Top WordPress Accessibility Day 2022 Takeaways
November 2 – 3, 2022 was WordPress Accessibility Day 2022. This free, volunteer-run virtual global event provided opportunities for attendees to learn about the best practices for creating accessible WordPress websites, but the general discussion of accessibility on the internet was front and center in all panel discussions.
I was recently given some amazing feedback on a talk that I gave to a group of CEOs in Oklahoma. I took too long and added too many details to my opening story before I explained the context and reason for the story. The CEO who provided the feedback was lost and found himself wondering where I was going. He found himself wandering off. I sometimes get lost in the story when I am speaking and often lose track of my audience. It is not good.
That feedback caused me to seriously revamp the opening of my speech, starting with some direct context early on in the speech. The last couple of talks I gave since the revamp were markedly better and gained more powerful, early engagement from the CEO groups. I was able to turn that feedback into gold immediately. In my early business career, that would not have been the case for me. This is the result of learning how to celebrate feedback when I get it. (p.s. I sent the CEO a small gift to thank him in this case.)
One day, I had a good friend call my cell and say, “I need a team that can pick up the pieces from another vendor. I need help getting these small features out the door in three months or I’m going to lose my job. Can you help me?” For context, the teams I work with have been building software products for two and a half decades and this has happened on more than a few occasions. This time, my team had worked on this technology platform before, and, represented confidently that they would be able to knock the project “out of the park.” Everyone on my team expressed confidence that this was a no-brainer. You might guess where this is going next.
Key takeaways from our time at the largest product software conference
The INDUSTRY Product Conference in Cleveland, Ohio, is one of the largest gatherings for software product professionals from around the world. We went to learn and experience all that it had to offer.
On the island of Oahu in Hawai’i is a beautiful, dormant volcanic mountain with a huge crater called Koko Head. On the South slope of the mountain is a challenging hike called the “Stairs of Doom.” The trail is made up of a series of railroad ties from the base of the cone, at almost sea level, that ascends to 885 feet at the summit. It was built to be a short military cog railway for moving munitions and people to the top of the crater to defend Hawai’i during World War II. When you get to the top of what feels like a giant ladder, no matter how good of shape you are in, you are sweating buckets from the hard work. It pays off, however, in a magnificent 360 degree collection of spectacular vistas. To the East, you can see Hawai’i Kai. It includes a bay with cerulean blue water and looking South, the equally impressive Hanauma Bay crater lies below. Inside the Koko Head crater to the North is a botanical garden with spectacular fauna. Relationships are similar; They take work, purposeful investment, and they are built one step at a time.
Building Relationships
If you are fortunate, you have formed a handful of brilliant, life-long relationships with people in your life. My best friend from elementary school is a trusted advisor to me whenever I need a little honest kick-in-the-butt or have some good news about my life to share. While months may go by without seeing each other, when we do get together, we don’t miss a beat. It feels as though we were hanging out just yesterday. Consider your own friendships for a moment. How did those relationships form? Sometimes there is immediate chemistry, but in my experience, the real power in the relationship came after a long period of time that included many serial experiences. Strong, resilient relationships have ups and downs and take some amount of conflict with the commensurate resolution to become strong. All relationships, good and bad, are formed, over time and through steps.
Overcoming the Resource Efficiency Paradox
“Transformation comes more from pursuing profound questions than seeking practical answers.”
– Peter Block, author of The Answer to How Is Yes
Many Scrum teams’ sprint burndowns look like a cliff, with numerous backlog items in progress at the same time, and most not marked ‘done’ until the end of the sprint.
Your business’ website projects the ultimate first impression, so it’s worth making it well-designed and responsive. But an effective website requires more than just wise aesthetic choices. To create a site that generates leads and informs buying decisions, you need to make it influential. And, the bulk of your influence comes from content. From strong … Continued
What is DevOps? It’s a buzz word, to be sure. It’s a practice. It’s a process. It’s a culture. It’s a tool set. It’s all of those things, and more. Sometimes, its definition will change depending on who you ask and what problems their organization faces.
In this final post of my 3-part series on Digital Accessibility, I close by contending that the future of accessibility is here – and it’s time to get on board. In Part 1, I asserted that digital access was a human right requiring our protection. I laid out a strong business case in Part 2 that studied the economic benefits of accessibility. Here, I conclude with one final argument and declare that the future of accessibility is now.
In this second of our 3-part blog series on Digital Accessibility, we present the business case in favor of digital accessibility. In Part 1, we argued the moral imperative and studied the legal consequences for infringing this basic human right. Here, we argue in support of accessible design by examining the economic benefits for businesses in service to vast, underserved market segments.
