July 2026 - Sheri Byrne-Haber's Blog

A computer with a completely white screen sitting on a wooden desk surrounded by foliage

The Problem with Blanks for People Who Are Blind or Low Vision

A sighted person glances at an empty space and reads it as part of a whole. A screen reader user lands on that same empty space and reads it as a question: Is this blank on purpose, did something just…

The Problem with Blanks for People Who Are Blind or Low Vision

So, Your WordPress Theme Isn’t Accessible: How to Fix It Using a Phased Plan That Survives Updates

You love your WordPress theme. It took hours to get everyone to agree on it. You’ve poured blood, sweat, and tears into getting your content just right. But it isn’t accessible. Maybe you are a Title II organization staring…

Partial Accessibility Is Sometimes Worse Than No Accessibility at All

To people who do not use assistive technology, partial accessibility sounds like a reasonable compromise. Some access is better than none, the thinking goes, and an organization that fixed half its problems is surely better than one that fixed nothing.…

WIIFM: The Motivational Question Behind Every Accessibility Conversation

Every person sitting through your accessibility presentation is silently asking the same question: “What’s In It For Me?” They may not say it out loud. They may even agree with you in principle. WIIFM might be hidden in other thoughts,…

The Faces Age Verification Cannot Read

TL;DR: Half of U.S. states now require online age verification, and the systems doing the verifying were not built with disabled faces in mind. Age verification is having a moment in the United States. Half the states now require it…

GAAD 2026: Not Much to Celebrate, Yet

Tomorrow is Global Accessibility Awareness Day. If you are expecting a post full of colored banners, virtual events, and “let’s raise awareness!” energy, keep looking, this is not that post. Disability advocates across the US are exhausted, and we have…

Know Your Accessibility Testers Before You Need To

Most accessibility managers have a vague sense of who their strongest team members are and, similarly, who the weakest are. Vagueness stops being good enough the moment a layoff list lands on your desk or a high-stakes audit is staffed…

You can’t audit your way into accessibility culture change

Accessibility audits play a clear and useful role in modern software development, yet teams often assign them far more influence to them than they can realistically deliver. Audits occur at the end of the software development lifecycle, after product decisions…

Think About What You Feed Into Generative AI BEFORE The Demand Letter Arrives

You have been using generative AI to do your job better. You asked it to turn a 300-line bug spreadsheet into a readable executive summary for your leadership team. You used it to draft test plans for a new procurement…

Two SDNY Decisions in One Week Show Courts Are Done Messing around with Questionable Accessibility Litigation

Courts in SDNY have been showing their impatience with repetitive, cookie-cutter accessibility lawsuits for years. Two decisions from the Southern District of New York were issued last week. Together, they send a message that the accessibility field has needed to…

Month: July 2026