Categories
LIfe

The Power of Silence, Part 1

The 2020-21 NFL season kicked off this week. I write this having just watched the Seattle Seahawks beat the Atlanta Falcons in an empty stadium. The TV broadcast included fake crowd noises that were somewhat effective for manufacturing a sense of excitement, but a little off in their cadence and authenticity. The kickoff event of […]

Categories
LIfe

Pulling the Plug on Peakware.com

The idea for Peakware was spawned in 1994 on the summit of Mount Elbert, the highest mountain in Colorado and the second highest in the lower 48 states. This was was my first fourteener (mountains higher than 14,000 feet), and I was hooked. I loved the physical challenge of hiking more than 10 miles and […]

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A11y

March Madness 2020 (in May, with Web Accessibility instead of Hoops)

In 2020, COVID-19 upended society in countless ways, including the cancelling of the annual NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament. This meant cancelling my annual Accessible Tournament Bracket and pool, which is something I always look forward to. Fast forward to May. I’m giving a presentation at the HighEdWeb Accessibility Summit on Accessible Navigation Menus, based in […]

Categories
A11y

Dropdown Menus 2020: Menus are not menus

In the comments on my previous blog post, Adrian Roselli called me out for my claim that the “menu” design pattern in the W3C’s WAI-ARIA Authoring Practices is the right way to code a navigation menu. This is an issue that has plagued me for at least a decade, maybe more. My first blog post […]

Categories
A11y

Squarespace, Wix, & Weebly: Accessibility Review

While watching the Kansas City Chiefs win Super Bowl LIV last night, one of the most effective commercials for me was the one from Squarespace, featuring Winona Ryder sitting roadside in the snow with her laptop. A local law enforcement officer shows up and they have an exchange that’s reminiscent of Fargo. The commercial isn’t […]