Event Notes | Axe-con 2023

Event Link & Schedule: https://www.deque.com/axe-con/schedule

Thoughts about the event overall:

  • I loved the attention to each presenter’s self-descriptions.
  • Video quality was A+
  • Video quality wasn’t too great, especially when presenters were sharing their screen.

To do:

  • Remove images in favor of text where possible.
  • Add alt text to remaining images.

⚠️ Note: these generally are unrefined notes taken on-the-fly while watching the event.

  • I claim no ownership over any screenshots taken of the presentations or reproduced text– and only use them for my own learning and notes.
  • These “notes” posts are not search-engine-indexed and only appear on my site for my own archiving purposes.

Wednesday March 15

  • 9:00am – Accessibility at Google: Lessons Learned
  • 10:00am – Update on The State of Accessibility
  • 11:00am – Trust is the true measure of inclusion. Change my mind.
    • Research shows users trust honesty over perfection.
  • 12:00pm – Building Consistent Development Habits to Achieve Accessibility at Scale
  • 2:00pm – DevOps: Top Lessons Learned on Shifting Left For Accessibility and Other Experts
  • 3:00pm – Elections for Everyone: Accessible voting in 2023
  • 4:00pm – Maker/Space: a DIY, Accessible Workflow for Tactile Graphics Used in Zero-Gravity Flight
  • 5:00pm – The Accessibility to Burnout Pipeline

Thursday March 17

  • 9:00am – Narrative Changes on Disability
    • Accessibility should be default, unremarkable, normalized. Options should be there for anyone to use.
  • 10:00am – Preparing Accessibility for the Future and the Present
    • Automated security systems often mark people with disabilities as threats.
    • “Cobra” effects
      • “too many wild cobras. bounty program created on dead cobras. people breed them to collect bounties. seen as a resounding success. bounty program was ended. breeding cobras were released, increasing wild cobra population.”  whomp whomp.
      • So what kinds of false positives are we creating in accessibility?
    • Require individual authors into compliance– not just large companies.
    • Entrench WCAG in legislation.
    • Accessibility isn’t a checklist– it’s a continuum.
  • 11:00am – God Of War, Ragnarök: Hammering Home Axe-essibility
    • Previously (older GoW games)
      • CoPilot – Using two controllers as one for xbox / Microsoft
        • Titan2 adapter for two PS4 controllers.
      • Text translations and descriptions of cutscenes, etc.
      • Someone to help live gameplay by saying things like “enemy just flew far back left” and “they spewed lava to your right so watch out” and “ok you’ve got a powerup ready!”
    • GoW: Ragnarok had improvements
      • Navigational improvements: like a “radar blip” for moving around
      • Combat improvements: lock-on being able to be “unbroken” even when an enemy flies away or hides behind a rock. And audio cues for attacks– especially unblockable attacks.
  • 12:00pm – Hijacking Screenreaders with CSS
    • Mental model: “Separation of content and presentation. CSS isn’t content, so screenreaders don’t care about it.” However:
      • display: none causes screenreaders to SKIP the element, so CSS does come into play. (also other “hide the content” methods like height: 0.
      • ::before‘s are also read by screenreaders
      • text-transform: uppercase (an uppercase button) causes to screenreaders to pronounce/spell out “A.D.D button”
    • Reverse-engineering meaning is educated guesswork at best.
    • Browsers don’t just make the accessibility tree, they curate it. This includes the pseudo-elements.
    • Be aware of, recognize, and then “pave” the “cow paths.”
  • 2:00pm – GitHub Accessibility: Bridging the Disability Divide through Code Collaboration
    • Principle 2: “disabilities are not inherent to people,” they’re situational when barriers are encountered.
      • ~”I’m not blind until the only resource available is via printed text.”
    • Generative AI will be incorporated into our lives, and it’s our job to ensure it’s inclusive of disabilities.
  • 3:00pm – Please Don’t Let Accessibility Become the Next DEI in Tech
  • 4:00pm – Panel: Working from Within: Having a Disability and Working in Digital Accessibility
  • 5:00pm – How To Truly Connect with All of Your Audience Without Leaving Anyone Behind