Introduction

Introducing the eBay MIND Patterns

This book will assist frontend developers in building accessible e-commerce websites and components.

The MIND Patterns are not to be confused with a visual design system, CSS framework or JavaScript library. Our patterns are instead intended to complement those systems by acting as foundational accessibility guidance.

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; which typically will be 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.

TL;DR?

Don't feel like reading? You can, if you wish, dive straight into the working examples.

Pattern Philosophy

Each pattern follows a progressive enhancement strategy (where applicable), aims to conform to WCAG 2.2 Level AA, and for the most part builds on from the excellent guidance set out in the ARIA Authoring Practices Guide (APG).

Pattern Organisation

There are four main groups of component-related patterns:

  1. Messaging

  2. Input

  3. Navigation

  4. Disclosure

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 the above patterns:

We have not yet incorporated these three groups into any kind of clever or witty acronym (which is disappointing, I know).

Pattern Contents

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.

Pattern Principles

There are 4 guiding principles of accessibility, collectively know as POUR:

  1. Perceivable: People experience content in different ways (sight, hearing, and touch). Content needs to be transferable into recognizable (or perceivable) formats.

  2. Operable: Content needs to be navigable (or operable) by multiple methods—not just a mouse

  3. Understandable: Web content needs to be understandable. Language should be simple and concise; functionality should be consistent and intuitive.

  4. Robust: Create web content that works for all (or most!) technologies. This includes operating systems, browsers, and mobile devices.

Testing

Accessibility testing is performed with latest versions of:

  • Chrome & JAWS

  • Firefox & NVDA

  • Safari & VoiceOver

JavaScript Utilities

Much of the common accessibility logic in our MIND Pattern examples comes courtesy of MakeupJS - a suite of vanilla, headless UI JavaScript modules - tailored specifically for building accessible user interfaces in a frontend framework agnostic manner. For example, implementing a keyboard roving tab index or dialog window modality.

License

eBay MIND Patterns is released under the CC-BY-SA 4.0 license.

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