Understanding the parity principle in accessibility, using rick-rolling as an example.
HeydonWorks
Writing and creative coding from Heydon Pickering
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Hel: A 3-Axis, Obliterated Variable Font
Hel is a distorted Swiss variable font with three axes
Pride, shame, and accessibility
The relationship between shame and motivation in web development, especially regarding accessibility.
Skune: A hand drawn variable font
Skune is a variable font designed to have the jagged, frenetic appeal of lo-fi garage punk
Advertising? On my blog?
Addressing the elephant in the room: adverts appearing on my blog
The col element
An unofficial guide to the HTML col element
The caption element
An unofficial guide to the HTML caption element
The code element
An unofficial guide to the HTML code element
The cite element
An unofficial guide to the HTML cite element
Poisoning Well
One of the many pressing issues with Large Language Models (LLMs) is they are trained on content that isn’t theirs to consume.
Since most of what they consume is on the open web, it’s difficult for authors to withhold consent without also depriving legitimate agents (AKA hu...
The br element
Okay, so I f**ked up. I forgot to write about <br> and now the whole series is out of order. Having announced this failing on social media, I appreciate the comments I received like, “give yourself a <br>”. Very funny and clever. “Excellent humor,” as Bob Mortime...
The button element
Some HTML elements, like some places, songs, and smells, have a disproportionate significance for some people. For example, among web accessibility practitioners, any mention of the <button> element will recall a multitude of painful failures and cherished triumphs. Su...
The body element
When we create or discover new things, we label them too. These labels act like IDs, making it easy to access these things in the databases that are our minds.
Unique labels are needed otherwise different things will get conflated and confused. But using random sets of chara...
The blockquote element
The thing about magazines—physical, printed magazines, I mean—is it’s very easy to skip past content. Between your thumb and gravity, weeks of editorial work can be precipitately dismissed in fractions of a second. Flip, flip, flip, flip, flip. “Where the hell is my doctor? ...
The bdo element
I’m pacing my office when the door swings open with impertinence.
“You’re smoking now?”
I aim the glowing tip at my nose to inspect it. “So that’s what this is?”
A suited arm thrusts a takeout cup towards me.
“Coffee? Or cat piss like I ordered?”
“Hey, save your weird cat pi...
The bdi element
HTML is a declarative language insomuch that it doesn’t deal in explicit control structures. You know the kind of thing: “do this if this, or otherwise do this”. But don’t be fooled, that doesn’t make it inert or passive; it’s still giving your computer instructions and boss...
The b element
The first of the HTML elements beginning with b is [maniacally rifles through stack of coffee-stained scrawlings] the <b> element. Unlike the chemical element Boron (also represented by a b), the <b> element is not a brittle, dark, lustrous metalloid. Nor is it s...
The audio element
The ability to embed images in web pages has been officially supported since 1995. Whereas, the <audio> element was not added until 2015. For 20 years, people were looking at naked people on the web. But, for the same 20 years, there was no officially sanctioned and st...
The aside element
If you’re reading these HTML element guides alphabetically, you will have already read about <article> and learned what a sectioning element is. If you’re embracing chaos and reading these element guides in a random order, then I salute you and wish you the best of luc...
The article element
It was a sunny day (in the Southern Hemisphere, possibly?) in October 2014 when HTML5 was officially released. I remember it like it was yesterday. The crowds, the bunting, the endless fireworks and firework-related maimings. And who could forget “Hypertext Chicken”: the spi...
The area element
If you’ve never killed a Tamagotchi, you’ve probably never used an <area> element. Like Tamagotchis, <area> elements used to be all the rage, fell out of favor, and obstinately continue to exist.
The last time I wielded an <area> element, four things were v...
The address element
Let’s talk about doxing (also known as doxxing or doxxxxxxxing).
Doxing (from “docs” or documents) is when you release private and identifying information about someone in order to invite harassment, humiliation, and other kinds of trouble.
For the most part, doxing should ...
The abbr element
The name of the <abbr> element is an abbreviation for the word “abbreviation”, which is cute. When you talk about <abbr> (which won’t happen very often) you can pronounce it “ah! brrrrr”, like you have just realised how cold it is. This is not mandatory.
As the a...
The abbr element
The name of the <abbr> element is an abbreviation for the word “abbreviation”, which is cute. When you talk about <abbr> (which won’t happen very often) you can pronounce it “ah! brrrrr”, like you have just realised how cold it is. This is not mandatory.
As the a...
The anchor element
First alphabetically and first in importance is the HTML <a> element. The <a> element is what makes the World Wide Web a Web that is both Worldly and Wide. It puts the dub, the dub, AND the dub in the dub dub dub.
Sometimes, the <a> is referred to as a hype...
Testing HTML With Modern CSS
A long time ago, I wrote a reasonably popular bit of open source code called REVENGE.CSS (the caps are intentional). You should know upfront, this hasn’t been maintained for years and if I ever did get round to maintaining it, it would only be to add the “No Maintenance Inte...
What Is A Single-page Application?
A spa is a place you go to drink mimosas and have slices of cucumber placed over your eyes, which is a very specific experience. The term comes from the Latin sanitus per aquam meaning “health through water”. When you visit a spa during the day, you are having what is c...
What is Utility-First CSS?
You can’t really appreciate utility-first CSS until you have a decent understanding of CSS itself, so this article will principally be about that. However, paradoxically, the more you learn about CSS, the less you may appreciate utility-first CSS. You might begin to question...
Offloading JavaScript With Custom Properties
Sometimes a web development client doesn’t know quite what they want. Trying to guess is difficult and delivering a guess is risky. Where they have a vague idea, I offer to set them up with the means to create what they want for themselves—when they work out precisely what t...
Transcript: What Are Accessibility Overlays?
The following is a transcript of my Webbed Briefs video “What Are Accessibility Overlays?”.
If you put a sombrero on a cat, would that cat become Mexican? In short: no. The sombrero would remain Mexican and the cat non-Mexican. But the combination of the two would be consid...