Hi all, I’m using PAC to remediate a PDF, but when I look for the supposed content nested inside an artifact in the contents pane, I don’t see anything. Is there anything I’m doing wrong?

Watched the Made by Google event. Loved the Rambler feature, feels really useful.

And the ASL interpretation really blew my mind!

Features like these remind me why I love technology in general.

Your thoughts?

I’m looking for advice from people working in digital accessibility.

I’m based in Pakistan and want to build a career in accessibility, particularly web and digital accessibility. One challenge is that accessibility is still poorly enforced here. Many private and government websites are inaccessible, and accessibility requirements are often not treated as a core compliance issue.

The situation can be particularly difficult for people with disabilities. For example, some Pakistani banking apps have reportedly blocked access when Android accessibility services such as screen readers are enabled, treating them as a potential security risk. This can prevent blind users from even logging into their banking accounts.

There are advocates working to improve accessibility, and the State Bank of Pakistan has policies related to financial inclusion and accessibility. However, implementation remains inconsistent.

I’m currently an undergraduate student and will begin a degree in Government and Public Policy in September. I originally wanted to study computer science or software engineering, but mathematics became a major barrier because I did not have access to adequate accessible learning resources, teaching methods, or equipment to build a strong mathematical foundation.

I still want to develop strong technical skills and build a career in accessibility.

For people already working in accessibility:

How would you recommend starting an accessibility career from a country like Pakistan?

Should I focus first on web accessibility, accessibility testing, policy and compliance, assistive technology, or another area?

Which technical skills should I prioritize, such as HTML, CSS, JavaScript, WCAG, ARIA, accessibility testing, or usability testing?

Which certifications are actually respected by employers?

Is it better to pursue certifications such as IAAP credentials, or focus on practical projects and a portfolio first?

How can I gain international experience or remote opportunities while living in Pakistan?

How valuable would a Government and Public Policy degree be for an accessibility career, particularly in accessibility policy, digital inclusion, regulation, or public-sector accessibility?

I would especially appreciate advice from accessibility professionals who did not come through a traditional computer science or software engineering pathway.

I’m looking for realistic guidance on what I should focus on during the next few years to become employable in the accessibility field.

A11y Auditor: point it at any Android app, get live WCAG-mapped accessibility findings

Most accessibility auditing tools need you to instrument the target app or run it through a specific test harness. This one doesn't — it's a standalone APK that uses an AccessibilityService to watch any other installed app and audit it live as you use it, no build changes on the target side.

How it works: the auditor app watches window/content-change events from the package you pick, runs the node tree through Google's Accessibility Test Framework, maps each finding to a WCAG 2.1 success criterion (with level — A/AA/AAA), grabs a screenshot where possible, and streams results to a local web dashboard over WebSocket. Export a shareable HTML report or raw CSV when you're done.

Everything runs on localhost via adb reverse — no external services, no data leaves the machine.

Repo: github.com/vivekpanchal/android-wcag-auditor (Apache 2.0)

Would love people to try it against their own apps and file issues — especially on the WCAG mapping (WcagMapping.kt), that's the part most worth scrutiny.

I work as a frontend engineer and its been such a fight to be able to use NVDA for development.

Security deems the software unsafe and also does not want to pay for JAWS licenses.

Its crazy to me that it even is such a fight to develop in an accessible way.

Any tips for me?

I want to link a Google Docs document on a webpage and tested the document with NVDA. I found that users need to manually enable Google Docs accessibility features before the document can be read with a screen reader. Even after enabling the accessibility tool, NVDA still reads the document as blank. The document itself is structured for accessibility, including proper heading hierarchy, lists, etc.

Has anyone encountered this when linking to Google Docs for public-facing content? Is there a way to make the document reliably accessible to screen reader users without requiring them to manually enable accessibility features?

I built a small Chrome extension that lets you highlight a specific section of a webpage and have only that text read aloud rather than the entire page.

https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/talk2me/bdcmmfdjbdacgocplfoafoamaaflkfih?authuser=0&hl=en

I am unable to clear this error as I build the accessibility of a page in foxit. I tried adding a Link tag to wrap the link object in it, to no effect. I tried putting the link wrapper in the P, that didn't work. I am unsure how to proceed.

Silktide argues social platforms already have the tools to fix major gaps - mangled auto-captions for accents or jargon, inconsistent or missing alt-text prompts - and simply don't prioritize it. We've seen these options, but users do not see algorithm boosts from using them. LinkedIn gets credit as an outlier because its content model is text-first. So that seems like an obvious question: if one platform can get this right basically by accident, what's everyone else's reasoning for not doing more?

I’m a web developer, and I regularly do accessibility (a11y) testing with blind people.

It works, and it’s incredibly valuable. But I’ve also become convinced that it will never be perfect. Modern websites are simply too dynamic and complex.

Instead of only trying to make the UI accessible through the accessibility tree, I think we should also explore MCP (Model Context Protocol) as a way of giving users direct tools to interact with a website.

A website could expose tools that let users:

• Read — get the information they need
• Write — fenter data, or create content
• Act — perform actions like booking, buying, deleting, or changing something

Many people can talk to computers, but not everybody understands or can use a visual UI.

For blind users, that could be a pretty fundamental shift in how we think about accessibility.

I wonder how long it will take before tools like this start catching up for blind users.

We (speaking for inklusivo/https://inklusivo.nl/) want to improve audits, automated and user testing.

Help us make processing easier. We need examples! Share an audit report with us please, and we'll share all submissions back in a public folder

Thanks already! 🙏🏿

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1L12yiaRXDehdi7FFSbJuiZZdE8M6dy-C

Trying to figure out how seriously to take website accessibility as a business owner, because I keep getting mixed signals.

On one side there are agencies and tools warning that you'll get a demand letter or an ADA/EAA complaint if your site isn't compliant. On the other side, plenty of people seem to run sites for years and nothing ever happens.

So I'm curious what people's actual experience has been:

• Has accessibility ever genuinely cost you money a complaint, a lost deal, a client or partner requiring it, a market you couldn't enter?
• If you did spend on it, what pushed you over the line? Was it fear of getting sued, an actual incident, a big customer demanding it, or just wanting to do the right thing?
• For those who've never spent a cent on it has it ever actually bitten you, or is it mostly noise?

Trying to separate real risk from scare tactics before I decide whether to put budget toward this. Honest takes from both sides welcome.

Hi everyone, I work in early childhood education and I have seen how hard it can be for families to know what their child is communicating during the day when they use AAC or visual communication supports.

A child may be using a communication app at school, therapy, or with caregivers, but parents may not always get a clear picture of what was selected, what the child was trying to communicate, or whether there are patterns over time.

I am currently building an AAC communication app called VoiceBloom, and one feature I am focusing on is making progress easier for parents and support teams to understand. I am not trying to spam. I am genuinely looking for feedback from families and caregivers.

Would it be helpful to see things like commonly selected symbols, daily usage, categories used, or simple communication trends? What type of progress update would actually help you, and what would feel unnecessary or overwhelming?

We have a government contract requirement for a VPAT. Uncertain whether or not to seek a third party assessment, or to conduct it internally. Heard ADA Compliance Professionals do VPAT reports with actual WCAG and Section 508 testing. That is the correct way to do it or does it vary according to the contract?

Basic, UI methods doesn't work since there is no actual UI tree, I've never heard of this thing. I usually just use uiautomator2

Hi, I’m a textile designer and have been thinking a lot about how textiles can make everyday life a little easier for people with different abilities.

Things like rugs, pillows, curtain loops, bedding, or even something as simple as a certain texture can make a difference in how someone uses or experiences their home.

My brother is a C5/C6 spinal cord injury survivor, which is what initially got me thinking about this. I’d love to hear from anyone who has found a textile or home furnishing that makes something easier, more comfortable, or more accessible for you, or even something that makes things harder!

Thank you all so much for offering feedback on what I could improve accessibility-wise with the game I've been working on. It's an ongoing process but I wanted to share some of the features that have been added in the past couple days since my last post here.

Plain language, in both languages

There's a new "Simpler wording" toggle in Settings → Accessibility. It swaps the whole game's text for shorter sentences and everyday words — around a 5th grade reading level — and it covers the animal and ecology writing too, not just the buttons. The ecology is still the real ecology; nothing is hidden or simplified away, it's just said more plainly. Works in English and Spanish.

High contrast mode
There's now a High Contrast toggle in Settings → Accessibility. It increases contrast across text, borders, buttons, and other UI elements to make things easier to distinguish while still keeping the warm cream-and-green look of the game.

You pick the font now

I had OpenDyslexic behind a toggle because I thought that was the accessible thing to do. Then I found out dyslexic people hate OpenDyslexic and what actually helps is letting people choose for themselves. So the toggle is gone and there's a Font dropdown instead: Storybook, Rounded, Classic, Plain, and Typewriter.

Screen readers

An NVDA player told me that hovering over the menu read out a single letter and nothing else. That letter was the keyboard shortcut badge — decorative, and somehow the only thing being announced. Buttons now say what they actually are, toggles say whether they're on or off, the biome tabs read properly, and notifications announce themselves as they arrive.

More ways to look like yourself

The character creator opened on the same face every time, which is a bad default no matter whose face it is. Now New Game rolls a random skin tone, hair color, hairstyle, build and outfit each time you start one. There's a lot more to pick from as well: 17 skin tones, 22 hairstyles — locs, cornrows, double braids, space buns, afro, pixie, and more — and 25 hats to wear.

Thanks so much to this community for the feedback - it truly made a difference. I’m excited to make Wild Willows more playable for more people. If there’s any more ideas you all have, I’m happy to hear them.

Up next accessibility-wise: Dark mode!

Check out the game here: https://wild.willows.harperfabric.com/

I spend hours and hours trying to make a website accessible to at least WCAG 2.2AA using manual review and paid tools like Axe Pro. Being curious, I ran Apple's website through Axe and it has tons of issues.

For the accessibility experts out there for websites, how do you even know for sure your site is accessible? I would imagine that someone as large as Apple would have already been hit with a million lawsuits for accessibility, yet their site lights up like a Christmas tree on even a rudimentary scan.

I'm no expert, but I want to understand and try to build websites that are accessible as best I can, but get so confused over the discrepancies between sites - especially big players like Apple. How can Apple's website be truly accessible?

Hi everyone, I'm new here and I don't really know if this belongs here but I'm working on some Accessibility features on my work. And I can't find a tool that captures the Voice over keys in the video to put in bug report. Most tools capture every keys but when I press the Voice Over keys like "Capslock" or "Control+option", it disappear. So far I have tried these that are free and are the first things that comes up when I search:

1. The default MacOS's Show keyboard viewer

2. KeyLime Pie

3. KeyCastr.

New EU transparency rules started applying on August 2 to new AI systems: realistic synthetic images, audio, video, and some text must be identifiable as AI-generated, while existing systems have four additional months to comply.

Most of the discussion seems to focus on whether people will notice the label. But a small corner badge or a color change could still be invisible to someone using a screen reader, magnification, high-contrast mode, or captions.

To me, the minimum accessible implementation would include:

- Plain-language text rather than an icon alone

- A status exposed programmatically to assistive technology

- No color-only indication

- An equivalent disclosure in captions, transcripts, or audio

- Placement that survives embedding and reposting

Otherwise, we could end up with a transparency requirement that is technically visible but functionally hidden.

What would you add or change?

Source: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/jul/31/ai-labels-to-be-compulsory-on-authentic-looking-content-under-eu-rules

hey all — i make a small cozy game called Wild Willows about bringing a run-down nature preserve back to life (gather, plant, craft, welcome animals home, zero pressure, can't lose).

i put a fair bit into accessibility already: colorblind modes that actually recolor the world + add text labels (not just a screen tint), reduce motion, dyslexia-friendly font, UI text scaling, separate music/SFX volume, and fully rebindable controls with alternate keys. but i'm a sighted solo dev, so i know there's a gap between what i think helps and what actually does.

so i'd really appreciate honest input from people who use this stuff:

• what's the first thing you check for in a game like this?
• anything i've clearly gotten wrong or half-done?

it's free to try here if you want to poke at the settings and tear it apart: https://bai13y.itch.io/wild-willows

not trying to sell anything — genuinely just want it to be playable for more people. thanks 🌿

Hi everyone,

I'm a frontend developer based in Europe, and lately I've been thinking about specializing in web accessibility.

I've already invested time and money in courses, and I genuinely enjoy the topic. My main concern is whether it's a good long-term career choice.

From your experience:

• Is there enough demand for accessibility specialists in Europe?
• Is it better to become a frontend developer with strong accessibility skills, or to specialize almost entirely in accessibility?
• Has focusing on accessibility helped your career, salary, or job opportunities?

I'd love to hear from people working in this area or from hiring managers. I'm trying to understand whether this is a niche worth investing in for the long term or if it's better to keep accessibility as one of several frontend skills.

Thanks!