vragen.ai strengthens digital accessibility with new WCAG updates
New WCAG updates make vragen.ai easier to use with assistive technology such as screen readers and keyboard navigation.
Jelle Glebbeek AI Developer
1 min read
We tested the standard front-end implementation of vragen.ai ourselves for accessibility. That way, organizations using vragen.ai through the standard integration start from a solid, accessible foundation. At SWIS we have been working actively on digital accessibility for some time. Every development team has at least one developer trained in WCAG, and accessibility is a fixed part of how we work. This step for vragen.ai fits that well.
What does this mean for customers?
We improved the standard vragen.ai integration further, so it meets the WCAG guidelines more closely. Implement vragen.ai as it comes and the foundation is accessible. Do you adjust the styling or the front end yourself, with your own colors or components? Then keeping to the WCAG guidelines is on you as well.
Improvements in this release
In this release we made the vragen.ai interface more accessible on several fronts. Keyboard accessibility is better: elements that only responded to hover can now be reached through focus with keyboard navigation. Users can also give feedback entirely from the keyboard. At the same time, invisible elements can no longer be selected with the tab key.
We extended screen reader support as well. Buttons such as copy, regenerate and rate now have clear text labels, so screen readers explain more clearly what each one does. While answers are being generated, we give status updates through ARIA live regions. That way users hear when vragen.ai is working and when an answer is ready. We also link information from source elements to ARIA descriptions, so it gets read out too.
Finally we improved the structure and navigation of the interface. We now use a logical heading structure without unnecessary H1 elements. Interactive elements have a clearly visible focus state, so users always see where the keyboard focus is.
Next step
The next step is getting screen readers to read answers out automatically in the right language. With that improvement, vragen.ai lines up even better with international guidelines for digital accessibility.