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Last week a colleague from my days at Microsoft wrote an excellent analysis of the current functionality using ChatGPT and a basic question in HTML. I had been dabbling with questions from time to time around accessibility and ChatGPT myself but hadn’t written anything formal up. Now I have. This evening with a bit of time, I decided to see what the AI technology knew about reading web pages with several leading screen readers. The…

Several months ago, I started a podcast with a nephew of mine. In a quest to feed what I lovingly call the monster because the podcast always needs content, I was researching some NFL statistics and it was a poignant reminder of what a challenge it is to find consistently usable tables on the web.   These NFL tables on individual player statistics for my basic criteria are reasonable. Column and row headers are marked.…

In my web use, I’ve noticed a growing trend to add instructions to more experiences on the web. This week it was more than 250 words on reading a table on a financial web site and another couple hundred words on a calendar control for an airline company. Most often, this is coming in the form of an ARIA-Label or other hidden text, aimed at explaining how to use the experience with a screen reader…

Keeping up with all the changes in even the Microsoft products I personally use on a regular basis can be a challenge. I say that because I just read about a new function Excel has added to add images to a spreadsheet in a formula and it seems quite handy so far. Full details on the function are in this blog posting. Screen readers will read the alt text on the image when you navigate…

Over the years I’ve assisted multiple people with Outlook and one feature that I commonly use stands above the rest as far as being a time saver that most people seem to have not discovered. Quick Steps allow you to take multiple actions on an email message with just a couple mouse clicks or a single key press. Office has a comprehensive support article on this feature. As an example, most know about filters to…

Several years ago I wrote about how I used Excel to track a fantasy football draft. Everything in that post is still relevant but I wanted to provide a short update. Most importantly, the spreadsheet I use is now available and updated for 2022. See the instructions sheet in the document for how to use it during a fantasy football draft. The original post talked about my league having 16 players that each fantasy owner…

It is unfortunate that it takes landmark agreements far too often for progress on accessibility in the first place. Several years ago Major League Baseball was heralded for their agreement and commitment to accessibility. Progress was indeed made and I know I was one who commented on the agreement and progress. The agreement closing date has long past and so the answer to the question about what happens afterword in their case is, “Unlabeled image…

At times I want to capture the audio from VoiceOver on a Mac to illustrate a point or otherwise demonstrate something. This is a bit of a hack but I made an interesting discovery when recording some audio on a Mac computer today. I also know there are 3rd party utilities that make this easier. Although it doesn’t show up in the system input devices when you go to Sound in Mac System Preferences, when…

As a part of escaping the chilly Wisconsin winter, my wife and I are staying in a rental condo in warmer weather for for the next several weeks. Using the microwave and water dispenser on the refrigerator today I was reminded of the small but significant things when it comes to accessibility that can bring joy. Flat touch screen-like control panels are pretty much universal on kitchen appliances these days. I often find myself playing…

While traveling, I was looking for some over-the-counter medication that I occasionally use. It lead me down one of those rabbit holes you can go down with the Internet. Whether is a loaf of bread, a pair of shoes or the aforementioned over-the-counter medication I was looking for, I’m always amazed at the quantity in terms of both location and maker of products you can purchase here in the United States. Within 2 miles of…