Journal

I’ve just read The A11Y Project’s page on alt text.

As most of us know, the HTML alt attribute is for providing “alternate text” descriptions of images to help ensure people do not miss out on information conveyed by graphics. This can help people using assistive technology such as screen readers, and in situations where images are slow or fail to load.

The article made some interesting points and even though I’ve been using the alt attribute for years I found three common cases where I could improve how I do things.

Here’s a list of factoids describing societal harms caused by technology platforms, each supported by a citation.

Under immense pressure to prioritize engagement and growth, technology platforms have created a race for human attention that’s unleashed invisible harms to society. Here are some of the costs that aren’t showing up on their balance sheets.

When advocating accessible web practices for a commercial website, the question of “what does the law require us to do?” invariably arises.

Here’s an interesting tool for creating and sharing small-ish web pages without having to build a website or organise hosting.

itty.bitty takes html (or other data), compresses it into a URL fragment, and provides a link that can be shared. When it is opened, it inflates that data on the receiver’s side.

Hidde de Vries explains why an HTML heading should never be immediately followed by another.

When you use a heading element, you set the expectation of content.

I watched Netflix’s documentary The Social Dilemma the other night. It’s been generating a bit of a buzz, and its subject matter – the effects of social media – is one I’m generally interested in. However, I wasn’t a fan.

An interesting BBC podcast on the history and true nature of the cloud.

We connect to the cloud, think of it as place-less, a digital “elsewhere” for storing and retrieving our data, content and memories. But far from being immaterial, the cloud is a vast, physical network made up of concrete, silicon and steel, of earthbound server farms, subterranean data centres and cables beneath the sea. It is not a publicly owned space or digital 'commons'. It is a multi-billion dollar, private infrastructure dominated by some of the world’s most powerful companies—principally Amazon, Microsoft and Google. The cloud exists within the same geography that we do: a patchwork of national and legal jurisdictions, which determine—most of the time—what it can and cannot do.

The aria-label and aria-labelledby attributes do the same thing but in different ways. Sometimes the two attributes are confused and this has unintended results. This post describes the differences between them and how to choose the right one.

I watched Tenet again last night (in IMAX with Jamie) and second time round it all made sense.

I’m available for limited logo design projects. Just the logo. Limited back-and-forth. Reasonable price. With a particular focus on elevating small businesses that can’t or don’t want to hire a full-blown agency. Let’s keep this simple.