Issue #8 • 06 August 2024

Aloha Reader!

Last month, my family and I traveled to Hawaii for the first time. What a vibrant, diverse, and continual feast for the senses. Jagged jet-black lava rocks, succulent white pineapple, dazzling sunsets and moonrises, and the cool, thick, calming darkness of night vividly yet gently amplify the natural world. Everyone is welcome to partake, and one activity struck me as particularly inclusive.

Snorkeling is Accessible.

Floating atop a blue expanse with my face barely submerged, yet mere inches from streaming schools of triggerfish, I listened to the rhythm of the waves amidst my not-quite-sure-this-should-work breaths puffing through my plastic mask.

“This seems like something almost everyone could enjoy,” I thought to myself.

The fizz of bubbles rushing to the ocean surface, the refracted azure-infused sunlight on the coral reef, the cool waves caressing your skin, the scent of salty air, and the harsh choking gulp of seawater (if you’re unlucky enough to open your mouth) - snorkeling engages all our physical senses. Even more, it is buoyant, unencumbered, and unimpaired — enough to grant us a singular shared freedom regardless of how much we can see, hear, or move. All it takes is the courage to enter the water and the willingness to relax enough to experience the depths around and within.

This seems like something almost everyone could enjoy.

Recent blog articles

4 approaches to accessibility advocacy and how they fit together There are several perspectives from which to advocate for digital accessibility. This post describes four of these approaches and explores how they connect with and compliment each other to strengthen the overall case for accessible websites, apps, and other digital products. Learn about advocacy approaches

Get a taste of how blind people experience the web with Site Unseen Here's a primer on the Site Unseen Chrome extension, a tool that helps you appreciate how blind people use the web. Site Unseen enables you to foster empathy for those with vision disabilities, build the case for accessible web design, and test for web accessibility issues. Check out Site Unseen

Accessibility around the web

• ​Accidents of Nature -Harriet McBryde Johnson
  ​I listened to this novel on the flight to Hawaii. Charming, disarming, and funny, this tale of engaging with one's own disability in the midst of a scrappy quirky community made me wish I had grown up going to Camp Courage.
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• ​How to Build on Basic Principles of Link Accessibility: In-depth Strategies - Caitlin de Rooij at The A11y Collective​
  Take a deep dive into how to ensure your hyperlinks are accessible to screen reader and keyboard users. This is a great follow-up to the Don't Click Here article on the Pedal Point blog.
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• ​Understanding and Designing for Neurodiversity: My Journey with ADHD - Monika Prasad from DigitalA11y​
  How a designer with ADHD builds websites for people with neurodiversities.
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Have an awesome August!

Simon Miner Pedal Point Solutions

Need help with web accessibility testing, treatment, or training? Pedal Point Solutions offers a free assessment of your website.

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