No longer actively posting here. Work stuff on LinkedIn, personal stuff on Mastodon.
Dec 31, 2020 • 16 tweets • 3 min read
Today is the Adobe Flash end of life date.
I come to bury Flash, not to praise it.
As an animation platform, Flash launched the web into new directions. But once it became a UX platform, without the structure of web or OS apps, it left millions behind. (thread)
Flash launched (as FutureSplash) in 1995 as an animation tool. It was released as a browser plugin in 1996. And people started to make really innovative animations with it right out of the gate.
The problems started when people tried to make entire sites with it.
CSUN CoD is a small training org inside a university that funds itself -- ta-da! -- by running a conference.
Understand that this may (already?) be a severe to existential threat to the conference and/or the center.
THREAD
I know it sucks to walk away from a $500+ registration (much less a sponsorship). But the coronavirus is out of their control.
There are also LOTS of attendees who are 50+ and/or have respiratory/immune conditions.
And Disneyland is next door.
It's a bad situation.
Oct 27, 2019 • 9 tweets • 3 min read
Hi #a11yScotland folx. Thank you for organizing an amazing conference. I'm home in Seattle but want to share some of the links from my talk for you to have a look. (Thread)
Matthieu Ricard and the MRI measurement of empathy vs. compassion: garrisoninstitute.org/blog/less-empa…
Jun 5, 2019 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
Accessibility pro tip:
Engineers can't solve #a11y problems that are rooted in faulty business or design decisions. They can _make compliant code_ to cover over those decisions. But it won't result in fundamentally better software if it's not conceived with inclusion in mind.
As an engineer, I spent a good chunk of my career trying to make other engineers my allies. But if they're always directed to the most expedient implementation and never recognized for making it accessible, for them it's a fool's errand. They'll burn out, and so will you.
Jan 23, 2019 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
THREAD: Captions are one of the greatest inclusive design success stories.
The first closed captioning decoder, made in 1980, cost ~$750 in today's dollars. TV not included.
That provided access to 15 hours a week of captioned broadcasts TOTAL across ABC, NBC and PBS.
Today, thanks to US law, every >13" TV sold since 1993 has a decoder. Every TV show broadcast since 2002 has required captions. Those captions now have to carry over to online distribution. And as of 1/1/19, video games require captions, too.
