Blog

Read, watch, or listen to website topics on the entire website process to help you understand concepts, create strategies, and build great websites.

  • Creating an Accessible Accordion Block

    Accordions are a great way to organize certain types of content so that your visitors can find what they need quickly. But how do you make them accessible? And how do you make it easy to update in the block editor?

  • Flow chart of overlay issues.

    Help me make this! (My conversation with a future overlay provider.)

    I recently had a conversation with someone doing research for a company looking to offer an accessibility overlay to their customers. And since I’m not sure my thoughts will have the impact I hope, I’m going to share them with you.

  • Danielle looking at the camera with an example of a form error summary above their head.

    Form error summaries for better user experience

    One of the most helpful aspects of creating accessible forms is also one that I don’t see mentioned enough: error summaries.

  • Danielle looking at the camera with their hand open pointing up at the error examples.

    Form errors that are effective and accessible

    Errors that are properly written and displayed are good for screen reader users, people with cognitive differences, and — as always — everyone else.

  • Danielle looking at the camera with a weird face and a screenshot of a portion of javascript overlaid on top.

    Accessible empty top level nav items

    When you have a multi-level navigation, it’s important to allow someone to tab through the top level items and not have to go through every single secondary item unless they specifically want to.

  • Adding skip links to content

    You may know about the main skip to content link. But you can also add skip links to long or repeated sections and complicated areas of your site that take a lot of effort to go through.

  • Everything you need to know about aria-label

    One of the most common well-meaning but misunderstood accessibility recommendations is to use aria-label to make things more accessible.

  • Internationalization is Accessibility: Adapting your website for any language

    Part of making sure your website is accessible is making sure that someone can understand your website no matter what they’ve set their default language to — even if you aren’t specifically creating content in different languages.

  • Opening links in a new tab

    Not every external link needs to be opened in a new tab. Forcing a link to open in a new tab takes the choice away from your visitor. Good user experience centers around giving people what they’re expecting.

  • Accessibility Testing Tools

    If you’d like to get started with testing and improving the accessibility of your site, it can be hard to know where to start. Let’s go over some of the scanning and testing tools you can use to get started.

  • Make your web tools accessible

    Any tool that lets you create content on the web has to be accessible, and it needs to enable you to create accessible content with it. There’s no reason not to include accessibility from the start.

  • Your Images Aren’t Decorative: When to add alt text

    Does every image really need alt text or can it be left empty? What about decorative images? How can you tell when an image is actually decorative?

  • Page Builder Lock-In: What to consider when choosing how to build your website

    There are so many options out there for building a website. They all have pros and cons and situations that they’re best suited for. But how do you choose?

  • Trends to Avoid: Marquee Animation

    If you’re thinking of adding scrolling text or images to your website, read this first. There are some concerns here for usability, accessibility — and do people even like it?

  • The Spacer Block: The little div that caused a big stir

    The spacer block’s existence brings up some big feelings and strong opinions. Learn about this little troublemaker, if and when to use it, and how to make it better.

  • Annual Website Tasks: Preparing your website for the new year

    There are plenty of things you should do to keep your website running smoothly. Quarterly tasks, monthly tasks, there are even weekly. But what about yearly?

  • The Absolute First Thing You Need To Do Before Creating Your Website

    You shouldn’t let worries about a website not being “done” get in the way of launching it. But the absolute first thing you need to do before creating your website is a plan.

  • Is your site accessible, and is there a quick fix if it’s not?

    Every single person with a website should be checking to make sure everyone who visits it can use it. So how do you go about figuring out if your website is accessible?

  • Evaluating the Time Cost

    Everything we do in business has a time cost. What if you could take everything you’ve already been doing, and make it into a badass website?

  • Single CTA Exceptions

    If you’re doing this on your website, it might be the reason you’re losing business.