On The Pulse for a Second Time

At the end of 2013 I appeared on a radio show called The Pulse, which airs on WHYY. I really enjoyed the experience of broadcasting, and hoped one day to do it again. A few weeks ago a reporter from the Pulse named Todd Bookman contacted me and asked if I would like to participate in a piece about web accessibility. Of course I said yes. It airs on Friday, February 6 at 09:00 AM, in about seven hours from the time of publishing. You can always listen to it online.

Several factors gave the interview a strange feel. I didn’t want to mess with my Nest thermostat because the Nest app has marginal accessibility. Since I couldn’t turn off my loud heating, we had to conduct the interview in my bedroom with the door closed. I had just received some Gotu Kola extract, a nootropic which nourishes the brain. I took two drops a half hour before the interview, and it made me feel very focused and smart. I forgot how much I enjoyed this herb.

I just rambled on about the good old days when we used text for everything and how my Mom remembers buying my Apple II/e which still works and how much I miss the BBS scene oh and by the way Todd wrote a beautiful article about an old BBS. Then we got into the World Wide web with all of its clutter and confusion. I had to discuss a technical topic as non-technically as possible which I found challenging. Developers can use special tags to convey certain information to screen readers, such as an alt tag to describe an image. Use standard elements when possible then fall back on ARIA. Try navigating your site with a keyboard. Try a tool such as Wave from WebAIM. If you use RubyMotion then try my own gem Motion-Accessibility. Think about accessibility as early as possible in your project. Good standard advice.

He recorded over a half hour of audio. The final piece gets a lot of the good parts. He found a demo of the old Echo II which brought back of good memories on Twitter. Mom described hearing it as like hearing an old song, and I agree. It takes you back in the same way. On another interesting note, Angel, the stut from Overbrook, came on our touch tours at the Penn museum. Small world.

I feel honored that the Pulse chose me to appear for a second time. Perhaps this serves as the second step in my broadcasting career. If you’d like to learn more about accessibility, follow the links in this article, and if you need consulting work just ask! And again, you can listen to the piece here.