An important aspect of running a WordCamp is having a good website. That’s where all your attendees, speakers, sponsors, and volunteers will interact with you before and at the event. We’re lucky to have a number of tools built into the WordCamp environment, but the “locked-down” nature of the sites can make it hard to […]
Continue reading "Local Development for WordCamp Websites"Accessibility for WordCamps
In the past year or so, web accessibility has finally been getting the attention it needs. Last year, afercia was granted commit to WordPress core based on his accessibility work. The WordPress Accessibility team has put together standards for core development to ensure future features are accessible. Almost every WordCamp had at least one presentation on why accessibility (or a11y) is important and how to get started.
I would love to see this same attention paid to accessibility at our WordCamps and meetups.
A quick story: At WordCamp US, I took refuge in the quiet area for a while one afternoon. While I was sitting there, a few other people came through and sat on the other side of the space. I never got their names, and for the most part didn’t pay any attention to them. As I was leaving, I caught a little of their conversation. They were talking about the event so far, and one woman mentioned that she was new to WordPress (or maybe new to development), but was hoping to learn a lot more here; that our industry would provide her new job opportunities, because she couldn’t move around very well, and with WordPress, she could get a job working from home.
Considering that the unemployment rate for people with disabilities is twice that for non-disabled people, the fact that our community can provide employment opportunities that work where “traditional” jobs fall short is great. However – if our events are inaccessible, how will new people learn about all the things they can do?
Anadama, A React Recipe Theme
The other week I started playing with a React-based theme using the REST API. The idea is a very simple recipe blog – no comments, no widgets, just a list of post titles on the home page and a pop-up card with the recipe content. Designed by Mel Choyce (of course), the inspiration was vintage […]
Continue reading "Anadama, A React Recipe Theme"Some good Boston moving advice
Do I really need to return to winter in Boston?
