Firefox has an interesting features for developers, its ability to connect a Firefox developers tools to a remote Firefox instance. This can really interesting in the case of a remote kiosk display for instance.The remote debugging does not provide a display of the remote, but it gives you access to the developer tools for tabs opened on the remote.

Now to be fair, I’ve dunked on shadow DOM a bit in the past myself… such as when it’s used as a container for piles of JavaScript-generated HTML that would be better off in the page from the start. But the more I’ve worked with web components, the more I’ve come to see that shadow DOM (and slots in particular) may still play an interesting role in the HTML Web Components story.

For years now, though, I’ve been using Tachometer for most browser-based benchmarks. It’s featured in this blog a few times, although I’ve never written specifically about it. Tachometer doesn’t make benchmarking totally foolproof, but it does automate a lot of the trickiest bits. What I like best is that it:

The analogy I’ve been using is that this is like jumping from a tall 130 kilobyte-story building (ReactDOM) right into the zero kilobyte sewers of web components. If you take anything from this post, please understand this: web components (most likely) weren’t designed for you. Not to dissuade you from using them, but they were purposefully designed to be a low-level bare metal primitive for library authors to build on; they were designed to be used with a library, a thin layer of abstraction butter on top.

When you’re designing and developing for accessibility, performing manual testing using a screen reader is important to catch and fix accessibility issues that cannot be caught by automated accessibility testing tools. In this article, which is a modified, text-only excerpt from the Practical Accessibility course, we’re going to walk through the process of setting up your screen reader testing environment, from downloading virtualization software if you need it, to installing screen readers, and setting up keyboard configuration. We’ll also learn what screen reader and browser combinations are most relevant for your testing work.

PDFKit is a PDF document generation library for Node and the browser that makes creating complex, multi-page, printable documents easy. The API embraces chainability, and includes both low level functions as well as abstractions for higher level functionality. The PDFKit API is designed to be simple, so generating complex documents is often as simple as a few function calls.

gov.uk’s guidance on testing with assistive tech, what to use

This review of web Shadow DOM functionality also works as a nice, relatively high-level overview of how the Shadow DOM is used.

Building proper UI Web Components can be quite a task though, especially if you want them to be accessible. Here are some pointers on what to look out for.

This is about designing forms that everyone can use and complete as quickly as possible. Because nobody actually wants to use your form. They just want the outcome of having used it.

A prototyping toolkit using Visual Studio Code aimed at designers. Only HTML knowledge required.

What is evident across all methods of analysis however is that larger file size = more data transferred = more CO2 emitted. This is particularly evident when PDFs use large amounts of visual content, such as decorative graphics and high-resolution images or diagrams.Consider inclusion beyond disability. Light, mobile-friendly web pages are critical for users who experience data poverty or have intermittent connections in remote locations. Loading speed has a major impact on the user experience of any online activity, including government services and information.

When we talk about disability visibility, we’re acknowledging that many hidden disabilities, like chronic pain and cognitive conditions, need awareness and accommodation too. But even those with visible disabilities have largely been made invisible from our society due to a variety of access barriers that serve to keep disability hidden, even when an estimated one in four people in the United States experiences disability.

When we talk about disability visibility, we’re acknowledging that many hidden disabilities, like chronic pain and cognitive conditions, need awareness and accommodation too. But even those with visible disabilities have largely been made invisible from our society due to a variety of access barriers that serve to keep disability hidden, even when an estimated one in four people in the United States experiences disability.

One of the key obstacles that the GDS team is currently tackling is the lack of consistency in government when it comes to what a good form looks like. The team is currently exploring ways that they can give civil servants the tools they need to enable best practice and make it easy to create online, accessible forms. One area that GDS is currently looking to support best practice is autofill - a function that will allow the end user to move on to the next question as quickly and seamlessly as possible.

Talking with clients & potential clients is always tricky. The last thing I want to do is offend someone, but there are some things I wish I could say up front and with frankness. As the saying goes, sometimes the truth hurts, so in the interest of politeness these messages are often skipped or glossed over when in reality the importance of these deserve the clarity that forthrightness provides. Not inspired by any one specifically but rather everyone generally, here are 10 blunt things I wish I could tell clients.