WCAG @ 25 and three blog posts

Hello!

After a good run of monthly newsletters, this one restores the normalcy of irregular publishing. And the reason is that I have not many big picture thoughts at the moment. There’s a lot going on with my clients at Axess Lab (Si apre in una nuova finestra) (which turned 10 just a few weeks ago 🥳), so the bandwidth for blog posts and these newsletters has been limited.

I have been working on making changes to yatil.net (Si apre in una nuova finestra), but the progress has been slow. I’ve taken a few days off to recharge the batteries and sit by lakes (Si apre in una nuova finestra) and such things.

Thanks, as always, to the members that support this newsletter, the blog, and the YouTube channel with their hard-earned cash. There are now eight of you.

WCAG is 25 years old now! 🥳

On May 5, 1999, WCAG 1.0 (Si apre in una nuova finestra) was released. It kick-started accessibility on the web and laid the foundation for WCAG 2. Congrats to everyone involved in those years!

While the web should always be more accessible, I doubt that we would have reached the level of access without those guidelines and the halo effect they had on other web standards and best practices. We also wouldn’t have as unified of a legislation without them.

Three new(-ish) blog posts

I have published three blog posts since the last newsletter:

• Access by a thousand curb cuts (Si apre in una nuova finestra) — Some people claim that “accessibility did not work out” and we need different approaches. While I think that there is a grain of truth in that, it’s also a great simplification. Accessibility doesn’t just happen overnight. (March 9, 2024)

• Be anti-ableist (Si apre in una nuova finestra) — Where I argue that being not ableist is not enough, as that can reinforce the current conditions. To make accessibility successful, we must counteract ableism whenever we can. (April 5, 2024)

• “AI” won’t solve accessibility (Si apre in una nuova finestra) — As more and more applications put “AI” into their applications, the topic of “when will AI be good enough so I don’t have to care about (some aspects of) accessibility” comes up with clients and in random discussions. And the reality is probably never. Some “transformative AI” (most “AI” are transformer models) can be super useful. MacWhisper works great for transcripts of my meetings and when I do off the cuff videos. They are good enough for ephemeral content, but if I published a proper YouTube video, I would certainly double and triple check the output. (April 5, 2024)

If past behavior is any indication, writing this newsletter often sparks new thoughts and blog post. And if you would rather not wait 8 weeks until I get around to writing a newsletter about them, I generally cross post them on LinkedIn (Si apre in una nuova finestra) and Mastodon (Si apre in una nuova finestra), and the blog has an RSS Feed (Si apre in una nuova finestra).

Parting Words

Thanks again to everyone who has subscribed to this newsletter and to all members, you rock!

I hope y’all have a great May, including an effective Global Accessibility Action Day. Take care.

👋 Eric

Socials

My primary social media/Fediverse/Mastodon handle is @yatil@yatil.social (Si apre in una nuova finestra), and you can also find me on LinkedIn (Si apre in una nuova finestra).