Accessibility Espresso #2 ☕

March 10, 2026

{if %lastname != ''}{if %gender == 'female'}Dear Ms{elseif %gender == 'male'}Dear Mr{else}Dear Ms / Mr{/if}{if %title != ''} {%title}{/if} {%lastname}{else}Dear Reader{/if}, welcome to the new issue, this time featuring the following topics:

Axe-con sessions distilled into one blog post. Karl Groves calculates $347,060 in disruption costs per audit cycle. And Hashim Quraishi learns why adding role="link" to a button broke everything.

I wish you an enjoyable read.

Best regards,
Jan Deppisch

⭐ Topic of the Week

My Axe-con 2026 Takeaways

Multiple org case studies and one truth: accessibility scales through structure, not passion. Key takeaways from Axe-con 2026.

📋 The Bigger Picture

Common Misconceptions about Screen Readers

23% of screen reader users are not blind - Lauren, a film editor with ADHD, uses one to process text. Ela Gorla from TetraLogical dismantles seven misconceptions: hidden help text creates noise, making everything focusable breaks H-key navigation, and separate versions inevitably drift.

Accessibility and Customer Loyalty Among People with Disabilities

86% of disabled consumers pay more on an accessible site than buy cheaper elsewhere. Tesco partnered with RNIB and saw 350% more online sales. With $13 trillion in combined spending power, Accenture and Forrester data confirms: every dollar in accessibility yields roughly $100 back.

Understanding the cost of not being accessible

134 issues per audit, 7 hours to fix each, $2,590 per bug - Karl Groves calculates $347,060 in disruption costs for one audit cycle. He calls the audit-fix-repeat loop "the worst accessibility strategy" and argues only prevention during development breaks it.

⚙️ In Practice

Touch Targets and Web Accessibility

Gloves on, bus ride, tiny like button - no chance. Ilknur Eren's CSS fix on SitePoint: a button with width: 48px and padding: 12px. The icon stays compact, the tap area exceeds both WCAG thresholds (24x24 AA, 44x44 AAA). Benefits everyone on mobile, not just users with motor impairments.

Try Text Scaling Support in Chrome Canary

37% of Android users have changed their system text size - but mobile browsers ignore it. Josh Tumath from the BBC introduces an opt-in meta tag in Chrome Canary that respects these settings. CSS guidance included (rem/em for content, px for spacing) - a parallel to the viewport meta tag era.

I Learned The First Rule of ARIA the Hard Way

Automated audits passed, keyboard worked - yet screen readers couldn't activate the button. Hashim Quraishi had added role="link" to a <button>, breaking Space key and causing NVDA to announce conflicting roles. The fix was less code, not more: delete the ARIA attribute and trust native HTML.

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