What JS Devs can Learn from Medieval Coats of Arms about A11y
summary
Claim: medieval heraldry already encodes practical accessibility rules — structure contents, avoid dependence on one sense and favor simplicity. Evidence: timeline to 2000 BCE, dozens of regional coat samples (Japanese Mon, Egyptian emblems, Austrian 1915 jumble), legal differences (Denmark criminalizes misuse), ISO symbols cited as a universal tool, and heraldic practices like impalement versus composed shields. Conclusion: these historical designs map to modern UX fixes and generally work as usable patterns.
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chapters (23)
- 0:00Intro
- 0:25Inspiration
- 0:55Overview
- 1:39Accessibility
- 2:39Top 10 Accessibility Practices
- 3:24Structure Contents
- 4:03Coats of Arms
- 5:02Subsets
- 5:13Rights Abuse
- 5:24Criminal Abuse
- 5:37Heraldic Matters
- 5:47Heritable Property
- 6:52Sample Designs
- 8:51What makes a good coat of arms
- 10:09Color Contrast
- 11:05Common Elements
- 12:55Symbols
- 14:30International Organization of Standards
- 15:48Framework
- 16:43Jacobs Log
- 17:41Simplicity
- 20:14Impalement
- 21:07Summary
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