I interviewed Portland-based developer Hannah Kolbeck to discuss how Twitter’s proposed API changes will further undermine accessibility for its users.
Hannah created two apps—AltTextUtil and AltTxtReminder—which utilize Twitter's API to enable accessibility for images on the platform. When Twitter eventually added (some) similar functionality, Anil Dash noted that the debut of Twitter’s feature lacked acknowledgment of Hannah and others, who had such tools "that have been helping with accessibility on the platform for years.”
Anecdotally, Hannah says, a couple of Blind people have told her when her bot becomes inactive, Twitter will cease being usable for them.
While writing this piece, I noticed that Twitter has suspended AltTxtReminder. Hannah told me Twitter never notified her about that suspension, nor have they provided any reason for it since.
Article: Lefty Dentists & Inclusive Design /
My essay “Lefty Dentists and Inclusive Design” was featured by the UX Collective on their Medium publication, which has over 450,000 followers. In this piece, I discuss how left-handed dentists remind us how the environments we learn and work within can have a profound impact upon our lives, and, especially, upon the lives of more at-risk people, such as those within the LGBTQ+ community and other minority groups.
A New HOPE 2022 Presentation /
I was very happy to attend and present at the first IRL HOPE conference “A New HOPE,” since the advent of COVID-19. On Friday, July 22nd, I presented an updated version of my talk “Designing in Privacy in an Increasingly Public World.” A three-day conference, HOPE stands for “Hackers on Planet Earth” and is sponsored by the security hacker magazine 2600. For the first time, it took place at St. John’s University in Queens this year.
Video of presentation by Robert Stribley for A New HOPE (2022): Designing for Privacy in an Increasingly Public World
Here’s the live recording of my presentation. You can also see an iteration of the slides I used for this presentation here.
Design Museum Week Presentation /
On April 27th, I was happy to give a lightning version of my presentation on the topic of “Designing for Privacy in an Increasingly Public World” for Design Museum Week. The Design Museum Foundation’s mission statement is “Bring the transformative power of design everywhere.”
You can watch a recording of this presentation below.
Photoessay: Hands Off Ukraine /
On Saturday, March 5th I photographed the Stand With Ukraine rally in Times Square, New York, just a few days after Vladimir Putin ordered Russian forces to invade that country. My resulting photoessay “Hands Off Ukraine” was featured in Medium’s “War in Ukraine: What We’re Reading” as well as the intersectionality-oriented publication “An Injustice.”
Publicis Sapient Accelerator Program /
The Accelerator badge presented by Publicis Sapient to all who completed the months-long program in January, 2022.
In January of this year, I completed The Accelerator, an intense transformational leadership training program at Publicis Sapient in the core capabilities, approaches, and leadership skills to steward “Digital Business Transformation.” The training included 50 hours of instruction, approximately 30 hours reading and video content, as well as several other required assignments and presentations participants completed.