I saw this post, by Erik Flowers while scrolling the LinkedIn feed which resonated with some thoughts that have been floating in my mind without anything to latch on to. But now those thought found something to root.

I am currently working as a "software engineer" (commonly also referred to as "frontend developer") and although I like to label myself more as an "interaction developer" my main domain consists of designing software architectures and writing code. My background has always involved some level of getting involved with the user experience (UX) aspect. And while that may seem something that sticks out, I feel it is both to build good software and unfortunately also something that is not commonplace.

Everybody involved in software engineering knows that accessibility (or A11y) matters. And while we all agree that it's a good thing, we don't always prioritise it. I think we're long overdue in doing a better job. Or even better, consider it an intrinsic part of our basics.

A11y means the way that your product is, quite literally, accessible by any user. We can capture a11y in numbers, that beautifully translate into contrast ratios, tab orders, the amount of ARIA labels and whatnot. The most important thing to realise though is, that you should be aware that other users have other needs and maybe limitations that you should take into account.

Siri, Cortana, Google Home, SlackBot, the Star Trek computer and in lesser extent K.I.T.T. These are all interfaces without an actual ‘face’. The Internet of Things connecting personal assistants such as Echo, Jibo or Zenbo with your home. I tend to call them assistants and not bots. I believe there is a nuance, where bots are more suited to perform the same repetitive task over and over again and assistants are more orientated towards user interaction with changing context and tasks.

Everything is connected: machine to machine, human to machine and vice versa.