Articles

June 28, 2025. That’s the deadline for all banking services and e-commerce in the EU to be fully compliant with the European Accessibility Act (EAA). Here’s a straight-to-the-point summary of what you need to know!

In June 2025, the European Accessibility Act will be enforced. Most of the buzz is around websites and apps, but many physical devices will also be covered by the new legislation. Let’s look at that more closely and create some buzz around the accessibility of touch screens and other physical devices!

You may think QR codes are great for securing your login, or letting users read more online about a product marketed in a newspaper ad. But there’s a high risk of creating barriers for people with disabilities unless you use QR codes correctly. This article is your ultimate guide to accessible QR codes!

I got a chance to try out the Apple Vision Pro for an hour. Having a vision impairment myself, I obviously dove straight into the accessibility settings to find out if this new, hyped technology would work for me. Let’s go through how it went.

I hate to see how many marketing emails that go to waste and frankly, suck! It really has irritated me throughout the years – so much it became my contribution to Axe-con 2024 and this article.

Here are seven great free tools that help you measure color contrasts and create beautiful, accessible color schemes that fulfill the contrast requirements in the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG).

You’ve all seen them, tiny switches that let you toggle a setting. And maybe, just like me, you sometimes pause, thinking “…Is it on or off?” That’s because toggles suck!

Looking for a free quick guide, a “cheat sheet” or a “one pager” for screen reader testing? You’ve come to the right place!

Interacting with our fan base is a fulfilling part of my job. Yesterday I got a request to write an article on why the font size on this site sucks. So let’s not waste any time and get straight to it!

Can you keep a secret? Here’s why you should keep testing your product with users, but not say that’s what you’re doing. Basically – how to test with users without anyone knowing!

In the EU, the laws on digital accessibility for the public sector all point to a standard called EN 301 549. It’s been updated, and here in Europe a lot of people who work with web sites and apps are asking what this means for them.

Accessibility is exciting, user-centered and should make you jump out of bed each workday morning with a proud grin on your face. Accessibility legislation is boring, text-centered and makes you snooze your alarm at least four times before getting up. But let’s see how to use the boring laws to get to do exciting, high impact work!

I’m a dad since a few weeks back. This means I spend my days trying to keep a tiny, helpless lump of life alive. Scary stuff! I’ve also realised that this dad-thing comes with a ton of accessibility needs.

The world has changed due to Covid-19. A lot of people are in quarantine, voluntary or involuntary. Shops and restaurants are closed or have new rules to restrict crowding. One way to support local restaurants is to buy prepared meals in takeaway apps. But, how are these takeaway apps in terms of accessibility?

There’s a new kid in design town: neumorphism. It’s predicted to become a big design trend ahead. Let’s look at what neumorphism is, the potential accessibility pitfalls and how to use it responsibly.

At Axess Lab we strive to make the world more accessible for people with disabilities. But what’s the point of an accessible world if we can’t survive in it?

A screen reader is an assistive technology, primarily used by people with vision impairments. It converts text, buttons, images and other screen elements into speech or braille. Let’s go through what a screen reader is, how it works and see blind people in action!

There is no better way to understand the importance of accessibility and inclusive design than learning from actual users with disabilities. Here’s a collection of our favorite YouTube videos where people showcase how they use assistive technologies like screen readers, eye tracking, zoom and switches.

Stephen Hawking used something called a switch to communicate, author books and surf the web. Just like Stephen, millions of people around the world with motor impairments use switches to access technology. Sadly, the awareness and knowledge about this assistive technology is generally low. So it’s time to switch the spotlight on switch users!

Web teams usually spend a tremendous amount of time, money and energy on designing lovely, beautiful start pages. Let’s apply the psychological concept known as the peak-end rule to question that and introduce a flipped approach to web design.

To be honest, I don’t really have time to write this article. I’ve got loads of other things I should be doing. But it needs to be written. Now. So I’ve popped up my laptop on the bus and am angrily typing away.

It’s well known in the accessibility community that the road to an inclusive digital world is through awareness. And what better way to raise awareness than wearing an awesome, head-turning accessibility t-shirt?

Axess Lab is a team of IT professionals who want to make life easier for everybody. And it seems to be working!

There are lots of stereotypes about the elderly and tech or the world wide web. Many portray the over-sixty crowd as being unable to cope with modern tech.

Hi Instagram! We’re thrilled to see you’re improving your accessibility by making it possible to write alt-texts for images. As a token of appreciation, we’ve made you part of our Axessified-series! This means you get some top-notch, tailored inclusive design tips to help you take the next step on your accessibility journey!

Hey Accessibility Scotland! I like you guys even though you invented golf…

A lot of the accessibility initiatives today are focused on web sites and apps. But there’s of course more to the digital world than that. In this article we’ll look at a case where a team has done great work to make their digital comic accessible to people with visual impairments.

It’s pride week here in Stockholm, Sweden! So we thought we’d celebrate by sharing a few tips on how to create a LGBTQ-inclusive digital environment.

Many websites have an accessibility feature called skip links that help some users navigate the site. However, there’s a problem with basically all skip links on mobile devices, which hurts your site’s accessibility instead of improving it.

In this article we’ll examine an overlooked accessibility problem that mainly affects users with hand tremors. It’s in almost every interface out there, but barely ever highlighted in accessibility guidelines or discussions. It’s also super easy to fix!

I am a screen reader user, and I am annoyed! I repeatedly encounter the same problem on websites. It’s about text splitting up. Let me share my agony with you!

A switch is an assistive technology primarily used by people with motor impairments to access and control computers, smartphones, electric wheelchairs, smart home appliances and more. Let’s look at some switches in action and go through how you design switch friendly interfaces.

Many people I meet think title texts, also known as tooltips, improve both the accessibility and usability of their sites. They don’t. In fact, they can even cause problems. Let’s see why!

Open source is awesome and even though we’re a startup we’ve found a way to pay our employees to contribute to the community. Here’s how and why we do it.

It’s been a great 2017 at Axess Lab! We celebrate by listing our most popular articles all year.

“It would be great to see actual examples of accessibility in action. Like before and after accessibility improvements.” I got this great comment from a woman in the audience at a meetup. So let’s make that idea a reality!

There are a lot of unfortunate misconceptions about people with disabilities. Many trickle down into IT-teams who use them as arguments not to care about accessibility. So it’s time to set some things straight!

Users spend a large portion of their days in apps. However, there is not yet as much focus on app accessibility as web accessibility. It’s time to change that!

I just got the new iPhone X. To my surprise, the first impression was not good at all for me as a user with a visual impairment. Apple usually don’t let me down, but now they seem to have made blunder.

Captchas were invented to protect websites from spam. However, like the well-meaning invention of nuclear fusion, captchas too got some unethical and destructive side effects. Here’s why captchas suck and what to do instead.

Jumping on a new trend is risky business, both in fashion and web design! Here is why trends often hurt the user experience and exclude users with disabilities. I’ll also go through what you can do to avoid this from happening.

This post contains everything you need to know about alt-texts! When to use them and how to perfectly craft them. By me, Daniel, a web developer with vision impairment who use a screen reader in my day-to-day life.

Using charm and humor in interfaces is a hugely underestimated technique that can make the user experience delightful, memorable and sharable. Here’s how to design, write and illustrate your way to smiling users!

Worried about the new directive on accessibility that you need to follow? Great, you’re in the right place! Here’s everything you need to know about the directive and a seven step guide on how to comply.

We often get asked how many people have a disability. So here is everything we think you need to know about the statistics.

If you’re trying to make your website or app accessible, you’ve probably stumbled over the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG). But don’t waste your energy trying to understand them. Just don’t.

Datepickers often cause problems to assistive technology users and fail several basic criteria in the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG). But datepickers can – and should – be made accessible. Here is how to do it and a few examples you can steal or get inspired by!

It’s Colorblind Awareness Day today! To celebrate, we raise awareness by giving you some practical examples of how design can hurt or help users with color vision deficiencies.

If you’re an art director or font fanatic, you might want to sit down for this. Take a few deep breaths. Go to your happy place. Because I’m going to explain why fonts are overrated and what actually matters for readability.

Icons used correctly can enhance both the user experience and look of your interface. Sadly, more and more designers are using them in the wrong way. And it’s hurting both the usability and accessibility of the interface.