Blog
Total news: 2
Evinced’s accessibility testing solutions triple in adoption
Evinced, a provider of web and mobile accessibility solutions, saw its customer base triple in 2023 on the back of new prevention-focused tools like Unit Tester and Design Assistant. These innovations allow developers and designers to automatically catch accessibility issues long before release, marking a shift for the industry toward prevention versus post-hoc fixes. The company’s impressive expansion has cemented its status as a top accessibility vendor, counting 6 of the 10 largest US and UK financial firms alongside major media, SaaS, retail, and other elite customers among its partners. Evinced’s tools integrate directly into existing developer and design workflows, reducing friction for incorporating accessibility best practices. Unit Tester enables developers to bake WCAG 2.2 AA checks right into component unit tests, delivering compatibility feedback for screen readers, voice control, and keyboard-only usage without ever leaving the dev environment. This promises to eliminate a major pain point, as the critical accessibility issues blocking access for the 2.5 billion assistive tech users have historically been both the most important and time-consuming to validate. Legacy testing approaches address less than 21 percent of relevant screen reader and keyboard problems. Unit Tester checks compatibility automatically, meaning components passing its assessments can deliver nearly complete accessibility for these user groups. On the design side, Design Assistant validates difficult issues like screen reader support within Figma. It also auto-generates development and testing guidelines for each design, greatly easing handoff. “The corporate world’s accessibility approach has basically been to find and fix issues late, but technology can now prevent problems early without disrupting teams,” said Navin Thadani, CEO of Evinced. “Our growth shows the industry embracing more proactive accessibility, which will unlock the web for underserved populations.” With digital accessibility legislation and lawsuits accelerating globally, developers should take note of Evinced’s emphasis on weaving inclusion directly into existing workflows. Unit Tester and Design Assistant exemplify tools that make web accessibility a natural part of building digital products rather than an afterthought. Expect prevention and testing automation to be ongoing themes as organisations aim to efficiently address inclusion at scale.
Date: 2024-02-07
Category: Programming
Open source wins concessions in new EU cyber law
The European Cyber Resilience Act (CRA) has undergone substantial revisions, bringing relief to the open-source community. Back in April, the Python Software Foundation (PSF) had expressed concerns about potential repercussions for CPython and PyPI if the initial form of CRA were to be enacted. The primary worry was that, in the course of providing open-source software, the PSF and the Python community might assume legal responsibility for security issues in products built using the code components they provide freely. Seeking clarity, the PSF called for language exempting public software repositories – such as PyPI – from legal responsibilities. The good news is that the final text of the CRA, solidified on December 1st, introduces the concept of an “open source steward.” This term refers to any legal entity dedicated to providing sustained support for the development of specific products with qualifying free and open-source software elements, ensuring their viability for commercial activities. Crucially, the revised text demonstrates a clearer understanding of how open-source software operates and its value within the broader software development ecosystem. It explicitly states that the provision of free and open-source software products without monetisation is not considered a commercial activity. While this marks a positive step forward, the Python community remains vigilant. The notion of an “open source steward” is a novel concept in European law, necessitating monitoring to ensure its implementation aligns with the intent and realities of open-source development. Additionally, ongoing attention is required as other legislative pieces – such as the Product Liability Directive – may impact the Python ecosystem. The PSF has extended gratitude to Open Forum Europe (OFE) – particularly Ciarán O’Riordan – for facilitating collaboration within the FOSS community. The PSF says OFE’s coordination efforts played a crucial role in ensuring that its concerns were effectively communicated to legislators.
Date: 2024-01-15
Category: Programming