Attended Making the world a better place through web design | WordCamp Orange County

Watched Making the world a better place through web design by Natalie MacLeesNatalie MacLees from WordCamp Orange County 2019
We all know better than to think that design is just about ‘making things look pretty’. But did you ever stop to think about the power you have as a web designer (or developer) to make the world a better place? It’s true! You have the power every single day to help make the world more just and equitable through design thinking and an inclusive mindset. We’ll explore how every person involved in designing and building the web can help lead the way, how to convince others to follow in your footsteps, and how to save yourself from being a plain vanilla designer.
A great way to start off the camp! The idea of inclusive design is a much better way to frame accessibility and related ideas.

Natalie standing next to the podium with a slide from her presentation on the screen behind her that reads "Inclusive design benefits everyone."

👓 If You’re Using The Storefront Theme For Your ECommerce Site, There Are Some Accessibility Improvements In Store For You | Customer Servant Consultancy

Read If You’re Using The Storefront Theme For Your ECommerce Site, There Are Some Accessibility Improvements In Store For You by Amanda RushAmanda Rush (Customer Servant Consultancy)
After a user of the Storefront WordPress theme, (WooCommerce’s default theme), reported accessibility challenges with the theme’s focus outlines and text decoration with regard to links, the Storefront theme has been modified to address the issue with focus outlines by modifying the default outl...

👓 The web we broke. | ethanmarcotte.com

Read The web we broke. by Ethan Marcotte (ethanmarcotte.com)

I read something depressing last Monday, and I can’t stop thinking about it.

At the end of February, WebAIM published an accessibility analysis of the top one million home pages. The results are, in a word, abysmal.

The research underpinning this sounds just dreadful. Fortunately Ethan has links to some great resources for creating a better start on web accessibility.

👓 Adrian Roselli on Twitter: “I just wanted underlines on links on Mastodon, not to write a damn thesis. At least clients *want* your advice. https://t.co/7GLtTUqfjx””

Read a tweet by Adrian RoselliAdrian Roselli (Twitter)
“I just wanted underlines on links on Mastodon, not to write a damn thesis. At least clients *want* your advice. https://t.co/7GLtTUqfjx”

👓 Added underlines to links in toots by aardrian · Pull Request #9898 · tootsuite/mastodon

Read Added underlines to links in toots by aardrian · Pull Request #9898 · tootsuite/mastodon (GitHub)
Link text color is #f1ebff, surrounding text is #ffffff. They have a contrast ratio of 1.2:1. Not only is hard to see links that are so close in color to the text, they also require a pointing devi...
An insane thread to be sure. Some useful information about accessibility here, though one will need to look past a lot of fud.

👓 Optimizing for Accessibility + SEO: Formatting & Link Overlaps | Moz

Read Optimizing for Accessibility + SEO: Formatting & Link Overlaps (Moz)
Do you know the overlaps between SEO and accessibility? If you’re optimizing for search engines, you’re also affecting how people using assistive technologies experience your site. Let's examine the effects and best practices for keyword usage, text formatting, and links.

👓 Converting png files to jpg files while using a screen reader | Amanda Rush

Read Converting png files to jpg files while using a screen reader by Amanda Rush (Customer Servant Consultancy)
The Problem
By default, WordPress supports png files to its media library. However, some hosts, (including mine), will block some filetypes for security reasons. In my case, one of the off-limits filetypes is png (image) files. You can change this by either employing the appropriate filter through c...

👓 Some thoughts on: My Url Is (Episode 3) mostly around applying some indieweb concepts to the web accessibility space | Amanda Rush

Read Some thoughts on: My Url Is (Episode 3) mostly around applying some indieweb concepts to the web accessibility space by Amanda J. RushAmanda J. Rush (Customer Servant Consultancy)
My URL Is is a podcast which features a new guest every two weeks to talk about how they got involved with the IndieWeb and what hopes, goals and aspirations they have for the community and for their website. The guests are a combination of those both new to the IndieWeb and those who have helped bu...
Some interesting thoughts about screen readers here.

As I think about it, I consider how I take for granted just how visual my consumption of websites is. Naturally when I look at a rendered page I can immediately see what is wrong with it while someone with impaired vision may not. What’s missing in either my CMS, my browser, or my bag of tools is a way to visually “see” or indicate the accessibility pieces my own website is missing or when they’re done improperly. If there were visual indicators in my administrative dashboard to tell me that accessibility pieces were missing from a page so that I could tell they were missing, then it would be as painfully obvious to me as if I had inadvertently put a picture in my post sideways. I know if I put a picture in sideways, I’d immediately go into my post, fix the photo, and republish. I know that if my CMS or even my browser was rendering my inaccessible pages to highlight the problems in red (and maybe turning those elements upside down), I’d be far more apt to fix them immediately so that they work not only for my visual bias, but for those who don’t have that luxury.

👓 WordPress 5.0 Has A New Target Release Date, and, it’s… Thursday. I have some thoughts | Customer Servant

Read WordPress 5.0 Has A New Target Release Date, and, it’s… Thursday. I have some thoughts (Customer Servant Consultancy)
For those of you who are reading this in your inbox, the context for this post is the recently-published, (as in yesterday), target release date for WordPress 5.0, which rolls out the new Gutenberg editor. I’d like to say I’m surprised by this, but I’m just not. I find myself asking a few ques...

👓 Gutenberg FAQ | Matt Mullenweg

Read WordPress 5.0: A Gutenberg FAQ by Matt Mullenweg (Matt Mullenweg)
We are nearing the release date for WordPress 5.0 and Gutenberg, one of the most important and exciting projects I’ve worked on in my 15 years with this community. I knew we would be taking a big leap. But it’s a leap we need to take, and I think the end result is going to open up many new oppo...

👓 Lawsuits targeting business websites over ADA violations are on the rise | Los Angeles Times

Read Lawsuits targeting business websites over ADA violations are on the rise (Los Angeles Times)
Hotels, retailers and other businesses are increasingly the target of lawsuits for failing to make their websites compliant with the Americans With Disabilities Act.

👓 WordPress 5.0 needs a different timeline | Joost.blog

Read WordPress 5.0 needs a different timeline by Joost de Valk (Joost.blog)
For the last few months, the WordPress developer community has been moving towards a release of WordPress 5.0. This is the highly anticipated release that will contain the new Gutenberg editing experience. It’s arguably one of the biggest leaps forward in WordPress’ editing experience and its de...

👓 Introducing Trashy.css | CSS Tricks

Read Introducing Trashy.css by Nathan Smith (CSS-Tricks)
It began, as many things do, with a silly conversation. In this case, I was talking with our Front End Technology Competency Director (aka "boss man")
I can’t wait to try this out on some sites. I love that it’s got a browser bookmarklet that will let one test out other sites too.

👓 Faculty champions of accessibility shed doubts about investing time, money | Inside Higher Ed

Read Faculty champions of accessibility shed doubts about investing time, money (Inside Higher Ed)
Faculty members often worry that making digital courses accessible to all students will be too time-consuming or expensive -- but some of their colleagues want to convince them otherwise.

👓 Accessibility concerns large and small dominate conference discussions | Inside Higher Ed

Read Accessibility concerns large and small dominate conference discussions (Inside Higher Ed)
Administrators and professors alike wonder how their institutions' progress in making course content available to all students compares with others, as advocates continue their push.