I can’t wait for 2026

Hello from your web accessibility pal, Eric Eggert.

Thanks for subscribing to my newsletter, and sorry that this is only the second edition this year. I really need to get to writing them more often, because I enjoy doing them.

2025 has been stressful in multiple ways. Multiple attacks on accessibility rights in many countries show how far we still have to go and also how much of an uphill battle the work we do is. Nothing is easy, nothing is simple.

Web accessibility has become even more complicated, but not because of the subject. The best practices have not changed in the last decade, and crafting accessible sites becomes even easier with new concepts and better tools for inspecting.

But making accessibility a legal requirement has sucked the joy out of doing it for me almost completely. I have clients I've worked with for years that have made real, sustainable changes to address gaps in their testing, knowledge, and practice. Many of the companies falling under the European Accessibility Act (EAA) have been either oblivious (“we won’t be tested anyway”) or trying to pretend (“what are the easiest ways to look compliant?”).

Of course, with all bureaucratic things, the slowness of implementation does not help. Companies had 5 years to prepare, but so had political players and regulators. That Germany only managed to have a market surveillance operation starting at the end of September, a full 3 months after the EAA came into effect here, says a lot. But other market surveillance agencies struggle with the law because they claim they can only act once EN 301 549 is a proper harmonized standard.

Some companies lie in wait to see if there will be fines at all and how strict the agencies will be. I think it’s a terrible approach, like waiting to get a speeding ticket instead of looking at the sign telling you what the limit is.

👋 Eric

“AI” corner

Let’s break out the musings about “AI” to a separate section. As you might know, I’m not a fan. Especially the way generative “AI” is shoved into our faces and workflows is gross, usually providing no additional value.

I don’t need folder summaries on Google Drive or shallow automated responses on social media. And I find it especially irritating when there is no opt-out. Or when using unrelated features requires you to opt-in to it.

“But accessibility!” I hear this, and I do understand that sometimes LLMs or “AI” tools can be a solution to an accessibility barrier. Automated image descriptions can make inaccessible images more accessible. There is absolutely no problem with individuals using these Band-Aids. That’s just what a lot of assistive tech is. Band-Aids to paper over barriers that should not exist in the first place.

What I’m against is that these Band-Aids become standard approaches to address accessibility in the first place. “AI”-described images might be better than nothing in a pinch when encountering inaccessible material, but they are inappropriate when making a website accessible.

At the beginning of the year, a large accessibility company promised “100% automated accessibility” (S'ouvre dans une nouvelle fenêtre) by the end of 2025 (or in the next 10 years?) and unsurprisingly, that was all marketing hot air. I think that’s what irritates me the most, the purported inevitability of “AI” tools, which siphons money, innovation, and talent from other places like accessibility. And all that for high environmental costs.

Five blog posts

• Avoiding the word “help” (S'ouvre dans une nouvelle fenêtre) – Wherein I describe why I try to avoid the word “help” when writing about the accessibility needs and rights of disabled people.

• About “best practices” (S'ouvre dans une nouvelle fenêtre) – I felt the need to clarify what I think best practices are, and how the term seems to have taken on a different meaning.

• WCAG’s Longevity (S'ouvre dans une nouvelle fenêtre) – There is a long discussion on the WCAG GitHub about the requirements for videos where there are no pauses to insert audio description (S'ouvre dans une nouvelle fenêtre). Some argue that no audio description in this case meets the requirements for providing an audio description, so WCAG 1.2.3 and 1.2.5 are both satisfied. I’m not sure if I agree with this. However, the requirement comes from a time when videos were much more difficult to edit. These days, providing a separate audio with audio description and pausing a video player can be done in a few lines of JavaScript. In the article I argue that WCAG has endured so long because it is technology independent. But every so often, the SCs need to go with the times. (Can we have WCAG 2.3 with some of these clarifications, please? I don’t want to wait until the 30s to get it resolved in WCAG 3.)

• “AI is inevitable” is bullshit (S'ouvre dans une nouvelle fenêtre) – Pardon my French, but I don’t believe that this hype is inevitable. Will some of those technologies be used in the future in some way? Sure. But it will be much less than what companies want you to believe.

• Meeting WCAG is an achievement (S'ouvre dans une nouvelle fenêtre) – I came across a lot of “WCAG is not everything” and “you have to do much more” posts on social media. And while this is true in a way, most websites are far from meeting WCAG, and getting there is a good step that should be celebrated, not looked down on. And especially practitioners should not beat themselves up because a client is not following their recommendations. It’s extremely difficult to change these companies.

The future of this newsletter

I promise irregular newsletters, but two newsletters per year are way too few. But they are difficult for me to write and take a lot of time and energy. One of my goals for next year is to better collect information and create the newsletter from that, instead of looking back over months and months of work and trying to piece together what should go into the newsletter.

I have a few ideas for content creation and tools that I want to finalize, create, and share. Some of that might be member exclusive for a very short time.

And I would love to do an online member meetup or something in 2026.

Parting words

Thanks again to everyone who has subscribed to this newsletter, and a special thanks to all members. You know who you are, and you rock! Without you, my engagement in standards and elsewhere would not be possible.

I hope you all had and have a great, relaxing, holiday season and a happy new year.

👋 Eric

Socials

My primary social media/Fediverse/Mastodon handle is @yatil@yatil.social (S'ouvre dans une nouvelle fenêtre), and you can also find me on LinkedIn (S'ouvre dans une nouvelle fenêtre).