Since writing my new talk, An Introduction to the World Wide Web for Very Senior Programmers, in which I transport the audience back to the year 19...
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This article excellently explains the history of web development tools and the challenges of visual tools.
I have had similar experiences using tools like FrontPage and DreamWeaver, and I remember that producing unclean code was one of their major issues.
However, it should be noted that visual tools can be useful for beginners or those who need to quickly set up a website.
The key point is that these tools must adhere to accessibility standards and code quality. Nordcraft seems to be a positive step in this direction.
You're absolutely right @ mahdijazini! And thank you!
🙏
a little late to the party...
thanks for the history lesson. It's amazing, sort of, to hear Figma/Adobe are still so callous toward accessibility. Surely Adobe has an accessibility team, locked in a basement somewhere? Perhaps they're writing their memoir, "Sisyphus: Working on Accessibility at Adobe."
As a screen reader user, it's great to hear of companies developing real, mainstream products with accessibility as a core belief and goal. thanks!
I've mostly given up reaching out to companies trying to help them understand accessibility is not about not getting sued, it's about building better websites. I believe an accessible website is almost certainly a cleaner, easier to maintain and enhance, one. Is there anything concrete to back up that assertion.
(if this comment appears more than once, it's because the "submit" button is either not accessible, or it's providing no feedback. I'm trying various ways to activate it."
Thank you so much for your insight, Joel!
I absolutely agree with you in that accessibility is about building better websites. When we build more accessible websites, they are automatically better for everyone, regardless of whether they have a disability or not, or whether they wil develop a disability in the future.
Earlier this year I developed a temporary disability and couldn't use my hands, so I had to learn how to write, code, and navigate devices with my voice for a couple of months. It was gruelling to say the least, but there is some great tooling out there to help. Too bad that most websites I tried to used failed miserably in adhering to any kind of accessible standard to allow these tools to really shine. It was really demoralising for me, and dehumanising. I can only imagine what this feels like to someone who won't, in quotation marks, "get better".
thanks, Salma.
glad to hear you're able to use your hands again. I often think about my hearing. I listen to many podcasts and audio books. I can't imagine being deaf and blind. Yet, there are many amazing people who live full lifes deaf, blind. (I lost my sight later in life and don't, yet, know braille)
I suspect losing a core sense or ability, even temporarily, forces one to reflect on how much is taken for granted.
There's a great Changelog podcast, with Josh Comeau, regarding coding without hands:
changelog.com/podcast/423
Josh is pretty amazing with what he put together to continue what he loves to do. Maybe you used many similar tools/mechanisms.
A key point I take away from that podcast, and my experiences in general, is, there are often ways to get around hurdles if you really want/need to. It gets tiring though when you're spending so much time and mental bandwidth on those hurdles, especially when you know they're not inherent, they're there because someone else took a shortcut.
All the best to you and the team at Nordcraft. It's encouraging to know companies like Nordcraft exist.
cheers
Yes I used similar things to Josh. I actually wrote about my experience here if you're also curious!
dev.to/whitep4nth3r/from-pain-to-p...
I also live streamed a lot of me setting up the whole system, which was doubly exhausting, as speaking to both a machine and the chat just really wasn't feasible.
It also led me to make some accessibility improvements on my website, which I also wrote about:
dev.to/whitep4nth3r/how-to-build-a...
I'll stop spamming you with my own links now.
And thank you for the kind words about Nordcraft!
Nice post.
Your fate is in your own hands, as well as the fate of your websites. - Good words!
What do you think is the most innovative technology in IT?
This is a tough question. Honestly I think the internet and HTML itself was the most innovative, as without it, we wouldn't be where we are today.
Great, I think so, too.
Highly recommended !!