While the term transgender is a recent development, trans people have always been with us. In the white supremacist system that dominates the United States and has declared cit-het people “normal” (and everyone else “abnormal”), being trans has never been easy, but it’s been especially dangerous for Black trans women. Knowing this, I am awestruck by the bravery of Lucy Hicks Anderson, a Black trans woman born in Kentucky in 1886, who became a renown socialite and hostess in 1940s California.
Dispatches From The Internets
Lucy Hicks Anderson was an early Black trans pioneer
Maya Angelou persevered, but many don’t
There are so many reasons to love and admire Maya Angelou. Most of these stem from her novels, poetry, and civil rights work, but I’m going to pick an unusual one: she was determined to be the first Black woman to conduct a cable car in San Francisco. And she succeeded at 16.
Jerry Lawson made home video game systems possible
One of my fondest childhood memories was getting a Nintendo Entertainment System for my birthday. It wasn’t the expensive set with the robot and the gun (we were poor), but my mom somehow managed to scrape together the $199 (over $470 in today’s dollars) for the system. It opened up a whole new world for me. I only recently discovered that this fixture of my childhood was made possible by a Black engineer named Jerry Lawson.
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Inclusive Design - Spectrum
Loving this easy to follow guide to inclusive design in Adobe’s Spectrum design system docs!
The wondrous world of CSS counters
This is an exhaustive look at CSS counters and is well worth your time.
An Introductory Guide to Understanding Cognitive Disabilities
Oftentimes, if you cannot do something on your own, the common response is “just ask for help.” However, this is not an appropriate response to a person with a cognitive disability, as they should be able to access the web with the same independence as a person without a disability.
Amen!
This is a must-read!
The World-Wide Work
Ethan delivered a powerful talk at New Adventures. It covers a wide range of topics including design, power, inequality, and more. Moreover it offers some suggestions for what we can do to make the web (and the world) better.
Myth Busting PWAs
David does a great job of selling devs on PWA as a viable approach for their projects in this extensive post.
5G Will Definitely Make the Web Slower, Maybe
The bigger the pipe, the more we’ll shove into it. This is an important piece from Scott Jehl. You should give it a read.
This problem is on us. Yes, we need to better prioritize our asset delivery, but most importantly, we need to stop delivering so much JavaScript. We need to audit our script inventory, and scrutinize our 3rd party integrations regularly, as many of these packages are abandoned or meant to be short-lived. … We should do whatever we can to keep our team members aware of their own impact, across all roles.