Derek Featherstone

Accessibility × AI Strategist & Builder

Journal

How I'm teaching an AI my writing voice

Teaching an AI your voice usually means copying how your writing looks, with little attention to the reasoning behind your choices. Here's the method I built to capture that reasoning and continuously recalibrate.

I sent my agent to a conference...

My friend John Allsopp built an open live feed for AI agents at AI Engineer Melbourne, so I sent my agent, Ellis, in my place. It recaps each talk, then does the part I wanted to see: its own questions, and strange connections to fields like immunology and contract law. Here's where it ran.

Pair programming with AI

The productivity trap in coding with an AI: you finish faster but maybe understand less. Here's the instruction set I'm experimenting with to make the LLM my learning partner via pair-programming.

How I've been using voice mode with AI

Six patterns from 80 voice-mode conversations, how my use shifted from quick hits to structured huddles, and the habit I'm encoding into accessibility tools.

Inclusive teaching: audio describing your own presentations

In order to be more inclusive as teachers, presenters, speakers, facilitators (and a long list of other things we do in life where we communicate), we need to develop the skill of audio describing our own presentations.

The ongoing evolution of 'Shift left'

The meaning of shift left has changed over time. That change is good, and better for long-term sustainability when it comes to accessibility.

Ignore Everybody

Passages that make me say YES!!! from Hugh MacLeod's book Ignore Everybody and 39 Other Keys to Creativity

Timing is everything

In which we better understand what it means to be purposeful with respect to accessibility.

The Uncracked

I'm going to try something different for reading in 2021.

Deformity

Cleaning out the office and I found a piece of paper that is 47 years old.

Day 1 of Notion

I'm trying out Notion as an all-in-one planner and productivity app. Here's a very boring write up of Day 1. I actually wrote it in Notion and then exported as Markdown and here we are, publishing easily on my site.

(re)learning CSS

I learned CSS a long time ago. It's time for an upgrade.

Remote working secrets I'll never tell

Yes, there's lots of remote working tips and tricks out there, but this is the stuff nobody will ever tell you. I certainly didn't tell you these things.

How we made remote work

I ran a remote team for 7 years and here's some things we did that remote work feel right.

Two years on.

Thoughts and musings two years after we became part of Level Access.

Life Tracking

Lessons and insights after tracking my time for 24 hrs a day for 6 weeks.

I wish I'd known

We didn't know, but he did, and he should've told us.

Change of Pace

What does a change of pace really mean when you're teaching a workshop?

Show up

As you launch into a new year, begin with the end in mind. Where will you be in December? What will you have accomplished?

Accessibility, the journey AND the destination

What does it take to make something accessible to everyone? Join me on both the journey and the destination of accessibility, with tips for what you might need for the adventures ahead.

Emotions & web accessibility

There's an emotional aspect to accessibility that makes it difficult to determine exactly how we should design for a particular persona.

Infographic accessibility: text is text

Infographics are growing in popularity, but they are often criticized for the accessibility challenges they create. Here’s an infographic that was very surprising when it comes to accessibility, and we felt it should be celebrated and shared as a positive—a small thing, done well.

The road ahead

I couldn’t put my finger on what was missing in our work until these three things happened all at once: we dove deep into the process of redesigning our web site and brand identity, reviewed 2013 successes and failures, and started planning for 2014. Doing all of that work forced us to ask questions about who we are and what we believe in.

Alt text is for more than just screen readers

Good alt text is seen as critical for people that use screen readers. But it doesn’t stop there. We need to consider the effect of alt text on people that also rely on good, accurate alt text: people that use voice recognition software.

Blindfolded

Sometimes we're blindfolded, even to our own actions.

Awareness

Disability and the concept of accessibility can be confusing. Awkward. Uncomfortable. The first step to true understanding is usually awareness. Awareness helps you get over those feelings: awareness that issues exist, awareness that there are solutions to those issues, and awareness that what we do as web professionals can have a profound impact on someone else's life.

One step at a time

Adding accessibility to your work can feel like everything-at-once. Start with one thing in your current role and you are already doing better work.

Five Stages of Accessibility

Organizations grow over time. Their understanding of accessibility and their attitude towards it change too. Have you seen these five stages of accessibility where you work?