iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

The building things is great, but I really enjoyed quickly designing and iterating on a dashboard for a single line in the terminal UI -- the constraint was a lot of fun to work with. #BuildingWithAI #Design #TerminalUI

"Keep track of all the times that I look at this status line and ask you a question about it, or find something missing, or get confused; all of that is feedback for another iteration. Put a watch on each class of issue; when a class recurs 3x propose a solution in the next morning brief."

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There are other notations for other actions and statuses as well. Actions are always emojis, and status is a flat symbol (hollow arrow for running in the background, solid arrow for running in a session, pause symbol for... paused) AND, here's the last thing that I asked Claude for:

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Plan AAA has 8/18 leaves complete, I need to make a decision on leaf D7a. Plan BBB: 3/10 complete, leaf E3 is currently running on its own; E7b broke and I need to review E8d Plan CCC: 13/17 done; a money guardrail hit on E12 and needs approval

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AAA ▰▰▰▰▱▱▱▱ 8/18 · ⚖️ D7a BBB ▰▱▱▱▱▱▱▱ 3/10 · ▶ E3 · 🛠️ E7b 🔎 E8d CCC ▰▰▰▰▰▰▱▱ 13/17 · 💵 E12

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These all go on a single status line in my terminal; I've put them on separate lines for readability in this post (If you're a screen reader user, these are characters from the terminal UI; they work there visually, but aren't great to listen to... more on that later!)

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Background: Each project has a plan that has been decomposed into leaves. Each leaf documents whether it needs me or can be autonomously executed, its dependencies, and other guardrails/metadata about the leaf itself.

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We built a node script that pulls live from disk the status of each plan. With that came designing a notation and vocabulary to make it understandable and actionable.

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I'm spending more time in terminal as I build out projects and get them running on their own. I used non-deterministic Claude to help me create a deterministic mini-dashboard of sorts for getting a run-down of status on where I am with each project.

Our dog... a mini cockapoo. He's very smart, energetic, and playful. And... he appears to like the camera :) We're just back from the final class of his puppy program. It was just as much "new puppy owner training" than it was "puppy training" and that was a perfect mindset shift/reframe.

Reddish brown dog with green eyes lies on the grass, on his back, belly exposed showing white chest patch... he looks into the camera, paws up and out of frame. The neighbour's house and the partly cloudy blue sky are out of focus in the background in the top left of the photo.

Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines (ATAG) 2.0

Your CMS is an authoring tool. Your Design System is an authoring tool. Your AI is an authoring tool, and you likely use it to create additional authoring tools. Your authoring tools need to be accessible, and facilitate the creation of accessible output. www.w3.org/TR/ATAG20/

w3.org

[Table of Contents] | [Implementing ATAG 2.0]

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Reposted by Derek Featherstone

zeldman @zeldman.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

“Let me make it clear: without people at the top of their game sharing their experience and knowledge—regardless of whatever ‘game changing’ technology is in place—we are pulling up the ladders and committing our industry to stagnation and death.” bell.bz/youll-miss-p...

bell.bz

You’ll miss publishers when they’re gone

Ever since Piccalilli started to get traction, I’ve always seen CSS-Tricks, Smashing Magazine and A List Apart (among others) as peers. We all help each other behind the scenes and importantly, back…

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That's not to say I'm coming up with new things... I think there's likely thousands and thousands of builders experiencing the same pains, and many are converging on similar solutions.

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I swear... I keep coming up with ways of working in Claude Code that addresses something it doesn't do natively. Within a week, Anthropic releases something that effectively replaces it. I'm accepting that it means: a) I was on the right track, and b) I learned valuable lessons while building.

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Yes indeed, on both counts. Can you imagine if THE ENTIRE software industry did every sprint demo with a keyboard?

When I ask my agents "What's next?" it answers in 1 of 2 altitudes: High: "You have 4 other sessions running A, B, C, and D. Your highest priority is B, so that's next." OR Low: "We're paused on X in this session since hh:mm. Want me to pick it up?" I nearly always want the other altitude 🤷

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Quick Accessibility Tip: Keyboard. Keyboard. Keyboard. Want to have a massive impact on accessibility for your product, right away? Do sprint demos/reviews with a keyboard only. No mouse. #accessibility #ProductManagement #a11y #inclusion

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If you're at the beginning of your journey on accessibility, remember that everyone else is too. Even people that have been doing accessibility work for the last 20+ years... They are still at the beginning of their journey. #accessibility #AlwaysBeLearning #a11y #inclusion

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Today's newsletter is focused on a HUGE challenge: being an accessibility Team of One. I'll include Star Wars references, share what Yoda told Luke, and give you my best thoughts on how to thrive when you're... Solo. feather.ca/bsky/tofo

Derek Featherstone @feather.ca · 12/09/2026

Would it help to mention that they often fly back to the nest?

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If you are in Apple's ecosystem and you replace a computer named "ABC MacBook Pro" make sure that you DO NOT let your replacement computer also be called "ABC MacBook Pro" The headaches are plentiful, painful, and seemingly perpetual.

Derek Featherstone @feather.ca · 05/09/2026

I’m thinking accessibility barriers and their impact on people with disabilities, why a site/technique doesn’t work, how to improve, etc.

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Derek Featherstone @feather.ca · 04/09/2026

Ppl have asked me to do "tear down" videos for accessibility. I recorded one with a friend the other day; it wasn't a "tear down" but more of a "build up" I'm leaning "build up" but maybe it's too nuanced and subtle a difference to matter? What do you think? #accessibility #videos #OverThinking

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Derek Featherstone @feather.ca · 04/09/2026

I don't think anyone is talking about the impact of READING very clearly AI generated prose that is soooooo difficult to decode. The passive voice, the AI constructions and hyphenated-invented-tokenized-terms, and the complexity of what it writes. It's REALLY hard work to read.

And, just like everything else in the accessibility ecosystem, the right tool, has always been, and always will be, a starting point, not an ending point. #Accessibility #WebHistory #AlwaysSeekingTools

It's how it has always been: "Go buy the right tool"

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I suspect that pull will always be there; it's part of the tension between wanting to produce both high quality experiences that are accessible and tooling that makes it happen at tremendous pace, with low cost.

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There's a constant desire to have a tool that can simply "make it happen."

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There's a theme implied across that multi-decade industry arc: it doesn't matter what the technology is, people are always looking for ways to shortcut the thinking and intention that needs to go into creating great, accessible experiences.

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Now it is AI: "Which model generates UI that makes our stuff accessible?"

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Then it was Design Systems: "Which design system is best for making our stuff accessible?"

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Then it was CMSes and the questions changed: "What CMS/theme can we use that will make our stuff accessible?"

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When the industry created the first authoring tools, I was asked at conferences and in trainings "What tool should we buy/use so that our stuff is accessible?"

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Through the entire history of the web... as it morphed from a "utility" into an industry... we've been creating tools and systems that promise to make things faster, more efficient, as we also added complexity. Accessibility has been in the same role for pretty much that entire journey.

I hadn't thought of the lacks of ads side of things -- good point. Also, hi :)

Hmmm... maybe I need to be over on Mastodon somewhere too :) Good to hear from you, my friend!

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What's different here than on LinkedIn? What makes this place unique? How do I even bluesky? All questions I have and will only be able to answer with time.

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Don't be so quick to call tried and true methods "obsolete." /me *shakes fist at clouds* #OldSchool #Accessibility #a11y

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Pair the older methods with the newer ones and you've got a great teaching PAIR so you can compare and contrast and have multiple ways of achieving the same goal -- that's especially valuable when so many of us are addressing accessibility (or even just maintenance) in older/legacy systems.

I'd go so far as to say that the "older methods" are actually perfect for teaching the concepts required to understand how the web, accessibility, and focus management (and other important concepts) work.

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"Method is obsolete" is incorrect when the older method functions properly, creates the desired user experience, and is conformant with accessibility guidelines.

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Derek Featherstone @feather.ca · 11/10/2025

I'm mining my corpus... as one does, and here's what I'm finding: AI continues to be confused when an older method appears "obsoleted" when there are more modern methods to use. Particularly when the older method still works.

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Ooooooh! Now that you mention it, I believe I did also say it at @media too! The olden times :)

Derek Featherstone @feather.ca · 11/10/2025

Wow, that’s a blast from the past! Yes, indeed: v1.boxofchocolates.ca/archives/200...

v1.boxofchocolates.ca

box of chocolates » Four Steps to Becoming an Accessibility Consultant

Had we done it the other way around, it would have been easier for me, and still easy for the carpet installer. It really all feels like software development/product creation. Do things out of order and you end up paying for it later.

Similarly, carpet installed on the stairs even though a couple of spindles were broken and needed to be replaced. So I spent a bunch of time figuring out where the spindles had to go, and cutting holes in installed carpet for them. It would have been much easier to fix the spindles first.

For example, I know to do the baseboards after the flooring is finished. Baseboards are already done, even though the floor isn’t. So now we spend time figuring out “How do we get fix this floor problem without undoing/redoing baseboard and painting?” Taking much more time than it should.

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