Open-source & India #13
Accessible Web and your part in it, A11yProject, and Jackfruit Fritters, Paika Akhada in Odisa and Traditional Banana Leaf Plates
What are we discovering this week?
Hey there,
We are jumping into ensuring the websites and apps we make are accessible to everyone, it must cross borders, boundaries, and abilities.
According to WHO about 15% of the world's population lives with some form of disability, of whom 2-4% experience significant difficulties in functioning
The below list of repositories, bookmarklets, and plugins will enable you to start this journey to revisit and experience your apps in a new way. Something that is meant for 15% more people would be able to access. Breaking the mold of thinking that apps are meant for technically savvy people and those who can’t access or understand these apps lack the experience.
The Internet might be available to everyone, and as developers, we have to make sure it is accessible to everyone too.
a11yproject.com
The A11Y Project is a community-driven effort to make digital accessibility easier. Learn the fundamentals and principles behind “accessible design”
Conduct an accessibility audit
This checklist uses The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) as a reference point. This checklist targets many, but not all level A and AA concerns.
Meet the community
Eriol works part-time as the lead designer at The Open Food Network and spends the other days of the week doing freelance projects, open-source design contributions, and then working on their Ph.D. research, which is around humanitarian open-source software and designer contributions.
Explore resources
Tools, books, videos, podcasts, newsletters, even professional help! A lot of people have made a lot of great things to help you out. We collect them to help you discover and explore.
💻: Nunjucks
⭐ 3359 👀 214 🍴 499 💬 39
pa11y
Pa11y is your automated accessibility testing pal. It runs accessibility tests on your pages via the command line or Node.js, so you can automate your testing process. If you need a GUI, you can try Koa11y. It's a desktop application for Windows, OSX, and Linux that uses Pa11y to run accessibility tests.
💻: JavaScript
⭐ 2933 👀 219 🍴 204 💬 39
tota11y
tota11y helps visualize how your site performs with assistive technologies.
The process of testing for accessibility (a11y) is often tedious and confusing. In many cases, developers must have some prior accessibility knowledge to make sense of the results.
Instead, tota11y aims to reduce this barrier of entry by helping visualize accessibility violations (and successes), while educating on best practices.
Easy and informative
tota11y makes it easy to spot some of the most common accessibility violations made by page authors today.
Beyond simply pointing out errors, many tota11y plugins also suggest ways to fix these violations - specifically tailored to your document.
💻: JavaScript
⭐ 4756 👀 221 🍴 300 💬 57
ANDI
A tool to test web content for accessibility and 508 compliance.
What does ANDI do?
Automatically detects accessibility issues
Suggests ways to improve accessibility
Reveals what a screen reader should say for interactive elements
What problem does ANDI solve?
For many web developers, accessibility is unfamiliar and complex territory and therefore often neglected. ANDI bridges the gap between developers and end-users by revealing where accessibility issues occur on the page. To accomplish this, it analyzes the HTML of the web page being testing and extracts accessibility-related markup.
www.ssa.gov/accessibility/andi/help/howtouse.html
💻: JavaScript
⭐ 152 👀 31 🍴 46 💬 16
Colorblindly
Accessibility tool to help developers understand how colorblind users experience their website.
Colorblindly is an extension that helps developers create websites for people with colorblindness by allowing them to simulate the experience those users have on websites.
The extension works by placing a CSS filter over the webpage that modifies color ratios in line with actual types of colorblindness.
💻: JavaScript
⭐ 356 👀 8 🍴 11 💬 1
Akbar
A bookmarklet that simulates various types of users with disabilities. It is an educational tool that will hopefully educate people about web accessibility.
💻: JavaScript
⭐ 29 👀 1 🍴 2 💬 0
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A little about India, the food, the people and the culture
The Food
Halasina Hannina Mulka | Jackfruit Fritters
ಹಲಸಿನ ಹಣ್ಣಿನ ಮುಳ್ಕ
Halasina Hannina Mulka or jackfruit fritters are the deep-fried snacks in almost every malnad and coastal region during this season. Crisp outside and soft inside with the unique flavor from the Jackfruit. Traditionally these fritters or these halasina hannina gaarige are made from soaked rice, jaggery, and jackfruit.
The advantage of this recipe is we don’t have to worry about the quantity of rice we should soak to make the appa.
The People
Paika Akhada
Paika akhada is an Odia term that roughly translates as "warrior gymnasium" or "warrior school". In former times they served as the training schools of the peasant-militias in Odisha, eastern India. Today's paika akhada is used for practicing the traditional physical exercises in addition to the paika dance, a performance art with rhythmic movements and weapons being hit in time to the drum. It incorporates acrobatic maneuvres and the use of the khanda (straight sword), patta (gauntlet-sword), sticks, and other weapons.
Paika akhada were originally the training schools of the paika class of warriors. They were organized into three ranks distinguished by their occupation and the weapons they wielded. These were the Pahari, bearers of shields and the khanda (sword), the Banua who led distant expeditions, and the Dhenkiya – archers who also performed different duties in armies.
The Culture
Traditional Food Served on Banana Leaves
In south India, the use of Banana leaves is handy for most people as it is their substitute for plates in family get-togethers and congregations. Eating on these leaves is not only beneficial in traditional relations but also offers great well-being.
Banana leaves are also utilized in Ayurvedic medicinal preparations. One can get a lot of nutrients through the leaf that is hard to digest by a human when eaten as it is. So, when the hot food is served on the leaves, the polyphenols get activated and are absorbed by the food.