Cameron Cundiff

Hi! If you care deeply about the open web, I hope you’ll consider joining my team. We get to support projects like Watch Duty, Mastodon & many more. We’ve committed nearly $100M to making the Internet better. And we haven’t wavered one bit in inclusive hiring policies. www.fastly.com/about/jobs/a...

Dennis the menace!

This is exactly what they told me on my first day at that job where I had to kill all those parrots, and it really helped.

FTC orders AI accessibility startup accessiBe to pay $1M for misleading advertising | TechCrunch The FTC has ordered accessibility startup accessiBe to pay $1 million over allegations of false advertising and misleading product claims.

Big, BIG news on the accessibility front. FTC orders an overlay company, AccessiBe, to pay US$1 million for false advertising.

techcrunch.com/2025/01/03/f...

Not over - there's a 30 day public comment period. But it's apparently likely to stick.

Awesome news!

Meta’s AI-generated bot profiles are not being received well “Nobody asked for this or wants this.”

Im seeing conspiracy theories about the Meta AI bots. A few points: these profiles date back to 2023 & haven’t posted since early 2024. They had low engagement before this week. And it seems possible they were kinda abandoned bc they flopped like other Meta AI bots!

www.theverge.com/2025/1/3/243...

Using Image Describer for alt text when posting content 😎

Image Describer - Chrome Web Store Image Describer uses AI to describe content and images on the web for people who are blind or have low-vision.

you can install the Image Describer Chrome extension here chromewebstore.google.com/detail/image...

Screenshot of the New York Times homepage in Chrome browser, with a side panel open for the Image Describer extension, and a (correct) description: > A black and white photograph shows a smiling Jimmy Carter standing next to a young Joe Biden. The image accompanies an article on the New York Times website.

The same image of Jimmy Carter and Joe Biden from a news article published in 2023: > A black and white image shows former president Jimmy Carter standing next to Joe Biden, who is holding up some papers. The article is about Carter asking Biden to deliver his eulogy.

had an epiphany: good image descriptions need context to be helpful. So the description changes depending on the site, editorial tone, the surrounding text and other content. I set up Image Describer Chrome extension to do this, and its working well.

Audio descriptions for blind people are the next captions. Useful for everyone!

Muted tags do not appear muted if the tag is in the alt text · Issue #6173 · bluesky-social/social-app Steps to Reproduce Many people are hiding tags inside of the alt text section so that they do not appear in the main post text. Tags that are in the alt text can be used for lists and other tag rel...

Oh wow, does this work? I found this github.com/bluesky-soci...

I saw a kid dressed up as Ernie for Halloween and said he was "from the muppets... or whatever"

Friends, I still get requests for #accessibility consultations. I'm not currently taking any consultation work, and I love to give recommendations for independent consultants when clients ask for them.

If you're an independent #a11y consultant, please reply below so I can add you to the list!

The 70% problem: Hard truths about AI-assisted coding A field guide and why we need to rethink our expectations

"The reality is that #AI is like having a very eager junior developer on your team. They can write code quickly, but they need constant supervision and correction. The more you know, the better you can guide them." @addyosmani.bsky.social

addyo.substack.com/p/the-70-pro...

You'll need to practice Voice Control.

I was just Heading here to say the same thing.

AI Company That Made Robots For Kids Goes Under, Robots Die - Aftermath Embodied, maker of the AI robot called Moxie, is shuttering. With their closing, parents have to explain to their kids that Moxie is dead.

Embodied, maker of the AI robot called Moxie, is shuttering. With their closing, parents have to explain to their kids that Moxie is dead.

aftermath.site/moxie-robot-...

Thanks for that, you're right. I was thinking of an issue where the accessible description is exposed but JAWS doesn't announce it. Nothing to do with the attribute name.

Plus one. We had a talk about the at A11yNYC a few years ago www.youtube.com/live/GC329aO...

I just tried with JAWS against Edge and Chrome and I don't get an announcement for aria-description 🤔

Last time I checked this was poorly supported in I think JAWS. Wondering if that's still true.

AI to trawl the internet and like posts that you would have liked based on your social media history. Would take the drudgery out of scrolling.

A fake Spotify Wrapped screenshot using a bright yellow design from this year's roundup. The songs spell out "Please please please apply alt text to your Wrapped." The songs used are Please Please Please by Sabrina Carpenter, Apply by Glasser, Alt by Paysage d'Hiver, Text by Chief Keef, To Your by Momajay and Wrapped by George Strait. Each song is accompanied by album artwork.

Wow! Loving our Spotify Wrapped this year.

Such great songs...

#SpotifyWrapped

Super stoked: tonight at A11yNYC we're hosting Fred Moltz, Chief Accessibility Officer at Verizon. Come to AKQA, 72 Spring Street in SoHo, NYC or join the livestream if you can't make it. See y'all soon! www.youtube.com/watch?v=jhw7...

Dataviz accessibility principles, demonstrated by the 2024 presidential election dashboards. by Sarah L. Fossheim I tested how well different election dashboards implemented common dataviz accessibility princples, and explained where things went wrong (including lots of demos).

New blog post out (first one in over a year 🥵): I tested how well different election dashboards implemented common dataviz accessibility principles, and explained where things went wrong, including lots of demos.

fossheim.io/writing/post...

The actual mechanics of making the interface accessible are pretty trivial compared to the privacy and potential security obstacles. Curious what y'all think!

YouTube video by Accessibility Nerd Claude Computer Use for Disability and Accessibility

Tried out Claude Computer Use with an accessibility lens. I'm excited and hopeful, but it's got major problems. #A11y #Accessibility

www.youtube.com/watch?v=s5T3...

When will we get muting for image text so I can block twitter screenshots 🙃

I too made a ninja turtles joke at the dinner table. 🤝

Happy working on side projects day for all who celebrate! 🥳🤩

We're gonna need more characters!