Laura Kalbag @laura@mastodon.laurakalbag.com

‪(East) Londoners! I’m on a panel about ethics in design on Monday night. Come say hello if you’re going to be there. Tickets are free, but it looks like you’ll want to be there nice and early to get a seat! https://www.itsnicethat.com/news/spotify-design-designing-for-tomorrow-event-100119‬

Still stuck resting, thanks to flu straining the tissue between my ribs. But I’m being kept company by this majestic fool (and being cared for by @aral.)

‪Starting 2019 with the flu has been less than ideal. I’m terrible at resting so keep making myself worse. Promise I will get back to commitments/updates for @betterblocker as soon as I can.‬

‪If I say “decentralised technology,” what is the first use case that comes into your mind? (No wrong answers, just curious!)‬

‪If I lived in/around London, I would be at this event with bells on. If you’ve not yet heard of surveillance capitalism, this would be the perfect introduction, with the woman who coined the term:‬

‪https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/surveillance-capitalism-shoshana-zuboff-and-misha-glenny-tickets-53865843187‬

‪(Hat-tip to @adamprocter )‬

Also a break from my usual preferred genre of post-apocalyptic dollhouse.

‪Stardew Valley has given me joy and much-needed distraction. It’s sweet and gentle, independent designer/developer and well-adapted for mobile. Just noticed it’s 50% off in the App Store, so worth a look! (I believe it’s also available on other platforms)‬

‪https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/stardew-valley/id1406710800?mt=8‬

Road trip from Cork to Surrey is going well. @gigapup is scoring 4/5 for car behaviour, though I’d generously award him 2/5 for the duration on the ferry.

Day after day of greatness from 24accessibility. Today, @ericwbailey explaining accessibility of web components in a clear, thorough (yet concise) way. Also there’s an audio version! https://www.24a11y.com/2018/web-components-still-need-to-be-accessible/

My first attempt at doing this from scratch, I’ve made a little gingerbread shack. (Photo by @aral, including a sneaky Osky begging in the background.)

This time of year is great for my RSS reader. 24accessibility 24ways and Notist are especially fab.

Endless practical advice coming from 24accessibility this year. Just read ‘I Threw Away my Mouse’ (inspired by Laura Carvajal) by Manuel Matuzović and it has so many examples of common issues and best-practice corrections for keyboard navigation.

https://www.24a11y.com/2018/i-threw-away-my-mouse/

‪Have any folks using macOS (especially Mojave) found a workable replacement for Dragon dictation? They have helpfully told my brother they won’t support Mojave and will no longer continue development for macOS just two months after charging him £200 for the software 😡‬

Because I’ve been living under a social media rock, I didn’t realise there was an update to @heydon’s Inclusive Components book. Inclusive modal dialogs! (Useful after all the whinging I’ve done about modals lately…)

Only €18, you should treat yourself:

http://book.inclusive-components.design

‪Safari folks: use “Request Desktop Site” from the iOS share menu to nope your way out of amp pages.‬

‪(Do this before sharing URLs to protect your friends from Google tracking too.)‬

On the topic of these consent flows, here you can see an approved GDPR-compliant flow. It’s not worth it. It’s impossible to make a good experience out of gaining consent for collecting people’s personal data. It’s too risky and expensive to build a business model from it.

https://techcrunch.com/2018/12/13/this-early-gdpr-adtech-strike-puts-the-spotlight-on-consent/

‪I’m now sold on booking conference travel ourselves, thanks to Rachel Andrew ‬

‪https://be.noti.st/2018/travel-tips-for-public-speakers‬

Another goodie on 24ways, @scottohara covering ‘Inclusive Considerations When Restyling Form Controls’

https://24ways.org/2018/inclusive-considerations-when-restyling-form-controls/