Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

LightNews

Shaun Conner

@sconner.net

2.8K followers 220 following 1.2K posts

Head of Accessibility, GOVUK One Login @ GDS. Previously: Monzo, HMRC, and the NHS. Views my own.

Posts Media Videos Starter Packs

Pinned

Shaun Conner @sconner.net · Nov 11

I created a web accessibility and inclusion starter pack. Comment with your favourite accessibility folks, and I'll add them to the list. #a11y

Shaun Conner @sconner.net · 3d

Cheers, mate!

Shaun Conner @sconner.net · 4d

I've just sat for ages in the garden, camera on its tripod, patiently waiting for a break in the clouds to catch the first supermoon of the year. It didn't disappoint!

A crystal clear picture of a full supermoon.

Shaun Conner @sconner.net · 4d

Thanks, Ann. I understand from research I've seen that many Welsh folk go between English and Welsh content. The problem is that if it were a screen reader user, the Welsh content would announce complete nonsense that wouldn't make any sense to the user.

Shaun Conner @sconner.net · 4d

Interested to know how others, particularly those working on apps for the public sector, have approached this problem.

Shaun Conner @sconner.net · 4d

VoiceOver on iOS doesn't have a Welsh voice synthesiser, so Welsh content is announced in English, making it completely inaccessible to Welsh screen reader users. Essentially, Welsh screen reader users who do not speak English will not be able to use any iOS apps. Are there any workarounds?

Shaun Conner @sconner.net · 9d

It really was! I couldn’t believe how much clearer things were. I can’t wait to get my glasses now 😆

Shaun Conner @sconner.net · 9d

They also told me my eyes are shaped like rugby balls, and not round like most people's. It's pretty interesting to learn what it all means and how it can affect your vision.

Shaun Conner @sconner.net · 9d

Yeah, that was me too. I got a prescription when I was like 18 or something, but it was very mild, and I'd always forget to put them on. I've been told I need to wear this new prescription when using the computer, phone, or watching TV etc., so I'll likely leave them on most of the time.

Shaun Conner @sconner.net · 9d

Went for an eye test this morning, and it turns out I need glasses. What a difference it was when the optician dropped the lens into the thing, and I could suddenly see EVERYTHING. I hadn't realised how poor my sight was. Amazing to see with such clarity!

Shaun Conner @sconner.net · 9d

The abstractness can be good, but also a source of pain for folks like myself who assure against it. It has led to many difficult conversations over the years, which I’m sure you’ll have experienced too. I really appreciate everyone who works on it though, it’s a difficult task!

Shaun Conner @sconner.net · 9d

Thank you, I totally get it, and hard to strike a balance. The current standard has always felt “for developers, by developers” to me, and in reality the standard is used across many professions where orgs that have a reasonable level of accessibility maturity.

Shaun Conner @sconner.net · 9d

Forgive me if there’s already someone working on it, it’s not meant as a dig, and appreciate it’s a difficult task. Also interested to understand if any UR happens to understand if the standard is meeting user needs, etc.

Shaun Conner @sconner.net · 9d

On the subject of words, do you know if there are plans for a content designer to review or work on the new standard? I’ve always thought the standard was way too technical, which makes it ironically inaccessible to a lot of people.

Shaun Conner @sconner.net · 10d

This is easily doable on the web, but my native knowledge isn't as good.

Shaun Conner @sconner.net · 11d

I had a medical professional ask me what mediation I took to treat my autism. I told them you can’t “treat” autism with medication. They argued I can. Didn’t have the energy to argue.

Shaun Conner @sconner.net · 15d

I loved working with Priyanca, and I truly miss her being part of my team. She's brilliant, and this talk is brilliant. You should watch it.

Priyanca a11y 🌈 @priyanca.bsky.social · 15d

Happy Friday!

If you'd like to listen to a talk on considering intersectionality and compounding barriers when we think about accessibility, the recording is now on YouTube!

Thank you @contentdesign.london @tomyoull.bsky.social @niacampbell.bsky.social @adrianortega.bsky.social for having me! 💖

Shaun Conner @sconner.net · 16d

K-pop demon hunters has not been off my TV in about a month. My daughter is obsessed. Very cute, but super annoying. None of the songs have grown on me, and hearing them 20 times a day is making me twitch.

Reposted by Shaun Conner

Himal Mandalia @himal.bsky.social · 16d

I wrote to my MP about shared care, postcode lotteries and the lack of a joined up national strategy for ADHD. She raised it with the Minister for Care, who responded. We’ve now challenged for a further reply.

If you’ve struggled or lost access, you can also write to your MP. We’ve made it easy.

ADHD Pathfinding @adhdpathfinding.org.uk · 16d

After writing about ADHD shared care and prescribing gaps, we’ve put together a ready to use template to write to your MP.

MPs respond to constituents. ICBs respond to pressure. Each message helps show these barriers aren’t isolated, they’re systemic.

This is about fixing what should already work.

How YOU Can Fight Back Against the ADHD Prescribing Gap

A step-by-step guide to writing to your MP and fixing what should already work

Reposted by Shaun Conner

Chris Somerville @chrisomerville.bsky.social · 18d

my partner has been watching Death Comes to Pemberley on Amazon prime and says their subtitles must be AI now

a baby crying and being subtitled ‘meow meow’

A woman looking out the window with the subtitle ‘I like to eat shit’

Reposted by Shaun Conner

Kit de Waal @kitdewaal.com · 18d

The Royal Society for Blind Children (RSBC) urgent appealing to children’s authors, writers and publishers to donate stories to its new bedtime stories app.

The charity relies on stories in the public domain but are running out of books.

Anyone willing to donate should contact [email protected].

Shaun Conner @sconner.net · 21d

I’ve built a sobriety tracking app that uses AI to take all my data and show me trends with mood, sleep, urges etc. It’ll make recommendations and provide insight and facts. It’s taken me 3 days, but it is working, and working very well. Something like this would have taken me weeks, if not months!

Shaun Conner @sconner.net · 21d

Yeah I can imagine it’s really handy for that. The workspace context is really handy as well if you’re working from a design system or prototype kit like ours. I might play with that, actually! See how good it is with it.

Shaun Conner @sconner.net · 21d

Very handy to bounce ideas off, though. It has the context of your entire workspace, which makes solutionising very handy.

Shaun Conner @sconner.net · 21d

It’ll also over engineer the simplest things, but 80% of all the developers I ever worked with did that, so it’s not just an AI thing.

Shaun Conner @sconner.net · 21d

Ive found it particularly handy for writing unit tests. It’s not the best at writing good HTML and CSS, especially if you want a component driven app. It’ll try really weird things sometimes that “technically” work, but is actual spaghetti code.