The best of axe-con 2025

axe-con is the annual, virtual, free, digital accessibility conference presented by Deque Systems. This was my fifth time attending the event, and as usual, it did not disappoint. Here’s a rundown of some of my favorite sessions from axe-con 2025.

Each heading below links to the YouTube video for its corresponding session. At the time of this writing, axe-con 2025 session videos are not linked from Deque’s YouTube page. To watch other session videos from the conference, you can register for an axe-con account, view the conference agenda, and follow the links in the schedule to the session videos you want to view.

The Digital Accessibility Legal Landscape with Lainey Feingold

Lainey delivers a thorough overview of the current a11y legal environment, including federal, state, and global laws. There are simultaneously several encouraging and deeply concerning developments unfolding.

Here’s the good news.

• The European Accessibility Act (EAA) goes into effect this June and has global impact, requiring products created in any country worldwide and offered in the EU to be accessible.
• The ADA Web + Mobile Rule gives teeth to the Americans with Disabilities Act when it comes to federal, state, and local websites and apps.
• Attorneys General from 16 states have issued a public statement affirming that DEIA is lawful and best practice.

And the not-so-good news.

• The Trump administration issued an executive order ending DEI programs in the federal government, emboldening several large corporations to do the same.
• 17 states filed a lawsuit against Section 504 which protects disability rights for healthcare, education, and more. The lawsuit is directly aimed at removing the classification of gender dysphoria as a disability, but it also seeks to overturn the law entirely

Lainey maintains an optimistic tone throughout her presentation, emphasizing that digital accessibility is a civil right. She highlights the strong legal protections in place for people with disabilities in the US despite the challenging political climate. She also stresses the importance of proactive measures and community advocacy. I really appreciate her digital accessibility joy plan, which provides a great strategy for staying positive during these chaotic times.

Favorite quote: "Don’t obey in advance." – Timothy Snyder, On Tyranny

Inclusive Design Patterns for 2025 with Vitaly Friedman from Smashing Magazine

Vitaly explores the latest concerns and techniques for creating more accessible and user-friendly designs. He kicks off his presentation with practical tips for accommodating color-blind and motion-sensitive users.

• Prefer blue hues and ensure significant lightness variation between colors.
• Align animations with natural physics (i.e. avoid horizontal scrolling with the mouse wheel).
• Provide controls to toggle or skip motion and animations.

My favorite part of this session is about designing for Gen Z. Vitaly shared several fascinating observations about how people born between 1995 and 2010 behave online.

• A large portion of Gen Z is mobile-only, not just mobile-first.
• They typically ignore or close cookie banners and other popups or ads.
• They turn on closed captioning by default.
• They prefer social sign-in and authentication mechanisms.
• They like bold and vibrant color schemes.
• They are likely to trust only verified reviews.
• They are open-minded and happy to share feedback.
• They care about diversity, inclusion, sustainability, and accessibility and expect these to be the default experience.

Vitaly argues that the best way to reach Gen Z with our designs is to be authentic and show what matters by organizing the relevant content when and where it is needed. For example, why not embed a newsletter sign up form into a product detail page just above the "Add to Cart" button instead of putting it in a noisy popup that will just be dismissed?

Vitaly rounds out his talk by addressing design needs of the aging population. There are currently one billion people in the world age 60 or older, and they want large fonts and target areas, high-contrast visuals, and clear descriptions to help them be independent.

Favorite quote: "Gen Z…is an incredible example of an accessibility-first generation. "

It’s Alive! Facing The Monsters of Accessible Live Regions by Daniel Yuschick

Daniel unpacks the importance of live regions in web accessibility using the running example of a Zombie named Romero who uses a screen reader to shop an undead cuisine e-commerce site.

At a technical level, live regions are HTML tags whose contents are announced to screen readers and other assistive technologies when they change. Daniel explains that live regions are the bridge between real-time updates and real-world people. They communicate vital information to users who cannot perceive modifications to content on a webpage.

There are a few ways to implement live regions, each well-suited for different purposes.

• The aria-live attribute flags an element as a generic live region whose entire contents will be announced when they are updated. It works well for communicating shorter messages but isn’t the best choice for larger bodies of content, such as predictive search results that change with every letter typed.

• Accessible roles (assigned with the role="alert" and role="status attributes) only announce updates to the content within an element. This makes them more nuanced than aria-live; they can be used to convey the most relevant data, such as the number of results returned in predictive search. Accessible roles also work with other ARIA attributes such as aria-labelledby, which further increases their flexibility.

• The <output> HTML tag is ideal for communicating the result of an action. It connects to an input field and (with a little JavaScript) announces its contents when the value of the input changes. For example, an <output> tag in a shopping cart application might contain the total cost of an item which gets announced whenever the item’s quantity is updated.

Favorite quote: "Accessibility is the difference between including or excluding people, even zombies, from modern life." – Romero the Zombie.

Did you attend axe-con 2025? What were your favorite sessions?