Software development and the “doctrine of foreseeable misuse.” There is a portion of the American legal system under the category of negligence called “strict product liability,” also referred to as SPL. Under SPL, anyone in the product chain (seller, distributor, or…
Technology doesn’t make accessibility hard. People who don’t care do.
Everything that makes accessibility difficult ties back to one root cause: People not giving a damn about others who are different. These are the different categories of people you will run into in corporate settings that will make life difficult…
My top 10 favorite disability/ accessibility articles of the year
Picking your favorite articles when you’ve written 145 of them in the past 12 months is like picking your favorite kids. After I was named the UX Collective Medium author of 2020, I was asked on LinkedIn to post a list…
An open letter to the Medium powers-that-be on accessibility
The new design changes are pretty, but the experience for people with disabilities using assistive technology is still quite poor, especially for authors. Accessibility is the ability of people with disabilities to use software or consume information equally to people…
Accessibility and Design Thinking don’t work together automatically
Here are some strategies to make sure PwDs are not excluded. Note that this article does not address the question “should you be using Design Thinking at all?” — there are two very distinct camps on opposite ends of the…
How to discuss accessibility during a design/UI/UX interview or portfolio review
There are a gazillion articles on how to do a good job reviewing your design portfolio. None of them talk about accessibility. Portfolio reviews are the penultimate step in the design/UI/UX interview process. It’s a chance to show your work,…
Online Mentoring
Why giving back should be the obligation of everyone who has had the privilege to be successful. The better part of three decades ago, I was a UNIX geek in Calgary, Alberta, with a couple of part-time jobs — CS…
Why US law effectively mandates all software design be responsive
Your employer/client can spend a lot of time and money on lawsuits and rework if you don’t follow this one simple rule. Smashing Magazine defines “responsive design” as an approach where design responds to the user’s behavior and environment based on…
Accessibility is not an “add-on” service
It is not possible to be a “contact center” which also provides high-quality accessibility services. It just doesn’t work that way. Every week I get a handful of unsolicited LinkedIn messages from people/companies I’ve never heard of, almost always from…
Don’t just design accessible products, build accessible experiences
Use your user journeys to map out all employee and customer touchpoints and make sure they are all accessible. Design accessible products “What the heck is offensive about that, Sheri?” you are probably saying to yourself. Followed by “Duh, isn’t…