Web Revival and Accessibility

[fairyrune]

I don't know if it's simply because I like the process of coding but I find looking and discovering solutions for accessibility genuinely fun!

exactly, i agree! part of coding for me has been trying to create something beautiful, but also readable.

i think that accessibility standards can vary, as well. it depends on who you ask, who you're building a site for, etc... for me, i try to make something universally acceptable, because i myself can struggle with excessively flashy pages (and i also don't have the skills yet to make something very elaborate!). i respectfully disagree that it comes at the cost of creativity; the guidelines inform that creativity, like how you can't do certain things within a given artistic medium. i can't add back to the wood i've already carved, so i have to work with it, right?

web revival is about freedom, but it's also a counterculture. part of counterculture is bucking the trends corporations and wider society sets; i would say that it should be within the bounds of web revival's culture to keep accessibility in mind, at least in part. as someone else put it:

One of the core tenets of this ideology is that the Internet should be for everyone, particularly in the face of capitalist homogenization. While that, of course, entails advocating for self expression, especially forms of harmless expression suppressed or discouraged by modern social media platforms, encouragement of self expression should not come at the cost of those in need of the most support, especially when we are advocating for Internet users to be treated as equal collaborators, not expendable consumers. Don't forget that corporations acting in their own self interests - prioritizing what is most convenient for them as opposed to the greater common good - is much of the source behind many issues with the Internet we commonly take umbrage with. If we want to build a free, equal Internet, we need to work to avoid replicating that behavior - I would absolutely love to see more discussions of web accessibility happen among web revival circles.

i cannot agree more with this. i don't think it's productive to anybody to leave us disabled people behind, if we want to take part in the community. there will of course be sites out there that are difficult to navigate, but it's not sacrificing anything to consider others when building your pages if you can. everyone deserves to have fun, surf the web, and be welcomed. even if it's just adding some alt text.

if you're interested in learning about accessibility standards, there's a brilliant list for web content accessibility guidelines by W3 here. it even details how you can implement the standards they list with examples. there's also a font and background colour checker over here. the "new old web" doesn't have to be sterile and colourless for us!