In reply to: Swords into Plowshares by Audrey Watters
I don’t think there’s any summary I can give that could do this piece justice — you should just go read it. I’ve been thinking about it all day. Huge thank you to Reo Eveleth for sharing it on Bluesky.
My favorite kind of live music performance, the platonic ideal of going out and seeing music, is when you see someone you knew nothing about ahead of time in a small venue and you leave as a totally committed fan.
We see a lot less music than we did before we had a kid, and the extra logistics involved in a night out (schedules, babysitter, etc) means a lot less spontaneous “this looks interesting, let’s go see it” experiences.
But tonight Emily and I were lucky enough to go to a really special and memorable performance in a perfect-sized venue by an artist I knew nothing about going in, Uwade. It was so good, filled with love and humor and sincerity, and some really amazing music too. (Plus a solid opening act by local artist Moyana, who seems like she’ll be touring in her own right soon.)
Eli Mellen passed along Jillian Weise’s 2018 essay “Common Cyborg” today. It’s an extraordinary read, and I very much recommend it.
I don’t have anything useful to add beyond that. Just, go read it. It’s going to be bouncing around in my head for a long time.
I’ve been struggling to read fiction lately — just too much other stuff in my head to keep my focus on the narrative. But the last few days I’ve been thinking about how much I miss it, and how I need to find a good book to get back into the rhythm.
Today, I got a perfectly-timed gift from my past self: Woodworking, by Emily St. James. I am so excited for this book, and so grateful that I had the forethought to preorder it months ago.
In reply to: Double Tap Podcast: Braille on Android & The Politics of Accessibility
I had the pleasure of chatting with Steven Scott for the podcast Double Tap recently about my blog post on the politics of accessibility. Steven is a much better interviewer than I am an interviewee, but I do encourage you to take a few minutes to listen to our conversation!
In reply to: The spineless cowardice of the NCAA's anti-trans swerve
Rodger Sherman is arguably the best sports writer in the country right now, and I’m grateful to see him take such a strong position on this.
There’s a lot of good commentary here on sports and gender identity, but this seems to be the key observation for understanding what’s happening with the NCAA:
It’s easy to explain the flip-flop: The NCAA has lost court case after court case about their core business model, the premise that colleges should be allowed to profit from athletics without paying the athletes. They’re hoping for Trump and Congress to bail them out through legislation stating that college athletes are not employees. If Republicans hand the NCAA legislative wins, it could save an organization on the brink. Baker has apparently decided not to mess that chance up over a couple of trans kids.
There’s a certain kind of activist and a certain kind of commentator who perceives “social issues” and “identity politics” as a distraction to economic issues. I think this is a good example of how it’s not easy — or desirable — to separate identity from economics. The people who want to stop you from unionizing will discriminate against you in a heartbeat, and the people who want to discriminate against you definitely want to stop you from gaining bargaining power.
This moment, like all others, is a time for solidarity.
I kind of fell off the microblogging wagon for a couple of weeks — but in my defense it’s been a remarkably difficult couple of weeks, for both personal and professional reasons.
But without commenting on why it’s been difficult, I do want to express some gratitude into the void for some of the people who have made these weeks a little more manageable. In both my personal and professional life, I have people who can make me laugh and people who can say things so devastatingly kind and thoughtful that I struggle to hold back tears.
I am so incredibly fortunate to have these people in my life, and I hope I give a little bit back to them as well.
In reply to: Heather Burns’ response to the WordPress drama
I doubt Heather remembers the one-and-a-half conversations we had six or seven years ago, back when I was knee-deep in WordPress world. She’s a really impressive person, and people would benefit from paying attention to what she has to say.
The fact that Matt Mullenweg seems to view her as a key player in an imagined conspiracy to undermine his authority over the WordPress project, and has banned her from participating in a community she left years ago, speaks volumes about Matt, his character, and his fitness to lead an open source project.
Two articles published yesterday, from both sides of the US-Canadian border:
Two ledes:
The federal government is often failing to meet its own requirements for digital accessibility, according to a new, congressionally-mandated report released late last month.
The report notes that in the “26 years since the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 was amended to include Section 508, governmentwide Section 508 conformance remains low.”
… and…
When Ontario crossed into 2025, it was supposed to do so as an accessible province. Instead, advocates say it’s missed its own deadline.
In 2005, a unanimous vote carried in Queen’s Park to make the province accessible to people with disabilities within two decades.
Two more excerpts:
Lawmakers should update the law itself to clearly define who needs to follow Section 508, bring it up to date with the current technological landscape and strengthen enforcement.
The report also calls for increased funding, as resourcing and staffing remain challenges. About half of the agencies surveyed don’t have the resources to even test their most viewed content.
… and…
Implementation of the act has been reviewed four times over the years, most recently by Rich Donovan. His 2023 report found the legislation wasn’t being enforced and the state of accessibility in the province was in “crisis.”
“The reality is you can create all the standards you want in the world. If companies don’t adopt them and use them, they’re totally ineffective,” he said in a recent interview with CBC Toronto.
Section 508 and the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA) are not really directly comparable. But reading these side-by-side is, uh, interesting.
I know I’m late to the discourse but: Conclave is a flawed but ultimately beautiful film. I’m glad it exists, I’m glad it ends exactly the way it does, and I hope more people watch it.