Axess Lab
axesslab.com · Company blog · on HN since 2017
Axess Lab is an accessibility consultancy that writes about web accessibility, alt text, screen readers, and inclusive interface design.
What HN saysHN links it for practical accessibility guidance. Commenters cite it on accessibility advice and on sites that serve screen reader users poorly.
17HN people shared it
2linked it in comments
15stories submitted
344story points
5 months agolast shared
2017people per year2026
Most-shared posts
- 1Top accessibility complaints from people with disabilities3 people · 281 points · first shared 2017 · 132 comments on HN
- 2Apple’s new feature a step towards digital apartheid2 people · 20 points · first shared 2019 · 6 comments on HN
- 3Alt-texts: The Ultimate Guide (2017]2 people · 5 points · first shared 2017 · 1 comments on HN
- 4Fonts Don’t Matter2 people · 4 points · first shared 2017 · 1 comments on HN
- 5Disabled Buttons Suck2 people · 3 points · first shared 2020 · discussion on HN
- 6Lovable's AI built a 100% accessible site – or did it?2 people · 3 points · first shared 2026 · discussion on HN
- 7Hand tremors and the giant-button-problem (2018)1 people · 20 points · first shared 2022 · 8 comments on HN
- 8How icons are ruining interfaces1 people · 4 points · first shared 2017 · discussion on HN
- 9Toggles Suck1 people · 2 points · first shared 2023 · discussion on HN
- 10Captchas Suck (2017)1 people · 2 points · first shared 2018 · discussion on HN
What HN people wrote when they linked it
darekkay · 2019-08-02
> screen reader users was left with a sub-optimal experience ... but hey they get to use the same URL as everyone else so there is nothing for them to complain about.
Sure, if the website is sub-optimal, the users are free to complain about it (and file a lawsuit, depending on the country and laws). From my experience, UX and Accessibility go hand in hand. So if your website is sub-optimal for screen reader users, I can almost guarantee it will be sub-optimal for other people as well.
In theory, this is a false dilemma - it's not either a highly optimal version for screen reader users vs. a sub-optimal experience with the default version. The third option is to "simply" make the default version accessible (which indeed may mean _a lot_ of work = money, especially for legacy projects).
It's like creating a separate version of your website just for mobile devices. This pattern was used a lot in the past, but not that much anymore. If you build your website with mobile and accessibility in mind (mobile-first, a11y-first), you get an overall better experience.
> We worked together with Jaws to find a way to determine if the user was using a screen reader.
This is basically the opposite of what I just wrote. There was a big uproar regarding the new Apple feature [0] for doing exactly that.
> Dont know if things has changed since.
My personal anectode: I was part of a complete re-write of a big airline website and we followed the mobile- and a11y-first approach with much…
nickpsecurity · 2017-06-23
I recently viewed a very short and practical page on accessibility that you might be interested in. It had a contrast tip that matches parent's claim.
https://axesslab.com/accessibility-according-to-pwd/