Jan Maarten
@janmaarten.com
Inclusive designer, privacy advocate, writer, and future hermit. (he/him) Please don’t add me to your starter packs. Opinions are my own. 🌐 https://janmaarten.com
And here I was about to make a pitch for an article to ZeroHeight. Unserious, clownish behavior that ignores the lived experience of countless disabled people and the expertise of thousands of web professionals.
Eric Bailey@ericwbailey.website · 8h agoDisappointed to see y’all normalizing AudioEye, a litigious company who’d rather try and threaten people than better their own product.
"But there is no honour for the humanities in regaining their standing through the attention of AI companies, if they engage only on the technology industry’s terms. In that case, they will have become important in exactly the wrong way." www.ft.com/content/bdb3...
Why this philosopher turned down Anthropic
The AI industry is courting the humanities — but it is asking the wrong questions
ft.com
”Instead, he took out two long knitting needles. Between them dangled a mound of pink yarn. He explained to me that he was making a winter hat for a niece. And for the first time that morning, I noticed a glint of pride and excitement in his eyes.”
Why Is Everyone In Tech So Sad? | NOEMA
A lot of people seem to be realizing that knowledge work is mostly pointless. AI might give us the pleasure of finding out what happens if an entire class of workers loses faith in their careers.
noemamag.com
Behind every link is one of two possible truths, and we must take each out as the moment demands: "For this, the internet was created" "This is why we're all about to be dust and ashes."
I made an app! What Can't I Press helps you discover what keyboard shortcuts are already claimed by running apps, with a focus on screen readers. This helps prevent you from overriding something someone might rely on to get what they want or need. #a11y github.com/ericwbailey/...
GitHub - ericwbailey/what-cant-i-press: ⌨️ Lists what keyboard shortcuts are claimed
⌨️ Lists what keyboard shortcuts are claimed. Contribute to ericwbailey/what-cant-i-press development by creating an account on GitHub.
github.com
I had to tap the sign again today.
Jan Maarten@janmaarten.com · 2y agoMe, an accessibility designer losing his chill: If you do that, no one using assistive tech will be able to use this Dev: Okay but is it really a problem if it isn't accessible? Me: We need to make sure that everyone can access this Dev: What do you mean everyone?? Me:
Incredible report at a devastating time.
Grant Stoner@supercrip1994.bsky.social · 4w agoWith layoffs at Xbox, sources indicate accessibility efforts have also been affected. What was once a champion of accessibility is now a shell of its former self, unsure if accessibility even has a place at the new Xbox. Read my first report for @aftermath.site here: aftermath.site/xbox-layoffs...
I told someone recently that anyone doing accessibility work in America has been punished by our government. And I’ve gotten some “idk about that” But the thing is they banned the word accessibility and then they defunded and laid off people doing this work. Now accessibility has to be hidden
Sarah T Roberts, PhD@ubiquity75.xyz · 4w agoA reminder that UC _faculty_ and Faculty Associations — not the universities themselves nor their administrators — are waging this battle in court, demonstrating great bravery and moral clarity.
About time. Some folks will never join in person. Some folks genuinely can not risk getting sick or potentially becoming even more disabled. There’s no good reason to force attendees to be in person, especially when they did it perfectly well in past years.
#a11yTO@a11yto.bsky.social · last mo.Virtual tickets are back for #a11yTO Conf 2026! If travel isn't possible, join us online from wherever you are. Virtual tickets are on sale now. Already have an in-person ticket? Email info@a11yto.com to make the switch. conf.a11yto.com #a11y #Accessibility #InclusiveDesign
If you live in California and you want to take advantage of the state-run portal that tells all registered data brokers to delete your data instead of having to send an individual request to every single one, here is what you need to know: www.eff.org/deeplinks/20...
Protect Your Privacy with California's DROP Tool
Are you a California resident? Then we've got exciting news for you: there's a tool just for you that lets you take a single, relatively easy step to protect your privacy. It's called a DROP request. ...
eff.org
A generation of managers made a career out of copying ideas from other apps they've seen into their own app. Today, AI (which has seen every app) can do this a hundred times faster than any of them. The only problem is that doing this was always pointless.
Thoughtless features never add up to a thoughtful product
Your first idea for how to solve a problem is most likely to be a low-impact hack. Delightful user experiences require a higher level of thinking.
productpicnic.beehiiv.com
Devastated to find out that no amount of non-writing activities has reduced the amount of writing I need to do
The horse op-ed is an instant classic. I can't tell you how much joy this piece gives me. It should be taught in every introductory writing class in no small part because the horse arguments are so compelling. "I have noticed that human children get to eat cake. But I am bigger than the children."
It’s worth noting that Taco Bell identified the source before the FDA did, and promptly pulled it from their stores. The FDA didn’t even name the source until Taylor Farms outed themselves, and hasn’t issued a recall. Basically, Taco Bell is now a more reliable authority than the FDA.
Forbes@forbes.com · last mo.Taylor Farms, which supplies major fast food and grocery chains, was identified as the possible source of the cyclosporiasis outbreak Thursday.
I use virtual debit cards to restrict transactions to specific vendors. This prevents someone using a stolen CC and the fun little tricks Adobe and Figma like using to bill the next month/year of your subscription almost a week early in order to lock you in when you might have cancelled.
Maybe I'm not overthinking, maybe I'm just regular thinking about stuff that’s overhappening
Everyone is one bad day away from permanent disability.
Krista D Ball is Canada's Snarky Potato@kristadb1.bsky.social · last mo.My mom stubbed her toe on the corner foot of the bed. A thing we've all done a hundred times in our lives. Her had to have her leg amputated and spend ten months in the hospital because of it. 🤷 Disability can be incredibly random and without warning or reason.
Designers talk a big game about "empathy" for users. But empathy without respect is nothing more than pity. As Big Tech goes all-in on AI to accelerate its feature pipelines, the disrespect for users that's baked into these systems naturally scales up with it. Now it has reached the breaking point.
Empathy and delight mean nothing when the software is disrespectful
Software is now something we do TO users, instead of something that we make FOR them.
productpicnic.beehiiv.com
How might we: open an app and get a Flock camera to pull up and give us a ride straight to jail So glad to see these being tested on the roads up here in Bellevue
404 Media@404media.co · last mo.Waymo, which is owned by Google, says on a support page that its support team “may review video under certain circumstances," and “in more urgent circumstances, Support may access live video during a trip.” www.404media.co/waymo-called...
Sora: dead Atlas: dead "adult mode": dead Abilene expansion: dead OpenAI IPO: dead Tell me again about "inevitability"
The ChatGPT browser is already dead
ChatGPT Atlas didn’t even last a year.
theverge.com
“Xbox's accessibility initiatives have been one of its few unequivocal achievements in an era of pervasive dysfunction” #a11y www.pcgamer.com/gaming-indus...
Xbox layoffs hit accessibility leadership, calling into question Microsoft's continued commitment to accessibility initiatives
Accessibility efforts have been some of Microsoft's biggest wins—but that didn't stop it from cutting accessibility leads.
pcgamer.com
“The decision comes months after some Woodburn residents expressed fears that the information collected from the cameras would be used to arrest immigrants or invade people’s privacy.”
Oregon’s most Latino city removes Flock cameras after audit confirms immigration agencies accessed data
The city installed 23 license plate cameras in spring 2025 to target crime, but that’s not all they did.
oregonlive.com
from my own perspective this is one of the greatest harms done by this government and plotting a course to reverse this damage is must be a very priority in our speech and our activism
Phil Lewis@phillewis.bsky.social · 2mo agoStephen Miller was reportedly the driving force behind the DOJ's recent memo authorizing states to institutionalize people with disabilities rather than fund community-based care
A groundbreaking book that uncovers the hidden histories of disabled people who fought against injustice shows disabled people are still “locked in bureaucratic battles” for support, just as they were in the 16th and 17th centuries. #DisabilityHistory www.disabilitynewsservice.com/secret-histo...
Secret histories unearthed by author show how disabled people fought injustice through the centuries
A groundbreaking book that uncovers the hidden histories of disabled people who fought against injustice shows disabled people are still “locked in bureaucratic battles” for support, just as they w…
disabilitynewsservice.com
AI has started blocking the Wayback Machine from chronicling the web. Considering that nearly 40% of websites disappear after 10 years, this will enforce a giant loss in collective memory.
AI’s biggest casualty could be history itself
The Internet Archive is a vital resource that has helped the search for truth in more than one global event, writes Anthony Cuthbertson, but it is in danger of becoming the latest collateral damage of...
the-independent.com
Feedback loops require real feedback. AI drives it underground. I have a love / hate relationship with @spavel.bsky.social's picnic articles: I nod while reading it and love it, but I also hate that he is, sadly, right about everything he describes here.
Feedback loops require real feedback. AI drives it underground.
The methods we take for granted have load-bearing requirements that have already gone extinct in many organizations.
productpicnic.beehiiv.com
this is a catastrophe and he will do harm, and only harm, to those living with disabilities
Julia Métraux@juliametraux.bsky.social · 2mo agoIn bad news, with disability education oversight being moved to the Department of Health and Human Services from the Department of Education, that means Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will have power over disability policy positions. New from me at @motherjones.com www.motherjones.com/politics/202...
