Playing Sounds with CSS
November 25th, 2019
CSS is the domain of styling, layout, and presentation. It is full of colors, sizes, and animations. But did you know that it could also control when a sound plays on a web page? This article is about a little trick to pull that off. It’s actually a strict implementation of the HTML and CSS,…
We are Programmers
November 22nd, 2019
Building websites is programming. Writing HTML and CSS is programming. I am a programmer, and if you’re here, chances are you’re a programmer, too. The thing is, the details in programming layout with CSS are different, for example, than the details in programming API endpoints with Ruby. Or machine learning with Python. Or programming a…
The New Good Ol’ Days
November 22nd, 2019
Eighteen years into this game, I love to reminisce back to the good ol’ days of the early to mid-2000s when there was an explosion of creativity on the web. It felt fresh and unbridled, with boundaries expected to be pushed at every turn, and they were. This was mainly down to one thing, the…
Growing Accessibility Conversations
November 22nd, 2019
I started this year on a new path at Knowbility — to help people and organizations create accessible content and apps. But what was exciting and helped motivate me more were two things: WebAIM’s Accessibility Analysis of One Million Page Homepages. With over 97% of sites having WCAG failure of some kind, it’s a stinging…
Everything and Nothing
November 22nd, 2019
I’ve been thinking about the question for a solid month now. What about building websites has you interested this year? The question pervaded my solitary thoughts and played in the background during my conversations. I’d love to just tell you the answer I’ve come to, but the more interesting part was my thought journey in…
Smarter Design Systems Tools
November 22nd, 2019
What has me really excited about building websites is largely around design systems and the design tools we use to build them. Though, design systems are certainly not limited to websites. Closing the Gap In the ever-so-hot-right-now world of design systems, one of the most common phrases people use is “bridging the gap” (between designers…
Authorized Translation of WCAG 2.1 in Finnish
November 21st, 2019
Today the World Wide Web Consortium published the Authorized Finnish Translation of Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1, Verkkosisällön saavutettavuusohjeet (WCAG) 2.1. The Lead Translation Organization for this Authorized Translation was the Kehitysvammaliitto ry. Translations in other languages are listed in WCAG 2 Translations. W3C Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) particularly encourages the development of Authorized…
How Building in the Open Can Change Our Industry
November 21st, 2019
I have to admit, I’m a developer who hasn’t built a website. When I first read Chris’s question, I sat in silence for at least a minute. Which technical topic did I want to discuss? A new library, programming language or best practice? Nothing, in particular, came to mind. Is that because I’m a new…
Embrace the Political
November 21st, 2019
The tech industry has long held the belief that technology is apolitical. People are flawed, but the machines? They are neutral. They are pure. This is ridiculous, of course. People make the machines. We write the algorithms that can’t recognize dark skin tones. We decide to downplay or ignore harassment on our platforms. There are…
Emcee Tips for a Conference or Meetup
November 21st, 2019
There are some great resources out there to help conference speakers give better talks, but fewer for people who are preparing to take on the role of emcee at meetup or conference. I’ve been fortunate enough to emcee conferences more than 20 times now, most recently JAMstack_conf which I help organize. I also enjoy hosting…