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Sean Blinn 🇺🇦

@themuseumguy.bsky.social
815 followers 458 following 455 posts

Museum professional, working primarily with small history museums. Social media and evaluation / audience research / analytics nerd. Stand with Ukraine. 🇺🇦 Views my own.

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Sean Blinn 🇺🇦 @themuseumguy.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
Why is alt text good? Because if images don’t load, your message still gets through instead of looking like whatever this is. What we have here is a failure to communicate. Accessibility helps everyone. It’s also pretty easy. Good luck with the marketing, or something.
An email I just got. There is literally no text, not a single letter. Just a bunch of squares with a question mark showing images didn’t load. Maybe the squares had text. I sure can’t tell.
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Sean Blinn 🇺🇦 @themuseumguy.bsky.social · 12/06/2026
Why alt text matters: images don’t always load in email. Your readers will be left with nothing. #accessibility
A photo of an email message. Because the email’s images didn’t load, the only things visible are a green background, a purple rectangle, and two icons showing where images should have been, but weren’t.
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Sean Blinn 🇺🇦 @themuseumguy.bsky.social · 12/06/2026
1, 2, 3, and… Knicks lines at 34th! #knicks #nyc #subway
The entrance to 34th St Station in New York. The signs for the 1, 2, and 3 lines - filled red circles with white numbers - are joined by a similar-looking sign of a basketball.
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Sean Blinn 🇺🇦 @themuseumguy.bsky.social · 25/02/2026
4 years ago, putin ordered a brutal war of aggression against Ukraine, a peaceful, democratic neighbor. Ukraine still deserves and needs our help! #standwithukraine 🇺🇦
Ukraine’s flag flying over Whitehall, London.
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Sean Blinn 🇺🇦 @themuseumguy.bsky.social · 23/02/2026
It’s a lot easier to stay in the know when emailers don’t rely solely on images. Text works too, you know. And even then, put alt text in the image. Real alt text. [image: a photo of a large blank screen, with tiny text reading “stay in the know” tucked way up in the upper left corner.]
A large blank place where an image would go. Tiny text reads “stay in the know.” There is no idea what we will know about.
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Sean Blinn 🇺🇦 @themuseumguy.bsky.social · 08/01/2026
Renee Nicole Good. Say her name.
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Sean Blinn 🇺🇦 @themuseumguy.bsky.social · 12/09/2025
To borrow from the presentation, by connecting with the steak-holders. I’ll stop now. Also, with a food theme to the slides. The handouts were labeled a menu.
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Sean Blinn 🇺🇦 @themuseumguy.bsky.social · 12/09/2025
The Holocaust exhibit at the Cincinnati Museum Centre is a must-visit. Their motto is that they localize, personalize, and humanize the history. They tell the story through Cincinnati residents who survived. The exhibit design is exceptional and easy to understand (1/n) @aaslh.org #aaslh2025
The Holocaust didn’t start with bullets. It started with words.
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Sean Blinn 🇺🇦 @themuseumguy.bsky.social · 12/09/2025
Stunningly beautiful art deco architecture at the Cincinnati Museum Centre. @aaslh.org #aaslh2025
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Sean Blinn 🇺🇦 @themuseumguy.bsky.social · 12/09/2025
Tonight’s #aaslh2025 evening party was at the Cincinnati Museum Centre, AKA the Halls of Justice. One of the most amazing buildings in the US. If you like art deco, visit here. @aaslh.org
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Sean Blinn 🇺🇦 @themuseumguy.bsky.social · 11/09/2025
Wonderful #aaslh2025 event at the Underground Railroad Freedom Centre. They look back at history, and use it to inspire people to work for a fairer, more just future. They discuss the role of faith in being inclusive and welcoming. HIGHLY recommend a visit! @aaslh.org
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Sean Blinn 🇺🇦 @themuseumguy.bsky.social · 10/09/2025
awe and respect for the people who created them. Beyond that, and this is just a personal reflection, there is a spiritual feel in the air. These are not just historic but sacred places that deserve universal respect. Thank you to @aaslh.org and the National Park Service! #aaslh2025
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Sean Blinn 🇺🇦 @themuseumguy.bsky.social · 10/09/2025
Sites that are miles apart have the same measurements and right angles. Markers line up with the solstices and equinoxes. Construction techniques were highly sophisticated. Lines and angles are precise. These were the work of advanced, sophisticated civilizations. I left with a feeling of (2/n)
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Sean Blinn 🇺🇦 @themuseumguy.bsky.social · 10/09/2025
Today I was fortunate to be able to take a tour to Hopewell Culture National Historical Park. It is a series of Native sites created about 2,000 years ago as part of a cross-cultural spiritual movement. The look of earthen mounds belies an exacting mathematical precision. (1/n) @aaslh.org #aaslh2025
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Sean Blinn 🇺🇦 @themuseumguy.bsky.social · 10/09/2025
The Roebling Bridge at night. This is the view from my hotel room. Tomorrow I’m on a tour of the Hopewell Earthworks, a Native site and the only UNESCO World Heritage site in Ohio. There will be pics. #aaslh2025 is off to a great start! @aaslh.org
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Sean Blinn 🇺🇦 @themuseumguy.bsky.social · 09/09/2025
Welcome to Cincinnati! #museum #aaslh2025 @aaslh.org
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Sean Blinn 🇺🇦 @themuseumguy.bsky.social · 09/09/2025
There’s a real art deco feel to the Hilton! #aaslh2025 @aaslh.org
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Sean Blinn 🇺🇦 @themuseumguy.bsky.social · 09/09/2025
Goooood morning AASLH! Here is one of my fave quirky Ohio places. Yes, it’s a field of giant concrete ears of corn. It’s across the street from a cornfield near Columbus, because where else? I don’t know the proper name but I always called it Cornhenge. #aaslh2025 @aaslh.org
A field of ears of corn, made of cement, standing erect, each about 8 feet tall.
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Sean Blinn 🇺🇦 @themuseumguy.bsky.social · 09/09/2025
This year’s @aaslh.org conference is in Cincinnati, Ohio, a state I used to call home. Ohio has many wonderful places, and its share of quirky ones. Here’s one I love: a plaque outside the Cleveland Museum of Art. For me, there are few better examples of why museums do what they do. #aaslh2025
A banner on the from of a museum, reading “for the benefit of all the people forever.”
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Sean Blinn 🇺🇦 @themuseumguy.bsky.social · 24/08/2025
Happy Independence Day, Ukraine! Slava Ukraini! [pics of the Ukrainian flag flying over Oxford (England) and painted in the side of a beach cabin in Brighton (Australia)]
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Sean Blinn 🇺🇦 @themuseumguy.bsky.social · 23/05/2025
Third Space Network presents Bunker Fridays Defending Culture An Online Public Dialogue Fri, 5/30, 4pm ET Register: lu.ma/nzws20xr Federal actions send a clear signal: any organization that champions diversity, truth, or dissenting ideas could be on the chopping block. We must not stay silent!
Stylized image of 5 artists. Text reads “Defending Culture: An Online Public Dialogue.” Presented by the Third Space Network.
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Sean Blinn 🇺🇦 @themuseumguy.bsky.social · 19/05/2025
AI has massive potential (and pitfalls). But this? Late capitalism at its worst. AI companies are profiteering off taking jobs from people.
A billboard reading “Stop hiring humans. The era of AI employees is here.”
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Sean Blinn 🇺🇦 @themuseumguy.bsky.social · 28/04/2025
To my friends in the true north: stay strong and free! #canada
The Canadian flag with a ballot box in the foreground
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Sean Blinn 🇺🇦 @themuseumguy.bsky.social · 04/04/2025
Flippers up!
A drawing of a penguin, with a mountain in the background and a large star overhead. Text at the bottom reads “flippers up” as the penguin raises one.
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Sean Blinn 🇺🇦 @themuseumguy.bsky.social · 14/03/2025
Spotted today in New Jersey! Slava Ukraini! 🇺🇦 #ukraine #StandWithUkraine
A street sign reading “Ukraine Road”
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Sean Blinn 🇺🇦 @themuseumguy.bsky.social · 06/03/2025
Inclusive design can help just about everything. Here’s a mockup of a tactile QR code. This helps visitors with visual impairment know where to point their phone to access information. A simple yet brilliant design. Thank you SolidLight for designing this!
A wooden QR code, about one foot across.
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Sean Blinn 🇺🇦 @themuseumguy.bsky.social · 28/02/2025
Always been with Ukraine. Always will be. Slava Ukraini! #ukraine
A heart-shaped image, in the colors of Ukraine’s flag. Text says “I’m with Ukraine”
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Sean Blinn 🇺🇦 @themuseumguy.bsky.social · 26/02/2025
Just cancelled my @washingtonpost.com subscription. If I wanted to read opinions by right-wing billionaires, I’d subscribe to some other rag. Democracy died in darkness and Bezos is one the gang responsible.
Message from the Washington Post app, confirming I cancelled my subscription.
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Sean Blinn 🇺🇦 @themuseumguy.bsky.social · 17/02/2025
It’s actually pretty easy to design emails for accessibility. The New York Transit Museum does exactly that right here. The text is actual text, not an image, so it’s visible to a screen reader. The image has descriptive alt text. Good job @nytransitmuseum.bsky.social! #a11y
A screenshot of an email from the New York Transit Museum. The text describes a new exhibition. There is a blank spot where an image would load, and it includes alt text describing it.
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Sean Blinn 🇺🇦 @themuseumguy.bsky.social · 13/02/2025
Why alt text matters… again… Why, why, why do people insist on putting text in images instead of showing, you know, text? It makes emails easier to lay out and faster to send. It also avoids absurdity like this. What’s playing? I don’t know, why don’t you tell me… using your words! #a11y
White text on a green background reading “what’s playing?” Underneath is an image, which did not load, which might have said what’s actually playing.
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Sean Blinn 🇺🇦 @themuseumguy.bsky.social · 12/02/2025
Looks like apple maps is complying with fascism, too. When these clowns are out of office, we the people remember.
A screenshot of Apple Maps, showing the Gulf of Mexico mislabeled as “Gulf of America.”
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Sean Blinn 🇺🇦 @themuseumguy.bsky.social · 03/02/2025
This. Is. Not. Alt. Text. Imagine you were using a screen reader or other assistive device to check your email. Those devices read alt text to present a description of an image to a user. This is useless. This is almost a joke. From a Marriott hotel. You can do better. #a11y
A photo of alt text in an email. The alt text literally just says “alt_text.” If it makes you feel like the sender just isn’t trying, or just checking off a box, that’s how feel too.
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Sean Blinn 🇺🇦 @themuseumguy.bsky.social · 26/01/2025
Email marketers, alt text isn’t hard. If you don’t use it your communications come in looking like this to anyone using a screen reader. If you want people to bother with your email, make it possible for people to read them.
A photo of an email message. There are three empty boxes where images would be loaded. One has no alt text, one says “learn more,” and the third says “shop now.” You’re not missing much. You’re really not.
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Sean Blinn 🇺🇦 @themuseumguy.bsky.social · 26/01/2025
Hey @nytimes.com, I think you need to bring Spelling Bee up to date. It says “yeet” isn’t in the word list, and I’m sure I’m not the only one who tried it. Merriam-Webster hasn’t yeeted it yet. ;)
The NY Times’ “spelling bee” game board, which consists of 7 hexagonal tiles, roughly arranged in a circle. Above that, my word entry, “yeet,” is listed as “not in the word index.”
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Sean Blinn 🇺🇦 @themuseumguy.bsky.social · 23/01/2025
To follow up, this example. The “see more” button at the bottom seems to be there only for irony. Alt text. Use your alt text or there’s literally nothing to see. #a11y
A photo of an email message. There are four blank boxes where images would normally load. They take up almost the whole screen. At the very bottom is a button reading “see more.” Right where we’re seeing much less.
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Sean Blinn 🇺🇦 @themuseumguy.bsky.social · 23/01/2025
Why does alt text matter? Because without it, any emails you send will look like this to anyone using an assistive device like a screen reader. Your museum visitors will be left with literally nothing about your exhibitions, opening hours, anything. It sends a signal that they aren’t welcome. #a11y
A photo of an email on a computer screen. There are three blank spaces taking up the entire email body, where images would normally be loaded. There is no text visible, no links, nothing to click on. Just three large, empty boxes. You’re literally not missing anything.
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Sean Blinn 🇺🇦 @themuseumguy.bsky.social · 20/01/2025
Spotted at the Brooklyn Museum’s exhibition on Elizabeth Catlett over the weekend. Our compassion is our strength and we can’t let them take that from us.
A comment card with handwritten text saying “Everyone deserves kindness! Be aware of others and do small things to make life easier and smoother for everyone. Love is active and revolutionary.”
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Sean Blinn 🇺🇦 @themuseumguy.bsky.social · 22/11/2024
My personal fave is the Queens Daily Eagle, from his home borough. With a local angle.
Newspaper headline “queens man convicted. Former Jamaica Estates resident Donald Trump was convicted by a Manhattan jury on Thursday”
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Sean Blinn 🇺🇦 @themuseumguy.bsky.social · 25/09/2024
Bluesky now has over 10 million users, and I was #1,047,712! Happy to be here!
A virtual certificate with text "Celebrating 10M users on Bluesky, #1,047,712, Sean Blinn 🇺🇦 ‪@themuseumguy.bsky.social‬, joined on Sep 18, 2023"
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Sean Blinn 🇺🇦 @themuseumguy.bsky.social · 18/03/2024
Apple Podcasts won’t let me download this @techwontsave.us episode. Seems to prove the point, doesn’t it?
Screenshot of Apple Podcasts, with an error message saying “unable to download podcast” with smaller text saying I should try again later.
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Sean Blinn 🇺🇦 @themuseumguy.bsky.social · 13/03/2024
March 13, 2020. Empty supermarket aisles as toilet paper was unavailable. The Daily News headline summed it up with “Goin’ Bunkers” as everyone took shelter. In answer to Elise Stefanik, yes, I am better off now than I was four years ago. @fouryearsagotoday.bsky.social
Empty supermarket shelves in the toilet paper aisleA newspaper rack showing the New York Daily News. A photo of someone wearing a mask is on the cover. The headline says “Goin’ Bunkers.” A caption reads “coronavirus anxiety grips city.”
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Sean Blinn 🇺🇦 @themuseumguy.bsky.social · 09/02/2024
Truth.
Coffee cup with a TS Eliot quote reading “I have measured out my life in coffee spoons.”
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Sean Blinn 🇺🇦 @themuseumguy.bsky.social · 19/12/2023
Dedication plaque on a bench in Central Park, quoting Bobby Kennedy. A good thought and, perhaps, a sign of why we’re all here on Bluesky.
A plaque on a park bench in Central Park.  The inscription reads “This is a place to dream things that never were… and ask why not.”
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Sean Blinn 🇺🇦 @themuseumguy.bsky.social · 14/10/2023
Evidence suggesting that yes, the Great Pumpkin is real! I suspect this is one of his temples. 😉 Photo from the Shinkansen pulling out of Okayama a few years ago. The Great Pumpkin has believers everywhere.
A building with the the words “Great Pumpkin” and “karaoke” on the side. Also, some characters in kanji that I cannot, alas, read.
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