Laura Kalbag @laura@mastodon.laurakalbag.com

@david I believe progressive enhancement is the way to go… but that opinion might get me drowned as a witch in certain circles…

Or should that be…

Tech boys… websites as fragile as their javascript-riddled egos.

This toot brought to you by my work this afternoon:

Q: “Why does the content not load on this site?”
A: Third-party JS!
Q: “Why are all the links on this site broken?”
A: Third-party JS!

Text and links should not require another person’s JavaScript to work.

Tech boys… egos as fragile as their javascript-riddled websites.

@Syst https://www.thedailymash.co.uk/

Does selecting “Whatever” constitute consent? 🤔

@conatus it’s Thursday! I read the dates wrong. It sounds great. And if you want to learn more on the topic… 😉 https://abookapart.com/products/accessibility-for-everyone

Pretty immense lineup for Inclusive Design 24, and it’s free with no registration required! Know what I’ll be doing this THURSDAY…

(Corrected because I am bad at timezones)

https://inclusivedesign24.org/2020/schedule/

Turns out that I still get nervous before an online conference talk! But I’m set up and ready to go for SmashingConf! (Thanks @aral for the photo.)

https://smashingconf.com/freiburg-2020/

Lots of me talking about “data transparency” and how I don’t think transparency is enough:

https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/digitaliberties/designing-data-transparency-ideas-from-the-community/

@humanetech @aral I spoke to them about this. Apparently they’re working on it…

@dosch it wasn’t me, but that does look familiar!

@dosch If I just designed for the “average” eyesight (whatever that is—the idea of “average” is a whole other problem!) I might choose a 12pt font size (fairly standard in a lot of text editors) and while that would work fine for a bunch of people, it actively exclude anyone who struggles to read small text.

@dosch makes perfect sense to me!

One example I’d use for this is font size. If I use a nice big 18pt font size, it won’t just help people who can’t read the text without a big font, it’ll help nearly everyone read the text better…

Making myself a little web tool and using a whole range of stuff that @ChrisFerdinandi’s Vanilla JS Academy taught me.

I struggled with JavaScript for a decade so I really would recommend it for anyone who needs a big friendly confidence-booster.

The projects also have a focus on accessibility and writing great HTML. All the good stuff!

It’s also a really friendly, inclusive and supportive community (and I don’t say any of those words lightly!)

https://vanillajsacademy.com

These two ❤️

A few weeks ago I recorded a short video for the NYC School’s Tech Summit and the Eastern Partnership Civil Society Hackathon about accessibility in 2020. A lot of work went into it, so I thought I may as well share it with everyone!

https://laurakalbag.com/accessibility-in-2020/

@jmichael @IceWolf Also, I live in Ireland and lots of non-white people live here. Race is absolutely a construct, and very few of us can be certain of our heritage (particularly those whose ancestors were enslaved and taken to other countries), but that doesn’t stop racism from existing and primarily affecting Black people, indigenous people and other people of colour in Europe, North America and the Australian continent.

@jmichael @IceWolf why am I not for real because I don’t check my replies quickly enough? I’m singling out white and white-passing people because they are afforded more opportunities in the tech industry at the expense of non-white people. Yes, choosing speakers by a person’s race/perceived race is not the perfect way to make the industry more equitable, but it’s a concrete step towards addressing our existing biases and increasing representation.

Sometimes lineups aren’t finalised when you’re asked to speak. This is a poor excuse. Specify that you will pull out of an event if you find yourself on an all-white lineup.