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RachieVee: Rachel's Blog Posts

Accessible Links by the Handbook

Accessible Links by the Handbook

Published May 11, 2015 by RachieVee

WordPress has this handy theme review handbook. On my quest to learning about accessibility, the requirements in this handbook seemed the next logical step. Since accessible links have been an overwhelming topic for me, learning requirements first give me a head start in addition to learning about making links accessible via context.

The handbook has three required rules for accessible links:

  1. Keyboard Navigation: Visible focus states
  2. Link Text: Screen reader text
  3. Skip Links

We’ll go over all three in this post. This post is on the lengthy side, but it’s all pretty easy to pick up. What’s difficult is making these techniques a habit in your everyday coding. That, I think, is what takes practice. This post also assumes you’re familiar with basic Css and comfortable with minor edits in theme template files.

Time to dive into our WordPress themes!

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An Intro to Accessible Links

An Intro to Accessible Links

Published April 21, 2015 by RachieVee

I confess. I reached a point in my learning accessibility journey that I became overwhelmed by how much there is to learn. My intention was to start a few posts about links, but there is just so much about accessible links, I didn’t even know where to start. I became discouraged.

Here I am again though, and I’m back on it! I’ve decided that I can’t tell you everything there is to know about accessible links in one post. I can, however, at least introduce the concept and offer resources to wonderful people that have written great things already.

In this post, I’m going to focus on why accessible links matter, how to know if our links are accessible and what we can do right now in our text-editors. Text-editor changes are what’s helping me ease into the concept of accessible links – hopefully it will be helpful to you as well.

Those wonderful people and resources will be sprinkled throughout for those eager to dive into making the most accessible links ever!

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Beware of the WordPress Appearance Editor!

Beware of the WordPress Appearance Editor!

Published April 10, 2015 by RachieVee

Update 8/22/2017: Looks like the appearance editor is in the process of getting a makeover – finally! My post below still has some accuracy, but I’m glad to see some of the issues being resolved to make code editing easier.

Avast me hearties! There be dangers lurking in the WordPress Appearance Editor!

Okay, okay, before you roll your eyes and abandon this post, I just wanted to share something. It occurred to me on my morning commute as I was handwriting new content aimed for beginners. I had to get myself in a mindset of what it was like diving into WordPress files for the first time again. Re-calling a greener Rachel lost in a labyrinth of files, desperate to complete the small task of changing a font color and not knowing where anything was – I realized that during this learning process, there was one adversary I encountered time and time again.

Said adversary stalled my progress in learning. In fact, it scared the heck out of me a few times whenever it caused the white screen of death before I even knew it was called that.

This adversary is the appearance editor on the dashboard. Thinking back on what I knew back then ( and didn’t know ), having this tool in my hands at the time only served to confuse me, discourage me, or give me impressions of WordPress that weren’t correct.

Here’s why I feel that way and why this tool should be approached with caution.

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Everything is More Important than Work

Everything is More Important than Work

Published March 30, 2015 by RachieVee

I decided to take a small break from my recent wave of tutorials to talk about some lessons I’ve learned as of late. I wanted to share these lessons with others as someone who is still “young” in the tech field ( less than 5 years working professionally ), and as a growing developer getting to know herself.

https://twitter.com/grmpyprogrammer/status/580362217352232960

I’m just going to throw this out there before I get farther into this post. Ready? This might freak some people out, but here goes…

Everything is more important than work. Or more accurately, your health, your family, your loved ones, your “you” time, your very life –  are all number one priorities over your job.

Up until March of last year, I was just like other developer worker bees, working 40+ hours a week and ignoring the telltale signs of burnout. I let impostor syndrome control me and kept myself from seeing outside of my current life for fear of what was out there or what I was actually capable of. I stopped doing things I enjoyed outside of work, I was checking my work email on my phone during off hours, and I barely had time for anything aside from the necessary chores that needed to get done ( wash clothes, pick up groceries, etc. ).

I probably would have kept going this way, accepting that this was part of the “real adult” life others had warned me about growing up – just a necessary evil. Living to work, rather than working to live. That all ended in March of last year when I found out that my mother was diagnosed with breast cancer for the second time – stage 4. Nothing has been the same since….

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Responsive Images in WordPress with Foundation’s InterchangeAn images icon and the Foundation Yeti logo.

Responsive Images in WordPress with Foundation’s Interchange

Published March 5, 2015 by RachieVee

I recently faced planning a site that was extremely image heavy. I mean big beautiful heroes and HD videos everywhere – the works! It was like going to an IMAX movie except in website form! Anyway, the point is, there was a lot going on and it was very important that the site remained just as beautiful when the screen shrinks down to mobile as this was a responsive site. The thing is – the images were huge! Trying waiting for a 1400px image to load on a your 5+ year old LG Android – you’re gonna be there a while.

So the problem was, how do I properly code responsive images in WordPress without one, torturing users with slower internet connections and two, still maintaining good practices?

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