Newsletter

Is accessibility "women's work"? A strange question, but one that's justified in our experience. Therefore, we'd like to hear your figures as well. From our training experience, we can report that, at least in Germany, it is indeed predominantly women who implement accessibility measures. In 2023, over 95% of the participants in our training courses were identified as female. And that's a significant number for us compared to previous years. Five years ago, we used to joke about it—just between us, of course—if we ever had a registration that contradicted this.

The trend has now solidified. With few exceptions, our cooperation partners and contacts are also women (98% so far in 2023). However, the picture is quite different when we attend congresses, lectures, and conferences in this field. This raises the question of why it is predominantly men who speak on this topic on stages around the world and thereby receive disproportionate prestige.

Good news of the month

In recent months, information on the accessibility of native apps has increased dramatically. Testing tools are also becoming more numerous. For example, Abra Desktop is a new software designed to test Android and iOS apps, but unfortunately, it's currently only available for Mac.

The number of exoskeletons continues to rise. These are aids for people with walking disabilities, increasing mobility or even helping them walk independently. A new product has recently been launched.

Interesting articles

Speech output is everywhere, even on your favorite device. Is Braille still necessary then? This question is the subject of a conversation with the blind Slavic scholar Dr. Aleksander Pavkovič. Braille in the digital age

Accessibility can be crucial for a desired or forced lifestyle. Imagine you have diabetes and don't know the ingredients in the coleslaw from the supermarket. A conversation then turns to how accessibility makes veganism possible.Living as a vegan while blind

Die Bundesfachstelle für Barrierefreiheit bietet eine Informationssammlung für Kulturbetriebe. Praxishilfen für Kulturbetriebe

Eine aktuelle Publikation beschäftigt sich mit den Barrierefreiheits-Anforderungen an digitale Lernsysteme. Allgemeine Anforderungen der digitalenBarrierefreiheit an die Inhalte auf dem CampusDigitale Drehtür (PDF)

Die Entwicklung von Standards kann mit der technischen Entwicklung oft nicht mithalten. Ist das Schicksal oder muss es sich ändern? WAI und WCAG brauchen eine Revolution

Placeholders are often used instead of form labels. This can cause problems for accessibility.

Accessibility of placeholders

Moving on to English. The PDF Accessibility Checker has just been updated to version 2024.1. No update log was available, so it's likely that the update primarily focused on bug fixes.PAC 2024.1

Initial tests show that the Apple Vision Pro has interesting features and accessibility functions for disabled people.Vision Pro Accessibility in the Real(ish) World

An article on A List apart deals with the possibilities of AI in accessibility.Opportunities for AI in Accessibility

Currently, many medical devices, such as insulin pumps, are unsuitable for blind people. This urgently needs to change. The Urgent Need for Accessible Medical Devices for the Blind: A Call for Change

A document summarizes myths and facts about assistive technologies.Myths and Facts on assistive technologies (PDF)

• The Access Survey
• A Comprehensive Technical Guide – The Web Accessibility Playbook
• Spatial Computing vs. Differentiated Accessibility Solutions
• Accessibility Amplified: A Journey to Inclusive Android Apps
• Dynamically adding text alternatives to images with AI
• Accessibility testing spreadsheet version 2
• How End-to-End Testing moves us closer to Continuous Accessibility
• Accessibility in e-commerce 2023
• Accessible by design: how CERN Science Gateway exhibitions are tailored to people with visual
• Continuous Accessibility: What, Why, How
• Playbook for universal design
• Do More with Less ARIA: Michaela Lederman
• 30 Key Web Accessibility Statistics
• A Comprehensive Guide to Accessible User Research: Part 2 – Recruitment and Preparation
• Infographic - Disability in the EU: facts and figures
  

Statistics of the month

Der Screenreader-Survey von WebAIM zeigt, dass Jaws außerhalb Nordamerikas immer mehr an Boden verliert. Der Survey ist eine Befragung, die zwischen Dezember 2023 und Januar 2024 durchgeführt wurde. Man kann davon ausgehen, dass überwiegend Blinde teilgenommen haben, die wohlhabender, sehr digital affin sind und sich für Barrierefreiheit interessieren, da man eher nicht zufällig über die Befragung stolpert. Ein weiterer Indikator ist auch die außergewöhnlich hohe Nutzung von Braille, die wesentlich höher ist als unter den Durchschnitts-Blinden. Es verwundert auch ein wenig, dass das Thema PDF komplett ausgespart wurde und der Fokus doch sehr stark auf Webseiten liegt.

Leider sind die Ergebnisse generell verzerrt, weil Nordamerika und Europa in der Befragung überrepräsentiert sind. Die meisten Blinden leben in den ärmerenLändern und gehören dort mangels Chancen zu der ärmeren Bevölkerung, von dem her ist die Befragung nicht repräsentativ. Vermutlich spielen Jaws und VoiceOver in Asien, Afrika und Lateinamerika aufgrund der hohen Preise gar keine Rolle, was durch die Statistik aber auch schon ein wenig durchscheint. Wenn die Blinden dort überhaupt Zugang zu Computern und Smartphones haben, haben NVDA und Androids Talkback die Nase vorn. Interessanter sind aber wie so oft bei WebAIM eher die Statistiken weiter unten, hier die aus unserer Sicht wichtigsten Aussagen, die Zahlen sind auf ganze Werte gerundet:

• Outside of North America and Australia, the free screen reader NVDA dominates ahead of Jaws: clearly in Europe, very clearly in other regions of the world.
• 38 percent use Braille - this suggests a high participation of blind academics from the West, since Braille is not mastered by most blind people and Braille displays are very expensive in relation to income outside the West.
• 40 percent prefer to use personal computers, while almost 50 percent use both smartphones and PCs.
• On the other hand, 58 percent prefer using native apps to websites.
• 70 percent use VoiceOver, 35 percent use Talkback as a mobile screen reader, a rather surprising result, since it seems like all blind people use VoiceOver.
• 35 percent say that accessibility has improved in recent years, while 18 percent see a deterioration.
• 86 percent see the responsibility for accessibility lying with the providers, while the others see the assistive technology as responsible.
• 72 percent use the heading structure to orient themselves on a webpage, only 3 percent use landmarks.
• The biggest problems, in descending order of relevance, are CAPTCHAs, unexpected behavior of UI elements, and elements that are not labeled or are labelled incomprehensibly.

All survey results