Three lessons about getting more predictable results from a multi-agent AI system
Same prompt, different results. And the fix had nothing to do with my prompts.
Derek Featherstone
Derek Featherstone is an accessibility and AI strategist and builder — using AI to build accessibility tooling and helping teams modernize and scale their accessibility programs.
Latest posts
How I'm teaching an AI my writing voice
Teaching an AI your voice usually means copying how your writing looks, with little attention to the reasoning behind your choices. Here's the method I built to capture that reasoning and continuously recalibrate.
I sent my agent to a conference...
My friend John Allsopp built an open live feed for AI agents at AI Engineer Melbourne, so I sent my agent, Ellis, in my place. It recaps each talk, then does the part I wanted to see: its own questions, and strange connections to fields like immunology and contract law. Here's where it ran.
Pair programming with AI
The productivity trap in coding with an AI: you finish faster but maybe understand less. Here's the instruction set I'm experimenting with to make the LLM my learning partner via pair-programming.
How I've been using voice mode with AI
Six patterns from 80 voice-mode conversations, how my use shifted from quick hits to structured huddles, and the habit I'm encoding into accessibility tools.
Principles of Great (Accessibility) Work
Thoughts and reflections on some principles that help create conditions for great accessibility work
Hand-me-down tools for school
Tools I've used in my tech life that help my son in school
Context and AI Collaboration
How I learned to better collaborate with AI.
Inclusive teaching: audio describing your own presentations
In order to be more inclusive as teachers, presenters, speakers, facilitators (and a long list of other things we do in life where we communicate), we need to develop the skill of audio describing our own presentations.
I finished reading a book! Ignore Everybody
Just finished reading Ignore Everybody from Hugh MacLeod. Here's my takeaways.
The ongoing evolution of 'Shift left'
The meaning of shift left has changed over time. That change is good, and better for long-term sustainability when it comes to accessibility.
Intentional Inclusion: Apple Fitness+
This is (at least in part) what intentional inclusion looks like.
Ignore Everybody
Passages that make me say YES!!! from Hugh MacLeod's book Ignore Everybody and 39 Other Keys to Creativity
Timing is everything
In which we better understand what it means to be purposeful with respect to accessibility.
The Uncracked
I'm going to try something different for reading in 2021.
Deformity
Cleaning out the office and I found a piece of paper that is 47 years old.
Day 1 of Notion
I'm trying out Notion as an all-in-one planner and productivity app. Here's a very boring write up of Day 1. I actually wrote it in Notion and then exported as Markdown and here we are, publishing easily on my site.
What's your accessibility mantra and how has it changed?
Here's a little bit about how my perspective on accessibility has changed over time.
(re)learning CSS
I learned CSS a long time ago. It's time for an upgrade.
Zoom audio and video features I learned this month
I learned a few new tricks with Zoom over the past couple of weeks in our house, with everyone here under quarantine. They're pretty cool.
Remote workshop teaching reflections
I've been teaching a remote, hands-on workshop and here are my quick thoughts on how it has gone, and what I've learned.
Remote working secrets I'll never tell
Yes, there's lots of remote working tips and tricks out there, but this is the stuff nobody will ever tell you. I certainly didn't tell you these things.
Getting started with speaking gigs
Here's some ways you can start speaking.
How we made remote work
I ran a remote team for 7 years and here's some things we did that remote work feel right.
Learning Gatsby (and React and GraphQL)
Learning Gatsby means learning React and GraphQL, and I'm ok with that. Here's some things I've learned so far.
Two years on.
Thoughts and musings two years after we became part of Level Access.
Lessons learned from making just one drawer.
I worked up to building a pull out drawer in the cabinet under our kitchen island. Here's what I learned.
One fix a day: the power of momentum
I've been fixing one small thing in my house/life each day in 2020. Here's how it's going so far
Fear of Becoming Irrelevant
Taking FOBI into my own hands
A long streak ends
I had a 537 day streak of doing the wrong thing.
Life Tracking
Lessons and insights after tracking my time for 24 hrs a day for 6 weeks.
I wish I'd known
We didn't know, but he did, and he should've told us.
Change of Pace
What does a change of pace really mean when you're teaching a workshop?
How you should REALLY use bullet points in a presentation
Bullet points aren't about what you put on the slide.
Show up
As you launch into a new year, begin with the end in mind. Where will you be in December? What will you have accomplished?
Accessibility, the journey AND the destination
What does it take to make something accessible to everyone? Join me on both the journey and the destination of accessibility, with tips for what you might need for the adventures ahead.
Three types of relationships and what they mean for accessibility
Explicit, implicit, content-based: the three kinds of relationships on a page that decide whether assistive technology users can actually navigate it.
How to be a keyboard accessibility super hero
Three simple things you can do to improve keyboard accessibility in your web page or application. Think links and buttons, focus and source order.
Automatic infinite scrolling & accessibility
Automated infinite scrolling is a popular web design technique even though it creates difficult accessibility problems for keyboard users.
Emotions & web accessibility
There's an emotional aspect to accessibility that makes it difficult to determine exactly how we should design for a particular persona.
An inclusive Internet of things: accessibility in the palm of your hand
In the physical world, it is nearly impossible to make a fixed object accessible to everyone. In the connected world of the Internet of Things, digital brings us accessibility where the physical can’t.
Infographic accessibility: text is text
Infographics are growing in popularity, but they are often criticized for the accessibility challenges they create. Here’s an infographic that was very surprising when it comes to accessibility, and we felt it should be celebrated and shared as a positive—a small thing, done well.
The road ahead
I couldn’t put my finger on what was missing in our work until these three things happened all at once: we dove deep into the process of redesigning our web site and brand identity, reviewed 2013 successes and failures, and started planning for 2014. Doing all of that work forced us to ask questions about who we are and what we believe in.
Alt text is for more than just screen readers
Good alt text is seen as critical for people that use screen readers. But it doesn’t stop there. We need to consider the effect of alt text on people that also rely on good, accurate alt text: people that use voice recognition software.
Design & development: the yin & yang of web accessibility
A flawed design coded perfectly is just as bad as a brilliant design coded poorly. Accessibility needs both sides of the build, not one or the other.
Web Accessibility: transitions and process
Important accessibility details get lost in the handoff from design to code. The fix is mixed-role conversations, not more meetings.
How to ensure you pay more for web accessibility than you should
Accessibility doesn't have to cost a lot, but here are some sure-fire methods to ensure that you pay more than you need to.
Blindfolded
Sometimes we're blindfolded, even to our own actions.
Awareness
Disability and the concept of accessibility can be confusing. Awkward. Uncomfortable. The first step to true understanding is usually awareness. Awareness helps you get over those feelings: awareness that issues exist, awareness that there are solutions to those issues, and awareness that what we do as web professionals can have a profound impact on someone else's life.
One step at a time
Adding accessibility to your work can feel like everything-at-once. Start with one thing in your current role and you are already doing better work.