It’s easy to get upset when we feel like the things we care dearly about—accessibility, translations, etc.—don’t seem to register with others. But appearances can be deceiving, as Tom Cochran—a former director of digital for the White House—points out with respect to the changes to WhiteHouse.gov:

It’s no secret that my political allegiances lie with Obama’s administration, but I can be very objective with this. First off, I think that the media is reading a little too much into the digital transition. You have to think of it in terms of moving into an apartment: The previous tenant moves out, and a new tenant moves in. When the previous tenant moves out, he or she will take his or her possessions, furniture, and paintings, and the new tenant comes in and starts over and hangs their stuff up wherever they want to. Someone who had been in that apartment before would go in and say, “Whoa, wait, where did the couch go? There used to be a couch here.” Well, yeah—but there’s a completely new tenant in here.

Excellent piece from Andrew Smyk:

We are starting to live our daily lives in the post screen world. The advent of smart and contextually aware devices have changed how we interact with content. Data is a snapshot of our contextual connectivity to our physical and digital environments. Designers will need to build screen-less experiences that leverage data and algorithms to create value for users.

Cognitive Services + Video = Transcription, speaker recognition, search/indexing, and more. This is friggin’ amazing!

The #1 tech trend? Assistive technology.

Accessibility overlays all of the topics covered in this year’s Five Technology Trends to Watch. For example, take a look at the following. * Voice assistants: regardless of your preferred assistant, these technologies are enabling control of your home and access to information through voice recognition. In addition to this benefit to the general public, these features can be crucial to people with mobility disabilities. * Augmented reality: the ability to overlay information on the environment can provide helpful information to people with cognitive disabilities, audio cues to people with visual impairments or alerts for people with hearing loss. * Transportation: ridesharing solutions open up new worlds of independence for people who are blind or low vision as well as older adults that have lost the ability to drive. Building on top of these available services, autonomous vehicles will further open up the world for these populations. * Digital health: the ability to use sensors to track health data will enable consumers to take control of their health, while also providing alerts and warning signs for caregivers and medical professionals when needed. * Sports technology: whether it’s a day as a spectator at the ballpark or competing at the local park or course, accessible sports technologies are opening up new opportunities for people to engage with recreational activities.

There is so much great stuff in here. Follow the link & get enhancing!

This is so helpful!

Are you blind? Interested in making the Web better for everyone? Join the National Federation of the Blind’s BUILD team!

ARIA 1.1 introduces some new roles. Check ’em out!

Very interesting perspective video showing how Master Chef winner (and blind chef) Christine Ha cooks. Vicarious experiences like this one can be very enlightening.

I love how she uses assistive tech like Amazon’s Echo as part of her cooking routine. I’ve found it invaluable for things like timers.

More excellent research into form US from the fine folks at Baymard.