Florian

It takes skill to break the #accessibility of an event before it has even begun.
#TryHackMe have already managed it with the #AOC2025 page using a countdown that makes #screenReaders read the new countdown value every time it changes, which is every second. This essentially means it has no chance to say anything else, like, for example, the contents of the actual page.

I'm impressed. The TryHarder mentality hard at work here. Amazing job.

#snark #adventOfCyber #adventOfCyber2026 #hacking #tech

Dec 1 at 5:31pmWeb
Show threadFlorianDec 4
Praise where praise is due though, I'm leafing through the tasks so far and a lot of my feedback from previous years DOES appear to have been taken into account this year. Images generally have alt text, files appear to be downloadable at least so far when you need them to be, ssh is available without having to do dumb hacks to enable it first. Color me pleasantly surprised so far (day 2). #tryHackMe #thm #AOC2026 #adventOfCyber #accessibility
Show threadMostlyBlindGamerDec 1
@zersiax you’re getting updates - to the second! It’s amazing!
Show threadChronocideDec 1
@zersiax Out of curiousity, how could this be handled better? Would you consider the counter decorative and not expose it to the screen reader, for example? Or only announce the changes when focussed?
Show threadFlorianDec 1
@chronocide there is very little reason for this to be firing aria-live events the way it is doing right now. What I am suspecting is happening is that a component that normally does fire aria-live events, like the task progress bar, the status alert that gets filled when a question is answered etc., was repurposed for the counter, and they just never tested it.
There's a unber of ways this could've been handled better. Best way would probably be to just update it without firing aria-live, that way if you land on it you can see it tick down but not when you're not actively looking at it. The current experience is akin to the entire screen being covered by the numbers of the countdown every second , covering up the text you're trying to read.
Show threadChronocideDec 1
@zersiax I wonder if anyone ever tests these things with screenreaders :(
Show threadFlorianDec 1
@chronocide Many don't. But given these kinds of thinggs can get you sued/reported in both Europe and the United States these days, many probably should :)