Accessibility - North Texas Radio

Leroy Anderson
The Typewriter (Composed 1950 – 1st performance 1953)

The Typewriter Performance · Image of man typing, really gets into it.

I’ve been setting up the site for keyboard accessibility and ran into a problem on Safari. Using the tab button on the keyboard, the sidebar was being skipped. Turns out in Safari Settings in the Advanced Tab you have to check the box “Press Tab to highlight each item on a webpage”. The navigation works fine in Firefox, Chrome and Edge by default.
Safari Settings>Advanced Tab>Check Box – “Press Tab to highlight each item on a webpage”

As I was going through sources to add to this list of links it became a rabbit hole. I’m scoring 94-100 on Google PageSpeed insights for accessibility, which is a good start for basic settings. On some of the sites I looked at though (which had paid services coincidentally) I scored pretty bad – one of them even said my site was breaking the law, WTF.

I’ve tried to list the most helpful free sites.
— David

Resources
Microsoft – Accessibility/Disability Support
Apple Accessibility Features
AbilityNet – Digital Accessibility Free Resources
ADA – Fact Sheet – Web Content and Mobile Apps

Tools
Google PageSpeed Insights
Wave – Web Accessibility Evaluation Tool
W3 -Web Accessibility Evaluation Tools List
A11Y – Checklist

axe DevTools Browser Extensions
Firefox
Chrome
Edge

Talk, talk, talk, it’s only talk
Comments, clichés, commentary, controversy
Chatter, chit-chat, chit-chat, chit-chat
Conversation, contradiction, criticism
It’s only talk, cheap talk
— Adrian Belew

King Crimson
Elephant Talk (1981)

Posted on YouTube by
Bill Bruford

Spoken Command	Output
period, dot	.
comma	,
question mark	?
exclamation point	!
new line	Moves to a new line
new paragraph	Creates a new paragraph
open quote	“
close quote	“
colon	:
semicolon	;
align center	Centers the current paragraph
indent	Indents the current paragraph
decrease indent	Reduces indentation of the current paragraph
dollar sign	$
start spelling	Begins spelling mode for dictating symbols or letters
stop listening	Stops dictation
start listening	Starts dictation
press alpha	Presses the ‘A’ key (using ICAO/NATO phonetic alphabet)
bold	Toggles bold formatting
save document	Saves the document

The table shows the basic dictation commands. Using a mic hooked up to or on your computer is pure gold. Getting off the keyboard when you can saves an incredible amount of time.

It’s pretty simple, might take a few days to get it all down and get used to it but you gotta keep it up. I tend to fall off.

Spoken Command	Output
Period or Full stop	.
Comma	,
Question mark	?
Exclamation point or Exclamation mark	!
Apostrophe	‘
Open quote / Close quote	” “
Colon	:
Semicolon	;
Open parenthesis / Close parenthesis	( )
Dash	–
Ellipsis	…
New line	Moves to next line
New paragraph	Starts new paragraph
Caps on	Capitalizes first letter of each word
Caps off	Stops capitalization
All caps	Next word in ALL CAPS
No space	Removes space between words
Select [word/phrase]	Selects specified word/phrase
Delete [word/phrase]	Deletes specified word/phrase
Delete last word	Deletes the last word
Undo	Reverts last action
Redo	Reapplies undone action
Heart emoji	❤️
Smiley face	🙂
Car emoji	🚗
Stop dictation	Stops dictation

Spoken Command	Output
Period or Full stop	.
Comma	,
Question mark	?
Exclamation point or Exclamation mark	!
Apostrophe	‘
Open quote / Close quote	” “
Colon	:
Semicolon	;
Open parenthesis / Close parenthesis	( )
Dash	–
Ellipsis	…
New line	Moves to next line
New paragraph	Starts new paragraph
Caps on	Capitalizes first letter of each word
Caps off	Stops capitalization
All caps	Next word in ALL CAPS
No space	Removes space between words
Select [word/phrase]	Selects specified word/phrase
Delete [word/phrase]	Deletes specified word/phrase
Delete last word	Deletes the last word
Undo	Reverts last action
Redo	Reapplies undone action
Heart emoji	❤️
Smiley face	🙂
Car emoji	🚗
Stop dictation	Stops dictation

Spoken Command	Output
Period	.
Comma	,
Question mark	?
Exclamation point	!
Apostrophe	‘
Colon	:
Semicolon	;
New line	Moves to next line
New paragraph	Starts new paragraph
Select [word/phrase]	Selects specified word/phrase
Delete [word/phrase]	Deletes specified word/phrase
Delete last word	Deletes the last word
Undo	Reverts last action
Press [key]	Simulates key press
Open [app name]	Opens specified app
Pause voice typing	Pauses dictation
Stop dictation	Stops dictation

Spoken Command	Output
Period	.
Comma	,
Question mark	?
Exclamation point	!
Apostrophe	‘
Colon	:
Semicolon	;
New line	Moves to next line
New paragraph	Starts new paragraph
Open [app name]	Opens specified app
Go back	Goes back
Scroll down	Scrolls page down
Scroll up	Scrolls page up
Delete	Deletes last word or selected text

Spoken Command	Output
Period	.
Comma	,
Question mark	?
Exclamation point	!
Apostrophe	‘
Open quote / Close quote	” “
Colon	:
Semicolon	;
Open parenthesis / Close parenthesis	( )
New line	Moves to next line
New paragraph	Starts new paragraph
Bold	Applies bold to next text
Italics	Applies italics to next text
Select [word/phrase]	Selects specified word/phrase
Delete [word/phrase]	Deletes specified word/phrase
Undo	Reverts last action
Heart emoji	❤️
Smiley face	🙂
Car emoji	🚗

Spoken Command	Output
Period	.
Comma	,
Question mark	?
Exclamation point	!
Apostrophe	‘
Open quote / Close quote	” “
Colon	:
Semicolon	;
Open parenthesis / Close parenthesis	( )
New line	Inserts line break in a cell (Alt+Enter equivalent)
New cell	Moves to the next cell (Tab or Enter equivalent)
Select [word/phrase]	Selects specified word/phrase in cell
Delete [word/phrase]	Deletes specified word/phrase
Undo	Reverts last action
Heart emoji	❤️
Smiley face	🙂
Car emoji	🚗

Mac – Commands for Dictating Text
Dictate Text on iPhone
Microsoft – Voice Typing
Dictate in Microsoft 365
Voice to Text on Android
Dictation – as assistive tech

I used Grok to compile the tables and set them up as .csv files, exported them to Excel, and then pasted them in the WordPress tables.

They’re all pretty similar to each other with a couple of extra commands in Excel and Word. I needed to learn how to set up tables in WordPress, so there you go.

— David

Web Design for Accessibility

Dictation

Dictation – Link Dump