Writing | Sarah Higley

A plea to developers: if this gets created, let's not fuck it up. This is a slightly more spec-heavy post than usual, but hopefully still useful.
A very long treatise on why text backplates were a bad idea. Most of the time.
Who, what, when, where, and why is aria-activedescendant. Or: two focus outlines in a trenchcoat approach you in a dark alley and offer you a combobox.
A very simple step-by-step guide to creating a Mastodon account, with a focus on accessibility.
A dive into table and grid semantics, why they matter so much to screen readers, and your options for repairing or augmenting basic table markup.
The beginning of a series on interactive grid accessibility, starting with a look at when you need a grid, a table, or neither.
A short article, as a contrast. Just a few simple tips to improve Windows High Contrast Mode experience.
That which we call a combobox by any other name would have as many bugs.
A look at sequential-focus-navigation-starting-point and what it means for focus handling
Menus, trees, and grids, oh my! Debugging composite widget semantics with browser devtools.
The omnibus guide to understanding and making select components and comboboxes
A closer look at play/pause buttons
Did you ever want to escape from the humdrum confines of daily life, but weren't sure how? Focus on this article, and learn how to escape a whole plethora of situations! (results not guaranteed, may have unintended side effects)
A review of the history and current state of tooltip accessibility. Or: everything you didn't know you needed to know before making a tooltip.