Introduction
This book will assist frontend developers in building accessible e-commerce websites and components.
The MIND Patterns are not a visual design system or CSS framework (à la Material Design or Bootstrap) - they are instead intended to complement those systems & tools with accessibility guidance. We have hopefully made this obvious enough with our very sparse and utilitarian use of style in these examples!
These examples will assist the frontend developer with accessibility, but the source code is not considered to be final, production-ready code. Most examples leave additional steps to complete; typically any CSS styling and JavaScript behaviour that is not specifically related to core functionality or accessibility.
This book is a living, work-in-progress document.
Last Updated: Jun 17th 2020 (combobox)
The book is receiving some long overdue updates! All example code is being converted from jQuery to modern, vanilla JavaScript. All patterns are being reviewed, and brought up to date (where applicable) with the newer WAI-ARIA Authoring Practices 1.1. We also hope to fill in some long-standing gaps in our documentation.
Each pattern follows a progressive enhancement strategy (where applicable), aims to conform to WCAG 2.1 Level AA, and for the most part builds on from the excellent guidance set out in the WCAG Authoring Practices 1.1.
There are 4 main groups of patterns:
Input
These groups spell out the MIND acronym. If you ever wonder what group does a pattern fall into - then use your MIND!
Three other important groups complement our patterns: Structure, Anti-Patterns and Techniques.
Every completed pattern will include:
Introduction
Working examples
Terminology
Best practices
Interaction design
Developer guide
ARIA Reference
The book also contains an appendix section with a list of ARIA Essentials, References, Utilities and FAQ.
There are 4 guiding principles of accessibility, collectively know as POUR:
Perceivable: People experience content in different ways (sight, hearing, and touch). Content needs to be transferable into recognizable (or perceivable) formats.
Operable: Content needs to be navigable (or operable) by multiple methods—not just a mouse
Understandable: Web content needs to be understandable. Language should be simple and concise; functionality should be consistent and intuitive.
Robust: Create web content that works for all (or most!) technologies. This includes operating systems, browsers, and mobile devices.
From a developer perspective, Operable and Robust are the most important principles!
Accessibility testing is performed with latest versions of:
Edge & Narrator
Internet Explorer & JAWS
Safari & VoiceOver
Firefox & NVDA
Chrome & Chromevox
NOTE: We do not support Internet Explorer 10 and below; this allows us more time to focus on accessibility matters, rather than cross-browser issues.
Don't feel like reading? You can, if you wish, dive straight into the working examples.
