, giving your content wider reach and making a better and more inclusive online experience for disabled people - so, a little thread🧵1/

If you use Twitch for any kind of streaming, this resource by Liz Wait can help you make your Twitch channel more accessible to people with disabilities. dev.to/auraswap/acc...

Accessibility Tips for Your Twitch Channel!

Visiting this post is the first step in creating an accessible Twitch channel! Thank you! I've becom...

dev.to

Consistent layout makes websites easier to navigate and understand as it helps users learn what elements to expect and in what order. This is especially helpful to low vision users or blind users using a screen reader. It also helps those with cognitive and learning disabilities.

When writing alt text, focus on what's truly important. In an image with text about a canceled event, the borders of the image are not nearly as vital as conveying that this event is now canceled. A decorative border can be mentioned, perhaps, but it's not the most important element.

In hashtags, it helps if each new word starts with a capital letter. Otherwise, sighted users could see a string of letters and not immediately know where one word ends and a new word begins. Capitalized words also help screen readers properly read out the hashtag.

Learning technologists, Digital Education & Ed Tech types - I have a question. Are any of you self-hosting H5P? The open source version not the paid for one. Via Moodle, Drupal or Wordpress? I'd like to hear your experiences if you are.

Happy Birthday Skills guides! 🎂 They are a credit to Steph, Skills guide wrangler extraordinaire, and host useful guides on all things academic and digital skills - including our very own Practical Guide to Digital Accessibility!

Steph, Destroyer of Words@avwoman.bsky.social · last mo.

Our Skills Guides are 10 years old today! Soon be going to the big school :O subjectguides.york.ac.uk/skills

A quick reminder of the places in the library you can get cold water...

University of York Library@uoylibrary.bsky.social · last mo.

You won’t get a better offer all day than this… ⤵️

The library entrance has (temporarily) moved! There is still step free access to the library, both from the library bridge and from car park north using the external lift to the side of the Fairhurst building.

University of York Library@uoylibrary.bsky.social · last mo.

It’s happening! We have a new front door, for now. Library entrance and exit will be via the Fairhurst for the next few months - this video shows you the way from the old door to the new door…

DigAcc26 is on the horizon! It's a free conference about all things Digital Accessibility in HE, running on 24th June. We'll be acting as a regional hub, so if you are York based and would like to join us, (we will have snacks and freebies) please sign up: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

DigAcc26 Conference, UoY local event, 24 June 2026

DigAcc26 is a national Digital Accessibility Conference hosted by Nottingham University and organised by a consortium of Universities and partner organisations. The conference will encourage Univers...

docs.google.com

A new article published today talking about how we set up @nlisn.bsky.social in the Health Sciences Libraries Journal doi.org/10.33178/hsl...

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