Digital Accessibility Specialist
I m going to start with a story about a bad day I had at a previous job. I m not going to share which job or the name of who was involved, because that s not really important. For as happy as I am to talk up great ex-coworkers, I see no reason to air my grievances [ ] The post Shifting and shuffling appeared first on Beth DeConinck .
Personal journeys My favorite part of working in accessibility is learning about my colleagues journey into this field. I m especially interested in the career paths of colleagues who, like me, don t have a disability or someone close to us with a disability. Very few schools teach about accessibility (although groups like Teach Access are trying [ ] The post On matters of accessibility appeared…
I mostly use this website to write about work stuff, but this seems like the right place for a small personal announcement: I’m transgender. Moving forward, I’ll be using the name Beth with she/her pronouns. I know this may be a strange thing to adjust to for some people, especially those who have known me for a long [ ] The post Some personal news appeared first on Beth DeConinck .
Last week, a tech entrepreneur named Sahil Lavingia published DOGE Days, which reflected on the almost two months that he spent as part of Elon Musk s Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, within the Trump administration. Lavingia spent his 55 days of DOGE employment embedded with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. Last week, I [ ] The post The hero of my own story appeared first on…
After last November, I heard a number of people in my professional life say things like good UX isn t political or building products that work for everyone isn t political or even accessibility isn t political. When the new administration issued an executive order targeting DEIA programs, I heard people express shock that the A stands for [ ] The post The politics of accessibility appeared first…
Summary: A discussion of some problems with VPATs and ACRs and their role in the procurement process for government and large organizations. From that discussion, I ll also put forward the kind of accessibility documentation that I think would be more valuable when purchasing a product. In the Ad Hoc Insights blog post about state and [ ] The post What s wrong with VPATs? appeared first on Beth…
Note: This post was originally published on the Ad Hoc Insights blog. It was removed in February 2025 when company leadership determined that featuring accessibility content on the website could jeopardize contracts with the new U.S. presidential administration. Take that as you will. (with Mark Headd) The Department of Justice (DOJ) recently finalized a new rule that [ ] The post The DOJ’s new…
Summary: A response to Jakob Nielsen s blog post declaring accessibility to have failed and proposing an artificial intelligence-based solution. I critique his claims and his solution, and identify what I perceive to be a fundamental misconception of what accessibility is. I have observed that the more important you become, the more susceptible you are to [ ] The post Jakob Nielsen s Bad Ideas…
Note: This post was originally published on the Ad Hoc Insights blog. It was removed in February 2025 when company leadership determined that featuring accessibility content on the website could jeopardize contracts with the new U.S. presidential administration. Take that as you will. OMB memo M-24-08 sets aggressive deadlines for advancing digital accessibility. Here’s how [ ] The post How to…
Summary: A response to the misapplication of Jakob s Law. Note: I wrote this to vent after a bad day and a frustrating interaction I had a few months ago. I left it as a draft because there are enough angry screeds on the internet already. But revisiting it now, I feel like it s actually maybe [ ] The post Things that Jakob’s Law is not appeared first on Beth DeConinck .