Cam Coulter

2025 in Reading

2026-01-26T20:35:00-08:00

## Introduction

Here’s most all the books I read in 2025:

The Tea Dragon Festival by Kay O’Neill (comics)
Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie (audiobook)
Cyrano de Bergerac by Edmond Rostand and translated by Brian Hooker (play)
The Other Significant Others: Reimagining Life with Friendship at the Center by Rhaina Cohen
The Tea Dragon Tapestry by Kay O’Neill (comics)
The Ogress and the Orphans by Kelly Barnhill
Life Admin: How I Learned to Do Less, Do Better, and Live More by Elizabeth F. Emens
She Who Became the Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan (audiobook)
Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity by David Allen (audiobook)
Spill by Cory Doctorow (audiobook)
Sabriel by Garth Nix (audiobook)
The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains by Nicholas Carr (audiobook)
The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches by Sangu Mandanna
Disgraced by Ayad Akhtar (play)
He Who Drowned the World by Shelley Parker-Chan (audiobook)
The Invisible Hand by Ayad Akhtar (play)
Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World by Cal Newport (audiobook)
Ancillary Sword by Ann Leckie (audiobook)
The Vegetarian: A Novel by Han Kang translated by Deborah Smith
Delicious in Dungeon Vol. 1 by Ryoko Kui
Delicious in Dungeon Vol. 2 by Ryoko Kui
Delicious in Dungeon Vol. 3 by Ryoko Kui
Bury Your Gays by Chuck Tingle (audiobook)
Delicious in Dungeon Vol. 4 by Ryoko Kui
Delicious in Dungeon Vol. 5 by Ryoko Kui
Delicious in Dungeon Vol. 6 by Ryoko Kui
Delicious in Dungeon Vol. 7 by Ryoko Kui
Delicious in Dungeon Vol. 8 by Ryoko Kui
Delicious in Dungeon Vol. 9 by Ryoko Kui
Delicious in Dungeon Vol. 10 by Ryoko Kui
Delicious in Dungeon Vol. 11 by Ryoko Kui
Delicious in Dungeon Vol. 12 by Ryoko Kui
Delicious in Dungeon Vol. 13 by Ryoko Kui
Delicious in Dungeon Vol. 14 by Ryoko Kui
Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler (audiobook)
Red Team Blues by Cory Doctorow (audiobook)
One-Dimensional Man by Herbert Marcuse
The Bezzle by Cory Doctorow (audiobook)
The Serviceberry: Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World by Robin Wall Kimmerer (audiobook)
Please Come Off-Book by Kevin Kantor (poetry)
A Prayer for the Crown-Shy by Becky Chambers
Future Home of the Living God by Louise Erdrich
Life Admin Hacks by Mia Northrop & Dinah Rowe-Roberts (audiobook)
Picks and Shovels by Cory Doctorow (audiobook)
Everyday Utopia: What 2,000 Years of Wild Experiments Can Teach Us About the Good Life by Kristen Ghodsee
Era of the Eclipse by Tim Pratt
Dwarf Stars 2025 edited by Miguel O. Mitchell (poetry)
The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo (audiobook)
The 2025 Rhysling Anthology edited by Pixie Bruner (poetry)
How to Invent Everything: A Survival Guide for the Stranded Time Traveler by Ryan North (audiobook)
Godsrain by Liane Merciel
The Accessibility Operations Guidebook: To making accessibility work more sustainable by Devon Persing
Academic Exercises by K.J. Parker
Enshittification: Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What to Do About It by Cory Doctorow (audiobook)
The Next American Revolution: Sustainable Activism for the Twenty-First Century by Grace Lee Boggs
Parable of the Talents by Octavia Butler (audiobook)
The Mountain in the Sea by Ray Nayler (audiobook)
The Tigers, They Let Me by Anis Mojgani (poetry)
Pizza Witch (2017) by Sarah Graley (comics)
The Notebook: A History of Thinking on Paper by Roland Allen
Pizza Witch (2025) by Sarah Graley and Stef Purenins (comics)

Standalone Stories

The Ogress and the Orphans by Kelly Barnhill: I loved this middle-grade fantasy story. To me, it felt like very much a Trump era (first term) book, but it’s ultimately a comforting, heartwarming book about neighbors and community, and I highly recommend it to folks feeling despair in these trying times.
Sabriel by Garth Nix: I liked this and see how it’s a classic. I also feel like it would have done more for me if I had read it earlier. If you’re looking for classic fantasy with an interesting world and some cool necromancy, check this out.
The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches by Sangu Mandanna: I enjoyed this well enough. If you’re looking for a cozy romantasy beach-read, I’d recommend it.
A Prayer for the Crown-Shy by Becky Chambers: This was a re-read. It remains brilliant and comforting.
Era of the Eclipse by Tim Pratt and Godsrain by Liane Merciel: These were a ton of fun. They are published by Paizo and set in their Starfinder/Pathfinder campaign settings. If you’re a TTRPG nerd looking for a romp, I’d quickly recommend these, but I think more generic SFF fans might enjoy these as well if you’re looking for a fast-paced, pulpy adventure.
Academic Exercises by K.J. Parker: This is a collection of short fiction (including a couple novellas) set in a fantasy world with lots of western Europe academic energy. Parker does a great job writing unreliable narrators with strong voices. I thought Purple and Black was the gem in the collection, so I’d say start with that, and if you like it, take comfort in knowing there’s more in store.

Series

The Imperial Radch trilogy by Ann Leckie: This was a re-read. I still love it, and I enjoyed re-reading it a lot. On my initial read, I thought Ancillary Sword (the middle book) felt the oddest and was maybe the least interesting. This time around, I actually enjoyed that one the most. I think it’s a really nice microcosm of the series as a whole, and I savored the way Breq inserted herself into the local politics.
The Radiant Emperor duology by Shelley Parker-Chan: If you are looking a classic Chinese drama with a modern, feminist take, this is for you. I was, and I enjoyed it for that. In that sense, it reminded me of The Water Outlaws by S.L. Huang. If you have other novels to recommend that are similar to these ones, please let me know. I would love more in this space.
The Parable duology by Octavia E. Butler: I read this because Octavia Butler is excellent and these novels are unfortunately prescient/timely. This was a challenging read but indeed excellent and something I’d widely recommend. What I loved most about this duology is something that I hadn’t seen talked about as often: this is about someone who is building a religion — a new, unique, incredibly interesting religion. I love these novels for that aspect of them, and if you’re generally someone who is into religion, I highly recommend both of these books.
The Martin Hench series by Cory Doctorow: This series was super fun! I honestly don’t know anything else like it except for other Cory Doctorow novels. These books are about a tech-literate forensic accountant who undoes the cruel schemes of powerful scumbags. These books aren’t for everyone, but if they are for you, I suspect they’ll feel like a rare treat. They did for me.
The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo: I enjoyed this because of course I would. This is for all the spoken word poetry people out there.

Short Fiction

I wrote six short fiction reviews for Skiffy and Fanty in 2024. Check out all my reviews at skiffyandfanty.com/author/cameronncoulter/ to see my favorite stories from the year and to get my thoughts on them. But if I had to narrow down all those stories to a handful that have stuck with me, I’d go with these.

“Negative Scholarship on the Fifth State of Being” by A. W. Prihandita (published in Clarkesworld Magazine Issue 218): This is an intelligent and simply fun story with a wonderfully weird alien who faces bureaucratic healthcare systems and cultural marginalization.

“Tell Them a Story to Teach Them Kindness” by B. Pladek (published in Lightspeed Magazine Issue 176): Jude Towers curates stories for classes at Milwaukee Elementary, but not stories written by actual people. Jude has to use RIGHTR, a generative AI tool, to make the stories. It’s part of an effort to make sure the stories students read are “100% unique” so that students “can’t use bots to write their essays for them.” I found this to be a smart, engaging story about literature, generative AI, and what it means to be a reader.

“Hi! I’m Claudia” by Delilah S. Dawson (published in Uncanny Magazine Issue 64): This story takes the form of a chat log between an unhappy, lonely father and a dangerously helpful chatbot. There’s been some unfortunate stories in the news lately about chatbots leading people toward unadvisable actions. This is a story about just that.

“Hungry Ghosting” by Anne Mai Yee Jansen (published in Nightmare Magazine Issue 154): This ghost story about the horrors of dating did an excellent job making me sympathize with a murderous ghost.

“The Walled Garden” by Fiona Moore (published in Clarkesworld Magazine Issue 226): A cozy, post-apocalyptic tale about the engineering challenges and human considerations faced by those who are working to make things work out.

Manga & Comics

Delicious in Dungeon by Ryoko Kui: This was great. Don’t be fooled by the quirky elevator-pitch (fighting your way through a dungeon and eating the monsters as you go) — this actually does have an engaging, more meaningful story going on. The dungeon itself was well thought-out, and the characters are well developed and really likeable. (I loved Kabru!)
Pizza Witch (2025) by Sarah Graley and Stef Purenins: Gorgeous, unique, and playful!

Nonfiction

The Other Significant Others: Reimagining Life with Friendship at the Center by Rhaina Cohen: This is an amazing book about how we undervalue friendship to our detriment. I recommend this approachable, engaging book to everyone, and I hope it encourages you to value friendship more highly, seek greater intimacy in friendship, and be more open to deeper, more committed friendships. I did for me.
Everyday Utopia: What 2,000 Years of Wild Experiments Can Teach Us About the Good Life by Kristen Ghodsee: I super loved this book. It’s a feminist survey of utopian thinkers and projects, and it explores alternative, more communal ways to organize our households, raise and educate children, and share things. It’s is more academic than The Other Significant Others but still approachable for a general audience. If it at all sounds interesting to you, I’d quickly recommend it.
How to Invent Everything: A Survival Guide for the Stranded Time Traveler by Ryan North: This is a smart and serious (yet approachable) nonfiction book wrapped in a playful, fictitious conceit. It taught me a lot and made me so grateful for civilization and everything that includes.
The Accessibility Operations Guidebook: To making accessibility work more sustainable by Devon Persing: This is a thoughtful, helpful book that I would quickly recommend to my fellow digital accessibility professionals.
Enshittification: Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What to Do About It by Cory Doctorow: This book is excellent, and I enjoyed it. The title pretty much sums it up.
The Next American Revolution: Sustainable Activism for the Twenty-First Century by Grace Lee Boggs: This was fun! I recommend to all the politics/activism/education nerds out there.
The Notebook: A History of Thinking on Paper by Roland Allen: This is for history and notebook nerds. I found it to be a thoughtful, detailed, and surprisingly interesting study into the important piece of technology that is the notebook.

Accessibility Adventures: July 2025

2025-07-29T17:59:00-07:00

Up and coming!

There’s a lot of new web things out there these days and more incoming. Here’s a roundup of some of those new things that have made it onto my radar. This section is a blend of digital accessibility plus general web design stuff — the line between those is fuzzy.

Let’s start with HTML

Here is a delightful roundup of new things in HTML from Chris Coyier: “Relatively New Things You Should Know about HTML Heading Into 2025.” I’m happy to see the <search> element, and I’m particularly excited about styleable <select> elements.

We have has!

The CSS :has pseudo-class is really quite remarkable. If you’re a nerd like me, this pseudo-class is a fun toy for your mind. Here are some pages about it that I like:

“The CSS :has Selector (and 4+ Examples)” by Robin Rendle on CSS Tricks
“Level Up Your CSS Skills With The :has() Selector” by Stephanie Eckles in Smashing Magazine
“The Undeniable Utility Of CSS :has” by Josh Comeau
“The :has() pseudo-selector” by Kevin Powell

CSS-only Carousels

Apparently CSS-only carousels are a thing now. For more, see “Carousels with CSS” by Adam Argyle on the Chrome Developer blog. Kevin Powell’s video “Learning how CSS-only carousels are going to work” may also be a helpful introduction.

I dislike carousels, and I see accessibility gaps with the current state of CSS-only carousels. I wouldn’t recommend CSS-only carousels.

That said, I do think it’s important for web accessibility professionals to know this is a thing, and I intend to keep an eye on it. I can imagine this tripping up a novice accessibility consultant who doesn’t know these are a thing.

How do CSS-only carousels work at a high level? In the Chrome Developer blog post, Adam Argyle writes: “A carousel is a scroll area with up to two added UI affordances—buttons and markers.” I think that sums it up at a high level. CSS carousels are a scroll area, one where buttons are actually added via CSS. (Yep, you read that right.)

“Are ‘CSS Carousels’ accessible?” by Sara Soueidan is a really thoughtful exploration of CSS-only carousels and accessibility. If you’re interested in this (or if you’re unfortunate enough to be dealing with this), I’d recommend giving it a read.

command and commandfor

Here’s something else from the Chrome Developer blog, something I’m more excited about: “Introducing command and commandfor.” The command and commandfor attributes for <button> elements can give you an “HTML way” to make buttons open and close modal dialogs and more. Personally, I’ve always found it a little weird just how much interactivity is buried in JavaScript and not necessarily visible from HTML. These attributes can make that connection a little more clear, and that’s something I will welcome. Read more about these attributes on MDN, in HTML standard, and on CSS Tricks.

Up and Coming ARIA

I appreciated “Up and Coming ARIA” by John Northup, which shares about some new and notable ARIA attributes and roles and — importantly — shares about their current support. I especially appreciated the demo page with examples that’s linked to at the end of the article. Demo pages for this sort of thing are excellent because it helps me to better understand how these attributes may work in practice, to test out support, and (if we have support) understand what the new experience will be like for users of assistive tech.

ARIA Notify?

Here’s another cutting-edge thing to keep on your radar: ARIA Notify, an API that developers can use to send alert messages to screen reader users. Think of it as an alternative to ARIA live regions. It looks like it’s available as a developer trial in Microsoft Edge. For more, see “Creating a more accessible web with Aria Notify” on the Windows blog.

This makes sense to me. Currently if you want to give screen reader users this type of live alert message, ARIA live regions are the only way to do it. They can work well for this sort of thing, but there are some limitations and awkwardness to them, and there is something about an API alternative here that feels appropriate to me.

That said, I am also uneasy about this. I’m uneasy about it because I haven’t seen word of it (or support of it) elsewhere. Don’t use this until it is well-supported by browsers and assistive technologies. I’m also uneasy because I can see this complicating accessibility testing and reporting, although that’s a smaller and more manageable challenge.

ARIA live regions are not perfect, but I think our main problem here is that we have too many people who are building websites who don’t know what ARIA live regions are or understand how to use them appropriately. ARIA Notify might help with this (it could definitely simplify things in some cases), but the responsibility remains with us web-builders to learn about and practice inclusive and accessible design and development. To that end, if you aren’t confident with ARIA live regions, I highly recommend “Accessible notifications with ARIA Live Regions” by Sara Soueidan.

Tangential: Nic Chan has a super cool website/blog at nicchan.me which does an impressive job integrating accessibility into a unique (delightfully retro) design. Check it out! In particular, Nic’s post “Please, can we have ARIA Notify” dives into this topic in more detail.

HTML & CSS Tip of the Week

Want to stay up-to-date with new HTML and CSS things and perhaps learn about some useful old things? Check out Kevin Powell’s HTML & CSS Tip of the Week. I’ve been following and really enjoying this blog. Add it to your RSS reader!

WCAG in Plain English

Check out WCAG in Plain English! It breaks down the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) into plain language.

I’ve come across other similar breakdowns of WCAG before. This is probably my favorite one I’ve seen. I think it generally does a good job at a hard task. What I like about it is that it doesn’t just give you a one-sentence equivalent for each success criterion. Instead, if you follow the “View Details” links, it also has a full page for each success criterion, explaining it approachably in some more detail. It is missing things. Don’t think you can substitute this for the real thing. But I do think this is a good starting point for people that can help make WCAG practical, concrete, and actionable.

HTML for the people!

HTML is a delight. So is htmlforpeople.com. Please go check it out, especially if you aren’t comfortable with HTML or don’t consider yourself a tech person. It’s a fun, accessible, and approachable introduction to HTML (that is, the web!). Here’s how it starts:

I don’t think websites were ever intended to be made only by “web professionals.” Websites are documents at heart. Just about everyone knows how to make a document in this digital age, be it Word, Google Docs, Markdown, or something else. HTML shouldn’t be an exception. Sure it’s a bit more technical than other types of documents, but it’s also very special.

HTML is a markup language — it’s right there in the name: Hypertext Markup Language. A markup language is not a programming language. You do not have to be a programmer to write HTML. There are a lot of benefits to learning how to write HTML. Accessibility is just one of those. Say it with me: HTML is for the people!

Shout out to Blake Watson for creating htmlforpeople.com. Blake’s website has some excellent pages about assistive tech and accessibility, and I also think Blake’s other projects A Fine Start and d20 dice roller are pretty cool. Check ‘em out!

Error messages that are actually helpful

I appreciated “How to write error messages that actually help users rather than frustrate them” by Amy Hupe. I’ve seen a lot of error messages that are really poorly written, and this post has good advice and examples for how to make error messages clear and helpful to everyone. If you make error messages, please read this.

The Remediation Gap

I appreciated “Mind The (Remediation) Gap” by Doug Abrams.

This resonated a lot with me from my time working as an accessibility consultant. There are indeed a lot of “front-end” developers who work nearly exclusively in JavaScript frameworks without a strong foundation in HTML and CSS. Meanwhile, many accessibility testers and consultants focus on vanilla HTML and CSS and can struggle to provide detailed recommendations that are specific to JavaScript frameworks the developers are working in. Moreover, testers and consultants don’t typically get access to the full source code behind the website, only the final output that users access. The remediation gap is real.

Front-end developers need genuine skills with HTML, CSS, and ARIA, and they need to understand the accessibility implications of their JavaScript frameworks. Meanwhile, testers and consultants ought to seek to better understand how websites are coded and give more relevant recommendations. This is everyone’s responsibility.

Documentation as a strategy

I liked “If you answer it twice, make it an article” by Ted Drake. Documentation is important. On-demand resources and job-aids can be essential, especially for digital accessibility, something that everyone needs to know about but which can be complicated and technical. I think having a helpful job-aid available for the specific task you’re trying to do can be really impactful. In my current role, I’m a subject matter expert for my institution, so I’ve been paying particular attention to this and saving extra notes whenever I recommend something to someone. If I find myself recommending something multiple times, that helps me know it deserves to be spotlighted.

Focus Priming

I appreciated Martin Underhill’s post “Focus priming.” This is a term that I needed and did not have words for — and now I do!

For more on the hidden complexities of focus, see my post from last year “Same-Page Links and Tabindex.”

Access Trauma

Here’s another term that might be helpful to add to your vocabulary: access trauma. Please read “Combating Access Trauma” by Robert Kingett for a thoughtful reflection on the concept. If you’re someone with a disability, this concept might resonate with your experience. If you’re able bodied, this post will help you better understand the experiences of people who aren’t.

From an organizational perspective, this post is a good example of how you risk alienating your customers or clients through inaccessible communications. For example, Kingett writes:

Links were displayed all throughout the email, insisting I check out this page or that page or this other page. I had no drive to click on any of them, at all, thanks to the unlabeled image at the top of the email. […] As I skimmed the subject lines of emails, one singular thought kept percolating, like a restaurant that always serves burnt toast for some reason. I don’t want to open these because I don’t want to deal with the inaccessibility of the content today.

AccessAble

AccessAbleUSA is a cool site: accessableusa.com. It offers detailed accessibility information for different physical locations.

Disability and accessibility are both spectrums rather than binaries. Saying that a certain venue is “accessible” or “ADA compliant” doesn’t necessarily let a disabled person know that the venue will work for them or will accommodate them comfortably. AccessAble helps folks know what to expect by breaking things down into 40 accessibility symbols. These include “Automatic or No Doors at the Entrance,” “Assistive Listening,” and “Gender Inclusive Restroom.” The site also tries to include photos of the location and thoughtful notes about getting inside and getting around a building. Check out Princeton University on AccessAble for an example of what this can look like. It’s remarkable, genuinely helpful, and surprisingly common-sense once you see it.

I think AccessAble pairs very nicely with Robert Kingett’s post about access trauma. Kingett writes about being reluctant to attend an open mic (something he genuinely enjoys) because he didn’t know what exactly to expect and wasn’t confident the venue could comfortably accommodate him. If we make this sort of detailed access info widely available, our community members with disabilities can better know in advance if a location works for them and everyone can better know what to expect when heading somewhere new.

Visited links are weird

You know that norm where links tend to be blue by default and after you visit them they change to purple? That’s actually really weird when you think about it.

It’s weird because it’s using color alone to indicate information, which arguably violates the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) success criterion 1.4.1 Use of Color, and because for privacy reasons, you really don’t have many other options for styling visited links, which you can read about here on MDN: “Privacy and the :visited selector.” It’s weird!

Shout out to Niq Bernadowitsch for talking about this weird quirk of the web. I enjoyed Niq’s post “The Design of Visited Links.”

Tools to check color contrast

I recently came across contrast.report, a website that you can use to test color contrast ratios to make sure that your foreground text is clearly visible against the background. I like it!

My other favorite tools for testing color contrast are WebAIM’s contrast checker and TPGI’s Colour Contrast Analyser. Contrast Report and WebAIM’s checker work best if you just need to do a quick, one-off test, and the Colour Contrast Analyser is best for professionals who want a dedicated app for this stuff.

I should also note that you can use Chrome DevTools to check color contrast ratios. Sometimes that’s the best tool for the job because you’re already right there. Firefox DevTools will similarly show you color contrast ratios, but I think Chrome works a little better for this.

Hiding/Showing Content Accessibly

I appreciated “Creating an Accessible Accordion with HTML Description Lists” by Karl Groves on the AFixt blog.

In particular, what I like about this example is how it hides/shows the accordion panels. There are a lot of ways to hide content on a webpage, and many of them aren’t accessible. I’ve tested many sites that aim to hide certain elements from all users but which nevertheless leave those elements exposed and available to users of assistive technologies like screen readers. I’d say it’s a common problem.

In short, here’s how the accordion panels are hidden/shown in this example. When the page loads, the accordion panels are present in the DOM but hidden from users with aria-hidden="true" and CSS display none. There is one, simple JavaScript event listener here: when users click the accordion control, it toggles aria-hidden between true and false values. Then, there is a CSS rule that uses aria-hidden="false" as part of its selector, and it overrides the CSS display: none with display: block.

This is a simple and effective approach to hiding content. I like how it only requires one, relatively simple JavaScript event listener. The synergy here between ARIA, CSS, and JavaScript is really nice: with the appropriate CSS in place, all you need to do is toggle the aria-hidden value to effectively and accessibly show/hide content.

Customization: The Heart & Frontier of Accessibility

I appreciated “Accessibility preference settings, information architecture, and internalized ableism” by Eric W. Bailey. It’s a thoughtful post about customization and accessibility. Customization truly is an important component of accessibility and I’d even call it a frontier for accessibility. Read this and then go on a walk and think about it.

2024 in Reading

2025-01-20T11:14:00-08:00

Introduction

Here’s most all the books I read in 2024:

Rambunctious Garden: Saving Nature in a Post-Wild World by Emma Marris
My Real Children by Jo Walton
The Internationalists: How a Radical Plan to Outlaw War Remade the World by Oona A. Hathaway and Scott J. Shapiro
Starter Villain by John Scalzi
Across a Field of Starlight by Blue Delliquanti (graphic novel)
The Lost Cause by Cory Doctorow (audiobook)
Yotsuba&!, Vol. 7 by Kiyohiko Azuma (manga)
The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin
A Choir of Honest Killers by Buddy Wakefield (poetry)
The Obelisk Gate by N.K. Jemisin
Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals by Oliver Burkeman
A World Without Email: Reimagining Work in an Age of Communication Overload by Cal Newport (audiobook)
Slow Productivity: The Lost Art of Accomplishment Without Burnout by Cal Newport (audiobook)
Yotsuba&!, Vol. 8 by Kiyohiko Azuma (manga)
The Stone Sky by N.K. Jemisin
Sophie’s World by Jostein Gaarder
No Gods, No Monsters by Cadwell Turnbull (audiobook)
Tress of the Emerald Sea by Brandon Sanderson
The Bones Below by Sierra DeMulder (poetry)
Yotsuba&!, Vol. 9 by Kiyohiko Azuma (manga)
A Web for Everyone: Designing Accessible User Experiences by Sarah Horton and Whitney Quesenbery
Feel-Good Productivity: How to Do More of What Matters to You by Ali Abdaal (audiobook)
Million Dollar Weekend: Build A Business So Quickly There’s No Time to Chicken Out by Noah Kagan (audiobook)
Yotsuba&!, Vol. 10 by Kiyohiko Azuma (manga)
The Art of Gathering: How We Meet and Why It Matters by Priya Parker
A Socially Acceptable Breakdown by Patrick Roche (poetry)
Please Come Off-Book by Kevin Kantor (poetry)
The Just City by Jo Walton
Disability Intimacy: Essays on Love, Care, and Desire edited by Alice Wong
Troubles in Otari by Ron Lundeen, Jason Keeley and Lyz Liddell (Pathfinder 2E: Standalone Adventure)
Yotsuba&!, Vol. 11 by Kiyohiko Azuma (manga)
The City of Brass by S. A. Chakraborty (audiobook)
Butcher by Natasha T. Miller (poetry)
The Simple Path to Wealth: Your Road Map to Financial Independence and a Rich, Free Life by JL Collins
The Philosopher Kings by Jo Walton
How to Be Perfect: The Correct Answer to Every Moral Question by Michael Schur (audiobook)
Dwarf Stars 2024 edited by Brittany Hause (poetry)
Necessity by Jo Walton
The 2024 Rhysling Anthology edited by Brian U. Garrison and David C. Kopaska-Merkel (poetry)
Pathfinders: Extraordinary Stories of People Like You on the Quest for Financial Independence―And How to Join Them by JL Collins
The Water Outlaws by S.L. Huang (audiobook)
The Kingdom of Copper by S. A. Chakraborty
Yotsuba&!, Vol. 12 by Kiyohiko Azuma (manga)
Yotsuba&!, Vol. 13 by Kiyohiko Azuma (manga)
Yotsuba&!, Vol. 14 by Kiyohiko Azuma (manga)
The Empire of Gold by S. A. Chakraborty
Yotsuba&!, Vol. 15 by Kiyohiko Azuma (manga)
The Naturalist Society by Carrie Vaughn
The Expanse: Dragon Tooth Vol. 1 by Andy Diggle and Rubin (comics)
The Expanse: Dragon Tooth Vol. 2 by Andy Diggle and Francesco Pisa (comics)
Disfigured: On Fairy Tales, Disability, and Making Space by Amanda Leduc (audiobook)
Record of a Spaceborn Few by Becky Chambers
Lord of the Butterflies by Andrea Gibson (poetry)
Demystifying Disability: What to Know, What to Say, and How to Be an Ally by Emily Ladau
Saving Time: Discovering a Life Beyond the Clock by Jenny Odell (audiobook)
Starling House by Alix E. Harrow
You Better Be Lightning by Andrea Gibson (poetry)
The Tea Dragon Society by Kay O’Neill (comics)
The Expanse: Dragon Tooth Vol. 3 by Andy Diggle and Francesco Pisa (comics)
Translation State by Ann Leckie

Let me share about the highlights.

Standalone Novels

My Real Children by Jo Walton: This was a re-read. I strongly appreciate this book. It’s a meaningful, moving, and beautiful story of a woman’s life as it splits into two different timelines. The speculative elements of the story take a backseat to a moving meditation on the important things in life.
The Lost Cause by Cory Doctorow: I loved this story! It was such a treat. This is such a YIMBY novel. I wish we had more stories like this, stories exploring how we work together to turn society into welcoming community with enough space for everyone amidst the very real challenges we are facing this century. I strongly recommend this to politics nerds, especially to fellow YIMBYs.
Tress of the Emerald Sea by Brandon Sanderson: This was fun!
The Water Outlaws by S.L. Huang: This novel was also a treat. It has so many strong, fleshed-out female characters, and I really appreciated the setting, the magic, and the general rebel-punk energy.
The Naturalist Society by Carrie Vaughn: This novel is fantastic, and I wish I saw more people talking about it. It’s a fantasy novel set in late 1800s America that’s paying careful attention to gender, sexuality, race, and class, but more importantly, it’s a delightful and moving romance for all you nature-lovers and bird-watchers out there. You know how in a ton of fantasy stories, people speak Latin to do magic? They do that in this book too — by speaking the scientific names of different species! It’s a delightful reworking of a common trope.
Record of a Spaceborn Few by Becky Chambers: This was a re-read. This book remains fantastic, a high favorite of mine. In particular, I love how it imagines household units in hexes, and I love the character of Eyas (and especially her profession).
Starling House by Alix E. Harrow: This is a great book, and I recommend it to everyone.
Translation State by Ann Leckie: I loved this so much. It is an incredibly intelligent and fun novel, and it has delicious alien weirdness. If you enjoyed Ann Leckie’s other novels set in her Ancillary universe, I eagerly recommend this. If you haven’t read Ann Leckie’s other novels, I’d recommend you start with Ancillary Justice. This novel stands on its own, but it’s building off of the Imperial Radch trilogy and Provenance, and I think it’ll be easier to appreciate and enjoy this one after you’ve read those (which are all-time favorites of mine and which I highly recommend).

Series

The Broken Earth trilogy by N.K. Jemisin: This was another re-read for me. This remains really, really good.
The Thessaly trilogy by Jo Walton: I daresay this was my favorite and the best thing I read this year. This felt so surprising and original. It is simultaneously deeply focused on philosophical ideas and extremely character-driven. More importantly, each book was meaningful, moving, and powerful. Please read this.
The Daevabad trilogy by S. A. Chakraborty: I enjoyed this series. I thought it handled sibling relationships really well: they felt so real, so relatable, so complex, and so fun. The worldbuilding was also great: this is a fun, detailed, living world, firmly rooted in Middle Eastern culture and tradition. If you want to disappear into a fantasy world informed by Middle Eastern culture and tradition, check this out.

Short Fiction

I wrote nine short fiction reviews for Skiffy and Fanty in 2024. Check out all my reviews at skiffyandfanty.com/author/cameronncoulter/ to see my favorite stories from the year and to get my thoughts on them. But if I had to narrow down all those stories to a handful of truly standout stories from 2024, I’d go with these.

“A Saint Between The Teeth” by Sloane Leong (published in Lightspeed Magazine Issue 164): In this story, set in an alien world with alien creatures, Kharatet is a carnivore who needs to eat not just other creatures, but sentient, intelligent creatures. Kharatet isn’t happy about that, but his meal genuinely wants to be eaten and has good arguments for it. It’s a deeply weird and alien story about the ethics of carnivores. Read my full review of it here: Short Fiction Review: January 2024.

“Why Don’t We Just Kill the Kid In the Omelas Hole” by Isabel J. Kim (published in Clarkesworld Magazine Issue 209): This story responds to and builds off of “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas” by Ursula K. Le Guin. It’s horrific (just read the title), but it is also intelligent, inventive, and honestly quite playful. Read my full review of it here: Short Fiction Review: February 2024.

“A Magical Correspondence, to the Tune of Heartstrings” by Valerie Valdes (published in Uncanny Magazine Issue 57): This is a cozy romance about a busy woman trying to fit in just one more thing — in this case, a correspondence course in witchcraft. The setting feels like classic medieval fantasy, but thematically, it struck me as quite modern and relatable. Read my full review of it here: Short Fiction Review: March – April 2024.

“The Ex Hex” by Jae Steinbacher (published in Lightspeed Magazine Issue 172): In this story, a witch tries to hex their ex in a fury of vengeance, screws up the spell in the process, and then needs to make it right. The story is firmly rooted in restorative justice and community reparations, and it’s got fun characters with delightful dialog. Read my full review of it here: Short Fiction Review: September 2024.

“A Most Lovely Song” by Albert Chu (published in PodCastle Episode 861): In this tale, a talking bird accompanies a Chinese boy and his descendants through times of war and protest, but the bird isn’t as altruistic as it first seems. It’s a moving and urgent story that challenges its readers to remain sensitive to violence, to war, and to colonialism. Read my full review of it here: Short Fiction Review: October 2024.

Manga & Comics

I read Yotsuba&! and it is so charming! It is such an ordinary slice-of-life series, but somehow that makes it feel particularly special and unique. Yotsuba is a great character, and it is a joy to see the world through her eyes. The other characters in her life are kind and playful; it is heart-warming to see them all interact together. I also appreciated seeing time slowly progress from one day to the next as I read each chapter.

I read The Tea Dragon Society by Kay O’Neill, and I’m currently working my way through the sequels. I find the art style incredibly beautiful; it’s cute, clean, bright, and verdant. The story and its themes are nice, and the diverse representation is a treat. Also, the tea dragons are adorable. I definitely see myself coming back to re-read these as a comfort read.

Poetry

Please Come Off-Book by Kevin Kantor is my standout poetry book from the year. It’s real, it’s fun, and it felt fresh to me. It has a lot to offer theatre nerds and genderqueer people, which is to say, it has a lot to offer me (and hopefully you). I’m planning to reread this one because it absolutely deserves it. Check it out!

Nonfiction

The Internationalists: How a Radical Plan to Outlaw War Remade the World by Oona A. Hathaway and Scott J. Shapiro

I highly recommend this book to all you history and national security nerds out there. This book essentially tells the story of how war became illegal — how war shifted from being the way states addressed disputes to an abnormality, a notable derivation from the norm.

This is a hefty, detailed book, more so than I can really dive into here. It presents its arguments clearly, and it sketches out important historical figures in pleasing detail. It really deepened and changed how I understand war, both historically and in the present day. With some chagrin, I must say this book made me realize how fascinating World War II really was. Gosh, I feel like such a old dad writing that, but the way this book frames World War II as a pivot point — a war about the meaning and future of war — truly is fascinating.

The Art of Gathering: How We Meet and Why It Matters by Priya Parker

This is a remarkable book. It is an easy read that’s loaded with wisdom about planning and hosting engaging and meaningful gatherings of all types. I enjoyed reading Parker’s stories about the different gatherings she has helped facilitate, and I was inspired by all her stories and different ideas. I liked this just as an interesting book to read, but I particularly cherish it for Parker’s wisdom and advice laced throughout. My partner and I enjoy hosting gatherings for our people and always want to plan more, and this book offers a thoughtful framework for doing just that.

Demystifying Disability: What to Know, What to Say, and How to Be an Ally by Emily Ladau

If you’re looking to learn more about ableism and disability justice, this book is a great start. It is a solid overview, and it is written in a very approachable style. If you already know more about accessibility, ableism, and disability justice, I’m bot sure this book will have as much to offer you. However, I must say, I thought this book’s chapter on disability etiquette (you know, actually being kind and respectful to people with disabilities) was great. It is probably the best treatment on that subject I’ve come across, so even if you’re already familiar with a lot of what’s covered in this book, I’d recommend you give that chapter a read.

Same-Page Links and Tabindex

2024-05-23T09:00:00-07:00

Same-Page Links That Work for Everyone

In HTML, it is fairly easy to create same-page links: use the number symbol in a link’s href attribute to reference the ID of another element on the page. For example:

<a href="#same-page-link-target">Jump to kittens!</a>  
<h2 id="same-page-link-target">Kittens!</a>

For a lot of users, that alone is sufficient. But it recently came to my attention that just doing the above won’t work equally for all users. Due to various bugs, if you follow the above pattern, focus may not properly shift to the same-page link target for VoiceOver users and keyboard-only users on iOS and for TalkBack users on Android.^{Footnote 1} In order to ensure that same-page links work for all users, you’ll need to add tabindex="-1" to link targets.

Same-page links can be particularly important for people with disabilities and for people who use assistive technology, so it is important to make sure our same-page links work for everyone. One particularly important same-page link is the “Skip to main content” link that most all pages should have. This should be the first link to receive focus on each page, and it should allow users to skip past the navigation menu and to the main body content. Without a “Skip to main content” link, keyboard users will have to press the Tab key repeatedly on each page to reach the main content. This can be a frustrating waste time, particularly for people with mobility or dexterity challenges. Another common type of same-page link is a table of contents link that allows users to jump to a particular heading on a page. As you may have noticed, I use these frequently on this site. Footnotes may also use same-page links.

Site Improvements

On this site, I recently added tabindex="-1" to the “Skip to Main Content” link targets. I’ve tested the “Skip to Main Content” links on Windows, Fedora, iOS, and Android using my keyboard alone and using screen readers, and I can confirm that my “Skip to Main Content” links are working well for all users. Hurrah!

But what about table of contents links? This was more complicated because this site has many of them and because, for most pages, Jekyll uses Kramdown to convert a Markdown source file into HTML. Kramdown does not add tabindex="-1" to all generated headings by default, and as far as I can tell, there isn’t a way to configure Kramdown to categorically add tabindex="-1" to all headings. (If you know how I can ensure Jekyll/Kramdown adds tabindex="-1" to headings categorically when converting Markdown pages into HTML pages, please let me know!)

However, Kramdown does allow you to add {: tabindex="-1"} directly beneath headings in Markdown, and this will ensure that the generated HTML includes tabindex="-1". This is helpful, but it does need to be done individually for every same-page link target. Since most of my blog posts have a table of contents with same-page links, that meant I needed to go through and update the vast majority of pages on this site! Which I, in fact, did! I believe all same-page links on this site should now work well for all users.

Choosing Appropriate Same-Page Link Targets

There’s two other relevant things I’ve learned lately and one other change I’ve made with same-page links.

As background, the tabindex attribute has several possible values:

tabindex="0" allows an element to receive keyboard focus. If you are creating custom controls, you may need to add tabindex="0" to ensure those controls receive keyboard focus.
A positive tabindex value, such as tabindex="5", not only ensures that element will receive keyboard focus, but it determines the order in which it will receive keyboard focus. For example, an element with tabindex="5" might be the fifth element to receive keyboard focus on the page, even if it’s the very first element on the page, and an element with tabindex="1" might be the first element to receive keyboard focus, even if it’s the last element on the page. I can’t think of a good reason to ever use a positive tabindex value.
tabindex="-1" allows an element to programmatically receive keyboard focus. That means, if you are pressing the Tab key to navigate a page, the element won’t receive keyboard focus, but if you for example open a dialog, the site could use JavaScript to shift focus to the dialog’s heading. And as we’ve seen, tabindex="-1" may be necessary to ensure that same-page links work equally for all users.

Here’s what I’ve learned: tabindex="-1" does something else that you may not know. If you add tabindex="-1" to the <main> element (or a container <div> as well), then anytime you click somewhere in the <main> element, keyboard focus will jump to the top of the <main> element. Personally, as someone who often switches between mouse and keyboard, I find this really annoying. I’ll often click just before a control and then press the Tab key to shift focus to it, but if tabindex="-1" is applied to the <main> element, that will instead result in my keyboard focus jumping to the top of the main body content, far away from the control I was hoping to interact with.

Here’s an example. Here’s two paragraphs that each include two links. The first paragraph is in a <div> element with tabindex="-1" and the second is not. Notice that in the first paragraph, if you click on The Genesis of Misery and then press Tab, Neon Yang receives focus. However, in the second paragraph, if you click on The Genesis of Misery and then press Tab, The Black Tides of Heaven receives focus.

Neon Yang is an author who has written several books including The Genesis of Misery and The Black Tides of Heaven.

Therefore: do not apply tabindex="-1" to the <main> element or to container elements. Instead, only apply tabindex="-1" particular controls or headings that you want to shift focus to, and ensure same-page links target specific controls or headings rather than regions.

Here’s another thing I’ve noticed: if you have a same-page link that targets a region (like your <main> element or a container <div>), then when a screen reader user follows that link, the screen reader may announce everything in the region. This can result in an exceedingly long announcement, including multiple paragraphs of text, and personally I find it cognitively overwhelming. However, if a same-page link targets just a particular heading, then screen readers will announce just that heading when users follow the link. I think this is a cleaner and less overwhelming experience: you activate a “Skip to Main Content” link, and your screen reader announces the primary page heading and then shuts up and waits for you to move ahead at your own pace.

This is also a change I’ve made to this site. Previously, my “Skip to Main Content” links targeted the <main> element, but now I’ve updated it so that my “Skip to Main Content” links target the primary page heading and tabindex="-1" is applied to just the heading, not to the entire <main> element.

How are my same-page links working for you? Notice any issues with them? Do you know any other interesting facts or intricacies about same-page links?

Footnotes

At least some of these bugs have been known about for a while now and may even have been patched. It's not entirely clear to me whether these bugs affect all VoiceOver users and keyboard-only users on iOS and all TalkBack users on Android, but that said, these bugs were occurring on my test devices, so I figured that's reason enough to do what I can to ensure my same-page links work for everyone. ↩

Accessibility Adventures: May 2024

2024-05-15T17:07:00-07:00

Supplementing Audio Descriptions

Netflix released an 11-minute audio featurette to accompany its miniseries All the Light We Cannot See. The featurette is specifically for audience members who are blind or have low vision, and it provides detailed descriptions of characters and locations in the series.

I think this is a cool idea and hope we can see more of it. Audio description is a vital way to make TV shows and movies accessible to people who are blind or have low vision, but it has limitations. With standard audio description, descriptions are inserted into the pauses between dialog, but there may not be long enough pauses to allow for detailed descriptions. Extended audio descriptions pause the video to ensure there is sufficient space for detailed descriptions, but extended audio descriptions may not always be practical because they necessitate creating a separate video file or using a specialized video player. I think this audio featurette is a cool idea because it provides a higher level of detail to people who are blind and have low vision without the complexity of extended audio descriptions (and without creating a separate experience for the audience in the way that can happen with extended audio description).

Running Accessibility Programs

Here’s a few resources I’ve come across or referenced lately that might be helpful to those of you administering or implementing accessibility at the program-level:

Digital Accessibility as a Business Practice: Essential Skills for Business Leaders, a free ebook created by The Chang School, Toronto Metropolitan University
The Book on Accessibility by Charlie Triplett (what it sounds like)
MagentaA11y: tests that you can give your QA folks to make sure that they are testing for accessibility (accessibility acceptance criteria)
“How to start your agency’s digital accessibility program” by Brian DeConinck (for those of you working in government)

Text Over Images

Hannah Milan published two posts on Smashing Magazine that are an excellent deep dive into how to accessibly design text over images.

Designers, read this. Accessibility consultants, bookmark this.

Tables: Heuristics, Headers, Interactivity, and Responsiveness

Did you know that browsers use heuristics to determine if your <table> element is actually a logical data table or if it is a layout table?

In general, avoid using native HTML table elements for layout. Instead, use CSS. (Flexbox and Grid are awesome.) But if for some reason you are stuck with a layout table, add role="presentation" to the <table> element and convert any <th> cells to <td> cells. This way, screen readers will not announce a role of table, which is good because layout tables are not logical tables.

However, even if you don’t add role="presentation" to the <table> element, browsers might still judge that your table is a layout table and treat it as such. I think this is because historically way too many people improperly used <table> elements for layout purposes. You can see for yourself: check out the HTML specification for <table> elements:

User agents, especially those that do table analysis on arbitrary content, are encouraged to find heuristics to determine which tables actually contain data and which are merely being used for layout.

This browser behavior can be a good thing: if a web designer used a layout table but did not mark it as such, screen readers may still treat it as a layout table anyway, which can help out users.

But there are edge cases where this can cause problems. For example, one of my coworkers came across an instance where a logical data table using native HTML table elements was nonetheless judged to be a layout table by Chrome! This was a problem because even though the table was coded appropriately, screen reader users wouldn’t be able to interact with it as a table. If you have a logical data table that’s properly coded but in practice the browser (in the accessibility tree) and screen readers don’t treat it as a table, that’s probably what’s happening: the browser’s internal heuristics are improperly judging it to be a layout table.

You can check the HTML spec for some indicators browsers may use to determine whether a <table> element is in fact a logical data table, and you can check browsers’ source code to determine the exact heuristics. For example, here are the heuristics WebKit uses.

Moving on, hopefully you never have to encounter complex data tables with multi-level headers — and please do everything possible to avoid creating these yourself — but if you do find yourself facing one of these and you are using the JAWS screen reader, here is a keyboard command you should know: Ctrl + Alt + 5 on the numeric keypad will announce the headers for the current cell. More information here: https://webaim.org/articles/jaws/tables.htm.

Moving on, lately I have come across a few tables that were interactive and included expandable rows. This is complicated stuff! If you have something that is table-like and interactive, you may want to follow the ARIA grid pattern. There are definitely good use cases for it, but it is complex and easy to mess up, so I would encourage you to avoid it if you can. On that point, Adrian Roselli has a helpful post for you: “Don’t Turn a Table into an ARIA Grid Just for a Clickable Row.” If you have a table with expandable/collapsible rows, however, consider using following the ARIA treegrid pattern. This is a pattern that I overlooked until recently, but which is actually pretty cool.

Moving on, let’s talk about responsive tables! It may be a good idea to make sure your table can reflow on smaller screens so that users don’t need to constantly scroll left and right to read it. But how exactly can you do that? Fortunately, I’ve got two good resources for you:

“How to create a responsive HTML table” by Kevin Powell (YouTube video)
“A Responsive Accessible Table” by Adrian Roselli

Math!

I want to quickly signal boost “Making Math Accessible” by Ricky Onsman, which is a nice intro to making math accessible in HTML content.

ARIA Live Regions

Screen readers will announce changes in ARIA live regions as they happen without shifting keyboard or screen reader focus. For this reason, ARIA live regions can be an important and helpful way to help make dynamic web content more accessible to screen reader users. Live regions are simple to get started with (aria-live="polite" will do it), but they can get complicated or be tricky to get right. Sara Soueidan has two terrific posts explaining what ARIA live region are and how they work. In particular, Souedian does a great job explaining the lesser-used attributes aria-relevant, aria-atomic, and aria-busy and explaining the lesser-known HTML <output> element. I highly recommend:

Invented and Multiple Roles

Did you know that you can specify multiple values for an element’s role attribute? An element can’t have more than one role, mind you, but the idea here is that if the first role listed is new and unsupported, assistive technologies should fallback to announcing the secondary role. It’s a cool idea, but unfortunately, the support for it isn’t great. You can read more here: “Notes on use of multiple ARIA role attribute values” by Steve Faulkner.

You can also just straight-up make up roles using the aria-roledescription attribute, which I find wild. That said, I struggle to see any good reasons to use it beyond perhaps aria-roledescription="slide" for slides in a presentation or carousel. (That said, please just avoid carousels.) It’s interesting though! You can read more here: “Avoid aria-roledescription” by Adrian Roselli.

Semantic CSS

Accessibility professionals often talk about the importance of “semantic HTML.” For example, if you have a heading, please use a heading element, such as an <h1>. If you instead style a <div> element to look like a heading, screen reader users won’t be able to efficiently navigate the page.

But we can talk about semantic CSS too! For example, if you want to style how a selected tab looks, use [role="tab"][aria-selected="true"] as your CSS selector, not .tab-selected. This way, to achieve the desired look, you’ll need to ensure you’re using semantic HTML. Your tab will look the way it should only if it also communicates the proper role and state to assistive technology users. It’s a more equitable experience since if it’s broke for one class of users, it’s broke for everyone. This also makes it easier to spot bugs in your code, and you won’t need to clutter up your HTML with redundant classes.

Here are some good resources I’ve come across on the topic:

“How to write Semantic CSS” by Kevin Powell (YouTube video)
“Style with Stateful, Semantic Selectors” by Ben Myers
“User Facing State ” by Scott O’Hara
“Using CSS to Enforce Accessibility” by Adrian Roselli

JavaScript for Keyboard Accessibility

When we talk about the details of web accessibility, we often talk about HTML (including ARIA) and sometimes CSS comes up as well, but JavaScript doesn’t always get the attention or detail it deserves. So here are a few JavaScript-focused resources that relate to keyboard accessibility:

“A Guide To Keyboard Accessibility: JavaScript (Part 2)” by Cristian Díaz
ARIA Authoring Practices Guide: Specifically, check out the Keyboard Interaction section for each pattern and the JavaScript used for the various examples. See also Developing a Keyboard Interface.
Buttons, Enter, and Space from my earlier post “Accessibility Adventures: December 2022”

Web Components & Shadow DOM

Speaking of JavaScript, let’s talk about web components!

There comes a time in every accessibility consultant’s journey in which they become fascinated with and driven to learn about web components and the shadow DOM — or at least, I’ve hit that point! I still have a ton to learn here, but I know a lot more than I did a year ago. Here are some resources that I’ve found helpful:

“Web Components Accessibility FAQ” by Manuel Matuzović
“Pros and cons of using Shadow DOM and style encapsulation” by Manuel Matuzović
“How Shadow DOM and accessibility are in conflict” by Alice Boxhall
“Getting into web components - an intro” by Brecht De Ruyte
“HTML with Superpowers: An Introduction to Web Components” by Dave Ruper

What have you been encountering and thinking about lately in the world of accessibility?

2023 in Reading

2024-01-13T15:51:00-08:00

Introduction

Here’s most all the books I read in 2023:

How to Read a Book: The Classic Guide to Intelligent Reading by Mortimer J. Adler and Charles Van Doren
Under the Whispering Door by TJ Klune
The Raven Tower by Ann Leckie
Tales from Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin
Not Always So: Practicing the True Spirit of Zen by Shunryu Suzuki
The Alloy of Law by Brandon Sanderson
Unicorn Selfies: Another Phoebe and Her Unicorn Adventure by Dana Simpson (comics)
Play Anything: The Pleasure of Limits, the Uses of Boredom, and the Secret of Games by Ian Bogost
Summer in Orcus by T. Kingfisher
The Other Wind by Ursula K. Le Guin
Babel, or the Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of The Oxford Translators’ Revolution by R. F. Kuang
Shadows of Self by Brandon Sanderson
The Bands of Mourning by Brandon Sanderson
Mistborn: Secret History by Brandon Sanderson
Yotsuba&!, Vol. 5 by Kiyohiko Azuma (manga)
The Power of Ritual: Turning Everyday Activities into Soulful Practices by Casper ter Kuile
The Lost Metal by Brandon Sanderson
The Bird King by G. Willow Wilson
Kitty and the Midnight Hour by Carrie Vaughn
Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin
Kitty Goes to Washington by Carrie Vaughn
Leviathan Wakes by James S.A. Corey
Because Internet: Understanding the New Rules of Language by Gretchen McCulloch
The Annual Migration of Clouds by Premee Mohamed
Caliban’s War by James S.A. Corey
“Drive” by James S.A. Corey
“The Butcher of Anderson Station” by James S.A. Corey
Nimona by ND Stevenson (graphic novel)
Gods of Risk by James S.A. Corey
The Churn by James S.A. Corey
Dwarf Stars 2023 edited by Miguel O. Mitchell and David C. Kopaska-Merkel (poetry)
The Shroud of Four Silences by Liane Merciel
Kitty Takes a Holiday by Carrie Vaughn
The 2023 Rhysling Anthology edited by Maxwell I. Gold (poetry)
The Internet Con: How to Seize the Means of Computation by Cory Doctorow
Legends & Lattes by Travis Baldree
Abaddon’s Gate by James S.A. Corey
Free, Fair, and Alive: The Insurgent Power of the Commons by David Bollier & Silke Helfrich
Cibola Burn by James S.A. Corey
Ink Blood Sister Scribe by Emma Torzs
The Vital Abyss by James S.A. Corey
Nemesis Games by James S.A. Corey
Babylon’s Ashes by James S.A. Corey
Persepolis Rising by James S.A. Corey
Strange Dogs by James S.A. Corey
Auberon by James S.A. Corey
Tiamat’s Wrath by James S.A. Corey
Leviathan Falls by James S.A. Corey
Why We Love Dogs, Eat Pigs, and Wear Cows: An Introduction to Carnism by Melanie Joy
Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals by Oliver Burkeman
Yotsuba&!, Vol. 6 by Kiyohiko Azuma (manga)
The Sins of Our Fathers by James S.A. Corey

Nonfiction

How to Read a Book: The Classic Guide to Intelligent Reading by Mortimer J. Adler and Charles Van Doren: This book is dry, old, and stylistically outdated. But it actually has fantastic content, and I highly recommend it to all nonfiction readers and college students. It does a great job breaking down reading into four different levels, encouraging you to spend your time with the best books, empowering you to spend less time with books that aren’t great, and giving advice for getting the most out of reading. Here’s one quote I loved from the book: “Many books are hardly worth even skimming; some should be read quickly; and a few should be read at a rate, usually quite slow, that allows for complete comprehension. It is wasteful to read a book slowly that deserves only a fast reading.”
Because Internet: Understanding the New Rules of Language by Gretchen McCulloch: This was fun! If you are a linguistics nerd or an Internet culture nerd, check it out!
The Power of Ritual: Turning Everyday Activities into Soulful Practices by Casper ter Kuile: I loved this book. It’s about how to build intentional practices that imbue our lives with meaning and help connect us to ourselves, others, nature, and the divine. It examines sacred reading, prayer, exercise, meals, liturgical calendars, pilgrimages, and more. It’s theologically informed, but also immensely practical. It pulls from religious traditions, but it’s written in a way that’s also approachable to folks who aren’t religious. I actually listened to this one as an audiobook and liked it so much that I then re-read it in print.
Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals by Oliver Burkeman: This is a weird, delightful book. It’s almost a self-help, productivity-type book, and it does have some good advice if that’s what you’re looking for, but it’s really a philosophy book about being mortal, reflecting upon our experience of time and the finitude of life. It’s also the best treatise on what I understand minimalism to be, even though I’m not sure if it even mentions minimalism once — in short: how to prioritize the things that are most important and comfortably fail at things which are less important. I listened to this one as an audiobook and appreciated it as such, but I think I want to go back over this in print as well.

Short Fiction

“Where Oaken Hearts Do Gather” by Sarah Pinsker (published in Uncanny Magazine): This story is A+ awesome. It’s basically a creepy folk tale, told as comments on a forum reflecting on a song’s lyrics. I loved it so much.
“Learning Letters” by Carrie Vaughn (published in Lightspeed Magazine): Another awesome short story in Carrie Vaughn’s Bannerless series. I think it stands on it’s own, but I’d encourage you to start with Bannerless.^{Footnote 1}
“Eve’s Prayer” by Victor Forna (published in Lightspeed Magazine): Beautiful flash fiction, structured as a prayer, reflecting on environmental stewardship and space colonization. For more of my thoughts on it, see my review on Skiffy and Fanty: “Short Fiction Review: September 2023.”
“The Sound of Children Screaming” by Rachael K. Jones (published in Nightmare Magazine): This is a heavy, serious story about gun violence and schools, but if you’re ready for that challenge, it is well worth a read. For more of my thoughts on it, see my review on Skiffy and Fanty: “Short Fiction Review: October 2023.”

Standalone Novels

Babel, or the Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of The Oxford Translators’ Revolution by R. F. Kuang: A fantastic book and one I highly recommend. It’s both serious and academic and also just a fun, immersive read. To me it also felt like a welcome breath of fresh air.
The Shroud of Four Silences by Liane Merciel: This is a novella set in the Pathfinder world of Golarion, specifically in and around the town of Otari. I liked it and will quickly recommend it if you are looking for Pathfinder- or D&D-type fiction. It’s a fun adventure in an interesting fantasy world, and it has a remarkable portrayal of goblins. (Seriously, Pathfinder really does justice to goblins.) I previously read The Crystal Shard by R.A. Salvatore, which (while I did enjoy) found painfully outdated. The Shroud of Four Silences felt blessedly more modern. (30 years can make a big difference, go figure!)
Legends & Lattes by Travis Baldree: Speaking of D&D-type fiction, I read this novel. It is fun and cozy, as you probably know already.
Ink Blood Sister Scribe by Emma Torzs: I loved this! If you want slightly more literary contemporary fantasy, check this out. This book has a somewhat unique plot structure and pacing, which I genuinely liked and appreciated, but which might throw off readers expecting/wanting a more standard structure.
Summer in Orcus by T. Kingfisher: If you like Narnia, The Phantom Tollbooth, and Haroun and the Sea of Stories by Salman Rushdie, check this out! It is a fun “kid goes on a magical adventure” story, one that’s in conversation with this genre in interesting ways.
The Raven Tower by Ann Leckie: This one was a re-read. It’s also just straight-up phenomenal.

Series

The Earthsea Cycle by Ursula K. Le Guin

I read the end of Ursula Le Guin’s Earthsea Cycle. I had previously read up through Tehanu, and now I have finished the rest of the cycle: Tales from Earthsea, The Other Wind, and the additional stories collected in The Books of Earthsea. It’s really good!

As I remarked in my observations on Tehanu, there is a shift halfway through the series. It becomes markedly more feminist and introspective. The second half is a more challenging read, but it is also the more interesting and original half. It is well worth reading and definitely something I will be returning to in the future.

Mistborn: Era Two by Brandon Sanderson

This was fun.

The Expanse by James S.A. Corey

I read The Expanse series by James S.A. Corey. All of it: all nine novels and the short fiction collected in Memory’s Legion. I had previously read up through Babylon’s Ashes (book 6), but I wanted to re-read the series before embarking on the final trilogy.

The Expanse is set a few hundred years in the future, when humanity has colonized our solar system, and it tells the story of humanity encountering alien technology and spreading out to live among foreign stars.

The Expanse is approachable and fun, and I expect I’ll come back to it in the future when I want something easy and fun to read. As long as you are comfortable reading violence, it is an easy series to recommend. It does have a lot of violence, but the heroes in the series are consistently working to end or mitigate violence and do what they can to help.^{Footnote 2} It’s got good representation of women and people of color, decent representation of queer folks, and while it does include a couple nonbinary people, it definitely could have done better with trans and nonbinary representation.

I was happier than I thought I would be with how the series ended. The conclusion wrapped up various plot threads fairly well and remained interesting and fun, and the story stayed true to itself. The first book is titled Leviathan Wakes and the final is titled Leviathan Falls, and there are several more connections between those two books, parallels that made for a fitting end to the series.

But I must say: the ending was also significantly sadder than I was expecting. Books 7–9 are more somber reads than the first six, and book 9 in particular left me weeping. As a reader, I am good with this: the ending is well-done, and I appreciate stories with sadder, more complicated endings, as I find too many stories end too happily and neatly. But be warned.

Kitty Norville by Carrie Vaughn

I read the first three books in Carrie Vaughn’s Kitty Norville series: Kitty and the Midnight Hour, Kitty Goes to Washington, and Kitty Takes a Holiday. It’s an urban fantasy series about a werewolf who hosts a late-night radio talk show about the supernatural.

Like all of Carrie Vaughn’s other work I’ve read, I liked it, easily and without reservation. Vaughn does a great job writing approachable sentences that immerse you in the world, clearly advance the plot, and portray believable, interesting, and likable characters — with some exceptions on the “likable” part for villains.

Kitty is a great character: a strong, inquisitive woman, open (to readers at least) about her vulnerabilities. The series has a robust cast of other fun, interesting characters as well; I am partial to Ben (Kitty’s lawyer) and Alette (the vampire queen of Washington DC), among others.

I don’t read too much urban/paranormal fantasy, but this series makes me realize I should read more because, gosh, the trappings of this genre are a lot of fun, and I love slowly discovering the world and the lore Vaughn has developed. It also inspires me to try my hand at writing something in this genre, to ask myself what I find most interesting about werewolves, vampires, and the like and to tell a fun story with it.

The series is a little old now, with the first book being published back in 2005: it’s the modern era and the world we know, before it was changed by ubiquitous smartphones. For example, Kitty hosts a call-in radio show rather than being a podcaster or streamer which might be more typical these days. I love this. It makes it feel like a cozy period-piece from my childhood.

Footnotes

For more of my thoughts on Carrie Vaughn's excellent Bannerless series, see “Recent Reading: November 2017” and “Recent Reading: December 2018.” ↩
For more of my thoughts on The Expanse and how it handles violence, see “Recent Reading: December 2018.” ↩

How I Take Notes (Digitally)

2023-12-30T13:17:00-08:00

Introduction

Lately I have been rediscovering the joy of handwritten text. I spend so much time on a computer for my job, it is a relief to be away from a screen. I feel more relaxed handwriting with a pen and paper, and my mind can shift into a different pattern of attention. I hear it helps with memory and recall too.

This post is not about that. There is a place for handwritten notes, and there is a place for digital notes. Digitally, I have notes about my to-dos, goals, and priorities, about my favorite recipes, about various command-line utilities, about games I get invested in, and more. I also have a lot of lists. I like to make lists. You should see my reading list. It is joyously, stupidly long.

Admittedly, I have digital notes scattered in a few different places, but most of them live together in one system, a folder with Markdown files that I can compile together into interlinked HTML files. Let me explain how that works and why I like it. I’m sharing because I think it is an awesome system with some real advantages and because it’s different than what most people use or consider using. If you think it’s cool, I have made a GitHub repository that you can clone and use to try it out yourself.

How It Works

I have a folder for my notes. That folder has folders within it for different categories, such as to-dos, food, games, and reference. Each note is a plain text file written in Markdown. I have a Bash script that uses Pandoc to convert the Markdown files into interlinked HTML files. In effect, it is a very simple website.

I have a homepage note that links to my most used notes and to an index note for each category, which in turn links to all the notes in that category. I actually have the homepage note set as my homepage in Firefox so that it’s easy for me to view my notes. If any two notes are related to each other, they may also link to each other. I use a classless CSS stylesheet to add some basic styling to the rendered HTML files. I use Git to version control it all, usually committing a snapshot every month or so. I sync my notes folder with Nextcloud to back it up and make it available on my phone.

Advantages

There are a lot of advantages to this system of taking digital notes.

It’s accessible. Plain text files and simple web pages work well with assistive technologies like screen readers, and it is easy to change the size, font, and color of text to make it more readable. I can see okay, but I do sometimes get eye strain when I spending too much time on screens. When this happens, I love being able to use my browser’s zoom to make my notes just a little bit bigger.

It’s adaptable and platform-agnostic. You can use whichever text editor and browser you prefer. Sometimes I will edit my notes using different text editors depending on the day, my preferences, and what exactly I’m writing down or updating. You can also use whichever cloud/syncing service you prefer or are already using, or not sync your notes at all if you don’t want to.

It’s future-proof. I am confident I can keep using this notes system for decades. Plain text files and web browsers have already been around for decades, and I’m sure they will be around for decades longer. Markdown is simple, and if for some reason I have to stop using Pandoc to compile my notes, I am confident I can find another command-line utility to do so, and even if for some reason I can’t, my notes still exist as readable and future-proof text files. I won’t need to migrate my notes if I switch to a different operating system or if a provider goes out of business.

It’s free. It’s not a paid service.

It’s private. You don’t have to sync your notes at all; you can keep them all on your personal desktop computer if you’d like. If you want to sync your notes, you can use whichever service you are comfortable with: Google Drive, iCloud, Dropbox, your own personal Nextcloud server, or something else. You can even sync your notes directly between your personal devices without any intermediaries using a tool like Syncthing, and you can backup your notes using whatever backup system you are already using.

It has simple, easy, and robust version control through Git. If I accidentally delete a file, I can go back and recover it. I can feel free to delete old things, knowing that they are out of the way yet still recoverable if I later change my mind. I can even revert my entire notes folder to what it looked like in an earlier year if I am feeling nostalgic or curious about my past, and then restore it to the present. And if you aren’t interested in version control, the system still works fine without it.

You can use Git to share and collaborate on a repository of notes with others.

It’s flexible. Your notes can be structured in a top-down, linear fashion, but they can also be linked together in ways as nonlinear as Wikipedia. I stick to using plain text files, but you could absolutely include images or PDF files within this system as well if you want. If Markdown is not sufficient for your needs, you can include HTML code directly within your plain text Markdown files. For example, you can include an accordion component within your rendered website by adding a <summary> element within your Markdown notes. And Pandoc actually supports an extended Markdown syntax, one that makes it easy to include footnotes for example.

It’s searchable. If I want to search across all of my notes for something, I can use an editor like Visual Studio Code that lets you search all files within a folder at once. I can even add tags to notes if I want. All I need to do is add “@cats” somewhere in the note, and then I can search my notes folder for any notes that include “@cats”. True, the tagged notes would not necessarily be all linked together, but if I wanted to take the time to link them together, I still could.

It’s lightweight. My notes folder weighs in at a total of 9 MB. The bulk of that (7.8 MB) is my journals, going back 9 years, before I even started this notes system. (Did I mention that it can be easy to import new content into the system? You just need Markdown files, and you can even use Pandoc to convert Word files to Markdown.) Text editors, browsers, and Pandoc take up more space on my system, but those are programs I would already have installed anyway.

Drawbacks

There are some drawbacks I can think of.

It requires technical know-how. You do not need to be a programmer or a web designer to use this notes system, but you should have basic computer skills, and you should be ready to learn the basics of Markdown and Git if they are new to you.

It requires some setup. It took me a while to set this up, but if you copy the folder I share below, the setup time is pretty quick: just get familiar with the system and start filling in and linking your notes. That said, it will take more setup time than just opening the notes app on your phone.

It is moderately complex. If I want a new note to be reachable through the rendered website, I need to add a link to it to the relevant index page. It doesn’t take a lot of time to do that, but it is a degree of overhead that other notes systems lack. I do also need to routinely manually execute the Bash script to update the rendered website, so that the HTML output mirrors the Markdown input. (That said, you could use the Chron utility to routinely build your notes without you needing to manually do so.)

It assumes you have a desktop computer, and you may not be able to compile your Markdown notes into HTML files on mobile phones and tablets. I think this point is moreso a drawback of today’s mobile operating systems, which in theory should allow you to use simple command-line utilities like Pandoc and Git but which in practice obfuscate or prevent you from doing so. That said, you should still be able to sync these notes to your mobile devices, view and edit the plain text Markdown files, and view the already-complied HTML pages.

Try It Out

I set up a GitHub repository that you can copy to set up your own notes system as I described here. Be sure to read the included ReadMe page for detailed instructions on getting set up and using the system.

If you download the GitHub repository to your desktop, you can open the included index.html file to preview this notes system in your browser to get a better idea of it, but I also included an example of what it might look like here on this site in case you just want to see it in action:

View notes-to-website example site

What do you think about this method of taking digital notes? Are you interested in trying it out or have any use cases for it yourself? And please let me know if you start using it yourself — I would be eager to hear about others’ experiences with it.

Accessibility Adventures: October 2023

2023-10-26T19:04:00-07:00

CPACC + WAS = CPWA

The International Association of Accessibility Professionals (IAAP) offers several different professional certifications. Back in 2021, I became a Certified Professional in Accessibility Core Compentencies (CPACC), and I wrote a blog series on this site to help me study for it: 100 Days of A11y. Recently, I earned another certification from IAAP: Web Accessibility Specialist (WAS)!

CPACC is more of a generalist, non-technical certification. It’s appropriate for all sorts of people whose roles touch on either digital or physical accessibility. Perhaps you are involved in setting policy, perhaps you work with various customers or clients, or perhaps you create things for people to use — the CPACC certification is relevant for all of those roles.

WAS on the other hand is a technical certification focused specifically on web accessibility. It’s appropriate for folks who design, build, or test web content. The WAS exam is broken into three domains: creating accessible web content, testing (or auditing) web content for accessibility issues, and fixing (or remediating) inaccessible web content.

If you have both CPACC and WAS, IAAP gives you a third certification “for free”: Certified Professional in Web Accessibility (CPWA). Basically, instead of listing CPACC and WAS after my name in my email signature, I can just list CPWA instead. When IAAP sent me an email letting me know that I’ve become a CPWA, they wrote, “We welcome you to a select group of 664 IAAP CPWAs around the world!” So that’s pretty cool! There are less than one thousand of us worldwide, at least so far.

I thought about doing another 100 Days of A11y blog series while I studied for WAS, but I decided against it. The two exams test for different types of knowledge and capabilities. CPACC focuses more on general knowledge about a relatively clearly defined set of topics: different types of disabilities, assistive technologies, the principles of accessibility, and relevant law and policy. For CPACC, it made sense to blog my way through the exam’s body of knowledge, explaining each concept in my own words. But WAS is a different beast. WAS tests your knowledge of web development, ARIA, and the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG). WAS is less a test of your knowledge of these things and more a test of your skills at doing these things (creating accessible web content, auditing, remediating). True, I could still have blogged my way through, trying to explain the various concepts that come into play, but doing so felt a bit like going down a rabbit hole to me, and it wasn’t clear how in-depth my posts should have gone. How much of HTML and CSS should I explain? How much of ARIA? Does each WCAG success criterion get its own blog post, or should I split it up into four posts (one for each principle)? Moreover, as I said, WAS is more a test of your skill at doing things, rather than knowing things. And I have been blessed to have a full-time job at Level Access doing exactly these things alongside well-informed experts for over a year. It was that experience, more so than any of my formal test prep, that prepared me to pass the WAS exam and become a CPWA.

EPUB Accessibility

EPUB is a file type, similar to DOC or PDF. It’s the open standard for ebooks, and it’s recently been updated! EPUB 3.3 became a W3C Recommendation (a finalized standard, essentially) in May, along with two other documents specific to EPUB accessibility:

As someone who cares about ebooks, open standards, and accessibility, I find this exciting!

EPUBs are essentially “websites in a box,” built using the same technologies as the web (principally HTML and CSS). Therefore, you will notice that EPUB accessibility builds on the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG). The new EPUB standard has a section on accessibility, which states in part:

The requirements and practices for creating accessible web content have already been documented in the W3C's Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) [wcag2]. These guidelines also form the basis for defining accessibility in EPUB publications.

As the current WCAG guidelines (version 2) are heavily focused on web pages, a separate specification, EPUB Accessibility [epub-a11y-11], defines how to apply the standard to EPUB publications. It also adds EPUB-specific requirements and recommendations for metadata, pagination, and media overlays.

Additionally, the EPUB Accessibility 1.1 specification has a section on conformance reporting. If you are looking to make claims about how well your ebooks conform to the EPUB Accessibility standard, be sure to read that section.

For more on this, you can check out:

Watching Our Language

Adrian Roselli has a series of blog posts that I love:

The terms “drop-down,” “pop-up,” and “menu” are common and well-understood. The trouble is, they are also vague and ambiguous. It is fine enough for laypeople to use these terms in casual conversation, but web designers, developers, and accessibility professionals need to be more mindful with our language here. Each of these terms can correspond to several different HTML elements, ARIA roles, and design patterns, each with different purposes and uses. If a designer uses the term “pop-up” to refer to a modal dialog, but the developer thinks they mean a new window, the user experience (and likely accessibility) will suffer. I agree with Adrain Roselli: professionals in this space should beware using these terms and make sure they are being as clear and specific as possible, and if you encounter someone using these terms, consider asking them to resolve their ambiguity.

ARIA Comboboxes and HTML Datalists

When I am testing websites and I notice a combobox, I think, “There’s an issue,” even before I’ve found any issues — because I almost inevitably find issues with them. If you need to make one, I would suggest you carefully reference the combobox pattern in the ARIA Authoring Practices Guide and then test it extensively.

Part of what makes comboboxes so error-prone is that they are necessarily custom components — there isn’t a widely-supported native HTML element that fulfills the same function. Native controls are almost always the preferred choice from an accessibility perspective, and here there isn’t one.

But that’s changing. The native HTML <datalist> element is getting better support, and it provides a native HTML method to provide a list of recommendations to accompany an input field. It is not going to work for all use cases, and it still has some support limitations and accessibility concerns, but it is starting to become a viable alternative for certain cases. There were a couple blog posts about this recently that I appreciated:

The <datalist> element still has a ways to go, but I see so many issues with ARIA comboboxes, I think more people should start to consider <datalist> as an alternative for their site.

Sticky Focus & Focus Styles

Here’s one thing that pains me: a site with great focus indicators and a sticky header (or footer) that obscures those focus indicators. This is actually something I touched on in my last Accessibility Adventures post (Focusing on Sticky Headers). It’s a usability issue that violates the spirit of, although not necessarily the letter of, WCAG SC 2.4.7 Focus Visible. However, there is a new success criterion in WCAG 2.2 that this behavior can clearly violate: SC 2.4.11: Focus Not Obscured (Minimum) (Level AA). I am excited to see this new success criterion being added because, as I said, this issue pains me.

So how do you make sure this doesn’t happen? Avoid sticky headers and footers. Personally, I hate them. But if you must use one, remember to take keyboard focus into consideration as you build it. Here’s one way to ensure your sticky headers don’t obscure keyboard focus: “Sticky content: focus in view” by Joe Lamyman.

Relatedly, Joe Lamyman had a recent post titled “Foundations: visible focus styles,” which I also appreciated. Focus styles are foundational to keyboard accessibility, and they are also a design element that too often gets overlooked, so please, remember to take keyboard focus indicators into account!

Pointer Gestures

When I tell people I work in digital accessibility, one of the first things to come up is alt text for images. Many people have heard of that, even folks who otherwise don’t know much about accessibility. Alt text gets a lot of attention. That’s good.

But you know what doesn’t get enough attention? Pointer gestures. When I worked with folks with intellectual and developmental disabilities, a good chunk of them had limited dexterity. Clicking a button with a mouse or tapping a button on a touchscreen could pose a real challenge, and successfully dragging content, using multi-finger gestures, or following a specific path with their finger or a mouse could be real blockers. I understand these types of gestures are less common than images, so it makes sense that alt text gets more press than pointer gestures, but I was happy to come across “Foundations: pointer gestures” by Graeme Coleman, which is a great introduction to this topic. When designing pointer gestures, remember to account for folks with limited dexterity.

Styling Alt Text (and Disabling Images)

That said, let’s give alt text some love for a moment. Remember, alt text is not just for screen reader users. Alt text is also for sighted users in case the image doesn’t load. If you’re sighted, you’ve probably encountered this at some point yourself. Perhaps the image’s src attribute didn’t correctly point to an image, or perhaps you had low bandwidth, preventing images from loading properly.

Did you know you can visually style alt text with CSS? I hadn’t thought about this before, but once I saw this blog post by Terence Eden about styling alt text, I thought, Of course! Why shouldn’t we be able to do this?

Why style your alt text? You can make it obvious if an image is broken, perhaps for QA purposes or perhaps to signal more clearly to users that alt text is alt text. Perhaps more importantly, you can make sure your alt text is readable and has sufficient text contrast. (Is this a thing we should be testing for in web audits? Making sure alt text has sufficient contrast?)

Don’t write this off so easily. Tons of people across the world have low bandwidth, and images (especially high-quality ones) might not load reliably for them. Or, people on metered connections might choose to disable images. Did you know this is a thing people can do? This is a thing I’ve done. I have a 1 GB/month cell phone data plan. That’s usually all I need, but on rare occasion I’ll find myself tethering my laptop to my phone for WiFi. When I do this, I might disable images in my web browser, preventing images from loading. This can save a ton of data. Here’s how to do that in Firefox:

Go to about:config
Set “permissions.default.image” to 2

That’s all. A value of 1 will load images as usual, and a value of 2 will prevent Firefox from downloading and displaying images. Give it a try!

Relatedly, I recently came across the Cooper Hewitt Museum’s Guidelines for Image Description, and I must say: I’m impressed! There’s a great level of detail and thoughtfulness here. In particular, I appreciate its sections on how to describe gender and ethnicity. In short, it essentially says to use gender-neutral terms unless gender is clearly performed and/or verifiable. As a nonbinary person, this sounds lovely to me: don’t assume gender, but yeah, mention it if it’s clearly performed or verifiable. (There’s something about describing gender as “verifiable” that I just love.)

QR Codes

People who are blind use QR codes, so if you have a QR code on your site, make sure you give it informative alt text, otherwise you risk violating WCAG SC 1.1.1 Non-text Content. Your alt text should indicate the image is in fact a QR code and indicate what it links to.

If you set the QR code as a link, make sure the link text describes where the link goes to, otherwise you risk violating WCAG SC 2.4.4 Link Purpose (In Context).

People who are blind use QR codes, but they might have trouble finding them. If you have a QR code on your site or in person somewhere, make it as large as feasible so that it is easy for someone with visual impairments to scan. Don’t rely exclusively on QR codes either. Online, provide a link alongside the QR code, and in person, provide a written URL as an alternative. (This is helpful for people without disabilities as well. I’ve had many occasions where my phone refuses to recognize a QR code for one reason or another.) If you are using a QR code in meatspace, consider what you can do to make the QR code “pop out,” so to speak. For example, maybe put a tangible border around it so that people who are blind can figure out with certainty where it is and how big it is. Consider putting a braille label underneath identifying the QR code and what it links to.

There’s more to consider about QR code accessibility than just this, but that’s what’s come up recently for me. For more about QR code accessibility, I’d recommend this post by Joe Lamyman: “Accessibility and QR codes.”

Information Architecture

Back when I participated in Knowbility’s Internet Accessibility Rally (AIR) program, the designer on our team used a big term I wasn’t familiar with: information architecture. I thought it was a silly, pretentious phrase at first, but she proved me wrong. The way she redesigned the information architecture of the site we were working on was genuinely impressive. Her design made it extremely clear what was on the site and how to get to each thing. It’s important work.

To that point, I appreciated this post by Sarah R. Barrett: “Your Information Architecture is an Accessibility Problem”.

(Cognitively) Inclusive Design

I want to give a shout out to Microsoft’s inclusive design project. Check out their website; they have quality resources that are approachable for all sorts of people. They first got on my radar thanks to their persona spectrum in their Inclusive 101 Guidebook, which illustrates the spectrum of dis/ability.

Today I want to shout out their resources on cognitive accessibility, a topic that doesn’t get the attention is deserves. Their Inclusive Design for Cognition Guidebook is cool, and they’ve got a few other associated resources as well.

What do you think about all these links and ideas? Are they new to you or have you come across them before? What have you been noticing and thinking about lately in the world of digital accessibility?

2022 in Reading

2023-01-03T17:28:00-08:00

Introduction

Here’s most all the books I read in 2022:

Little Brother by Cory Doctorow
Avatar: The Last Airbender: The Search by Gene Luen Yang (graphic novel)
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley (audiobook)
Homeland by Cory Doctorow
Moonstruck Vol 1: Magic to Brew by Grace Ellis and Shae Beagle (comics)
Dwarf Stars 2021: The Best Very Short Speculative Poems Published in 2020 edited by Charles Christian (poetry)
Moonstruck Vol 2: Some Enchanted Evening by Grace Ellis and Shae Beagle (comics)
Moonstruck Vol 3: Troubled Waters by Grace Ellis and Shae Beagle (comics)
Attack Surface by Cory Doctorow (audiobook)
The Dragon’s Path by Daniel Abraham
The King’s Blood by Daniel Abraham
Light from Uncommon Stars by Ryka Aoki (audiobook)
The Tyrant’s Law by Daniel Abraham
The Widow’s House by Daniel Abraham
The Spider’s War by Daniel Abraham
The Unspoken Name by A. K. Larkwood (audiobook)
The Grace of Kings by Ken Liu
The Wall of Storms by Ken Liu
The Veiled Throne by Ken Liu
The Unsettling of America by Wendell Berry (audiobook)
Shades of Milk and Honey by Mary Robinette Kowal
Speaking Bones by Ken Liu (audiobook)
Star*Line 44.2 ed F.J. Bergmann (poetry)
Yotsuba&!, Vol. 1 by Kiyohiko Azuma (manga)
Yotsuba&!, Vol. 2 by Kiyohiko Azuma (manga)
Yotsuba&!, Vol. 3 by Kiyohiko Azuma (manga)
The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison (audiobook)
Zoned in the USA: The Origins and Implications of American Land-Use Regulation by Sonia A. Hirt
A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers
Chokepoint Capitalism: How Big Tech and Big Content Captured Creative Labor Markets and How We’ll Win Them Back by Rebecca Giblin & Cory Doctorow
A Prayer for the Crown-Shy by Becky Chambers
Yotsuba&!, Vol. 4 by Kiyohiko Azuma (manga)
Dedicated: The Case for Commitment in an Age of Infinite Browsing by Pete Davis (audiobook)
Unicorn Famous: Another Phoebe and Her Unicorn Adventure by Dana Simpson (comics)
Star*Line 44.3 edited by Jean-Paul L. Garnier (poetry)
Unicorn Playlist: Another Phoebe and Her Unicorn Adventure by Dana Simpson (comics)

Next, I shall squee about my favorites.

Standalone Novels

Light from Uncommon Stars by Ryka Aoki

Light from Uncommon Stars is a fascinating, inventive, unique, bold, and modern novel. It’s about a trans girl, violin competitions, deals with demons, family heritage, donuts, interstellar refugees, kindness, community, and attempts toward redemption. There is a lot going on in this book, and it both hilariously clashes and ties together spectacularly. If you are looking for modern, diverse SFF, read this. If you are looking for something different, or if you want to be surprised and inspired, read this.

The Unspoken Name by A. K. Larkwood

To me, The Unspoken Name feels like a classic fantasy novel reinvented for the present, modern day. It’s creative, compelling, queer, and gritty. It’s a good book, and I recommend it, particularly for fans of classic secondary-world fantasies who are looking for something new and modern.

The narrative is tightly focused on the characters, their struggles, and their journey. The world surrounding the characters is fun, fascinating, and believable, but it is never spelled out in the level of detail I would have liked. I personally would have welcomed some worldbuilding infodumps, but we never got them. I can’t fault the novel for this though — I received enough information about the world to envision fantastical settings, understand the characters, and follow the plot.

Shades of Milk and Honey by Mary Robinette Kowal

This book is often pitched as “Pride and Prejudice with magic.” That’s definitely a fair pitch, and I enjoyed it for being that. But it has some notable divergences as well. Shades of Milk and Honey is shorter, simpler, and more accessible than Pride and Prejudice, and I appreciated it for all of those reasons. It’s also Mary Robinette Kowal’s debut novel, and it does feel like a debut. There was one (more action-oriented) scene near the climax where it was challenging for me to clearly understand what was going on, and the conclusion made sense but also felt somewhat jolting.

If you like Jane Austen or regency romances and want more, I’ll definitely recommend this book/series, especially if you are a younger reader. If you want to try a regency romance but want something easier to read, I would also recommend Shades of Milk and Honey. I fell in this second camp: I read it because I wanted to try something different, and I quite enjoyed it for that.

The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison

The Goblin Emperor tells the story of Maia as he unexpectedly becomes emperor and navigates the intrigue of court. Maia is a competent and thoughtful protagonist, but he is not prepared for the world of court etiquette, politics, and intrigue that he is thrust into. This is a smart book with wonderful worldbuilding, filled with politics, power, and intrigue — and those are honestly executed with excellence — but at it’s core, The Goblin Emperor is a heartwarming book about kindness: Maia’s internal struggles to act charitably to those who have wronged him, Maia’s care and attention for the common people, and the bridges (both literal and figurative) Maia is able to build with those in his court, across his kingdom, and beyond.

I did find this to be a challenging book to read on two counts. First, a few of the characters are on the receiving end of nasty violence. This was handled thoughtfully, but you should be prepared for this before reading the book. Second, it was hard for me to keep track of all of the character names and special terminology used to illustrate this fantasy world. I was able to follow along well enough through context clues, but I do feel like there was quite a bit I may have missed or been unable to appreciate fully. I listened to the audiobook, and I didn’t have the capacity to listen quite as closely as I would have liked, so a good chunk of this is on me, not Katherine Addison. But this is a relatively demanding novel. If you’ve already got some reading momentum built up, this isn’t a concern, but if someone is trying to get back into reading after a break, this probably isn’t the first book you should pick up.

Series

Cory Doctorow’s Little Brother series

Cory Doctorow has published three novels in this series: Little Brother, Homeland, and most recently Attack Surface. Little Brother and Homeland are both young adult novels centered on the character Marcus Yallow, but Attack Surface is an adult novel centered on a different character. Little Brother is very much a post 9/11 novel, whereas Homeland is a Snowden-era novel and Attack Surface engages with more recent (and evergreen) topics including protest movements, authoritarian regimes, zero-day vulnerabilities, and shady defense contractors.

Attack Surface was my favorite, largely because I prefer adult over young adult reads and because the themes and technologies in Attack Surface feel more contemporary and relevant, but these are all fun, interesting reads. This series is centrally concerned with technology, activism, and politics — if those topics don’t get you excited, this series probably isn’t for you. But if you do enjoy those topics, I’d easily recommend this series. It’s well-plotted and paced, and it has interesting, likable, and fun characters.

Becky Chambers’ Monk and Robot series

I deeply appreciate Becky Chambers’ Monk and Robot series, which thus far consists of two novellas: A Psalm for the Wild-Built and A Prayer for the Crown-Shy.

Practically, these books are about a nonbinary tea monk who befriends a robot, the first robot that humans have seen in at least a generation. Thematically, these are quiet, introspective books about ecological and social sustainability, spirituality, purpose, and robot consciousness. There are four things in particular Becky Chambers is doing with this series that I love.

First, this series depicts a radically different society, one fundamentally designed around sustainability. Humans have confined themselves to only half the world, leaving the other half alone for nature. Computers are designed to be repairable and built to last decades. Buildings and plastics are designed to biodegrade when they are no longer used, rather than stick around for centuries. This world is hopeful, cozy, and inspiring.

Second, these books are deeply concerned with the very meaning and purpose of life. The main characters are relatable and likable, and they are asking big, deep questions and searching for answers. These books offer both wisdom and serious prompts for reflection.

Third, Becky Chambers depicts an interesting, fun, and thoughtfully-designed religious tradition. The religious tradition centered in this series is at once wonderfully original and strangely familiar. I hope Becky Chambers publishes more material set in this world so that I can explore more deeply this tradition, but for now, I’ll just say that I genuinely love the idea of tea monks, and we need more of them.

Fourth, the series includes fun and interesting robots and, through them, intelligently explores consciousness and personhood. If I had to use one word to describe the robots in this series, I’d say: naturalists. They are fascinated with watching, participating in, and stewarding the natural world. They are also distinctly different from and weird in comparison to humans, in ways that are both fun to read but also poignant. For example, as I recall in one scene, the robot Mosscap tells the monk Dex that it uses “it” pronouns. Dex finds this surprising, but Mosscaps reminds Dex that we don’t need to think we are the same in order to recognize that we have equal value. That’s such a good point! We should have more respect for (rather than superiority towards) the world around us, in particular when it comes to our differences.

Becky Chambers’ Monk and Robot series is delightful, intelligent, and life-giving. It’s not exactly a thrilling or exciting read, but rather it’s quiet, thoughtful, hopeful, and feels quite a bit like home.

Daniel Abraham’s The Dagger and the Coin series

The Dagger and the Coin is an epic fantasy quintet distinctly set in the Western fantasy tradition. Although it takes place in a secondary world (not our own), the fictional continent where the story occurs bears a striking resemblance to Europe, both in terms of geography as well as culture and politics. This is intentional. In interviews, Daniel Abraham has noted that one of his aims with this series was to tell a more typical Western fantasy and to explore this sub-genre. But that doesn’t mean this series is unoriginal. For example, there are no dwarves or elves in this series, but there are several different distinctive sub-races of humans. And the main magic in the series isn’t your typical wizard who can shoot fireballs but rather a group of characters who can tell truth from lies and who can be impossibly convincing. This is a Western epic fantasy, but it’s not derivative. Rather, it’s intentionally and creatively engaging an established genre and an ongoing conversation. And it did that very well.

As the name of the series implies, The Dagger and the Coin is centrally concerned with war, militarism, and violence on one hand and with economics, finance, and banking on the other. One of the main characters in the series leads a nation on a campaign of conquest, while another (a banker) attempts to use the power of her bank to resist that militarism. If either of those topics sounds interesting to you, you’ll likely enjoy the series. I appreciated the “dagger” side of the series for the social commentary, and I enjoyed the “coin” side of the series because, as it turns out, medieval banking is fascinating and fun! I also appreciated exploring how commerce can be a force for peace, countervailing against war. In our capitalist world, commerce so often feels like a force of violence, so I appreciate how this series intelligently contrasted the two.

As with The Expanse (which Daniel Abraham co-wrote), this series is well-executed. The characters felt like real people and had good arcs. I really enjoyed and appreciated most of the characters, even and especially the villains. The world was immersive, interesting, and realistic, down to the last chamber pot, but the focus is always kept on either the characters or the plot, which was fun, engaging, and dynamic. The chapters are a perfect length. Each book in the series is satisfying, and the series as a whole is particularly fun and powerful.

The series tells a complete story, has a strong conclusion, and wraps things up quite nicely. But it does, very intentionally, leave one plot thread open at the end. As a reader and reviewer, I am perfectly content and happy with how the series ended. But as a fan, I want more. Daniel Abraham, if you are reading this, please know that I will gladly and excitedly pay for another book set in this world exploring this plot thread you left unfinished.

Ken Liu’s The Dandelion Dynasty series

This series is an extraordinary achievement, and I loved it. These books are fun, immersive reads that are deeply layered with meaning. I enjoyed the plot, savored the characters, and fell in love with the world. I don’t think I have encountered worldbuilding so rich and detailed as this before. The world even has ancient sages and an intellectual history that I truly wish I could take a college course exploring.

This is an epic fantasy series that has the mindset of science fiction. That is, this is a world that’s home to gods, dragons, and the impossible, but it’s also filled with scientists and engineers, characters who believe the universe is knowable, who attempt to make sense of it, and who build things of wonder. For example, this series depicts the most believable dragons I’ve ever encountered, and one scene during a cooking competition depicts a pressure cooker through a science fictional lens.

If science isn’t your thing, what about politics and justice? The central characters in this series all struggle in their own (sometimes divergent) ways to bring about a better world, even and especially when it’s hard, unclear, or requires sacrifice. The central characters are — indeed, the series itself is — deeply concerned with morality, ethics, and character.

After reading The Dandelion Dynasty, I better understand why people were so impressed and shaped by Lord of the Rings. To me at least, this series is a revelation, something foundational. I’ve never read anything so immersive, unique, and powerful. I will definitely be returning to re-read this series for years to come, and I hope I can read more stories set in this world sometime in the future.

Accessibility Adventures: December 2022

2022-12-29T19:40:00-08:00

Introduction

A lot has changed since my last Accessibility Adventures post back in November 2021. For one thing, I finished a redesign of my personal website/blog. For another, I transitioned into a full-time accessibility role: I now work as a Senior Accessibility Analyst at Level Access, where I test websites and apps to make sure they work well for people with disabilities and people who use assistive technologies such as screen readers. I’ve generally been quite happy with this role, and I have been able to learn a lot about digital accessibility.

For example, I remember a year ago I understood what the Accessible Rich Internet Applications (ARIA) specification was, but I wasn’t comfortable reading the specification, using it, or testing ARIA components. Now, I am routinely flagging accessibility issues that relate to ARIA, looking up specific ARIA design patterns, and making recommendations for complex web components that involve ARIA. There is still a lot I can and want to learn about ARIA (and web accessibility in general), but I now have significantly more practical experience alongside a robust understanding of the technical details of web accessibility.

Now, with that preamble out of the way, let’s talk about some of the cool accessibility things I’ve come across recently.

ARIA Authoring Practices Guide (APG)

Since I just mentioned ARIA, let’s start with the ARIA Authoring Practices Guide (APG). This summer, it was updated and released with a spiffy new website. This existed before, but it looked more like a typical technical specification and wasn’t nearly as engaging or user-friendly.

The APG is amazing. It is well-designed, and it clearly presents wonderfully helpful information. Basically, if you are trying to develop any sort of interactive web component (like a accordions, tabs, comboboxes, etc), come read and reference the APG early in your development. It lists expected and helpful keyboard interaction patterns as well as expected ARIA roles, states, and properties. It also features working and accessible examples of these components, and this is all presented in a user-friendly, approachable way.

Buttons, `Enter`, and `Space`

I’m a little obsessed with Adrian Roselli’s blog post “Brief Note on Buttons, Enter, and Space.”

Online, as a keyboard user, you can press either Enter or Space to activate a button. But (with native controls at least), it’s actually more complicated than that. Native buttons fire on key down when you press Enter. That means you can hold down the Enter key to repeatedly activate the button. On the other hand, native buttons fire on key up when you press Space. That means you can press down Space with your right hand, realize you actually don’t want to activate the element, and then press Tab with your left hand to shift keyboard focus away from the button without activating it. Both of these options are useful — sometimes you may want to repeatedly activate a button, and other times you may want to be able to change your mind and not activate it after all. This is made even more complicated with screen readers. Typically, when screen reader users press either Enter or Space, screen readers actually fire click events, rather than keyboard events. I think this behavior is because many buttons are not keyboard accessible, so by firing click events, screen readers can activate more buttons and therefore be more useful to blind users.

I find this fascinating because this sort of minutia is easily unknown and overlooked, but it has significant implications. It is important to keyboard users because even though both Enter and Space will activate a button, they do so in different ways and therefore aren’t interchangeable. While only a minority of folks are keyboard-only users, a majority of people use keyboards at least some of the time online, and so this is potentially something most people would benefit from knowing. Beyond that, this is something most developers should know as well. If you are creating custom components on your site, you will need to create event listeners so that users can interact with those components, and if you’re doing that, you probably should stick with the established pattern users are familiar with: Enter fires on key down (potentially repeatedly) while Space fires on key up. I find this interesting because it’s a small thing, but it helps me to understand the web with more nuance and sophistication, and because it can have surprisingly broad implications.

Relatedly, here’s another thing I learned recently: native button elements will fire click events when a user clicks on the button but also when keyboard users press Enter or Space. This means with a native button element, you only need to write one JavaScript event listener (for a click event) to make the button work for mouse users, touchscreen users, and for keyboard users. However, if you try to use a div element to create a custom button (for example, something like div role="button"), click events for that button will only be triggered when users click — click events won’t trigger if users press Enter or Space. That means, you’ll need to write more JavaScript event listeners to make those custom buttons accessible to both mouse users and keyboard users. Again, I find this interesting because it’s a small, technical detail that helps me better understand and explain matters of web accessibility, but also this has broad implications, so broad that I’d think more web developers need to know this (but I’m not confident they do).

Creating Custom Buttons

I liked Ben Myer’s blog post “How (Not) to Build a Button.” Web developers often create buttons using div elements with click event handlers, but this style of buttons isn’t necessarily accessible to keyboard users or assistive technology users. If you’re using a div element to create a button, there’s a number of additional things you need to do to make sure keyboard users and assistive technology users can actually interact with and use the button: it needs to receive keyboard focus, have a visible focus style, be triggered by click events as well as Enter and Space, and it needs to communicate proper role and state information to assistive technologies. Again, these issues are things I come across all the time when I am testing websites. Ben Myer’s post is a good explainer about how to clickable div element and turn it into a proper button.

Labeling Buttons

I liked Manuel Matuzović’s blog post “Buttons and the Baader–Meinhof phenomenon.” This blog post is about right and wrong ways to label buttons. When we label a button, we provide it with an accessible name that can be announced via assistive technologies such as screen readers. It’s important that we make sure buttons have proper labels so that screen readers users understand what the button does. There are a lot of different ways to label buttons and links, particularly when the button only has an icon and no visible label (which is often the case with search buttons or social media links). Manuel Matuzović’s post lists out several different ways you can label a button and several common mistakes. The post is a good learning tool as well as a good resource for all of your options.

Accessibility in Fedora

I enjoyed reading these articles in Fedora Magazine:

I am a Fedora user and a digital accessibility professional. I care about free/libre and open-source software and about accessibility, so it’s important to me that Fedora and other Linux distributions are accessible, work well for people with disabilities, and include people with disabilities in the community, so I naturally enjoyed reading about what’s going on with this all in Fedora.

iOS and Android Accessibility

Most of my experience and expertise in digital accessibility has been specifically directed toward web accessibility. That’s because there’s huge demand for web accessibility skills in particular, because I’m personally interested in the web, and because on the web it’s easy to inspect the source code to better understand what makes good things good and bad things bad.

But I’m also interested in accessibility on other platforms as well. For example, I want to learn more about document accessibility and Fedora/GNOME accessibility. I have also been learning more about native iOS and Android accessibility and I have started testing native iOS and Android apps. There is a lot that carries over between web accessibility, but there’s a lot that’s substantially different as well.

To that point, I enjoyed reading “How to Fix Common iOS Accessibility Issues” by Jennifer Korth because it dives into some of those things that are different and unique about iOS accessibility.

Similarity, I think “Principles for improving app accessibility”, part of Android’s developer documentation, is an interesting read because it explores digitial accessibility principles and practices that are specific to the Android platform.

Swearing and Speech-to-Text Software

I enjoyed Eric Bailey’s blog post “Swearing and automatic captions.” Many video platforms, automatic captioning services, and speech-to-text services censor curse words. That inappropriately infantilizes users who rely on captioning, presuming they can’t handle or use certain words, and it can also lead to confusion in certain contexts. Obviously, swearing may not be appropriate in all contexts, but it isn’t the job of captioning services to deem which words are appropriate or to censor those words when users say them. In this blog post, Eric Bailey explains this issue in greater detail and then reports on which speech-to-text platforms inappropriately censor users’ speech. It’s a fun read on an important topic.

Annotating Designs for Accessibility

You may have heard of “shifting left” in regard to accessibility. That term refers to the idea that accessibility should be integrated throughout the entire development lifecycle and content creation process, in contrast to treating accessibility as something you can bolt-on after the fact. Shifting left in accessibility is important because by taking a proactive approach to accessibility you can create more accessible end-products with less time and less money.

Part of shifting left entails bringing designers into the accessibility conversation. Designers should pay attention to color contrast requirements, but they have a larger role to play when it comes to accessibility than just that. Designers should also pay attention to labels and accessible names, whether elements are considered decorative or informative, reading order, and elements’ roles and states. When designers annotate their designers with this information, it can create less work for other members on their team and help ensure a more accessible result for users.

But how exactly can designers do that? Claire Webber and Sarah Pulis share their answer (and detailed examples) in their presentation Annotating designs for Accessibility from Inclusive Design 24. I enjoyed their presentation, and I highly recommend it to anyone working in design. I suspect that “annotating designs for accessibility” will be a much bigger, more commonplace thing in five to ten years from now, if not sooner.

Focusing on Sticky Headers

You’ve probably encountered a sticky header before (a header that stays at the top of your screen even when you scroll down the page).

Sticky headers can often present challenges for sighted keyboard users, who rely on focus indicators to identify which element has keyboard focus. A focus indicator is typically an outline that appears around a button or a link when it has keyboard focus; this indicates to keyboard users that if you press Enter, you can activate the button or link. If sighted keyboard users can’t clearly identify which element has keyboard focus, they essentially don’t know where they are on the page, and it can be challenging if not impossible to navigate throughout a site or fill out a form. Programmatically, sticky headers often appear “over” other elements on the page, obscuring or hiding the elements behind them, and if developers aren’t careful, sticky headers can obscure or hide elements that have keyboard focus. This is especially likely to happen when users press Shift+Tab to navigate back up a page. This is an issue I’ve come across at least a couple of times while testing.

So I was excited to come across “Prevent focused elements from being obscured by sticky headers” by James Edwards, which demonstrates how to create an accessible sticky header, one that doesn’t obscure keyboard focus for elements behind it. If you’re creating a sticky header or footer, make sure you are planning for this!

HTMHell Advent Calendar

HTMHell is one of my favorite accessibility blogs. I’ve shared about HTMHell before, back when I first discovered it, and I’m happy to stay HTMHell is still crushing it.

HTMHell published an advent calendar for 2022, posting 24 articles about accessibility. Here are my favorite posts:

“How to transfigure wireframes into HTML” by Lara Aigmüller
“You Don’t Need ARIA For That” by Dennis E. Lembrée
“Meaningful labels using ARIA – or not” by Suzy Naschansky
“There can be only one: Options for building “choose one” fields” by Aaron Gustafson
“One day we’ll have a fully customisable select” by Hidde de Vries
“Common nesting issues in HTML by Silvestar
“Preventing form submission with zero Javascript” by Eric W. Bailey

Website Redesign

2022-09-12T17:40:00-07:00

Why?

A year ago, I participated in Knowbility’s Accessibility Internet Rally (AIR), a friendly competition in which teams of web designers and developers first learn about web accessibility and then create accessible websites for small nonprofits. For the competition, my team created an accessible WordPress site for our nonprofit partner. I think WordPress is a great tool for small organizations and independent creators who only need a simple website and/or blog. It isn’t too challenging to create accessible sites with WordPress, WordPress is a robust platform with many customization and support options, and I think WordPress is usable and understandable for people who are tech-fluent but who may not know anything about HTML or CSS. WordPress was definitely the right choice for AIR.

However, by the end of the competition, I was burned out with WordPress for the time being. AIR was my first experience using WordPress as a designer/developer. It wasn’t a bad experience, and I don’t think WordPress is a bad option for designers or developers. However, it was too complicated for my liking. My strengths are vanilla HTML and CSS, and it can be challenging to perfectly control the HTML and CSS output of a WordPress site. Throughout AIR, I was itching to use Jekyll rather than WordPress. Jekyll is a different tool for creating websites. It’s what I use to knit together this site. As a static site generator, I find Jekyll gives me a lot more control over the HTML and CSS output of a website. Over the past two and a half years, I have learned a lot more about HTML, CSS, and web accessibility, and my standards for good, clean, accessible code have developed, and I wanted that additional control that Jekyll could provide.

So what did I do after finishing the AIR program? Naturally, I started a website design project using Jekyll. Specifically, I started to redesign my personal website/blog. I wasn’t proud of my existing website’s codebase, and I wanted to rebuild it from the ground up.

A trip down memory lane

My personal website/blog has gone through several iterations over the years.

This blog started in 2016 strictly as a book blog. I’ve never really posted reviews on this blog so much as I shared my thoughts about what I was reading. I read a lot, I have lots of thoughts about what I read, and I like to write, so I started chronicling my book thoughts on a simple WordPress blog, often sharing links to particular posts with my book-loving friends.

In 2017, I migrated from WordPress to Jekyll. At that time, I was starting to submit poetry for publication, and I wanted to have a more formal presence online, with my own domain. I decided to use Jekyll because I could host it for free with GitHub Pages, because I’m a computer nerd who likes creating websites, and because, as a static site generator, it was generally faster and more secure than WordPress. This was my first experience using Jekyll, so I used Jekyll Now as my training wheels to help me structure the site. It wasn’t a pretty site, but it was clean, functional, and free for me to host. It was around this point that I switched over from publishing blog posts about individual books to publishing “recent reading” or “year in review” roundups.

My blog's homepage, circa 2019.

In 2019, I taught myself the Bootstrap framework, and I used Bootstrap to redesign my Jekyll site. It was still a simple site overall, but it looked a little more modern and it was no longer so starkly bland. At this point, I started adding a featured image to accompany each post.

In 2020, I started learning about and falling in love with web accessibility. I started blogging about accessibility on this site, and I conducted a simple accessibility audit and remediation project to improve this site.

My blog's homepage, circa January 2022.

In the summer of 2021, I used this blog to study for my Certified Professional in Accessibility Core Competencies (CPACC) credential, writing a “100 Days of A11y” blog series. In the fall of 2021, I participated in AIR. Then, after AIR, I started this redesign project.

So what’s new?

I am still using Jekyll to knit this site together. I like Jekyll.

However, I am no longer using Bootstrap (or any other framework) to style or design the site, and I am no longer using Jekyll Now or even any Jekyll themes. Instead, I have written pretty much all the code myself, using vanilla HTML and CSS.

My blog's (dark mode) homepage, circa September 2022.

This site now supports both light and dark modes. (It automatically adjusts according to your browser preference.)

This site now has a human-readable site map as well as an XML site map, and the blog has a category index, a tag index, and an Atom feed. I’ve added a table of contents to blog posts that have multiple sections.

This site now has specially designed print styles, so if you choose to print any page, the printout should render nicely. Decorative images will not print, and URLs will be printed in parenthesis next to external links.

This site is now much more accessible. I believe it conforms to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 level AA. Further, I’ve run most of these pages (and the Atom feed) through the W3C’s markup validator, and I have fixed the errors and warnings the validator revealed. This site serves valid code.

This website is now REUSE-compliant, which means that the copyright holder and license are explicitly indicated for each file in the codebase.

On the About This Site page, I have added a privacy policy and greatly expanded and improved the accessibility statement and copyright statement.

Also, I switched over to hosting with Netlify rather than with GitHub Pages.

How does it feel?

I’m happy with how it turned out, proud of my work, and relieved to be done. I’ve probably spent about ten months working on this website redesign. That is a good chunk of time. Partially, it took that long because this has been an involved, detailed project. I essentially built this site from the ground up, from scratch. It was a lot of work, and there was a lot I needed to research or learn. Also, this project took ten months because it was only a side project of mine. I didn’t work on it every day, or even necessarily every week. There were a few nights or weekends when I could spend a few hours working on this, but most often, I worked on this in 30 minute chunks during my lunch break.

I’ve learned there’s a lot that goes into a website. You may know HTML and CSS, and even WordPress or Jekyll, but do you know about Open Graph Protocol, favicons, typography, RSS/Atom feeds, images, copyright, and accessibility? It gets complicated, and there is a lot to consider. It has been a challenge to handle all of this, but it’s been a fun challenge, and it’s been a good learning experience. Now I know a lot more about not just HTML and CSS but the web as a whole.

I still have a number of improvements and additions to this site that I’d like to make, but these are ancillary changes, garnishes, not essential to the site as a whole, and I’m eager to call it a wrap and move on to other projects, so this is me saying, “It’s done! The website redesign is complete!” I’ll return here and make those changes when I feel motivated to do so in the future.

Oh, one last thing: I’ve added a “reply via email” button at the bottom of posts. I don’t think comments are appropriate for this blog, but that doesn’t mean I want to just write into the void. Please shoot me an email and share your thoughts on what I’ve written.

What do you think about the new website design? What do you like (or not like)? Do you have any questions for me about this project? Have you spotted any accessibility or usability issues that I’ve overlooked?

SFF Adventures: January 2022

2022-01-28T09:42:00-08:00

Introduction

This time around, I’m going to skip talking about books and instead just shout out essays, podcasts, and TV shows. Why? I’ve recently posted my reading roundup for 2021, so check out that post for my thoughts on the SFF I’ve been reading: “2021 in Reading.”

Essays & Blog Posts

I liked “How to Survive a Decade in Publishing” by Kameron Hurley in Locus Magazine. I always enjoy Kameron Hurley’s essays. (If you like reading nonfiction about SFF, I highly recommend The Geek Feminist Revolution by Kameron Hurley.)

While we’re on the topic of the publishing industry, I also want to shout out “Graphic Novel Production Schedules Are Too Short — and the Publishing Industry Should Care About It” by Nilah Magruder. This essay made me think more about what a physical activity making comics is, and it gave me more empathy for the artists who do it.

One book I enjoyed reading last year was Persephone Station by Stina Leicht. It’s an action-oriented tale with some fun space western vibes and lots of queer and trans characters. Stina Leicht wrote a blog post about the book on Mary Robinette Kowal’s site that I enjoyed: “My Favorite Bit: Stina Leicht Talks About Persephone Station.”

I enjoyed this essay by Ada Hoffmann: “Dark Art as an Access Need.” I love what she has to say about conflicting access needs and the way she describes how some people want/need to read/write dark content. Since the pandemic started, I’ve been in a “I just want pastel unicorns” phrase, or something close to it, but this essay reminded me of how at other times in my life, darker stories were actually quite important to me.

I enjoyed this essay in Book Riot by Alex Acks: “Brian Jacques’s Redwall and the Damaging Tropes of Epic Fantasy.” Like many, I enjoyed the Redwall books as a kid, but I haven’t really thought of them much recently. I appreciated Acks’ reflections on the old series and how they connected Redwall to other series that I’ve paid more attention to.

In the SFF blogosphere, there are many posts listing out different categories or sets of books. Like any good book nerd, I enjoy these posts, although I don’t usually feel a desire to share or re-blog them. This one is an exception: “Queernorm Worlds: 35 Fantasy Books With No Homophobia or Transphobia” by Danika Ellis in Book Riot. Queernorm for the win. That is all.

Speaking of queer and trans things, I enjoyed this discussion with Keffy Kehrli, Joyce Chng, and Charlie Jane Anders on Strange Horizons: “Towards Hope and Inclusivity: A Conversation.”

Podcasts

Lately, I’ve been enjoying Breaking the Glass Slipper, a podcast about women and genre literature. Here are a few episodes in particular that I liked:

I love fiction that engages intelligently with disability. To that end, Our Opinions Are Correct released a good episode about science fiction and disability: Episode 95: Science Fiction Keeps Trying To “Fix” Disabled People.

Relatedly, I enjoyed Episode 181: Playing Blind of Imaginary Worlds, which is about blind people who play video games and about designing accessible video games. Check it out!

I also liked Episode 185: Rerolling Role-Playing Games of Imaginary Worlds, which looks at tabletop role-playing game (TTRPG) systems beyond Dungeons & Dragons as well as issues of representation and marginalization.

TV Shows

Gravity Falls

I watched all of Gravity Falls, a Disney cartoon about two siblings who spend their summer in Gravity Falls, Oregon, a small town filled with the paranormal. I really enjoyed this series. I liked the characters; the series has top-notch weird/paranormal elements; and the series’ plot arc is compelling and relatively sophisticated. If you like cartoons and the weird/paranormal, I highly recommend Gravity Falls. If you’re into just one of those (cartoons or the weird/paranormal), you will probably enjoy this show as well.

Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts

I watched all three seasons of Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts, a Netflix cartoon that told a complete story over three seasons. The show takes place after an apocalypse of sorts: a mutation has caused some animals to become intelligent, and some animals to grow to sizes that rival dinosaurs, pushing most of the humans who remain to live underground in burrows. The show follows Kipo, a burrow girl who accidentally gets stuck on the surface. In her quest to get home, she needs to make friends, help foster peace between the competing animal clans on the surface, and face a couple villains.

I especially love Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts for two big reasons.

First, the representation is great. Most of the human characters are Black and/or Asian. The show has satisfying queer representation, and the Black representation extends to the soundtrack. Kipo isn’t a musical (the characters are not constantly singing songs), but it is deeply musical (lots of compelling background music, and the characters will sometimes listen to or play music as well). Much of the show’s music is distinctly hip-hop. It’s really satisfying and enjoyable.

Second, this show has some powerful, beautiful themes. Much like Steven in Steven Universe or Tohru Honda in Fruits Basket, Kipo’s superpower is really her extraordinary empathy and her ability to make peace with and between others. I love it so much.

Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated

I watched Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated. I really enjoyed it, although that’s not to say it’s solidly good. Ultimately, I think this is a show that fails well. Here are some interesting and fun things this show does:

It has one primary location: the gang’s hometown of Crystal Cove. The town has a nice cast of recurring characters, including the gang’s parents and Patrick Warburton.
It has an overarching plot arc which slowly develops over the two seasons.
That primary plot arc features real monsters, not just ordinary humans in masks. (That said, there are plenty of ordinary villains in masks as well.)
Fred, Daphne, Velma, and Shaggy all have character and relationship arcs to some degree. They are not wholly static or flat characters.
The show has tons of easter eggs that echo back to earlier iterations of the franchise.
The show plays around with the classic tropes of the franchise, kind of similar to how Phineas and Ferb is always playing around with its tropes. For instance, each episode features a unique twist on the classic “meddling kids” line, and some episodes really take the whole “pretending to be a monster to get your way” thing to a hilarious extreme.

Some of these bullet points are well-executed. I loved how the overarching plot arc slowly, progressively developed and changed. I really loved how the series played around with the classic tropes and also introduced new elements and concerns.

That said, there’s also a lot of cringe here. Many character moments fell flat, leaving me wondering what the heck the character was really thinking. Certain parts of the overarching plot arc just felt like wrong choices to me. Scooby as a character was underused and underdeveloped.

These cringe-worthy moments did not ruin this series for me. Scooby-Doo is an old, established series, and I really appreciated and enjoyed how this series simultaneously stayed true to the core of the franchise and played around with and modernized the old tropes. This series fails a lot, but it fails really well.

I enjoyed it. I recommend it to other Scooby-Doo fans, and I think it’s paved the way for another, better serialized Scooby-Doo series sometime in the future.

2021 in Reading

2022-01-10T17:30:00-08:00

Introduction

Here’s most all the books I read in 2021:

Ancestry & Culture: An Alternative to Race in 5e by Eugene Marshall
Uncanny Magazine Issue 37 edited by Lynne M. Thomas and Michael Damian Thomas
Star*Line 43.1 edited by Vince Gotera (poetry)
Mooncakes by Wendy Xu and Suzanne Walker (graphic novel)
The Ministry for the Future by Kim Stanley Robinson (audiobook)
Ozy and Millie by Dana Simpson (comics)
Star*Line 43.2 edited by Vince Gotera (poetry)
Fratelli Tutti by Pope Francis
Star*Line 43.3 edited by F.J. Bergmann (poetry)
Star*Line 43.4 edited by Melanie Stormm (poetry)
Fullmetal Alchemist, Vol. 1 by Hiromu Arakawa (manga)
Persephone Station by Stina Leicht (audiobook)
A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin
Fullmetal Alchemist, Vol. 2 by Hiromu Arakawa (manga)
More than Ready: Be Strong and Be You and Other Lessons for Women of Color on the Rise by Cecilia Munoz (audiobook)
A Practical Wedding: Creative Ideas for Planning a Beautiful, Affordable, and Meaningful Celebration by Meg Keene
Think Small: The Surprisingly Simple Way to Reach Big Goals by Owain Service and Rory Gallagher
Inclusive Design for a Digital World: Designing with Accessibility in Mind by Regine M. Gilbert
Annihilation Aria by Michael R. Underwood (audiobook)
Style: Ten Lessons in Clarity and Grace, Seventh Edition by Joseph M. Williams
The Vital Abyss by James S.A. Corey (audiobook)
Strange Dogs by James S.A. Corey (audiobook)
Fullmetal Alchemist, Vol. 3 by Hiromu Arakawa (manga)
Fullmetal Alchemist, Vol. 4 by Hiromu Arakawa (manga)
Fullmetal Alchemist, Vol. 5 by Hiromu Arakawa (manga)
Fullmetal Alchemist, Vol. 6 by Hiromu Arakawa (manga)
Fullmetal Alchemist, Vol. 7 by Hiromu Arakawa (manga)
Fullmetal Alchemist, Vol. 8 by Hiromu Arakawa (manga)
Fullmetal Alchemist, Vol. 9 by Hiromu Arakawa (manga)
Fullmetal Alchemist, Vol. 10 by Hiromu Arakawa (manga)
Fullmetal Alchemist, Vol. 11 by Hiromu Arakawa (manga)
Fullmetal Alchemist, Vol. 12 by Hiromu Arakawa (manga)
Fullmetal Alchemist, Vol. 13 by Hiromu Arakawa (manga)
Fullmetal Alchemist, Vol. 14 by Hiromu Arakawa (manga)
Fullmetal Alchemist, Vol. 15 by Hiromu Arakawa (manga)
Fullmetal Alchemist, Vol. 16 by Hiromu Arakawa (manga)
Fullmetal Alchemist, Vol. 17 by Hiromu Arakawa (manga)
Fullmetal Alchemist, Vol. 18 by Hiromu Arakawa (manga)
Fullmetal Alchemist, Vol. 19 by Hiromu Arakawa (manga)
Fullmetal Alchemist, Vol. 20 by Hiromu Arakawa (manga)
Fullmetal Alchemist, Vol. 21 by Hiromu Arakawa (manga)
Fullmetal Alchemist, Vol. 22 by Hiromu Arakawa (manga)
Fullmetal Alchemist, Vol. 23 by Hiromu Arakawa (manga)
Fullmetal Alchemist, Vol. 24 by Hiromu Arakawa (manga)
Fullmetal Alchemist, Vol. 25 by Hiromu Arakawa (manga)
Fullmetal Alchemist, Vol. 26 by Hiromu Arakawa (manga)
Fullmetal Alchemist, Vol. 27 by Hiromu Arakawa (manga)
Pizza Witch by Sarah Graley (comics)
Star*Line 44.1 edited by F.J. Bergmann (poetry)
The Galaxy, and the Ground Within by Becky Chambers (audiobook)
The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune (audiobook)
The Feather Room by Anis Mojgani (poetry)
The Tombs of Atuan by Ursula K. Le Guin
How to Destroy Surveillance Capitalism by Cory Doctorow (audiobook)
Think Like a Commoner by David Bollier
An Unkindness of Ghosts by Rivers Solomon (audiobook)
Mistborn: The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson (audiobook)
The Well of Ascension by Brandon Sanderson
The Hero of Ages by Brandon Sanderson
A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers (audiobook)
Everything for Everyone: The Radical Tradition that Is Shaping the Next Economy by Nathan Schneider
We Are Satellites by Sarah Pinsker (audiobook)
Haben: The Deafblind Woman Who Conquered Harvard Law by Haben Girma (audiobook)
Tao Teh Ching by Lao Tzu translated by John C.H. Wu
Ninefox Gambit by Yoon Ha Lee (audiobook)
Avatar: The Last Airbender: The Promise by Gene Luen Yang (graphic novel)
The Farthest Shore by Ursula K. Le Guin
Tehanu by Ursula K. Le Guin
Raven Stratagem by Yoon Ha Lee (audiobook)
Introduction to Web Accessibility: Essential Accessibility for Everyone by Ryerson University, The Chang School
Professional Web Accessibility Auditing Made Easy: Essential Skills for Web Developers, Content Creators, and Designers by Ryerson University, The Chang School
Revenant Gun by Yoon Ha Lee (audiobook)
Questland by Carrie Vaughn
The Excellents: Excellent Princess Roleplaying by Adriel Wilson and Chris O’Neill

Now, let me shout out the books that I liked the most.

Prose Fiction

Here are my favorite novels and novellas that I read last year:

The Ministry for the Future by Kim Stanley Robinson: A fantastic novel about climate change. Although it’s filled with tragedy, it’s fundamentally hopeful — it imagines a path toward a sustainable future.
Persephone Station by Stina Leicht: A fun, far-future science fiction story, filled with badass women and nonbinary mercenaries.
Annihilation Aria by Michael R. Underwood: A fun, modern, and colorful space opera adventure.
The Galaxy, and the Ground Within by Becky Chambers: The fourth book in Becky Chambers’ Wayfarers series. (It stands well on its own, but I’d recommend you read the series in order.) This is the best “cozy” novel I have ever read. I highly recommend this series (and this book) to everyone.
A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers: A beautiful, original meditation on vocation and sustainability. It’s about a nonbinary tea monk who befriends a robot. I am impatiently awaiting the sequel, A Prayer for the Crown-Shy.
The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune: A fun, colorful, queer fantasy novel about found family. A little simplistic, but a real joy.
Questland by Carrie Vaughn: Take Jurassic Park, swap out the dinosaurs with a fantasy wonderland, and you’ve got Questland, more or less. This was an easy, fun, and nerdy read. I should note, however, that the protagonist survived a school shooting and has PTSD. I really appreciated this representation and thought it added a great dimension to the book, but if you’re closer to gun violence than I am, this novel will likely be a harder read for you.

Mistborn: Era One by Brandon Sanderson

I read Mistborn: The Final Empire, The Well of Ascension, and The Hero of Ages by Brandson Sanderson, which comprise era one of his Mistborn series.

This was the most fun I’ve had reading in quite a while. Although these are long epic fantasy novels, they are easy and captivating reads, and they flew right by for me. The worldbuilding is fascinating and immersive, the plot is creative and compelling, and I really latched on to the characters. I am eagerly looking forward to reading more Sanderson.

We Are Satellites by Sarah Pinsker

I really enjoyed listening to We Are Satellites by Sarah Pinsker. It’s a near-future technology study about one family’s experience with Pilots, a brain implant that approximates functional multitasking. Here are some things I liked about this novel:

The family has two moms (in a queernorm sort of way).
One of the significant characters in the novel is a trans man (again, in a queernorm sort of way).
One of the major characters has epilepsy, and that isn’t the only character with a disability. I really appreciated the disability representation and themes in this novel. (Note: this isn’t a book in which the main character “just happens to be disabled.” Her disability is deeply intertwined with the plot.)

The Machineries of Empire Series by Yoon Ha Lee

I read Ninefox Gambit, Raven Stratagem, and Revenant Gun by Yoon Ha Lee, which comprise the Machineries of Empire series.

It took me some time to get into this series, but I am so glad I read it. This is a military science fiction series that’s deeply critical of the military and of empires. Fundamentally, it’s about one character’s personal mission to change the toxic empire they serve. For me, the plot developed a little slow, particularly in the first book, but once it started coming together at the end of the first book, it really pulled me in and it paid off incredibly well. The third book, Revenant Gun, was my favorite. It went in a totally different direction than I was expecting, a direction that was compelling and surprising yet inevitable.

The best part about this series, though, was the world building. Yoon Ha Lee mixes Korean culture with a love of wild mathematics to craft an immersive civilization and a startlingly unique and magical science system. I go on walks in the morning, and as I read this series, I found phrases like “calendrical rot,” “exotic weapons,” and “Shuos agents” floating through my head as I walked. For me, there was just something so chewy and meaty about Yoon Ha Lee’s worldbuilding and the terms he uses — it was a fun challenge to wrap my head around, and it really captivated my imagination.

Tehanu by Ursula K. Le Guin

This was my first time reading Tehanu, and it was … not what I was expecting, which is kind of the whole point of this book. This is the fourth book in Le Guin’s Earthsea series. The first three books flip many of the traditional tropes of fantasy: they center women and people of color, and they eschew military conflict and violent action. Yet, those books still function under a certain patriarchal worldview. They center powerful people who don’t live ordinary lives, people who travel across the archipelago on epic journies. Tehanu, meanwhile, is a deeply feminist tale, feminist in a particularly domestic, reflective, internal-conflict oriented manner. This is a slow, character-driven story with a tone unlike the first three Earthsea books. For me, that made it the most interesting book in the series so far and, simultaneously, the hardest to get into. I look forward to re-reading this book when I’m older.

Fullmetal Alchemist

I read the manga series Fullmetal Alchemist by Hiromu Arakawa, and I really enjoyed it. The worldbuilding is immersive and creative. The magic system and the characters are lots of fun, and the plot was skillfully crafted. This is generally an optimistic story, but it certainly has heartbreaking moments and heavy themes — Fullmetal Alchemist is fundamentally about power, war, and genocide on one hand and about redemption, loyalty, and perseverance on the other. If this sounds up your alley, I highly recommend it.

Nonfiction

These were my favorite nonfiction reads from last year:

More than Ready: Be Strong and Be You and Other Lessons for Women of Color on the Rise by Cecilia Munoz: A smart and caring memoir about her time working at the National Council of La Raza and in the Obama White House. I highly recommend this to everyone, particularly marginalized folks interested in politics, service, and/or activism.
A Practical Wedding: Creative Ideas for Planning a Beautiful, Affordable, and Meaningful Celebration by Meg Keene: The best wedding book. If you’re planning a wedding, read this.
Style: Ten Lessons in Clarity and Grace, Seventh Edition by Joseph M. Williams (reread): This is the best book about writing that I’ve come across. I strongly recommend it to anyone who writes things other people will read.
Think Like a Commoner by David Bollier (reread): A great introduction to the commons. What’s the commons? A really promising alternative to the market and the state. If you’re trying to imagine futures beyond capitalism, read this.
Haben: The Deafblind Woman Who Conquered Harvard Law by Haben Girma: A fun and intelligent memoir about accessibility and disability justice.

Have you read any of these? What did you think? Do you have any book recommendations for me?

Accessibility Adventures: November 2021

2021-11-11T20:53:00-08:00

Introduction

My last Accessibility Adventures blog post was just over a year ago now: “Accessibility Adventures: October 2020,” and I’m happy to jump back into this column now. I’m hoping to write these a little more frequently and keep the posts a little shorter.

Accessibility Adventures is my roundup of things I’ve come across in the realm of accessibility. These posts are my way to signal-boost cool stuff, to leave notes for my future self, and to reflect on and engage with things I come across.

Accessible Birding

Accessible birding is a thing!

Bay Nature has a good article about this: “Accessible Birding for Every Body” by Chris Okon. www.birdability.org is also a good resource.

Accessible Podcasts

I love podcasts. Don’t you? Are you thinking about creating one? If you do, remember to make it accessible! Here’s a great resource for that. Nic Steenhout and Eric Eggert created a cool website all about podcast accessibility.

Love Letter to HTML & CSS

I enjoyed Ashley Kolodziej’s love letter to HTML and CSS on CSS Tricks. A lot of what Kolodziej says in this post resonates with me. I know the fundamentals of programming, and I enjoy programming, but markup languages are my true love: HTML, Markdown, Asciidoc, even DocBook.

Description Lists (Featuring Dungeons & Dragons)

Ben Myers has a great post — “On the <dl>” — about description lists in HTML, which don’t get the appreciation or use they deserve. I’ve tended to think of those as ways to represent simple descriptions or definitions, but Myers points out that the <dl> element is a good tool for name-value pairs, which actually have lots of potential uses. My favorite part of this post is that it incorporates Dungeons & Dragons: Myers writes HTML code for a monster stat block, and uses five <dl> elements in the process.

HTML Essential Training with Jen Simmons

Jen Simmons is great. I love and recommend her YouTube channel Layout Land. I recently saw that she has a course on LinkedIn Learning: HTML Essential Training. I watched it, I enjoyed it, and I recommend it! There wasn’t a ton in there that was new to me, but it always helps to review and solidify the fundamentals, and I appreciated the way she framed and explained the core concepts and integrated accessibility concerns into the course.

Personalization & Accessibility

Personalization is an upcoming frontier in accessibility and inclusive design. Ted Drake wrote a good post about this on Medium: “Personalization and Inclusive Design,” and I saw Carie Fisher give a great presentation about this at an A11yBay meetup: “The Future of Accessibility is Choice.”

I don’t believe either Fisher or Drake mentioned RSS feeds, but both Fisher and Drake got me thinking about those. RSS feeds are great for many reasons, but one big reason I love them is customization. I use NewsFlash to read RSS feeds. In NewsFlash, I can control which feeds I follow, how they are organized, and how each post is presented. I can choose between different color themes and change the font family and size. RSS feeds are great, and they can be great for accessibility. I think more people should use them, and I wish more websites supported them more robustly.

Sheri Byrne-Haber

Sheri Byrne-Haber is a wonderful accessibility blogger. She recently wrote a handbook about accessibility: Giving a damn about accessibility: A candid and practical handbook for designers. Check it out! She also wrote an interesting blog post about the handbook: “Why I wrote ‘Giving a Damn About Accessibility’ and why you should read it.”

Relatedly, I enjoyed Sheri Byrne-Haber’s post “Radical Candor about Accessibility Day-to-day Job Responsibilities.”

Jennison Asuncion

I enjoyed this conversation with Jennison Asuncion on Diamond’s blog. Jennison helps organize Accessibility Camp Bay Area and the A11yBay Meetups that I have started attending, and he also co-founded Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD).

(Virtual) Braille Keyboards

At Accessibility Camp Bay Area in May, I attended Brian Kemler’s talk about the TalkBack screen reader for Android. I learned that braille keyboards are a thing, and that Android phones now have a virtual braille keyboard. Very cool!

Here are two other videos about typing in braille that I enjoyed and which helped enlighten me:

Imaginary Worlds is a wonderful SFF podcast, which recently released “Episode 181: Playing Blind,” an episode about blind people who play video games and about designing accessible video games. I enjoyed it and recommend it!

Black ASL

I knew there were different sign languages, such as American Sign Language (ASL) and British Sign Language, but I didn’t know that there are different dialects of ASL, such as Black ASL, until I encountered this post from 3Play Media: “Celebrating Black History Month: Deaf Culture and Black ASL.” Now that I think about it, it makes sense that Black ASL would be a thing, but it also makes sense that dominant culture would marginalize it and that I wouldn’t necessarily learn about it. So this is me signal boosting it!

Hocus :Focus (Keyboard Accessibility Horror Game)

I really enjoyed Hocus :Focus, a Halloween-themed keyboard accessibility horror game by Rémi Parmentier. It’s cute, fun, and educational.

HTMHell

I recently discovered the HTMHell website — and I love it! It’s a website by Manuel Matuzović that collects and dissects bad practices in HTML copied from real websites. In addition to surveying the wrong ways to write HTML, the site also collects best practices, tips, and tricks. Check it out! In particular, I’ll recommend this post about using landmarks in HTML.

On the topic of bad code and how you make it better, I enjoyed this post by Scott O’Hara, which looks at good markup and accessible forms: “Redundantly Redundant a11y Accessibility .”

Integrated Described Video

Audio descriptions are cool, but so is Integrated Described Video (IDV). It’s a way of creating videos that naturally integrates description into the “regular” audio track, so that a secondary audio description track isn’t necessary. It’s an approach to audio descriptions inspired by universal design.

AMI created a series of videos aimed at video creators which explain what IDV is and how to do it: Integrated Described Video Creator Series. These videos are funny and engaging and also quite informative and eye-opening. It made me realize we should probably have many more videos with integrated descriptions.

Producing Audio Descriptions (With Text-to-Speech)

When you’re creating a video, try to integrate descriptions into it, or at the very least plan for and create a separate audio description track during your video production process. But what if it’s too late?

It can be a pain to create audio descriptions after the fact. You need to write them, record them, and edit them into one file that aligns with the video track. Now, if you have experience recording audio descriptions, and if you can recommend a simple way to make them, please let me know! I’m curious about that.

That said, did you know that you can write audio descriptions in a WebVTT file? WebVTT files are typically used for captions and subtitles, but if you’re using Able Player you can use a WebVTT file for audio description, and Able Player will read those descriptions using text-to-speech as you watch the video. There’s even the option to pause the video when description starts, which could perhaps allow you to write extended audio descriptions. Here’s an example: Able Player with audio description via VTT track.

This is super cool! Look, I know it’s not as great as integrated descriptions or a human-voiced secondary track. But it’s awesome that this is a possibility. This approach makes it relatively easy to create both standard and extended audio description, and it can be especially helpful in remediating inaccessible videos. (Slight disclaimer: Users can select an option to automatically pause the video when description starts, but I’m not sure developers can set that as the default behavior.) Thanks to Sumner Davenport for putting this Able Player functionality on my radar.

Now, theoretically, you shouldn’t need Able Player to do this. I believe you should be able to use kind="descriptions" in the track element, and the default video player in browsers should support this functionality. (That is, it’s in the HTML standard for the track element.) but as far as I’m aware, no browsers support this functionality out-of-the-box. For more on the track element, check out “Issue #17 - the track element” over at HTMHell.

Thinking More Deeply About Color & Contrast

I really enjoyed Erik Kroes’s post about colors: “Color and contrast, what does it mean?.” Color is one of those things that seems simple, but every now and then I think more deeply about it, and it’s actually just so incredibly layered and complicated. In the accessibility world, I feel like I’ve come across a lot of writing about WCAG’s color contrast requirements and “don’t use color alone to convey meaning,” but I haven’t seen as much about how color contrast is measured or its implications for color palettes. This post does just that, and I recommend it!

On the topic of color, have you encountered the contrast triangle before? Basically, if you don’t underline your links, you need to ensure that your links have sufficient color contrast between your body text so that users can identify them as distinct. However, your link text and body text both need to have sufficient color contrast with your background color so that users can easily read them both. This puts you into a careful balancing act that can really constrain your color choices. For more on this, see Chip Cullen’s post “The Contrast Triangle” and the accompanying contrast triangle checker tool.

Additionally, on the topic of color, I enjoyed these two posts by Lea Verou:

Accessibility Internet Rally

One last thing: I recently finished participating in Knowbility’s Accessibility Internet Rally (AIR) program. AIR is a friendly competition where web developer teams create accessible websites for nonprofit organizations (NPOs). Knowbility provides accessibility training for both developers and NPOs, and developer teams are paired with mentors who provide coaching and guidance.

My team designed and developed an accessible WordPress site for our NPO. I served as our team lead, scheduling meetings, taking notes, and managing our to-dos.

AIR was a terrific experience, and if you’re interested in making accessible websites, I highly recommend it!

I learned a lot. I learned about accessibility of course, but it turned out that I already knew the fundamentals pretty well. I learned more about development and testing. I’m familiar with WordPress as a user, but this was my first time approaching WordPress as a developer. We created a child theme for our site, and it was … frustrating, honestly, but also a great learning experience. I also learned a lot about accessibility and usability testing. I learned what bookmarklets are, and I used axe DevTools for my first time. We also had the great fortune to conduct usability testing through Knowbility’s AccessWorks program, which paired us with a tester with disabilities.

CPACC Results

2021-09-29T16:41:00-07:00

I recently received word from the International Association of Accessibility Professionals (IAAP) that I am now a Certified Professional in Accessibility Core Compentencies (CPACC). Yay! You can now find my name on IAAP’s list of CPACC certificants.

The certification exam has three domains: (1) Disabilities, Challenges, & Assistive Technologies; (2) Accessibility and Universal Design; and (3) Declarations, Standards, Laws, and Management Strategies. According to IAAP, I scored “above standard” in all three domains. Yay!

I feel happy, relieved, and grateful. See my last post, CPACC Reflection, for more of my thoughts on the exam itself, on preparing for it, and on my next steps.

CPACC Reflection

2021-07-21T17:52:00-07:00

Introduction

This past Saturday, I took the CPACC exam.

How did my test go?

I think I did well! It is a one-hundred question test, and there were only eight questions that I felt uncertain about. I had time to return to those questions and think them over more carefully, and when I eventually submitted my exam, I felt reasonably confident with my answers to those questions. I will have to wait until sometime in September to hear the official results.

How did my test prep go?

Deque’s CPACC preparation course was really helpful, as was Princeton University’s CPACC preparation course. I think Deque’s course had better written content and a cleaner user interface, but I appreciated the Princeton course more for it’s example questions, both the short knowledge checks integrated throughout the course as well as the practice exam at the end. I can’t imagine preparing for the exam without those two resources. The CPACC Body of Knowledge was also quite helpful, both the text of it as well as its linked resources.

I think study-blogging was the most helpful thing I did to prepare for the exam. As I wrote all these blog posts, I had to articulate the concepts in my own words, and that forced me to really understand it all — to find context, to disambiguate, to internalize, and to fill in my knowledge gaps. Many thanks to Amy Carney and her 100 Days of A11y blog for giving me the inspiration to do this study-blogging myself!

How do I feel about it?

I feel good about it! I’m glad that I went through this process. Studying for the certification exam helped to solidify my knowledge of accessibility and fill in some knowledge gaps. It helped me to learn my “known unknowns” and “unknown unknowns,” so to speak. I feel much more confident in this subject matter now, and I’m looking forward to having the certification to back me up.

I’m also a bit relieved. I’ve put quite a bit of work and focus into preparing for this certification exam. I’m happy to be done with that, and I’m excited to move on to what’s next.

What’s next?

Web accessibility! I want IAAP’s Web Accessibility Specialist (WAS) certification. It will take a while before I’ll be ready to test for the certification, but I am eager to move on to learning more about — and practicing — web accessibility.

I’ve submitted the registration form for Knowbility’s Accessibility Internet Rally (AIR), which looks to be a great way to learn more about web accessibility and get more practice with it.

I’ve already completed the Responsive Web Design certification from FreeCodeCamp, which helped give me a solid foundation with HTML and CSS. Thus far, I’ve never really dived into JavaScript, so I figure it’s time I learn the fundamentals of the web’s programming language. To that end, I plan to start tackling FreeCodeCamp’s JavaScript Algorithms and Data Structures course next month.

Beyond that, I have my eye on some books, Deque University’s web accessibility courses, and a number of web design projects. This blog is currently built on Jekyll and Bootstrap. While I’m quite happy with Jekyll, I want to redesign this site from the ground up without Bootstrap or other frameworks, instead using only “pure” CSS. (Flexbox and Grid, I’m looking at you.)

ICT Accessibility and Organizational Management

2021-07-10T17:52:00-07:00

Introduction

By this point, we’ve looked at different types of disabilities and assistive technologies. We’ve talked about the principles of accessibility and universal design in both physical and digital environments. We’ve also reviewed disability rights and accessibility laws outside and inside the United States. What’s left? Putting it all into practice: integrating ICT accessibility into organizational governance and management.

Be Proactive about Accessibility

There are two broad approaches to dealing with accessibility:

Proactive; built in; baked in; accessibility as an ongoing program
Reactive; bolted on; added on; accessibility as a one-time project

Sheri Byrne-Haber writes:

Proactive accessibility, which is designing and implementing the product with accessibility in mind […] is the preferred approach.

Reactive accessibility, which is basically taking an inaccessible product and retrofitting accessibility in […] is more expensive, less effective, and more likely to result in schedule delays.

Cordelia McGee-Tubb has likened creating accessibility to baking blueberry muffins:

And I will use metaphor, because we all love those, and talk about making muffins for your niece’s birthday party. And on your way there, your mom said, these were supposed to be blueberry muffins. And you forgot that, and you start to force blueberries into the muffins and they are gross.

They are not really the same as blueberry muffins; they are not melted and delicious. It’s not a good experience. By definition yes, it’s a blueberry muffin, and yes, you may have an accessible system, but it is not a good system.

Accessibility is like a blueberry muffin. You don’t want to add the blueberries after the fact. If you take the reactive approach to accessibility, you are generating significant technical debt, and it’s not going to be pleasant or easy to remediate.

If you walk away from this post with just one idea about managing accessibility, it should be this: accessibility should be an ongoing program, proactive and built-in from the start.

You may have heard professionals talk about “shifting left” when dealing with accessibility. This is what they mean: you should integrate accessibility from the beginning and throughout an entire project, rather than treating it as a final or optional step.

Recommendations from the W3C’s Web Accessibility Initiative

The World Wide Web Consortium’s Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) provides detailed recommendations for managing and supporting accessibility within an organization on their website. Their recommendations fall under four categories:

On their website, they break down those general categories into specific, actionable recommendations. If you are working to start (or review) an accessibility program, go read those action items.

WAI also has recommendations for managing urgent, interim repairs, developing an organizational policy, and developing an accessibility statement.

Embedded within these recommendations are a few items that I think are of particular importance:

Establish an accessibility program and policy, which includes accessibility standards for your organization.
Publish an external-facing accessibility statement.
Make sure your websites, products, and services are accessible.
Have a clear system or process for receiving and responding to accessibility feedback.

Recommendations from the European Agency for Special Needs & Inclusive Education

The European Agency for Special Needs & Inclusive Education has also published recommendations for implementing accessibility within an organization: “Making Your Organisation’s Information Accessible for All.”

The agency has seven main recommendations:

Adopt a long-term accessibility plan.
Create a strategy for implementing accessibility.
Make someone responsible, and give them resources and authority.
Be incremental — simultaneously ambitious and modest.
Embed accessibility into your processes for creating and publishing.
Give all staff training on accessibility.
When outsourcing, make sure you include (and double-check) accessibility requirements.

The Capability Maturity Model

The Capability Maturity Model is a way to describe how developed a process is. It was created with a focus on software development, but it can be applied to other processes as well. The model includes five levels:

Initial
Repeatable
Defined
Managed
Optimizing

I like it. It’s a simple way to understand how developed and robust a process is, and it helps me think about what next steps might be helpful in further improving the process.

Business Disability Forum: Accessibility Maturity Model

The Business Disability Forum has created the Accessible Technology Charter, which lists ten commitments on ICT accessibility that businesses are encouraged to make.

In conjunction with the charter, the forum also created the Accessibility Maturity Model. The model is similar to the Capability Maturity Model, but it was created specifically with accessibility in mind. It also has five levels:

Informal
Defined
Repeatable
Managed
Best Practice

Security, Privacy, Performance, & Accessibility

Security, privacy, performance, and accessibility are all important. Except for performance, you can get sued if you fail on these, and all of these can impact your bottom-line. None of these are things you want to “bolt on” at the end of a project; if you try, it’ll often be harder and more expensive than the alternative.

Accessibility, however, is also quite different than security, privacy, and performance. Security, privacy, and performance are primarily about coding and development. Accessibility starts earlier than that. Accessibility is also about design and content creation. More people need to know about and be involved with accessibility.

For more on the differences between accessibility on one hand and security and privacy on the other, see Jeff Singleton’s post “Web Accessibility is Broken (Part 3).”

Get an Accessibility Champion in Management

Accessibility programs don’t tend to succeed if they don’t have people championing and advocating for them, ideally a higher-up manager. Of course, it’s important to have buy-in throughout an organization, but management champions are particularly important because:

They build a vision and align others toward it.
Managers have authority. They can make accessibility a real priority and sustain that commitment.
Managers are in a position to embed accessibility through different organizational processes, really making accessibility a program rather than a project.
Managers can use the accessibility maturity model to develop, formalize, and improve accessibility workflows within the organization.

Define Your Scope

On the development side of things, most accessibility projects fall into one of these four categories:

Innovation: Research and development, essentially. Creating something new that others haven’t done before.
New Design: Creating a new feature or product.
Retrofitting: The reactive approach. Trying to remediate something that wasn’t designed with accessibility in mind. These sorts of projects often require the most time and money.
Maintenance: Testing, updating, and maintaining something that should already be largely accessible.

Create Role-Specific Requirements and Job-Aids

It’s not enough just to train employees and expect them to be able to “go and be accessible.” I work as a training specialist, and I see just how easy it is to give someone a training that’s related to their work, for them to “get it” in the training, and yet they then go back to their job and nothing changes. If you want your accessibility training to actually change things, you need to walk the last mile.

You need to break down accessibility standards and policies into role-specific requirements and guidance and then create job-aids like checklists and guides. And then, you need to use these tools in your trainings and have trainers and managers ensure that these tools are being used and the role-specific requirements are being met in practice. I think Ken Nakata and Jeff Singleton at Converge Accessibility do a good job making this point.

Test & Evaluate

Testing and evaluating is essential to creating accessible ICT. In particular:

Testing should be integrated proactively throughout the design and development processes, rather than tacked on at the end.
Pay attention to the tools and libraries that your designers and developers use and reuse. Make sure they are accessible, or that your developers know how to use them accessibly.
Automatic testing is helpful and has a role to play, but it’s insufficient. Automatic testing won’t catch all accessibility bugs. Human testing and evaluation is essential.
Don’t rely on accessibility experts to tell you whether something is truly accessible. Conduct usability testing with people with disabilities.
Consider hiring outside experts or consultants if your organization doesn’t have in-house accessibility expertise.

See WAI’s website for more specifics on testing and evaluating for accessibility.

Communicate Accessibly

Pay attention to communications, both within your organization and for public-facing communications. Create accessibility standards for communications. Ensure that all your communications (of all media types) are accessible. Use plain language where possible, and consider translating your communications into other languages. For videos, remember to include captions, audio descriptions, and transcripts. Accessibility is good for your brand and reputation.

Follow the Law

There are also accessibility considerations when it comes to legal compliance. Basically, make sure you’re following the law. Become familiar with accessibility laws and standards, and assess your potential liability. If you’re not already practicing accessibility, set priorities and start doing so, starting with the largest barriers to the most essential services. Create an accessibility policy if you don’t have one already, follow it, and document it.

Procure Accessibly

Pay special attention to procurement. When your organization procures new products or services, make sure they are accessible.

Write accessibility into your organization’s procurement policies.
Include accessibility as a requirement in Requests for Proposals (RFPs).
Ask to see — and then carefully review — VPATs.
Takes steps to actually verify an organization’s claims about accessibility.
Write accessibility requirements into contracts.
Periodically review and assess your vendors for accessibility.

If you take these steps, you not only ensure that you are practicing accessibility, but you influence vendors by showing them that accessibility truly is a priority.

Recruit, Hire, & Train People with Disabilities and People with Accessibility Skills

When it comes to “human resources,” there are three main priorities when it comes to accessibility:

Proactively recruit and hire people with disabilities.
Recruit and hire accessibility experts and people with digital accessibility skills.
Train and develop your existing workforce on accessibility.

Many organizations have nondiscrimination policies and ostensibly will (and want to) hire people with disabilities, but they are not really serious about it. They don’t have accessibility policies or programs. Their website, their job postings, and their job application process may not be accessible. They don’t proactively reach out to potential employees with disabilities, and they don’t educate current employees on accessibility or promote disability justice. Don’t be like that.

Hire accessibility experts when you can, and remember, practically everyone needs to know something about accessibility. Content creators need to create accessible content. Designers need to create accessible designs. People who work in customer service need to know about disability etiquette and need to be able to provide accommodations and support assistive technologies. When you interview candidates for all sorts of positions, make it clear that you value and want accessibility skills. Consider listing accessibility certifications on job postings.

Finally, train and develop your existing workforce on accessibility. It’s useful to have in-house accessibility experts, and as we just touched on, practically everyone needs some accessibility skills. Provide accessibility trainings and encourage your employees to acquire accessibility certifications (and when they do, pay for their IAAP membership and exam fees).

Remember What It’s All About

Finally, remember that while accessibility benefits everyone, it’s essential for people with disabilities. Center people with disabilities. Engage with them, listen to them, include them, hire them, pay them well, and promote them. And remember that accessibility is only one piece of disability justice.

Disability Rights & Accessibility Laws, Inside the United States

2021-07-07T18:41:00-07:00

Introduction

I’m probably going into this in greater detail than the CPACC exam requires, but this stuff is important, I enjoy geeking out about it, and doing all this research and writing this all out really helps me understand these laws much better.

Inside the United States, what rights do people with disabilities have and what laws mandate accessibility?

Federal Laws

The Fair Housing Act

The Fair Housing Act prohibits housing discrimination on the basis of disability, among other things. The act requires landlords to make reasonable modifications to housing units for access purposes. The act also requires new multifamily dwellings to be accessible, and the associated Fair Housing Accessibility Guidelines specify those standards.

The Rehabilitation Act of 1973

According to the Department of Justice (DOJ), “The Rehabilitation Act prohibits discrimination on the basis of disability in programs conducted by Federal agencies, in programs receiving Federal financial assistance, in Federal employment, and in the employment practices of Federal contractors.”

Section 501 of the Rehabilitation (or Rehab) Act requires “affirmative action and nondiscrimination in employment by Federal agencies of the executive branch.” Section 503 does the same thing, except with federal contractors.

Section 502 created the United States Access Board, also known as the Architectural and Transportation Barriers Compliance Board. According to their website, the Access Board “promotes equality for people with disabilities through leadership in accessible design and the development of accessibility guidelines and standards.”

Section 504 prohibits federal agencies or programs that receive federal funding from discriminating against persons with disabilities.

Section 508 is actually an amendment to the original law. It was enacted in 1998. Under Section 508, when federal agencies develop, procure, maintain, or use electronic and information technologies, those technologies must be accessible both to employees and members of the public with disabilities.

Section 508 is a law. It’s also a standard. For the purposes of following Section 508, the law, what exactly counts as accessible? That’s defined by the Section 508 standards, created by the Access Board. Those standards were “refreshed” in 2018 and specifically reference WCAG 2.0 level AA. However, the 508 standards are more comprehensive than WCAG. WCAG stands for the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, and unsurprisingly WCAG was written expressly for the web (although the principles behind WCAG can be extended and applied elsewhere if desired). The 508 standards address more than just web accessibility; they also set standards for meetings and electronic documents like PDFs.

It should be noted: Section 508 sets mandatory ICT accessibility standards for federal agencies. Those standards don’t directly apply to the private sector. However, if a private company wants to sell to the federal government, their product will need to conform with the 508 standards. In this way, Section 508 uses the significant buying power of the federal government to push for accessibility outside government. Additionally, private organizations can adopt and follow the Section 508 standards if they wish.

Now we need to talk briefly about VPATs. VPAT stands for Voluntary Product Accessibility Template. A VPAT is a document explaining how well a product or service conforms with the 508 standards. When a federal agency or a private company is procuring a new technology, they might ask the vendor to provide a VPAT, which documents how well that particular product conforms with the 508 standards. VPATs may also document how well a product conforms with WCAG or the EN 301 549 standard. Here’s an example: the VPAT for Canvas, a learning management system used in many schools.

There are two last things I want to note.

First, the General Services Administration (GSA) provides technical support to help federal agencies comply with the law and conform with the standard, and the GSA maintains a Section 508 website to provide guidance.

Second, technical standards are complex, and not everyone who tests whether a product conforms to the 508 standards may end up with the same result. To address this concern, the Section 508 ICT Testing Baseline was developed. The baseline specifies how to test for conformance, so that results are more accurate and consistent. Additionally, the Department of Homeland Security has established the Trusted Tester process and certification program to support reliable, repeatable testing that aligns with the baseline.

The Americans with Disabilities Act

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) is a broad anti-discrimination act that applies to both public and private sectors. In 2008, the ADA was revised by the ADA Amendments Act, which broadened the law’s definition of “disability.”

Title I of the law prohibits employment discrimination. It reads in part: “No covered entity shall discriminate against a qualified individual on the basis of disability in regard to job application procedures, the hiring, advancement, or discharge of employees, employee compensation, job training, and other terms, conditions, and privileges of employment.”

Title II prohibits discrimination by public entities, including public transportation services, school districts, cities, counties, and states. It reads in part: “Subject to the provisions of this subchapter, no qualified individual with a disability shall, by reason of such disability, be excluded from participation in or be denied the benefits of services, programs, or activities of a public entity, or be subjected to discrimination by any such entity.”

Title III prohibits discrimination by places of public accommodations, such as hotels, restaurants, and shops. It reads in part: “No individual shall be discriminated against on the basis of disability in the full and equal enjoyment of the goods, services, facilities, privileges, advantages, or accommodations of any place of public accommodation by any person who owns, leases (or leases to), or operates a place of public accommodation.”

Title IV regulates telecommunications.

Private plaintiffs (not the government) can file lawsuits under the ADA, and if they win their case, they can receive injunctive relief. That means, a court can order the defendant to stop discriminating and make a specific change. Successful plaintiffs can also receive attorney’s fees to cover the cost of litigation, although they aren’t eligible for monetary rewards. However, if the Department of Justice (DOJ) brings a case under the ADA, those who violate the ADA may have to pay anywhere between $55,000 and $150,000 in monetary penalties.

How does the ADA relate to accessibility specifically?

The DOJ has created regulations for the ADA, adopting the ADA Standards for Accessible Design, which specify accessible standards for physical environments.

Also, the ADA requires covered entities to make reasonable accommodations for persons with disabilities. In employment contexts, a reasonable accommodation modifies a job or work environment so that employees with disabilities can still perform essential job functions. In the case of public accommodations, businesses must make reasonable accommodations, modifying their usual way of doing things to serve persons with disabilities. These accommodations often take the form of assistive technologies or accessible physical or digital environments. Additionally, the ADA requires public and private entities to ensure effective communication with people with disabilities by providing “auxiliary aids and services” at no additional charge. Again, these “auxiliary aids and services” often take the form of accessible and assistive technologies. The DOJ has also issued regulations clarifying this point.

How does the ADA, and Title III of the ADA in particular, relate to web accessibility in particular? The ADA doesn’t directly address web accessibility or create legal standards for ICT accessibility, so to answer that question we need to turn to DOJ rulemaking and case law.

First up, let’s look at DOJ rulemaking. Under the Obama administration, the DOJ began the process of developing ADA website guidelines. However, that rulemaking process stalled under the Trump administration. Nonetheless, even without publishing formal regulations, the DOJ has stated that it believes the ADA does apply to websites.

Courts have taken the position that the ADA applies to websites, but there is a circuit split on this question, so the exact details can be somewhat complicated. For now though, I’ll point to Robles v. Dominos Pizza, a case which sets precedent in the 9th circuit (which includes California). Under this case, websites that have a “nexus” to a physical place of public accommodations are covered under the ADA. The court also issued injunctive relief, ordering Dominos to make its website conform with WCAG 2.0. Additionally, the judge ruled that “because Defendant’s website violated the ADA, Defendant’s website violates the Unruh Act,” a California state law that we’ll talk more about in a moment. Under the Unruh Act, Domino’s was ordered to pay $4,000 in monetary damages to the plaintiff.

One last thing to note: the number of lawsuits filed under the ADA has spiked in recent years. According to UsableNet, ADA web accessibility-related lawsuits grew from 814 in 2017 to 2285 in 2018 — that’s a 181% increase!

If you really want to dive more into the details, check out:

Communications and Video Accessibility Act

The Twenty-First Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act of 2010 (CVAA) sets accessibility standards for certain communications that are regulated by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).

Title I of the CVAA focuses on two-way communications like telephones and the Internet. For example, it mandates that some mobile web browsers are accessible to people who are blind or have low vision.

Title II addresses video programming on TV and the Internet. It expands rules for which video programming must include closed captions and audio descriptions, and it also regulates TVs and other equipment so that they better support closed captions and audio descriptions.

You can read more about the CVAA’s requirements on the FCC’s website.

Air Carrier Access Act

The Air Carrier Access Act (ACAA) prohibits commercial airlines from discriminating against people with disabilities. In 2013, the DOJ issued regulations that require airline’s websites and kiosks to be accessible to people with disabilities and to conform with WCAG 2.0 level AA in particular.

Affordable Care Act Section 1557

Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, prohibits healthcare organizations from discriminating on the basis of ability, and associated regulations require covered entities to provide “effective communication” and have electronic and information technologies that comply with “modern accessibility standards.” The Department of Health and Human Services has encouraged covered entities to conform to WCAG 2.0 level AA to meet this requirement.

Other Federal Laws

There are other federal laws that have implications for disability rights and accessibility, including the Telecommunications Act, the Architectural Barriers Act, and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). For more on these laws and others, see “A Guide to Disability Rights Laws,” published by the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division.

State Laws

California

Unruh Civil Rights Act

The Unruh Civil Rights Act is a broad anti-discrimination law in the state of California, explicitly protecting persons with disabilities. The law applies to businesses in California, and the law explicitly states that:

A violation of the right of any individual under the federal Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (Public Law 101-336) shall also constitute a violation of this section.

That is, ADA violations are also Unruh Act violations. This is of note because “while the ADA authorizes only injunctive relief and attorneys’ fees, California law imposes up to $4,000 statutory damages per violation of the law,” Minh N. Vu and Kristina M. Launey write. For this reason, ADA lawsuits are often filed in California, where plaintiffs can get this additional money.

Here’s one well-known case under the Unruh Act: Thurston v. Midvale Corp d/b/a Whisper Lounge. In this case, Whisper Lounge, a restaurant, had an inaccessible website and was sued by a blind customer. The court ordered Whisper Lounge to pay $4,000 in statutory damages and make its website conform with WCAG 2.0 level AA. For more on the case, see “California Judge Finds Restaurant’s Inaccessible Website Violated Unruh Act” on Level Access’ blog.

California Consumer Privacy Act

The California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) went into effect in 2020. It’s a privacy law, but it also has important implications for accessibility. Essentially, the CCPA requires that privacy notices be accessible.

For more on this law, see “The CCPA & Digital Accessibility” by Jonathan Avila on Level Access.

New York

New York is the top state for digital accessibility lawsuits. If an ADA lawsuit is filed in New York, plaintiffs might also allege violations of the New York Human Rights Law and the New York City Human Rights Law, both of which explicitly prohibit discrimination on the basis of disability.

Disability Rights & Accessibility Laws, Outside the United States

2021-06-28T07:41:00-07:00

Introduction

Outside the United States, what rights do people with disabilities have and what laws mandate accessibility?

My last two posts have already partially answered this question:

In this post, I’m going to look at national (or provincial) laws — again, outside the US — that affect disability rights and accessibility. Most laws of this sort fall into one of three categories:

Civil rights laws
Procurement laws
Domain-specific laws

Civil rights laws often take the form of anti-discrimination legislation, making it illegal to discriminate against persons with disabilities and possibly mandating accessible goods and services. These laws often focus more on equal rights for people with disabilities than on providing social welfare, and consequently anti-discrimination laws typically affect both the public and private sectors. Some, but not all, civil rights laws have prescriptive guidelines for measuring accessibility. The growth of civil rights legislation protecting people with disabilities across the world can be linked to the growing influence of the social model of disability, as well as to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) in the US is an example of a civil rights law.

Procurement laws require that organizations buy accessible products and services. Procurement laws often target public entities (that is, governments). Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act in the US is an example of a procurement law. Section 508 requires that federal agencies meet certain accessibility standards when they develop, procure, maintain, or use ICT.

Domain-specific laws affect a specific industry. For example, in the US, the Air Carrier Access Act prohibits airlines from discriminating against persons with disabilities and associated regulations require airlines to have accessible websites.

As we’ll see in a moment, there are lots of different laws across the world that affect disability rights and accessibility, and while it isn’t realistic for any one person to be an expert in all of these, I do think it can be helpful for accessibility professionals to have a basic familiarity with accessibility laws and regulations in other countries. Many of those laws fall into one of these three categories, so I think it’s helpful to have this framework in mind as we talk about these laws. Now, let’s get into it!

Canada

The Canadian Human Rights Act explicitly prohibits discrimination on the basis of ability.

The Accessible Canada Act affects the federal public sector, state-owned enterprises, and certain federally regulated organizations. For more on this act, see “Nothing Without Us and the Accessible Canada Act” by Sheri Byrne-Haber.

Canadian provinces have enacted accessibility legislation, including:

The AODA is the oldest and most well-known of these provincial laws. It sets accessibility standards for both public and private sectors. Additionally, the Ontario Human Rights Code explicitly prohibits discrimination against persons with disabilities.

For more on disability rights and accessibility laws in Canada, I recommend “A Complete Overview of Canada’s Accessibility Laws” by Jennifer Doyle on Siteimprove’s blog.

United Kingdom: Equality Act 2010

The Equality Act 2010 is a broad anti-discrimination act that explicitly protects people with disabilities. Here are some links where you can learn more:

Australia: Disability Discrimination Act

In Australia, the Disability Discrimination Act prohibits discrimination against persons with disabilities, and conformance with WCAG 2.0 is “strongly recommended.”

New Zealand: Human Rights Act

In New Zealand, the Human Rights Act explicitly prohibits discrimination against persons with disabilities.

Government Standards for Accessibility

Even if they don’t prohibit discrimination against people with disabilities or mandate accessibility in the private sector, many countries have set their own public-facing, government standards for accessibility, and those standards often reference WCAG 2.0. Below are some links where you can learn more about those requirements as well as other laws across the world that affect disability rights and accessibility.

Disability Rights & Accessibility Laws, Regionally

2021-06-25T07:41:00-07:00

Introduction

I love geeking out about laws and standards. Writing this post was surprisingly fun.

Study-blogging has been really helpful for me. I understand disability rights and accessibility laws around the world, and in Europe in particular, so much better after writing this post.

Let’s jump into it: what’s the state of disability rights and accessibility laws in different regions across the world? What are the key treaties, agreements, and standards?

Europe

The Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union

The Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union “brings together all the personal, civic, political, economic and social rights enjoyed by people within the EU in a single text.” It was proclaimed in 2000 and went into effect in 2009.

Article 21 reads in part:

Any discrimination based on any ground such as sex, race, colour, ethnic or social origin, genetic features, language, religion or belief, political or any other opinion, membership of a national minority, property, birth, disability, age or sexual orientation shall be prohibited. (Emphasis added.)

Articel 26 reads:

The Union recognises and respects the right of persons with disabilities to benefit from measures designed to ensure their independence, social and occupational integration and participation in the life of the community.

Web Accessibility Directive

The Web Accessibility Directive is also known as Directive (EU) 2016/2102 on the accessibility of the websites and mobile applications of public sector bodies. It was adopted by the EU in 2016, and similar to Section 508 in the US, the directive requires public sector websites and apps to be accessible. According to Siteimprove: “As of September 23, 2020, all websites in the EU public sector must comply with the directive. And effective June 23, 2021, mobile applications will also have to comply.” The Web Accessibility Directive itself doesn’t define what constitutes an accessible website or app. For that, the directive repeatedly references EN 301 549.

EN 301 549

EN 301 549 is also known as “Accessibility requirements suitable for public procurement of ICT products and services in Europe.” EN 301 549 is a European standard for digital accessibility, focusing on public (government) procurement of products and services. Similar to the Section 508 technical standards in the US, EN 301 549 addresses a wide array of ICT, beyond just websites. For sections that do address web accessibility, EN 301 549 directly references WCAG 2.1 level AA. EN 301 549 has been updated a few times. I believe the most recent update was in 2019: EN 301 549 V3.1.1.

For more on EN 301 549, I recommend the post “What does European accessibility standard EN 301 549 mean for US organizations?” on Deque’s blog.

European Accessibility Act

The European Accessibility Act was adopted in 2019. Similar to the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) in the US, the European Accessibility Act is directed toward the private sector. According to Siteimprove: “The European Accessibility Act applies to manufacturers and providers who sell products and services across European borders that have been deemed essential by the directive,” such as computers, e-commerce services, banking services, and more. The act has a broader focus than just websites and apps; for example, it also applies to ATMs and to the services and products of the transportation sector. Individual members states are supposed to implement the European Accessibility Act in their own laws, and they have until 2025 for those laws to be implemented.

The African Charter on Human and People’s Rights

The African Charter on Human and People’s Rights is a regional human rights instrument, signed and ratified by 54 states. It went into effect in 1986 under the Organisation of African Unity, the predecessor of the African Union.

Article 2 is a non-discrimination clause. It doesn’t explicitly include people with disabilities. Article 2 reads:

Every individual shall be entitled to the enjoyment of the rights and freedoms recognised and guaranteed in the present Charter without distinction of any kind such as race, ethnic group, colour, sex, language, religion, political or any other opinion, national and social origin, fortune, birth or any status.

However, article 18 does specifically mention people with disabilities. It reads in part:

The aged and the disabled shall also have the right to special measures of protection in keeping with their physical or moral needs.

The Inter-American Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Persons with Disabilities

The Inter-American Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Persons with Disabilities is a regional human rights instrument. It was adopted in 1999 under the Organization of American States and entered into force in 2001. I believe the United States has neither signed or ratified the treaty.

As the title of the treaty implies, the Convention specifically addresses discrimination against people with disabilities. Article 2 states:

The objectives of this Convention are to prevent and eliminate all forms of discrimination against persons with disabilities and to promote their full integration into society.

Article 3 says that countries will “undertake to” adopt legislation and other measures to eliminate discrimination by both governments and private entities and eliminate architectural, transportation, and communication access barriers. Article 3 also says that countries will work on:

Preventing preventable disabilities
Treatment
Rehabilitation
Education
Job Training
The “provision of comprehensive services to ensure the optimal level of independence and quality of life for persons with disabilities”
Increasing public awareness and eliminating prejudices

Disability Rights & Accessibility Laws, Internationally

2021-06-23T07:41:00-07:00

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights was accepted by the United Nations General Assembly on December 10, 1948. Now, December 10th is celebrated annually as Human Rights Day. (That’s just a few days after December 3rd, the International Day for Persons with Disabilities.)

The declaration is the foundation of international human rights law. While the declaration itself is not legally binding, its contents have been incorporated into binding treaties and laws. I think the declaration is fairly readable and approachable, and it isn’t that long either.

Article 2 reads:

Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status. Furthermore, no distinction shall be made on the basis of the political, jurisdictional or international status of the country or territory to which a person belongs, whether it be independent, trust, non-self-governing or under any other limitation of sovereignty.

That is, everyone is entitled to the rights listed in the declaration. The word “everyone” would necessarily include people with disabilities, even though the declaration doesn’t explicitly mention them. Of note, however, is article 25, which reads in part:

Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control. (Emphasis added.)

So, under article 25, people with disabilities do explicitly have a right to security.

Article 23 states that “everyone has the right to work,” and article 26 states that “everyone has the right to education.” I would argue that disability justice and accessibility are necessary pre-conditions for people with disabilities to exercise these rights.

Declaration on the Rights of Disabled Persons

In 1975, the United Nations General Assembly passed the Declaration on the Rights of Disabled Persons. Like the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, this is a non-binding declaration. However, unlike the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, this declaration explicitly proclaims the rights of people with disabilities.

Similar to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Declaration on the Rights of Disabled Persons doesn’t explicitly mention accessibility or technology, but I would argue that accessibility is vital to realizing the rights set forth, particularly proclaimation 8, which reads:

Disabled persons are entitled to have their special needs taken into consideration at all stages of economic and social planning.

(Another declaration of note might be the Declaration on the Rights of Mentally Retarded Persons, which the UN passed in 1971.)

Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities

The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) is a binding human rights treaty. (Hurrah!) It was adopted in 2006 and came into force in 2008. US President Barack Obama signed the treaty in 2009, but the US has not yet ratified the treaty. According to the UN:

The Convention follows decades of work by the United Nations to change attitudes and approaches to persons with disabilities. It takes to a new height the movement from viewing persons with disabilities as “objects” of charity, medical treatment and social protection towards viewing persons with disabilities as “subjects” with rights, who are capable of claiming those rights and making decisions for their lives based on their free and informed consent as well as being active members of society.

The CRPD really is very awesome. Article 3 states the general principles behind the CRPD, one of which is accessibility. As a binding treaty, the CRPD obligates countries to take certain actions, such as adopting legislation, prohibiting discrimination, and supporting and providing accessible information, services, and technology. The CRPD also requires monitoring and reporting to help make the Convention operational and impactful. The UN’s FAQ on the Convention reads:

The Convention not only clarifies that States should not discriminate against persons with disabilities, it also sets out the many steps that States must take to create an enabling environment so that persons with disabilities can enjoy real equality in society. For example, the Convention requires States to take measures to ensure accessibility of the physical environment and information and communications technology.

The CRPD is a binding treaty concerning the rights of persons with disabilities, and it explicitly mentions accessibility, universal design, and assistive technology. It says that denial of a reasonable accommodation constitutes discrimination. It’s an international milestone, partly enabled by the digital accessibility revolution.

There is also an optional protocol to the Convention which authorizes the UN’s Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities to receive and monitor purported violations of the Convention.

Marrakesh Treaty

The full title of the Marrakesh Treaty tells you its purpose: The Marrakesh Treaty to Facilitate Access to Published Works for Persons who are Blind, Visually Impaired, or Otherwise Print Disabled. That is, the Marrakesh Treaty creates limitations and exceptions to copyright laws so that accessible versions of books (and other copyrighted materials) can be created for people with print disabilities. The treaty also allows those accessible texts to be exported and imported across national boundaries.

The treaty was adopted by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) in Marrakesh, Morocco, in 2013 and entered into force in 2016. The United States ratified the Marrakesh Treaty in 2018.

If you’re interested in this treaty, check out the Accessible Books Consortium or read this article on WIPO’s website: “Limitations and Exceptions: Access to Books for the Visually Impaired.”

User Experience, Usability, & Accessibility

2021-06-19T13:41:00-07:00

Introduction

Earlier in this blog series, in “Let’s Disambiguate Some Terms,” I drew a rough distinction between accessibility and usability. I wrote:

I think, strictly speaking, accessibility refers to whether someone is able to use something at all (sort of like a binary on/off switch), while usability refers to how easily and intuitively someone can use something (sort of like a zero to one hundred slider). In practice, I think usability considerations are often intertwined with accessibility considerations, and they may not always be easy to separate.

In this post, we’re going to explore in more depth the similarities and differences between accessibility and usability as well as the related concept of user experience (UX).

Accessibility is about whether or not someone, particularly someone with a disability, is able to use or access something. Usability is more concerned with ease of use. Whitney Quesenbery breaks down usability into “5Es”:

Effective
Efficient
Engaging
Error Tolerant
Easy to Learn

There is also an ISO definition of usability:

The extent to which a system, product or service can be used by specified users to achieve specified goals with effectiveness, efficiency and satisfaction in a specified context of use.

How does accessibility relate to usability?

If something is highly useable to a person with disabilities, by definition it’s accessible to them. If something isn’t accessible to a person with disabilities, it won’t be usable for them. Accessibility is a necessary but insufficient condition for usability.

An important part of making sure something is usable is usability testing, and an important part of making sure something is accessible is usability testing with people with disabilities. When planning and conducting usability testing, it’s important to consider and include users with disabilities. That way, the end product can be usable — and accessible — to everyone (or at least to as many people as possible).

What about user experience (UX)?

UX is a growing field concerned with a person’s overall experience with a product, service, or environment. UX is a broader concept than just usability. UX is concerned with a person’s experience using something for the first time and subsequent times, but UX is also concerned with how a person first becomes aware of something, how they access or acquire it, and how they feel about it overall. Peter Morville breaks down UX into these seven qualities:

Useful
Useable
Desirable
Findable
Accessible
Credible
Valuable

Under Morville’s schema, accessibility and usability are two pieces of UX. If you’re a UX designer, accessibility and useability are part of your job.

Even though accessibility can fall under usability and UX, accessibility can also be considered as its own field. As I wrote in my earlier post titled “Let’s Disambiguate Some Terms”:

For some people, accessibility is their whole career path. For others, it’s just a part of what they do. It’s helpful to have some people who specialize in accessibility, but it’s also important to have many others who are aware of accessibility fundamentals and who can help create accessible experiences, even if it’s not their core responsibility.

For folks who specialize in accessibility, I think it’s likewise important to know something about usability and UX more generally. That’s because intuitive and usable designs can help improve accessibility, and because you should perform usability testing with people with disabilities to confirm that what you’re creating really is accessible.

Additional Resources

Universal Design for Learning

2021-06-16T13:41:00-07:00

Introduction

When we talk about universal design, you might think about universal design of physical spaces and objects, but you can also apply universal design to information and communication technologies (ICT), as we looked at recently (“Principles of Web Accessibility”). In this post, we are going to look at how you can apply universal design to learning.

CAST, a nonprofit education research and development organization, created the Universal Design for Learning (UDL) framework. According to CAST’s website, UDL is “a framework to improve and optimize teaching and learning for all people based on scientific insights into how humans learn.” CAST has a section on their website titled The UDL Guidelines which explains UDL and breaks down the framework into principles, guidelines, and checkpoints. CAST has also created a beautiful graphic organizer to help make sense of the framework. I highly recommend you visit their website and check it out.

UDL is a framework that you can use to help create curriculum that works for all learners from the start, without the need for specialized accommodations or modifications. In that way, UDL can help you achieve the first principle of universal design: Equitable Use. With UDL, you can create one curriculum or lesson plan that works for a diverse array of learners, rather than segregate learners with different abilities into different classes.

Principle: Provide Multiple Means of Engagement

Use a variety of tactics to motivate a learner and capture their interest and attention, to help them answer the question: why should I learn this?

This principle breaks down into three guidelines, and each guideline breakds down into checkpoints. Below, I will state the guidelines, and then explain them in my own words. I think the guidelines and checkpoints make sense once you understand the framework, but to me the guidelines and checkpoints felt too vague when I first read them over. Here’s how I understand this principle:

Provide options for recruiting interest. (Get them interested.)
- Give learners choice. Allow them to exercise autonomy.
- Help learners see the value in and relevance of what they are learning.
- Reduce threats and distractions that block engagement.
Provide options for sustaining effort and persistence. (Keep them interested.)
- Reiterate and reflect on learning goals and objectives.
- Use different types of learning activities and assessments. (Don’t always do the same thing.)
- Support good communication and collaboration.
- Provide genuinely helpful feedback, often.
Provide options for self-regulation. (Help them stay motivated, and help them know that they can do this.)
- Learners should believe their goals are realistic and achievable.
- Use tools like rubrics, checklists, and study guides to strengthen coping skills and strategies and to help the course feel manageable.
- Use tools like self-assessments and reflections so that learners can see their progress.

Principle: Provide Multiple Means of Representation

Present information in a variety of mediums, so that learners are able to access the underlying content no matter their dis/abilities, so that all learners are able to answer the question: what am I learning?

Provide options for perception. (Use visual, auditory, and tactile formats.)
- Make sure all learners can access the content: provide visual, auditory, and tactile formats.
- Remember, digital text can count as a tactile format, because people who know braille can access digital text through screen readers and refreshable braille displays.
- Digital text is also great because readers can adjust the text size and color contrast (or, my favorite, read on e-ink screens).
- Where possible, go beyond just using digital text. Help learners by providing photos, videos, audiobooks, tactile graphics, and manipulatives.
- Make sure auditory information is accessible to learners who are deaf or hard of hearing: provide captions, transcriptions, and descriptions of music and sounds.
Provide options for language and symbols. (Provide materials in learners’ native languages, and help learners understand symbols, notations, syntax, and structures they might be unfamiliar with.)
- If learners aren’t proficient in the classroom’s primary language, provide additional materials in their native languages.
- Give learners context to learn new and complex things: explain vocabulary, jargon, symbols, notation, and complicated syntax and structures.
Provide options for comprehension. (Give learners context, and help them take away the main ideas.)
- Supply background knowledge and context. Explain prerequisites and help learners associate new topics with their existing knowledge.
- Help learners differentiate critical points from secondary ideas. Focus on big ideas and important patterns and relationships. If something is nice to know but less important, let the learner know — don’t throw everything at the learner as if it has equal importance.
- Similarly, don’t overwhelm the learner by throwing everything at them at once. Break things down into digestible pieces. Use scaffolding, progressive guidance, and step-by-step procedures.

Principle: Multiple Means of Action and Expression

Not everyone is good at taking tests or writing essays. Just because someone failed your test doesn’t mean they don’t understand the content. Use a variety of different learning activities and provide different sorts of formative and summative assessments. Imagine your learner is asking “How can I demonstrate that I know this or can do this?” Give them many different options and ways to show you that they know it or can do it.

Provide options for physical action. (Do more than just look at computer screens or paper all the time.)
- Try different learning activities or games or project-based learning.
- Support assistive technology and other tools that learners rely on and are used to using when you plan learning activities and assessments.
Provide options for expression and communication. (Be open to trying out creative learning activities and tools and accepting different types of assessments beyond tests and essays.)
- Don’t just stick to repetitive textbook exercises, tests, and essays.
- Offer other sorts of learning activities and assessments, such as speeches, presentations, videos, or art projects.
- Introduce learners to new and interesting tools, such as graph paper, graphing calculators, virtual or concrete manipulatives, outlining tools, concept mapping software, computer-aided design (CAD), music notation software, math notation software, and other helpful apps.
- Use scaffolds and aids to support learners throughout the process of learning and performing.
Provide options for executive functions. (Allow learners to demonstrate knowledge and skills at a high-level, in practical and applied ways, rather than in artificial low-level ways.)
- Support learners to set (and then plan for) their own goals.
- Help learners save and manage relevant information and resources.
- Provide ongoing support, monitoring, and feedback.

Principles of Universal Design

2021-06-13T13:41:00-07:00

Introduction

What are the main ideas and guiding principles behind universal design? How are those principles applied in practice?

In my prior post “Universal Design vs. Accommodations”, we looked at the principles and goals of universal design. In that post, I was mostly drawing a contrast between universal design on one hand and accommodations on the other. In this post, I want to return to the principles of universal design and look at how those principles are applied in the physical world.

NC State University’s Center for Universal Design defines universal design as:

The design of products and environments to be usable by all people, to the greatest extent possible, without the need for adaptation or specialized design.

There are seven principles of universal design, and each principles has four to five guidelines. What are the principles and guidelines and what are examples of those in the physical world?

Principle One: Equitable Use

The design is useful and marketable to people with diverse abilities.

Guidelines:

1a. Provide the same means of use for all users: identical whenever possible; equivalent when not.
1b. Avoid segregating or stigmatizing any users.
1c. Provisions for privacy, security, and safety should be equally available to all users.
1d. Make the design appealing to all users.

Examples:

A flat and smooth building entrance with automatic sliding doors.
Sidewalks with bumped tiles and curb cuts that are wheelchair-accessible (clear and smooth with gentle inclines).

Principle Two: Flexibility in Use

The design accommodates a wide range of individual preferences and abilities.

Guidelines:

2a. Provide choice in methods of use.
2b. Accommodate right- or left-handed access and use.
2c. Facilitate the user’s accuracy and precision.
2d. Provide adaptability to the user’s pace.

Examples:

Multiple drinking fountains placed at a variety of heights.
Microwaves, TVs, and other devices with controls that are both tactile and visual (such as dials).
Check-out options that allow you to pay with cash or credit cards.

Principle Three: Simple and Intuitive Use

Use of the design is easy to understand, regardless of the user’s experience, knowledge, language skills, or current concentration level.

Guidelines:

3a. Eliminate unnecessary complexity.
3b. Be consistent with user expectations and intuition.
3c. Accommodate a wide range of literacy and language skills.
3d. Arrange information consistent with its importance.
3e. Provide effective prompting and feedback during and after task completion.

Examples:

Picture-based instructions (like those you get from IKEA).
Standardized signs that are intuitive and simple (such as an icon of a cigarette with a slash through it).
Simple remote controls that don’t have more than, say, 15 buttons.

Principle Four: Perceptible Information

The design communicates necessary information effectively to the user, regardless of ambient conditions or the user’s sensory abilities.

Guidelines:

4a. Use different modes (pictorial, verbal, tactile) for redundant presentation of essential information.
4b. Provide adequate contrast between essential information and its surroundings.
4c. Maximize “legibility” of essential information.
4d. Differentiate elements in ways that can be described (i.e., make it easy to give instructions or directions).
4e. Provide compatibility with a variety of techniques or devices used by people with sensory limitations.

Examples:

Smoke alarms that provide both visual cues (flashing) and auditory cues (an alarm sound).
Bumped and ridged sidewalk tiles that are brightly colored.
Tactile elevator buttons with visual and auditory feedback.
Signs or controls that are both visual and tactile (including bathroom signs, microwave controls, and remote controls).
ATMs that allow you to plug in headphones to hear (if you can’t see) and with a tactile interface or a simple touchscreen interface.

Principle Five: Tolerance for Error

The design minimizes hazards and the adverse consequences of accidental or unintended actions.

Guidelines:

5a. Arrange elements to minimize hazards and errors: most used elements, most accessible; hazardous elements eliminated, isolated, or shielded.
5b. Provide warnings of hazards and errors.
5c. Provide fail safe features.
5d. Discourage unconscious action in tasks that require vigilance.

Examples:

On ATMs and kiosks:
- Touchscreens with large clickable areas.
- Confirmation screens.
- The ability to undo an action.
Microwaves that won’t start if the door is still open.

Principle Six: Low Physical Effort

The design can be used efficiently and comfortably and with a minimum of fatigue.

Guidelines:

6a. Allow user to maintain a neutral body position.
6b. Use reasonable operating forces.
6c. Minimize repetitive actions.
6d. Minimize sustained physical effort.

Examples:

Sidewalks that are clear, flat, and smooth.
Lever handles or automatic doors rather than traditional rounded doorknobs.
Hands-free faucets or drinking fountains.

Principle Seven: Size and Space for Approach and Use

Appropriate size and space is provided for approach, reach, manipulation, and use regardless of user’s body size, posture, or mobility.

Guidelines:

7a. Provide a clear line of sight to important elements for any seated or standing user.
7b. Make reach to all components comfortable for any seated or standing user.
7c. Accommodate variations in hand and grip size.
7d. Provide adequate space for the use of assistive devices or personal assistance.

Examples:

Sidewalks, hallways, and doors that are wide enough for people who use wheelchairs.
Bathrooms that are large enough for a wheelchair.
Turnstiles that are wide enough to accommodate people who use wheelchairs and those in larger bodies.
Restaurants, movie theatres, and transit that accommodate people who use wheelchairs and those in larger bodies.

Principles of Web Accessibility

2021-06-09T06:31:00-07:00

Introduction

What are the main ideas and guiding principles behind web accessibility? How are those principles applied in practice?

First, let’s start with some context.

W3C & WAI

The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is the standards organization for the web. Technically, the W3C creates what are called W3C Recommendations for web standards, and has a well-defined process for doing so. In short, different working groups are chartered to tackle specific topics. Before a working group’s specification is officially published as a W3C Recommendation (REC), it will go through several revisions and stages, including a Working Draft (WD), Candidate Recommendation (CD), and Proposed Recommendation (PR).

The W3C has an initiative called the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) which develops guidelines and standards for web accessibility as well as support materials and other related resources. Personally, I think WAI has a great, informative website filled with helpful resources. Go check it out! Here are the main sections of WAI’s website:

I think the principles behind web accessibility aren’t that complex, and I think it can be relatively easy to create an accessible website, provided that your website isn’t too complex (and provided you take a proactive approach to accessibility). That said, as a whole, the web is complex, with many separate pieces interacting together, and there are many layers to web accessibility, particularly when you factor in assistive technologies. WAI has a helpful webpage that breaks down these different layers of web accessibility: Essential Components of Web Accessibility. Briefly, here’s how I break it down: developers and content creators use authoring and evaluation tools to create web content. Then, users access that web content through “user agents,” such as web browsers or assistive technologies.

The W3C has created accessibility guidelines for these different components:

Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines (ATAG)
Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG)
User Agent Accessibility Guidelines (UAAG)

The W3C has also published an official W3C Recommendation for Web Accessibility Initiative – Accessible Rich Internet Applications (WAI-ARIA), a technical specification which web designers and developers can use to help create accessible web content and web applications. ARIA is a way to extend HTML so that complicated webpages can work better with assistive technologies.

Additionally, the W3C currently has a working draft of the W3C Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 3.0. These guidelines aim to provide a wide range of recommendations for making a wide range of web content accessible to a wide range of users with disabilities on a wide range of user agents and devices. This working draft was formerly referred to as “silver,” because silver is referred to as “Ag” on the periodic table, and AG is an abbreviation of “accessibility guidelines.”

I think all of that is helpful as context. (I do love context.) Now, let’s dig into WCAG, the actual principles of web accessibility, and how we apply those in practice.

WCAG

The W3C’s Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) explain how to make web content accessible to people with disabilities. The page “Accessibility Principles” on WAI’s website summarizes the principles behind WCAG in fairly approachable language.

The first version of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines — WCAG 1.0 — became an official W3C Recommendation in 1999. WCAG 2.0 superseded it and became a W3C Recommendation in 2008. WCAG 2.1 became a W3C Recommendation in 2018 and is the current standard. WCAG 2.1 has additional success criteria that were not included in WCAG 2.0, and it was created to improve accessible for users with cognitive or learning disabilities, users with low vision, and users with disabilities on mobile devices. For more on the updates in WCAG 2.1, see “What’s New in WCAG 2.1.” While WCAG 2.1 is the current standard, there is currently a working draft for WCAG 2.2, and it seems likely that WCAG 2.2 may become an official W3C Recommendation sometime later this year.

WCAG breaks down into four principles, which form the acronym POUR: perceivable, operable, understandable, and robust.

Perceivable. Web content and interfaces must be presentable in ways that users can perceive through sight, hearing, or touch. Digital text is an awesome and revolutionary format because practically anyone can access it. Thanks to screens, screen readers, and refreshable braille displays, you can see, hear, or feel content that is available as digital text. Some people can’t see, so make sure that they can still perceive your content through hearing or touch (through digital text). In practice, make sure you have alternative text for images that people using screen readers can access, so that they can get a sense of what the picture is about. Use sufficient color contrast so that people with low vision can still read your content. Allow users to increase the size of text, and to do so without breaking your webpage. If you have a video, provide captions, audio description, and a transcript.

Operable. The components of the user interface must be operable through a variety of input methods. People use many different types of input methods when using computers. While many people use a keyboard alongside a mouse or a trackpad, other people are mouse-only or keyboard-only users or interact through touchscreens or voice recognition. People should be able to interact with your content through any of these input methods. In practice, make sure that all your content is accessible to someone using only a keyboard or only a mouse. Ensure that you have visual focus indicators to assist with keyboard navigation. If you have a session timeout, give people warning and allow them to extend or opt-out of the timeout. (People who use switch devices often require more time to fill out a form.) Avoid flash animations that can cause seizures in some people.

Understandable. Users should be able to understand and comprehend content and interfaces. In practice, make sure you identify (in the page’s HTML markup) which language the text is written in, so that screen readers correctly pronounce your text. Use plain language wherever possible to allow more readers to understand your content. Include supporting images, audio, and video to help users understand text content. Create predictable and consistent user interfaces. Give feedback when there are errors or for confirmation of certain actions. Provide context, hints, and clear labels.

Robust. Web content should be compatible with as many “user agents” as possible, including different types of devices and assistive technologies. It should be robust enough so that all these user agents can interpret it reliably. In practice, use valid, accurate, and semantic markup, and extend HTML with ARIA where appropriate.

Perceivable, operable, understandable, and robust: those are the four high-level principles of WCAG. Those four principles break down into 13 guidelines in WCAG 2.1. For example, under “Principle 1 — Perceivable,” we have “Guideline 1.1 — Text Alternatives.” This guideline states:

Provide text alternatives for any non-text content so that it can be changed into other forms people need, such as large print, braille, speech, symbols or simpler language.

Those 13 guidelines in WCAG 2.1 are then broken down into 78 testable success criteria. The guidelines and success criteria of WCAG are “normative,” meaning they are required for conformance. Here is an example of a testable success criterion: under the text alternatives guideline, we have “Success Criterion 1.1.1 Non-text Content,” which reads:

All non-text content that is presented to the user has a text alternative that serves the equivalent purpose, except for the situations listed below.

Success Criterion 1.1.1 goes on to list a few special exceptions. For example, images that are purely decorative do not require text alternatives if they are given an empty alt attribute so that they may be ignored by assistive technologies.

Each success criterion is also associated with a level: A, AA, or AAA. WCAG has three different conformance levels. Level A is the minimum level of conformance, level AA is the de facto standard and norm, and level AAA is the optimal or ideal level of conformance, going “above and beyond” in some ways. Success criterion 1.1.1, for example, is associated with level A. You must meet this criterion to conform with any level of WCAG. To conform to WCAG 2.1 level AA, you’ll need to meet all success criterion associated with level A and level AA. To conform to WCAG 2.1 level AAA, you’ll need to meet all 78 success criteria.

If you’re already familiar with WCAG and need a quick reference, the W3C has you covered: “How to Meet WCAG (Quick Reference).”

The W3C also has a guide to understanding and implementing WCAG and a collection of techniques and common failures. Note: these two resources are informative, not normative. (They provide guidance and are not required for conformance.)

Mozilla’s MDN Web Docs has a section on understanding WCAG that I think is also a helpful resource.

One last note: while the principles, guidelines, and success criteria of WCAG were created to apply specifically to web accessibility, you can also apply these ideas to digital technology or information and communications technology (ICT) more generally. For example, let’s say you are creating a digital kiosk for an airport. Is the content perceivable to people with different disabilities? Can people use different input methods to interact with it and operate it? Are the interface and content understandable to a wide variety of individuals?

Benefits of Accessible Design

2021-06-04T13:31:00-07:00

Introduction

Who benefits from accessible design?

People with disabilities, of course, but also their friends, family, and caregivers. Organizations such as businesses, schools, and governments also benefit from accessibility. In fact, even the general populace without disabilities benefits from accessibility.

Benefits for People with Disabilities

For some people with disabilities, accessibility makes things easier. For others, accessibility makes things possible. An accessible website can allow you to read the news, learn something new, connect with others, shop, or bank on your own. Accessible transit and architecture allow you to independently go to work and appointments, visit museums or theaters, or go see friends and family. When organizations practice accessibility, people with disabilities have opportunities to work, earn money, break the cycle of poverty, and also participate in their communities.

Benefits for Organizations

Organizations that practice accessibility can reap many benefits, including:

They increase their customer base and market reach — remember when we talked about how much disposable income people with disabilities have?
They improve their public perception and boost their brand.
They can hire from a larger talent pool — there are many talented folks with disabilities out there.
They can retain experienced older employees as they acquire age-related disabilities.
They avoid lawsuits — accessibility is the law (more on this topic in a couple weeks).
They are eligible for more funding and contracts — many companies have procurement policies that mandate accessibility.
They improve search engine optimization (SEO) — accessible websites require semantic markup and alt text, which search engines use to drive traffic to your website.
They have better websites and products, which are compatible with more things — for example, accessible websites with good semantic markup are more likely to be compatible with browser’s reader modes and services like Pocket.
They innovate.

Benefits for People without Disabilities

People without disabilities also benefit from accessibility.

When people with disabilities are more independent, there is less of a burden on caregivers. Caregiving is good and important work, but we shouldn’t go and create more caregiving work when, with accessibility and assistive technologies, people can be independent. Moreover, right now, the burden of caregiving falls disproportionately on families (as well as on poor people, people of color, and people without college degrees), not on society at large. That’s wrong, and accessibility and disability justice can help ease the caregiving burden on those who are currently overburdened with it.

(Tangent: Caregiving is obviously important for those who receive care from others, but as my college philosophy professor Shannon Vallor argued in a paper, caregiving is good for caregivers as well. As someone who has worked as a direct support professional, I absolutely attest to this: caregiving is good to do, and generally speaking, we should all do it. As a society, we need to value caregiving more, we need to pay caregivers more, and we should encourage more people — especially white people, college-educated people, and men — to be caregivers.)

Accessibility is also beneficial for people without disabilities because honestly our society is segregated along the lines of dis/ability right now, and that harms us all. In a more accessible world, it will be easier to befriend people with disabilities, to invite your friends over to your house, to hang out with them in public, and to have your life enriched by them.

Finally, accessibility also benefits people without disabilities for a reason that came up in my last post: universal design. In that post I wrote:

When I think about universal design, I think about how dis/ability is a spectrum, not a binary. Even if you don’t have a permanent disability, you likely still experience temporary impairments or situational limitations, and you’re likely to acquire age-related disabilities as you grow older. Universal design is good design, because it takes into account and designs for the broad range of human needs and capabilities. Universal design benefits accessibility and usability. Everyone can benefit from universal design, even if you don’t have a documented disability.

For those same reasons, accessibility is good for people without disabilities.

One last thing on this topic: I highly recommend Lainey Feingold’s essay “Shifting from Fear to Motivation when Talking about Digital Accessibility Law.” The essay is more concerned with the motivations for accessibility rather than the benefits of it, but that’s a related and important topic and it’s an excellent read.

Universal Design vs. Accommodations

2021-05-28T13:31:00-07:00

Introduction

Jamie Knight works for the BBC. He likes to say that his job is “to make sure that our apps, websites, and services don’t disable people.” That viewpoint is informed by the social model of disability.

One method to not disable people is to practice universal design. Universal design is the “design of products and environments to be usable by all people, to the greatest extent possible, without the need for adaptation or specialized design.” If you practice universal design, you won’t need to provide accommodations for people as often, because your building or website will be usable to more people by default. You may still need to provide some accommodations, but if you do your best to practice universal design and avoid disabling anyone, you won’t need to provide specialized accommodations nearly as often.

Universal Design

The term “universal design” was coined by the architect Ronald Mace, and North Carolina State University’s Center for Universal Design developed seven principles of universal design:

Equitable Use: Ideally, everyone should be able to use the same thing in the same manner. If that isn’t possible, then equivalent options must be provided.
Flexibility in Use: For example, can both right and left-handed individuals use the same thing?
Simple and Intuitive Use: What if someone isn’t literate or they know a different language? Is it still intuitive to them how to use something?
Perceptible Information: Can someone who has low vision or who’s blind still access the underlying information?
Tolerance for Error: Are there warnings and fail-safe features?
Low Physical Effort: Is this still accessible to someone with low strength or dexterity?
Size and Space for Approach and Use: People have different bodies sizes, and some people use wheelchairs. Will everyone be able to use it?

Later, the University at Buffalo’s Center for Inclusive Design and Environmental Access developed eight goals of universal design:

Body Fit
Comfort
Awareness
Understanding
Wellness
Social Integration
Personalization
Cultural Appropriateness

When I think about universal design, I think about how dis/ability is a spectrum, not a binary. Even if you don’t have a permanent disability, you likely still experience temporary impairments or situational limitations, and you’re likely to acquire age-related disabilities as you grow older. Universal design is good design, because it takes into account and designs for the broad range of human needs and capabilities. Universal design benefits accessibility and usability. Everyone can benefit from universal design, even if you don’t have a documented disability. In this way, I think of universal design as a subset of inclusive design, which I wrote about in my earlier post “Let’s Disambiguate Some Terms.”

Universal design can help remove the need for specialized accommodations. If a building is designed to be wheelchair accessible, people who use wheelchairs won’t need to request accommodations. Universal design (and accessibility more generally) also helps enable specialized assistive technologies to work properly. When information is provided on an accessible webpage, people who are deafblind can read it with a screen reader and a refreshable braille display. However, a refreshable braille display won’t do you much good if the information is only available as a scanned image file or a printed handout.

Accommodations

Universal design is for everyone. Accommodations, however, are typically for individuals. Accommodations are specialized solutions to provide equal access for individuals with disabilities, solutions that are designed to make up for the shortcomings of an inaccessible environment. Accommodations are often particular and individualized to both the person and the situation, specifically designed to allow that person to perform the same tasks to the same extent as those without disabilities. Accommodations may require professional documentation of a disability in order to be arranged.

In schools, accommodations might take the form of extended time for tests, or being able to use word processing software during an exam, or perhaps being provided materials in braille or accessible digital formats.

In the workplace, accommodations might look like raising or lowering a desk, being able to work from home, being provided certain assistive technology, or having a sign language interpreter present for certain meetings or events.

Accommodations are often protected by legislation and mandated by law. For example, in the United States, Title I of the Americans with Disability Act (ADA) requires that certain employers provide reasonable accommodations. However, accommodations are not be required if they create an “undue burden.”

The GSA draws a great distinction between accommodations and accessibility on the Accessible Meetings page on Section508.gov:

Understand that accommodation is not the same as accessibility:

Accommodations are for individuals and are reactive.

Accessibility is for populations and is proactive.

Accessibility should make content available to all, in equally effective ways, at the same time.

Accessibility is the goal, accommodations are just tools to reach it.

Accommodations are important, vital even. They help people with disabilities have equal access to important opportunities. But when it comes to accessibility, I think accommodations are more like fail-safe measures, designed to catch those who fall through the cracks of universal design.

Disability Etiquette

2021-05-22T13:31:00-07:00

Introduction

Etiquette is a strange term. I’d rather talk about kindness.

I want to be kind to others, but sometimes I can be a socially awkward person, and I’m not always sure how to be kind. Sometimes, it can be confusing how to be kind toward people with disabilities. Our society routinely marginalizes and excludes those with disabilities; therefore, many people without disabilities don’t actually have much experience interacting with people who do have disabilities.

Here are some tips and general principles for how to treat people with disabilities with kindness and how to avoid being a jerk.

Focus on the person, and treat them like a person

Focus on the person. Talk to the person directly, not to their support staff. Leave their service animal alone. Don’t ask them probing questions about their disability (unless they have clearly signaled a willingness to discuss it). Use person-first language. That is, say “a person who is blind” rather than “a blind person” or other, ruder terms.

Side-note: Some people prefer identity-first language. For example, someone might prefer to be called “an autistic person” rather than “a person with autism.” I think identity-first language is becoming more popular these days, so when you are dealing with an individual, ask them what they prefer, and then respect their preference.

Treat them like a person. Feel free to say hi or give a friendly wave and acknowledge their presence. Shake their hand if that’s situationally appropriate. If you’re talking to an adult, talk to them like an adult, with your usual pitch and rhythm. Don’t interrupt them or speak over them. Don’t treat them like inspiration porn. Don’t assume they need help. If it looks like they do need help, you can ask if they want your help. If they say no, don’t help them. If you are helping guide someone who is blind, don’t grab them; let them hold onto your arm. If you’re guiding them, pay attention to the environment and give them warnings when appropriate. (Better yet, ask them if they want you to announce steps and curbs.) If you’re not sure about something, ask. If you’re not sure what they said, repeat what you understood and ask for clarification. Remember that different people have different preferences.

Respect people’s assistive technologies

Treat people’s assistive technologies like an extension of their bodies. Don’t touch it without asking. (Would you touch or take off someone’s glasses without asking?) Definitely don’t hide it or mess with it in any way.

Disabilities aren’t “the worst,” but impairments are real

Don’t act like disabilities are terrible. Don’t pity people with disabilities. Avoid negative language like “confined to a wheelchair” or “wheelchair bound.” (Instead, say that someone uses a wheelchair.) Also avoid euphemisms like physically challenged or differently enabled.

Impairments are real though. Don’t pretend like they don’t exist.

If you’re interacting with someone who is blind, introduce yourself by name. As appropriate, introduce or address others by name and consider describing how you’re dressed or the environment around you. Don’t just gesture and say “over there” and assume they’ll understand. (Don’t worry about common visual-centric phrases like “see you later.”)

If you’re talking with someone with a speech or cognitive disability, be a little patient. Give them time to express themself. Pay attention.

If you’re talking with someone who uses a wheelchair, sit down. Get at eye level with them.

When you’re communicating with someone who is deaf or hard of hearing, make sure that you speak clearly and that they have a clear view of your face.

Consider learning sign language.

Don’t assume that someone can’t interact with you. If you’re not sure, ask them how they want to communicate.

Remember to create accessible documents, websites, and apps. When you are planning events, plan for an accessible venue and presentation. When you are advertising events, share the access info alongside other basic info like the time and place. Provide a way for people to ask for accommodations as necessary.

Update: In December 2024, I read Demystifying Disability: What to Know, What to Say, and How to Be an Ally by Emily Ladau, which I’d strongly recommend for this topic in particular. I thought this book’s chapter on disability etiquette was great. It is probably the best treatment on this subject I’ve come across. Check it out!

Disability Demographics and Statistics

2021-05-20T18:10:00-07:00

Introduction

How many people have disabilities? From looking at statistics about people with disabilities, what else can we learn?

How common are disabilities?

It depends how you measure it, but roughly 10–20% of people have one or more disabilities. That’s over one billion people with disabilities worldwide.

The CDC actually estimates that 26% of adults in the United States live with a disability. That’s one in four people! In the US, mobility disabilities are most common, followed by cognitive disabilities, then hearing and vision ones. Worldwide, people are more likely to acquire a disability as they age. In the US, hearing disabilities are more common among seniors than cognitive disabilities.

Disability statistics can vary a lot, especially between countries. That’s partially because disability is broad and diverse, and how you define it (or ask about it) can greatly affect your statistics. Context significantly affects the statistics we gather about disability. For example, people are more likely to identify as having a disability when it can help them qualify for benefits, and less likely to self-identify when they fear discrimination.

What is the relationship between disability and poverty?

Disability and poverty exist in a vicious cycle with each other. People with disabilities are more likely to be poor, and poor people are more likely to acquire disabilities.

According to the UN, 80% of people with disabilities live in developing nations. That’s partially because many disabilities are preventable or curable with proper (read: costly) medical care. For example, cataracts, which can be corrected through surgery, are the leading cause of blindness worldwide.

In the US, people with disabilities are about twice as likely to be unemployed. According to the UN, the unemployment rate for people with disabilities in some countries is as high as 80% or more. These rates reflect employer discrimination, and it also reflects the meager opportunities that people with disabilities are given by the rest of society. For example, children with disabilities are less likely to attend school, and people with disabilities are less likely to be literate. Because of stigma and exclusion, people with disabilities have fewer economic, social, and culturual opportunities, which can trap them in poverty. In the US, the poverty rate for people with disabilities is more than twice the rate for those without.

According to the US Bureau of Transportation Statistics, people with disabilities are less likely to own or have access to vehicles than those without disabilities. Even if they do have vehicles, people with disabilities are still less likely to drive. Public transit in the US is … not great. It’s limited, and it’s time-intensive. Moreover, too much of our housing stock exists in suburbs, distant from work opportunities, shopping, and services. For people with disabilities in the United States, lacking a car or not being a driver can further trap you in this cycle of poverty.

How much disposable income do people with disabilities have?

Even though people with disabilities are more likely to live in poverty, as a group they still have a ton of disposable income and purchasing power. According to AIR, US Americans with disabilities have about $490 billion in disposable income. According to the Return on Disability Group, the disability market worldwide (people with disabilities as well as their friends and families) influence over $13 trillion each year in disposable income. That amount of money is hard to fathom.

Why do people with disabilities have so much purchasing power when, as we just discussed, there’s a vicious cycle between disability and poverty? I think it’s simply because of how many people there are with disabilities. In the US, people with disabilities are the largest minority group. That’s arguably the case worldwide as well.

Disabilities, Barriers, Adaptive Strategies, and Assistive Tech

2021-05-16T18:10:00-07:00

Introduction

This is a long post with a lot to cover. Let’s jump into it!

Our guiding questions are: What are different types of disabilities? What are their characteristics and associated barriers? What are appropriate adaptive strategies, assistive technologies, and social and/or environmental supports?

Visual Disabilities

Visual disabilities include blindness, low vision, color blindness, and deafblindness.

Blindness

We often use the term “blindness” to refer to people who entirely lack vision, but the term can also refer to people with extremely limited vision. In the United States, you can qualify as “legally blind” while still retaining some degree of vision.

People who are blind can’t read traditionally printed text, and so they may use a program called a screen reader to hear digital content read aloud to them. Screen readers can also output to refreshable braille displays. Many people who are blind actually don’t know braille. Feeling braille has several advantages over listening to text: (1) Reading braille explicitly conveys spelling and punctuation, and (2) People can read braille silently, which is helpful in noisy environments, in places where silence is important (like libraries), or when dealing with personal/confidential information.

However, in order for screen readers to work properly, we must create apps, websites, and documents accessibly, in ways that are compatible with assistive technology.

People who are blind can also benefit from digital assistants, like Siri, Alexa, or Mycroft.

Audio descriptions can also be helpful to people who are blind. Audio descriptions are a special audio track in a video, which includes narration describing the visual elements of the video. Many videos unfortunately lack audio description, but audio description is slowly becoming more common. You can stream audio-described TV shows on Netflix and Amazon, for example.

In physical environments, people who are blind can benefit from optical character recognition (OCR) software, which converts pictures into text that screen readers can process. OCR software, such as Google’s Lookout app, can help you to identify bills of currency or read labels, for example.

We should also design our built environments so that people who are blind do not need to rely on OCR. Paper bills can be created in different sizes and textures, and we can use braille to make more things readable. We can even use tactile printing technology to create tactile maps.

Low Vision

People who have low vision may struggle to read text even with corrective lenses. People with low vision often need large text or text with a high color contrast in order to read.

In the digital world, people with low vision may increase the default text size, use screen magnifier software to increase the size of text, or change the colors on screen to create sharper contrast. Similarly, people with low vision benefit when designers create apps, websites, and physical products with large text and sufficient color contrast. People with low vision may also use screen readers and text-to-speech (TTS) software to listen to digital content. Additionally, people with low vision and people who are blind may benefit from speech-to-text (STT) software when writing.

In physical environments, people with low vision may use magnifiers and document cameras.

Color Blindness

People with color blindness have difficulty differentiating colors.

People with color blindness can use color filters in digital environments and specialized lenses in physical environments to help them differentiate colors. Even better, designers should abstain from using color alone to convey information. For example, use textures or labels in a graph to convey information, or add text or icons on a website in addition to color.

Deafblindness

People who are deafblind may actually retain some vision or hearing, but in general can not rely on those senses, so touch becomes their primary means of accessing information.

In digital environments, people who are deafblind will typically use screen readers alongside refreshable braille displays. As with people who are blind, it is important that designers and developers create apps, websites, and documents accessibly, in ways that are compatible with screen readers. Additionally, people who are deafblind cannot access audiovisual content, so it is important that we publish descriptive transcripts alongside videos.

In physical environments, people who are deafblind benefit from printed braille. They may also use tactile signing to communicate with others.

Auditory Disabilities

People who are deaf, hard of hearing, and deafblind all have auditory disabilities. People who are deaf generally can’t hear anything useful, while people who are hard of hearing do retain some useful hearing but may have significant limitations or impairments.

In general, people who are deaf or hard of hearing benefit from audio content being communicated in other means, such as through sign language or captions. For example, an in-person lecture may have sign language interpretation or live captions projected on a monitor. Android devices have a live transcribe feature, which allows you to see computer-generated captions on the fly. (Computer-generated transcripts can be prone to mistakes and typically lack punctuation, so it’s often helpful to have transcripts created or edited by a human.) Videos should have synchronized captions. (Subtitles only represent spoken words, while captions convey speech as well as sound effects. Closed captions can be toggled on or off, while open captions are permanently burned into a video track.) Descriptive transcripts can also be a helpful supplement to synchronized captions. Alarms like doorbells, which are typically auditory, can instead be visual (a change in lights) or tactile (a vibration).

People who are hard of hearing may use hearing aids. People who are deaf or with significant hearing loss may use cochlear implants, which mimic normal acoustic hearing by directly stimulating the auditory nerve with electric signals.

I think hearing aids and cochlear implants are really interesting pieces of technology, examples of when assistive technology actually surpasses traditional hearing in some ways. People can turn off cochlear implants or take off their hearing aids and experience the calm of silence even in noisy environments. People with hearing aids and cochlear implants can also benefit from hearing loops systems (sometimes called audio induction loops). At a play or lecture, for example, someone with a hearing aid can use a hearing loop system to tune in directly to the microphone on stage and tune out the person talking or coughing behind them.

When it comes to distance communication, people who are deaf or hard of hearing can benefit from text messages, teletypewriters (TTYs), and TTY relay services. These days, TTYs are somewhat outdated, and ASL over video online is increasingly becoming a more common (and better) way to provide customer service. Online text-based chats can also be helpful.

Mobility Disabilities

There are many different disabilities that affect mobility. Mobility disabilities can affect both fine motor skills (like fluently using a mouse) and gross motor skills (like moving your arm).

In physical environments, people with mobility impairments may have difficulty moving around or interacting with their environment (for example, opening doors, using faucets, or turning pages). Therefore, people with mobility impairments may also use versions of everyday products that are specially designed to be more ergonomic or accessible. They may also use canes, walkers, or wheelchairs. Relatedly, it’s important that physical spaces are designed inclusively: doors and hallways should be wide enough for wheelchair users. Accessible ramps should be provided in addition to stairs. Seating should accommodate a variety of people and body sizes.

In the digital world, there are many different assistive technologies people with mobility impairments might use. First, they may use specially designed keyboards and mouses that are more ergonomic and easier to use. Styluses, head wands, and mouth sticks, often in conjunction with touchscreens, can be helpful to others. Eye-tracking software can allow a user to control a computer with only their eyes, and voice access software can allow a user (who can see the computer screen) to control their device with only their voice. Apple supports voice control on Mac computers and iOS devices, and Google supports voice access on Android devices. Even if people with mobility impairments don’t use voice access to control their device, they may still use voice recognition software to type.

Additionally, people with mobility impairments may use switch controls to control electronic devices. This technology is sometimes also referred to as switch access or switch devices. A switch control is essentially one or more easy-to-press buttons that users can press to control their device. There are also sip-and-puff switches that function more like using a straw rather than pressing a button. Switch controls are highly configurable; there are many different ways to set them up and use them. Here are two videos that explain switch controls on Android devices:

Like with screen readers, in order for switch controls to work properly, software must be designed accessibly, in ways that are keyboard accessible and compatible with assistive technology. Additionally, people with mobility impairments often need more time to complete tasks, so developers should beware session timeouts. They should either turn off time limits or notify users in advance and give them a way to extend or turn off the time limit.

Speech Disabilities

Speech disabilities can be caused by a broad set of sources, including cognitive, motor, and auditory conditions.

Many people with speech disabilities will use augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) to either supplant or replace traditional oral speech. AAC is a broad term, which breaks down into two main categories: unaided and aided.

If someone uses unaided AAC, they will use their body to communicate but not their voice. For example, they may communicate via gestures, facial expressions, or sign language.

Aided AAC relies on some sort of tool. Basic aided AAC may use pen and paper or printed communication boards, while high-tech aided AAC relies on electronic devices. There are many different types of AAC, and many different types of high-tech aided AAC. Some tools rely on pictures to communicate, while others are alphabet-based and require some degree of literacy. Some high-tech AAC devices use text-to-speech (TTS) software, allowing users to communicate with others via a computer-generated voice.

People with speech disabilities may require more time to communicate and may benefit from text-based alternatives. For example, if a company provides online customer service, it is helpful to provide a text-based chat option in addition to phone or video options. (It is also important to provide an online video sign language option.) Additionally, customer service representatives should be trained on disability etiquette and be patient when supporting persons with speech disabilities.

Seizure Disabilities

Seizures can be caused by many factors, including fevers, drug withdrawals, and flashing lights. Photosensitive epilepsy is a condition where flashing lights can cause a person to have seizures. For some people, flashing or flickering lights is the only cause of their seizures (pure photosensitivity), while some people with photosensitive epilepsy may also experience seizures caused by other circumstances.

People may take medications to help prevent seizures. Flicker-free monitors and anti-glare glasses can help prevent seizures for some people. Some people who have recurring seizures may carry with them wearable technology that can call for help and send their GPS location in case of seizures.

For the safety of people with photosensitive epilepsy, it is important that video creators and web and app designers limit flashing and strobe-like effects and ideally provide a way to avoid these effects altogether.

Cognitive Disabilities

The category of cognitive disabilities is incredibly broad and diverse. Not only are there many different types of cognitive disabilities, but many cognitive disabilities affect different people differently, and people with the same condition may not experience all the same symptoms or characteristics.

Intellectual & Developmental Disabilities

Intellectual and developmental disabilities are also sometimes known as learning disabilities. These disabilities can be congenital or acquired and can affect a person’s memory, attention, problem-solving, and/or comprehension. People with developmental disabilities (and other cognitive disabilities) may also have a low tolerance for cognitive overload, causing them to freeze or become upset more easily when there are too many things to process.

Complex sentences with unusual or advanced vocabulary can present barriers to persons with learning disabilities. Complex, cluttered, and distracting layouts can also create barriers, as well as loud or distracting environments.

People with these disabilities can benefit from plain language, supporting text content with audio and/or video content, and clean and simplified layouts, interfaces, and environments. Text-to-speech (TTS) software can also help people with developmental disabilities to process text content. (And therefore it is important that text content is published accessibly, in ways that are compatible with assistive technologies.)

When communicating, people with developmental disabilities may benefit from AAC, speech-to-text (STT) software, and/or word prediction software.

People with developmental disabilities can also benefit from a wide and creative array of adaptive strategies and assistive technologies that support memory and attention. For example, password managers, PDAs, and speed dial can all help someone with memory challenges.

I want to briefly pause here and note that designing for people with cognitive disabilities in general, and developmental disabilities in particular, is hard. It can be complicated, and it is often neglected. Designing for people with visual and auditory disabilities can be relatively straightforward: ensure that auditory content can be communicated visually, and ensure that visual content can be communicated through audio or braille. That isn’t necessarily easy, but it can be straightforward. Sometimes, it can be straightforward to design for people with cognitive disabilities. For example, write in plain language. Or create neat, clean layouts and interfaces. However, there are nuances that require careful and critical thinking (and likely usability testing) to see and to understand when it comes to designing in ways that work for people with limited memory, attention, and problem-solving skills. Designers and developers must ask themselves, what does this website or app cognitively demand from the user? I think answering that question is often neither simple nor straightforward. It’s not a simple checklist.

Adaptive strategies and assistive technologies for persons with intellectual and developmental disabilities are also likely to benefit many others, including those learning a foreign language and persons with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

Dyslexia/Reading Disabilities

People with dyslexia have trouble reading and processing text.

For people with reading disabilities, it can be helpful to change the font, size, and colors/contrast of text. Text-to-speech (TTS) software can be helpful when reading or writing. Speech-to-text (STT) software alongside spelling and grammar checkers can support writing. Additionally, people with reading disabilities benefit from additional time when reading and writing.

Math Disabilities

Math and computational disabilities can cause difficulties learning math and performing calculations (including those involving money). Dyscalculia specifically affects someone’s ability to understand arithmetic and perform calculations. Dysgraphia is a writing disability that can often cause challenges for students who are learning math.

People with math disabilities can benefit from using calculators and being given additional time to complete tasks. Graph paper, manipulatives, and other notation and organizing tools can also help.

Psychological and Psychiatric Disabilities

Psychological and psychiatric disabilities include anxiety, depression, eating disorders, and schizophrenia. People with these disabilities face social stigma and discrimination, and certain environments may exacerbate their symptoms, although this can vary from person to person.

Some people with psychological or psychiatric disabilities use guided meditations or certain apps to help manage their stress or mood. Carefully preparing and curating their environment can also help support others.

Multiple/Compound Disabilities

Some people have multiple or compound disabilities. This can be particularly common for people with intellectual or developmental disabilities. I’ve known people with developmental disabilities who also have vision disabilities, auditory disabilities, seizure disabilities, and/or mobility disabilities.

People with multiple disabilities are more likely to face social stigma and discrimination, in addition to the barriers presented by their individual disabilities.

Additionally, when someone has multiple disabilities, one of their disabilities can interfere with the adaptive strategies that might assist with their other disability. For example, for people who are blind, screen readers can be a great tool for making computers accessible. However, screen readers can be challenging to learn, particularly if the individual also has developmental disabilities. I’m reminded of Marilyn Frye’s birdcage analogy — it’s not the one bar that traps the bird, it’s the compound set of them.

For people who have multiple disabilities, it is important to use all relevant adaptive strategies, assistive technologies, and inclusive design principles. But for the reasons described above, I think it’s also important that we go beyond just that, that we go above and beyond. For example, designers and developers should target WCAG level AAA criteria, rather than just level AA. Additionally, while people with all sorts of disabilities can benefit from occupational therapy, for people with multiple disabilities, I think working with a skilled occupational therapist can be especially beneficial. Finally, because it is common for people with developmental disabilities to have compound disabilities, it is extra important to design for people with cognitive disabilities, to present information neatly, in plain language, with supporting images, audio, and video.

General Types of Disabilities

2021-05-04T18:36:00-07:00

Introduction

There are lots of different disabilities out there. In my next post, I will explore specific types of disabilities, their associated barriers, and appropriate assistive technologies and adaptive strategies. First, though, I want to explore some different broad ways that we can categorize disabilities.

Four General Categories

Most disabilities can fall under one of these broad categories:

Visual: affects your sense of sight.
Auditory: affects your sense of hearing.
Motor: affects your mobility and/or dexterity.
Cognitive: affects your brain and/or your thinking.

These four categories can be a helpful shorthand, but there are some limitations to this way of thinking:

Lots of people have multiple or compound disabilities, and if we stick to thinking of disability as simply these four categories, we might overlook that.
Not all types of disabilities may neatly fit under one of those categories. For example, it’s hard to see where exactly speech disabilities fit in. Some speech disabilities could qualify as cognitive disabilities, while others might qualify as motor disabilities. If you only think about disability in terms of those four broad categories, I think you’re missing something.
The term “cognitive disabilities” is incredibly broad, so broad that it might not be particularly useful. The term includes developmental disabilities, traumatic brain injuries, dyslexia, autism spectrum disorder, anxiety, depression, and more. Not only does the term “cognitive disabilities” include this broad set of differing disabilities, but most of these disabilities, taken individually, can still vary enormously person to person.

Permanent, Temporary, and Situational

You can also categorize disabilities based on how long they affect someone for. Do you have a permanent disability, a temporary impairment, and/or a situational limitation?

	Permanent	Temporary	Situational
Visual	Blind	Recently had eye surgery	Outside somewhere incredibly bright, without a hat or sunglasses
Auditory	Deaf	Ear infection	At a concert
Motor	Cerebral palsy	Broken bone (wearing a cast)	You overexert yourself at the gym, or you are carrying something heavy and delicate
Cognitive	Developmental disability	Brain fog from Covid-19	Extremely tired

I think Microsoft does a fantastic job illustrating this with their Persona Spectrum, published in their Inclusive 101 Manual.

I love this way of thinking about disabilities and limitations because it reminds us disability is a spectrum that we all fall under to varying degrees, not a binary on/off switch. Relatedly, accessibility is also a spectrum. Most things aren’t just “accessible or not accessible.” Rather, they are accessible to certain types of people with certain types of disabilities and limitations.

Have you ever encountered one of these sayings?

We are all only temporarily able-bodied.
We will all be disabled if we live long enough.

I’m not sure those two sayings are technically true. Someone could be born without disabilities and die before they acquire any. That said, these sayings convey an important truth: as we age, our bodies weaken, and if we live long enough, most all of us are likely to acquire age-related disabilities. Maybe our vision will degrade, or maybe we will be diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. This is a broad way of categorizing disabilities, and in certain contexts this lens can be quite useful.

Recognizable and Hidden Disabilities

Some disabilities are easily recognizable. Someone who is blind may carry a cane. Someone with a seizure disorder may routinely wear a helmet. A person with a mobility impairment may use their wheelchair every day.

Other disabilities are hidden. Just by looking at someone, you can’t typically tell whether they have autism or anxiety.

This way of categorizing disabilities is also a spectrum. If you use a wheelchair, your disability may be hidden while you are home using the Internet, but your disability will be extremely visible on public transit. Many intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) are a little recognizable. When I first started working with adults with IDD at L’Arche Heartland in Kansas, I struggled a bit to identify who were core members (adults with IDD) and who were assistants, but as I’ve worked in this field longer, I’ve become slightly better at identifying who has an IDD.

This can be a useful way of categorizing disabilities (recognizable vs. hidden) because how others read your disability affects how others treat you. Those with hidden disabilities can be quite different experiences than those with recognizable ones.

Web-Relevant Disabilities

Computers, the Internet, and the web have become integral elements of modern life. Many, but not all, disabilities affect a person’s ability to use these tools. Typically, only disabilities that affect a person’s eyes, ears, hands, or brain influence a person’s ability to use the web independently. This way of categorizing disabilities can be useful to designers and developers creating websites and apps.

Print Disabilities

The term “print disabilities” is another broad way of categorizing disabilities. The term includes those with visual disabilities (like blindness and low vision) as well as certain cognitive disabilities like dyslexia. Although the causes of print disabilities can differ significantly, people with print disabilities will use many of the same adaptive strategies and assistive technologies. For those with print disabilities, it can be important to hear content read to them, adjust the display of text, or simply be given more time to process text. For these reasons, I think this category can be useful when it comes to discussing or thinking about accessibility or assistive technology.

Speech Disabilities

There are many different causes of speech disabilities (a stroke, hearing loss, ALS), but they all affect a central element of life: speech. In this way, I think the phrase “speech disabilities” is somewhat similar to the phrase “print disabilities.” However, unlike with print disabilities, I think people with speech disabilities may use significantly different adaptive strategies or assistive technologies depending on the specific cause of their disability.

Disabilities that are Minor and Easily Compensated for

I wear glasses. I can complete most tasks without them, although reading can be a challenge if I don’t have them. My employer pays for my vision insurance, and my vision insurance pays for some of the cost of my glasses. It’s relatively easy to get my vision checked out and order a new pair when I need one. This is a relatively minor (and common) impairment, one that society supports and compensates for fairly well and one that doesn’t create many limitations or restrictions.

Some disabilities are minor and easily compensated for, like my vision. I don’t think we have great language yet to talk about these sorts of disabilities. Honestly, I don’t even really think “disability” is the correct word here, because I am rarely disabled because of my vision. Disability, and human ability in general, is a broad spectrum. But I do think this is another way of thinking about and categorizing dis/abilities that can be helpful to keep in mind.

Those are several different broad ways of categorizing disabilities. Did I miss any general categories that you think are helpful or meaningful?

Theoretical Models of Disability

2021-04-26T18:13:00-07:00

Introduction

There are a number of different theoretical models that we use to understand disability. What are the most common models that you are likely to come across?

The Medical Model
The Social Model
The Functional Solutions Model
The Biopsychosocial Model
The Economic Model
The Society Identity or Cultural Affiliation Model
The Charity Model

What are the basic concepts behinds each of these models, as well as their strengths and weaknesses? Which of these models best align with the principles of accessibility and universal design? What are some practical examples of these models in our lives?

The Medical Model

Under the medical model of disability, disabilities arise from various biological impairments or diagnosable health conditions. The medical model emphasizes individuals’ impairments and limitations and is often concerned with “healing” the person or mitigating their impairments through professional medical care.

Strength: In clinical, medical settings, this way of understanding disability can help make sure that patients get the health care they need. The medical model of disability can also be used for legal purposes, such as clearly determining who qualifies for certain benefits.

Weakness: The medical model over-emphasizes the individual and overlooks the fundamental roles that society and environments play in creating disability. Additionally, if people’s disabilities don’t meet strict definitions, those people might not qualify for medical care or other benefits. Also, medical interventions can be a great deal of hassle for a person with a disability, as well as incredibly costly.

We see the medical model in action when someone with a disability is diagnosed by a medical professional with a health condition and then offered treatment or a cure for their condition through the health care system.

The social model of disability emphasizes mismatches between individuals’ capabilities and the demands of their environment. While under the medical model, disabilities are created by various impairments, under the social model, people are disabled when their environment is not designed to meet their needs. In this case, impairments don’t directly cause disability. Instead, people are disabled by poorly designed environments. Adherents to the social model of disability typically won’t deny that people have various impairments, medical conditions, or differing abilities that can present challenges. However, under the social model, those challenges on their own don’t cause a disability. Instead, the mismatch between a person’s abilities and their environment creates a disability, not an impairment in and of itself.

Strength: The social model forces us to think about the roles we all play in creating (or preventing) disability. By creating accessible environments (physical, virtual, and social), we can greatly improve the experiences of people with various impairments or limitations. Likewise, when we fail to do so, it’s on us. In this way, the social model helps remove barriers for and end stigmas against people with disabilities.

For these reasons, I think the social model of disability aligns closely with the principles of accessibility and universal design. Relatedly, when we design our shared environments to be accessible to people with disabilities, we also benefit all sorts of other people and use cases. This trait of universal design is known as the curb-cut effect. We added curb-cuts on sidewalks for the benefit of people with disabilities, but many other people use curb-cuts as well, for things like bicycles or heavy luggage. When you approach disability from the social perspective, you also benefit people with situational limitations.

Weakness: If you look at disability strictly from the social model, you may overlook other aspects of disability, such as the biological or the cultural.

We see the social model in action when buildings are designed to be wheelchair accessible or when websites are designed to work with assistive technologies such as screen readers or switch controls. By carefully and inclusively creating our built environments, we can include rather than disable people.

The Functional Solutions Model

The functional socials model of disability looks at disability as a practical problem to be solved, often through innovative assistive technologies or adaptive strategies.

The functional solutions model somewhat aligns with the ideals of accessibility, as it is concerned with finding ways to increase access and independence for people with disabilities. However, I think the functional solutions model best aligns with the field of assistive technology (how do you come up with a solution to begin with?), and the social model best aligns with the field of accessibility (how can you scale those solutions throughout society?).

Strength: This model of disability is focused on helping people with disabilities in practical, direct ways and supporting them to be more independent.

Weakness: This view can be too narrow or myopic at times, overlooking the role of broader social change. (Yes, it’s super cool that some wheelchairs can climb stairs, but also, why didn’t we build a ramp?) Additionally, many functional solutions (assistive technologies) are prohibitively expensive.

We see the functional solutions model in action when an engineer create new assistive technologies or when we 3D-print braille dice.

Biopsychosocial Model

The biopsychosocial model is probably the most complicated, nuanced framework for understanding what disability is. This model is the basis for the World Health Organization’s International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF), a framework which is often used by occupational therapists.

I understand the biopsychosocial model as a perspective that incorporates and integrates the medical, functional solutions, and social models. This model recognizes that disability is “a complex phenomena that is both a problem at the level of a person’s body, and a complex and primarily social phenomena. Disability is always an interaction between features of the person and features of the overall context in which the person lives.” Under this model, disability arises both from a person’s health conditions as well as contextual factors, such as their environment.

What does that mean in practice? Biological impairments are real things, which merit professional medical treatment and care. Those impairments create activity limitations, difficulties an individual may have in performing certain tasks. To help with these limitations, an individual may be given assistive technology, adaptive strategies, personal assistance, or rehabilitation therapy. Because of their impairments or activity limitations, an individual may also experience participation restrictions, problems participating in everyday life situations. To help with these restrictions, we need universal design, anti-discrimination laws, and general social inclusion.

Strength: This model is nuanced and can be used to address disability from a variety of levels. It can also be applied to both prevention and intervention. Like the medical model, the biopsychosocial model can be used to create definitions and qualifications for legal purposes.

Weakness: It’s a little complicated to wrap your head around at first. It may also overlook the insights of the social identity/cultural affiliation model.

We can see the biopsychosocial model in action when an occupational therapist (OT) helps someone learn to use an assistive technology and later when the OT advocates for web accessibility.

The Economic Model

The economic model is concerned with how disability impacts an individual’s ability to work. By extension, this model may also be used by employers to analyze “productivity” or by the state to plan welfare programs.

Strength: This model is sensitive to the reality that many people with disabilities are unemployed and require social assistance.

Weakness: This approach to disability overlooks many other aspects of disability and can also create a stigma against people with disabilities, labeling them as “needy.”

We see the economic model in action when an employer wonders if someone with a disability would be “as productive” as someone without or when people creating welfare systems assume people with disabilities require economic support.

People with disabilities often have similar life experiences to each other, experiences that others in society may not understand. The social identity or cultural affiliation model of disability pays attention to how people with disability can have a shared culture and take pride in their membership in this group.

Strength: This model encourages people to accept their disabilities and view them as a point of pride. It can lead not only to self-empowerment but also to political power for people with disabilities.

Weakness: For some people with disabilities, it is not easy to accept their disabilities or take pride in it. There are many different types of disabilities, and not everyone with a disability identifies as being in the same social group.

We see this model in action when Deaf individuals showcase Deaf pride and create or support Deaf culture.

The Charity Model

Under the charity model, disabilities are viewed as tragic or unfortunate, and people with disabilities may be viewed as inspirational for living with their impairments. Relatedly, people with disabilities are viewed as needing assistance, and providing that assistance is seen as morally laudable.

Strength: This perspective inspires people to donate time and money to support people with disabilities.

Weakness: This perspective objectifies people with disabilities, turning them into “inspiration porn.” This model can also perpetuate ableism and existing inequalities, as it applauds people who donate without necessarily challenging them to make society more equal and accessible.

We see this model in action when nonprofits attempt to fundraise by emphasizing the hardships of living with a disability.

Let's Disambiguate Some Terms

2021-04-23T07:10:00-07:00

You know what I love? Context. I can honestly get quite excited about it sometimes. I appreciate when folks pause to provide some context for a discussion, define and disambiguate their terminology, and make sure everyone is on the same page. In that spirit, before I progress with my 100 Days of A11y blog series, I want to take a moment to do just that.

There are several different theoretical models that people use to understand what disability is, and how you define disability is influenced by which model(s) you subscribe to. In my next post, I’ll explore these different models in more detail. Personally, I tend to view disability through the social model and define disability as a mismatch between a person’s capabilities and what their environment requires. For example, a deaf person is disabled when a video they are watching fails to provide captions, but they are not necessarily disabled while going about their everyday life as a deaf person.

Accessibility is an attribute, a reflection of how accessible something is, of whether different people (with varying capabilities) are able to use it (and to some degree, how easily they are able to use it). I think, strictly speaking, accessibility refers to whether someone is able to use something at all (sort of like a binary on/off switch), while usability refers to how easily and intuitively someone can use something (sort of like a zero to one hundred slider). In practice, I think usability considerations are often intertwined with accessibility considerations, and they may not always be easy to separate.

I almost described accessibility as a feature a moment ago, rather than as an attribute, but I don’t think that’s the best word choice, for a couple reasons. First, accessibility should not be viewed as an optional, nice-to-have feature. That’s ableist. Second, a product’s accessibility really is a sliding scale, from accommodating only a small number of people on one side to accommodating every possible person on the other. In this way, accessibility isn’t a feature that something has or doesn’t have. Rather, it’s a fundamental attribute of anything we create, with many different possible values ranging from “barely accessible to anyone” to “accessible to people with certain impairments but not others” and finally to “accessible to everybody!” I think the word “attribute” reflects this reality better than the word “feature.”

Accessibility is often abbreviated as a11y because there are eleven characters between the “a” and the “y” in the word “accessibility”.

Accessibility applies to both physical and digital spaces. I’ve noticed that the abbreviation a11y more often tends to be associated with digital and specifically web accessibility. I’ve also noticed that people tend to use the phrase “accessible built environments” to refer to accessibility in physical, real-world spaces. Personally, I think that’s a little confusing, because digital, virtual spaces are also “built,” albeit in a different way.

Accessibility is related to inclusive design. Inclusive design is a method, a way of approaching design that is proactively mindful and respectful of human differences across many axes. If someone practices inclusive design, they will be mindful of people’s wide array of varying abilities and carefully design accessible products. An inclusive designer will also pay attention to considerations beyond accessibility. For example, as a nonbinary person, I am frequently infuriated by web forms that assume gender is binary (male or female). While this isn’t necessarily an accessibility consideration, it is something that an inclusive designer would care about.

Accessibility is also a professional field. The International Association for Accessibility Professionals (IAAP) is a professional organization that represents, supports, and champions this field. Within the field of accessibility, there are many different roles you might have. Accessibility professionals may audit and remediate websites, documents, and apps, to ensure that they are accessible to people with disabilities. Accessibility professionals may also work as designers, developers, or product managers, proactively ensuring that products are built accessibly from the get-go. Accessibility professionals may also work as trainers or consultants, supporting others in learning about and creating accessibility. Accessibility professionals are often guided by an ethic of universal design and seek to create things that are natively accessible to as many people as possible. Finally, accessibility professionals frequently stay up-to-date on relevant laws, regulations, and standards, and some accessibility professionals trained in law may specialize in accessibility laws and disability civil rights.

For some people, accessibility is their whole career path. For others, it’s just a part of what they do. It’s helpful to have some people who specialize in accessibility, but it’s also important to have many others who are aware of accessibility fundamentals and who can help create accessible experiences, even if it’s not their core responsibility.

There are a few other distinct professional fields that relate to disability and accessibility.

First, there is the world of specialized assistive technologies for persons with disabilities. This is related to but distinct from accessibility. Accessibility professionals create things that can be accessed by assistive technology. For example, a web accessibility specialist will focus on creating websites that can be accessed through screen readers or switch controls. However, assistive technology professionals focus on actually creating those screen readers or switch controls to begin with. Assistive technology professionals may also help people with disabilities learn about and learn to use assistive technology, depending on their exact role. Folks who are immersed in the assistive technology world are more likely to be members of the Rehabilitation Engineering and Assistive Technology Society of North America (RESNA), rather than IAAP.

Another distinct but related field is occupational therapy. Occupational therapists (OTs) help people improve their fine and gross motor skills so that they can more independently perform tasks they want and need to do. OTs work with people with disabilities and other people as well, such as those recovering from certain injuries or who have been diagnosed with certain medical conditions. OTs may also help make modifications to a person’s environment or help a person learn to use assistive technologies. OTs are likely to be members of the American Occupational Therapy Association (AOTA). I’ve also noticed that some OTs are members of RESNA. Here is a link to an interesting article I found about occupational therapists and assistive technology engineers working together.

There is also a universe of people whose job it is to support people with disabilities in academic institutions. Teachers, paraprofessionals, and others who work in disability services may support students in K–12 schools. Those who work in higher education might be members of the Association on Higher Education and Disability (AHEAD). AHEAD members are a diverse group of people, some of whom may work in disability resources, others in IT, and others might work as ADA/508 coordinators or have other roles on campus. Those with a background in rehabilitation counseling might work in disability resources, or the Office of Accessible Education, as it’s now known at my alma mater. Others on campus might work to facilitate accommodations for students with disabilities, make assistive technologies available to those students, create accessible curricula materials, train faculty and others on campus on accessibility, or otherwise support the university’s accessibility policies and infrastructure. Who exactly has these roles and how they are carried out can vary by institution.

One last group that I want to shout out are direct support professionals (DSPs). DSPs support people with disabilities (I think most frequently those with intellectual and developmental disabilities) in a wide array of contexts, including work, hobbies, community life, and activities of daily living. The relevant professional organization here is the National Alliance for Direct Support Professionals (NADSP). I worked as a DSP for a couple years in a few different roles (residential, day services, and supported living), and I’ve seen the great work that many of these professionals do on a daily basis. This field is painfully undervalued by society as a whole, but that’s a topic for another post. When it comes to accessibility and assistive technology, DSPs aren’t expected to be experts, but they typically have a lot of experience with accessibility barriers and adaptive strategies. Depending on whom they support, DSPs may also be more knowledgeable about assistive technologies and might support persons with disabilities in using their assistive tech.

What’s the point here?

There are many professional fields, career paths, and job roles when it comes to disability, accessibility, and assistive technology. While there are similarities and overlap between all of these roles, I think these are nonetheless distinct fields, each with their own expertise, experience, and professional competencies.

Depending on where you enter from, you may or may not be aware of all these fields and roles. I am working to become an accessibility professional, but I started out as a DSP. It’s taken me time to be able to write this blog post, to be aware of and be able to tease out the differences between all these roles. For a person who enters from another point (design or engineering, for example), it may take them a while to become aware of roles OTs and DSPs play. That’s part of why I mentioned so many professional organizations in this blog. Discovering those organizations help me understand what all these distinct fields are, and it also helped me learn more about each one. If one of those organizations or fields is new to you, I’d encourage you to check out their website and learn a little more about it. I think that can help make us all more effective allies and advocates for disability justice.

What is CPACC and What Am I Doing?

2021-04-16T07:10:00-07:00

About a year ago, I started a concerted effort to learn more about accessibility, both as a topic in and of itself and as a profession. In “Accessibility Adventures: August 2020,” I shared about how I got interested in accessibility and why I want a career in it. Since then, I’ve continued to read about accessibility, I’ve made some accessibility updates to my blog, and I’ve begun to incorporate accessibility into my work as a training specialist. I’ve also researched careers in accessibility and thought carefully about what to do next.

Now, I’ve decided to take a swing at my first big milestone: I’m working to earn a professional certification in accessibility.

The International Association for Accessibility Professionals (IAAP) is the professional association for people who work in accessibility. And as of this week, I’m a member! IAAP offers a number of professional certifications. I am planning to test for the Certified Professional in Accessibility Core Competencies (CPACC) credential in July. CPACC is a broad, foundational certification, appropriate for anyone who supports or manages accessibility. The CPACC exam covers three broad topics:

Disabilities, Challenges, and Assistive Technologies
Accessibility and Universal Design
Standards, Laws, and Management Strategies

The CPACC certification is appropriate for content creators, designers, developers, anyone who works in disability services, or anyone who manages any of those people. IAAP does offer a technical certification for people who implement accessibility online: Web Accessibility Specialist (WAS). I want to earn the WAS credential eventually, but CPACC is a better starting point.

It seems to me that more and more professions require grad school these days, but I’ve learned that this isn’t true for accessibility. (How fortunate!) People come to accessibility from many different paths, and not only is grad school not required, for the most part, it’s not even an option. I was tempted by the University of Illinois’s Information Accessibility Design and Policy certificate program, but I decided against it. From what I can tell, the CPACC certification is just as useful (potentially more so), and it’s cheaper and quicker to acquire. Additionally, I looked over IAAP’s ten sample CPACC questions, and I was able to answer them all correctly, so I think I’m already reasonably well prepared for the exam.

Inspired by Amy Carney’s 100 Days of A11y blog, I have decided to blog my way through the CPACC body of knowledge as I study for the exam. I plan to write and publish new blog posts once or twice a week as I prepare. These posts will be my attempt to take what I’ve learned and synthesize it into my own words. I also plan to include guiding questions in these posts, to help me review with active recall study strategies.

I’m writing these posts for myself, as a mechanism to help me study and learn. But I also hope this series of posts can be useful to others studying for their CPACC exams.

In addition to reading through the CPACC body of knowledge and writing these posts, I’m also planning to work my way through Deque University’s CPACC Preparation course and the Open EdX CPACC Exam Preparation course. I’m probably somewhat over-preparing for this, but it’s important, it’s fun, and it’s foundational.

Wish me luck!

2020 in Reading

2021-01-07T16:50:00-08:00

Introduction

Here’s most all the books I read in 2020:

Our Super Canadian Adventure: An Our Super Adventure Travelogue by Sarah Graley and Stef Purenins (comics)
Uncanny Magazine Issue 31 edited by Lynne M. Thomas and Michael Damian Thomas
Unicorn of Many Hats: Another Phoebe and Her Unicorn Adventure by Dana Simpson (comics)
The Obelisk Gate by N.K. Jemisin
Phoebe and Her Unicorn in Unicorn Theatre by Dana Simpson (comics)
Managing Transitions: Making the Most of Change: 3rd Edition by William Bridges
The Stone Sky by N.K. Jemisin
Unicorn Bowling: Another Phoebe and Her Unicorn Adventure by Dana Simpson (comics)
The Unicorn Whisperer: Another Phoebe and Her Unicorn Adventure by Dana Simpson (comics)
Digital Minimalism: Choosing a Focused Life in a Noisy World by Cal Newport
Saga: Volume One by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples (comics)
Come Tumbling Down by Seanan McGuire
Secretly, I’ve Been Suffering About Being Sexless by Togame translated by Alexandra McCullough-Garcia (manga)
Artificial Condition by Martha Wells
Saga: Volume Two by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples (comics)
Sisters of the Vast Black by Lina Rather
Prosper’s Demon by K.J. Parker
Uncanny Magazine Issue 32 edited by Lynne M. Thomas and Michael Damian Thomas
Finna by Nino Cipri
Saga: Volume Three by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples (comics)
The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers (audiobook)
Emergent Strategy: Shaping Change, Changing Worlds by Adrienne Maree Brown
How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy by Jenny Odell (audiobook)
The Deep by Rivers Solomon with Daveed Diggs, William Hutson, and Jonathan Snipes
Gods of Risk by James S. A. Corey (audiobook)
After the Golden Age by Carrie Vaughn
Accessibility for Everyone by Laura Kalbag
Teen Titans: Raven by Kami Garcia and illustrated by Gabriel Picolo (graphic novel)
A Closed and Common Orbit by Becky Chambers (audiobook)
Uncanny Magazine Issue 33 edited by Lynne M. Thomas and Michael Damian Thomas
Camping with Unicorns: Another Phoebe and Her Unicorn Adventure by Dana Simpson (comics)
Design for Real Life by Eric Meyer and Sara Wachter-Boettcher
Record of a Spaceborn Few by Becky Chambers (audiobook)
Dwarf Stars 2020 edited by Robin Mayhall (poetry)
The Crystal Shard by R.A. Salvatore
Disability Visibility: First-Person Stories from the Twenty-First Century edited by Alice Wong (audiobook)
Uncanny Magazine Issue 34 edited by Lynne M. Thomas and Michael Damian Thomas
The Ghosts of Sherwood by Carrie Vaughn
The Heirs of Locksley by Carrie Vaughn
Golden Gates: Fighting for Housing in America by Conor Dougherty (audiobook)
Uncanny Magazine Issue 35 edited by Lynne M. Thomas and Michael Damian Thomas
To Be Taught, If Fortunate by Becky Chambers (audiobook)
Virtual Unicorn Experience: Another Phoebe and Her Unicorn Adventure by Dana Simpson (comics)
HTML5 For Web Designers Jeremy Keith and Rachel Andrew
CSS3 for Web Designers by Dan Cederholm
Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less by Greg McKeown
The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow
Teen Titans: Beast Boy by Kami Garcia and illustrated by Gabriel Picolo (graphic novel)
The Bullet Journal Method: Track the Past, Order the Present, Design the Future by Ryder Carroll
Uprooted by Naomi Novik (audiobook)
Kim Reaper: Grim Beginnings by Sarah Graley (comics)
Kim Reaper: Vampire Island by Sarah Graley (comics)
Pepper & Carrot Book 1: The Potion of Flight by David Revoy (comics)
Our Super Adventure by Sarah Graley (comics)
The City in The Middle of the Night by Charlie Jane Anders
Over the Anvil We Stretch by Anis Mojgani (poetry)
On Web Typography by Jason Santa Maria
Pepper & Carrot Book 2: The Witches of Chaosah by David Revoy (comics)
Pepper & Carrot Book 3: The Butterfly Effect by David Revoy (comics)
Webfont Handbook by Bram Stein
Provenance by Ann Leckie (audiobook)
Our Super Adventure: Video Games and Pizza Parties by Sarah Graley & Stef Purenins (comics)
Uncanny Magazine Issue 36 edited by Lynne M. Thomas and Michael Damian Thomas
The Art of Pepper & Carrot by David Revoy (comics)
Cute! An Our Super Adventure Comic Collection by Sarah Graley and Stef Purenis (comics)
Flexible Typesetting by Tim Brown

That’s the long list; now let’s shout out the highlights. By “highlights,” I mean the reads that I enjoyed the most and that were the most impactful for me personally.

Novels

Two series really rocked my world in 2020.

First, I loved N.K. Jemisin’s Broken Earth trilogy: The Fifth Season, The Obelisk Gate, and The Stone Sky. These novels are phenomenal, and Jemisin totally deserved her unprecedented Hugo Awards trifecta for these works.

Second, I read Becky Chambers’ Wayfarer series: The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet; A Closed and Common Orbit; and Record of a Spaceborn Few. I think Becky Chambers is now tied with Ann Leckie as being my favorite author. These are moving character-centric novels, set in a fun and detailed space opera universe, suffused with wisdom and profound themes such as family, identity, death, and the very purpose of life.

Those two series were the highlights of my year in reading, but I also read and loved these four incredibly strong novels:

Uprooted by Naomi Novik: a terrific fantasy story about a wizard, a witch, and a corrupted forest
The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow: an adventure about — and in some ways a treatise on — portal fantasies
The City in The Middle of the Night by Charlie Jane Anders: a masterful piece of worldbuilding and ideas
Provenance by Ann Leckie: an intelligent, cozy, science fictional coming-of-age story

Novellas

I also read a host of novellas in 2020. These were my favorites:

The Ghosts of Sherwood and The Heirs of Locksley by Carrie Vaughn: Robin Hood! Actually, even better: his children!
Sisters of the Vast Black by Lina Rather: nuns in space!
Finna by Nino Cipri: a queer anti-capitalist adventure, featuring IKEA and trans-dimensional portals!
To Be Taught, If Fortunate by Becky Chambers: Becky Chambers being amazing, but a little closer to home than her Wayfarers series and with a stronger focus on science (both in terms of plot and theme)

Comics

When I think about the comics I read last year, three series in particular jump out:

Phoebe and Her Unicorn by Dana Simpson: an enchanting comic strip about a young girl and her best friend, a fabulous unicorn
Pepper & Carrot by David Revoy: a gorgeous and silly webcomic about a young witch and her cat
Kim Reaper by Sarah Graley: a fun, queer comic series about a (human) part-time grim reaper

Nonfiction

These were my favorite nonfiction reads from 2020:

How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy by Jenny Odell: this is a weird, unique, and wonderful book. It’s about doing nothing and resisting the attention economy. It’s also about art, protest, activism movements, nature, and ecology. Reading this book legit helped reconnect me to my own intrinsic value.
Accessibility for Everyone by Laura Kalbag: For me, a big part of 2020 was discovering the world of accessibility. This book is a fantastic introduction to the topic.
Golden Gates: Fighting for Housing in America by Conor Dougherty: fantastic narrative nonfiction about housing justice issues in America, and specifically in the San Francisco Bay Area, where I live, where there aren’t enough homes, and where the homes that do exist cost way too much.

Blogging

For me, blogging is a part of reading. Usually, I don’t like to just read something and then move on, without pausing to grapple with it a little longer, to articulate my thoughts on it, and to then share those thoughts with others. So it feels appropriate to me to include a roundup of my book blogging alongside this yearly reading roundup.

In earlier years, I did recent reading blog posts, where I rounded up all sorts of things I had been reading, and before that, I gave most every book it’s own blog post (rather than grouping multiple books together in one post). This year I tried something new: SFF Adventures. At this point, science fiction and fantasy (SFF) is what I read most and care most about, so I decided to start a new “column” here where I shout out and share my thoughts on all the deliciously genre things that I have been reading, listening to, and watching. I’ve really enjoyed writing these posts! They let me skip to the heart of what I’m interested in, engage more deeply with the SFF community, and talk about SFF podcasts and TV shows as well as books and essays.

Here are the SFF Adventures blog posts that I wrote in 2020. In these posts, you can find my more detailed thoughts on the books I’ve shouted out above.

SFF Adventures: December 2020

2020-12-30T07:40:00-08:00

Blog Posts & Essays

I liked “‘Oh, Frak’ — Avoiding the Censors the SFF Way” by CD Covington on Tor.com. If you like linguistics or cursing, check this out!

I also enjoyed “Hannibal and Steven Universe Are the Same Show” by Leah Schnelbach on Tor.com. I haven’t seen or paid any attention to Hannibal, but I loved reading Schnelbach’s thoughts on empathy and Steven Universe, and they did draw some surprising connections between the two shows.

I recently came across a number of great essays about diversity and inclusion in the SFF world:

“Marginalized people living varied and fulfilled lives in genre fiction is historically accurate” by Piper J. Drake, published on the SFWA blog
“Moving Beyond Diversity: A Conversation We Need To Have In SFF” by Cat Rambo, published by Strange Horizons
“Fine Weather, Isn’t It?” by Tochi Onyebuchi, published on the SFWA blog

Onyebuchi’s essay is about racism and policing and is a part of a larger conversation we’ve been having this year about these topics. For more on this topic, see July’s SFF Adventures, where I shared a Skiffy and Fanty podcast episode about futures without police, or August’s SFF Adventures, where I shared a short story by Annalee Newitz about defunding the police, or October’s SFF Adventures, where I shared a cool essay about policing in Avatar: The Last Airbender and The Legend of Korra.

I recently came across this essay from 2019: “Asexual Representation in Mainstream Speculative Fiction” by Lynn E. O’Connacht, published by The Book Smugglers. It’s a long essay that I haven’t read all of, but I’ve skimmed my way through it, and it is very cool. Check it out!

On the topic of good, non-recently-published essays, I recently read “Another Word: On Being a Late Bloomer” by Kelly Robson, published in Clarkesworld Magazine in September 2016. It’s a good read. I recommend this essay if you ever look at young artists doing awesome stuff and feel like you don’t measure up or if it’s too late for you. (I’m a relatively young one myself, and sometimes even I feel that way!)

Podcasts

Lately, Flash Forward has had a string of terrific episodes. My favorite recent episode was “Everybody Votes,” where we travel to a future in which voting rights in the United States are extended to non-citizens, 16-year-olds, and convicted felons. After listening to this episode, I am firmly in favor of all of those groups being extended voting rights. Wild fact: did you know that for a long time in the US, non-citizens were allowed to vote in many elections? I also greatly enjoyed “Give the Land Back?” (about the landback movement in the US and Canada) and “Home Sweet Home” (about a future where housing is guaranteed and provided to everybody).

Imaginary Worlds has also released some good episodes lately. I enjoyed “Fantasy in Translation,” “Fan Films Go Pro,” and “Monsters of 2020.” In particular, I liked “Monsters of 2020.” It is a fascinating discussion about how Jaws, Jurassic Park, and Tom Nook (from Animal Crossing) relate to the coronavirus pandemic.

Skiffy and Fanty recently released a couple fun episodes in which Shaun Duke and Mike Underwood talk about tabletop role-playing games (TTRPGs): “TTRPGs in the Dark Times” and “Creating TTRPG Actual Plays!” These are “Speculative Dispatch” episodes that I believe are exclusive to patrons on Patreon. If you’re able to, I definitely would recommend supporting Skiffy and Fanty on Patreon! As a Skiffy and Fanty contributor, I am of course biased, but I do believe Skiffy and Fanty is a bastion of smart, fun, and justice-minded SFF fandom.

Relatedly, my head has been in Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) realms again. I’ve been reading the Player’s Handbook and Xanathar’s Guide to Everything, and I’ve been listening to The Dungeoncast, a podcast where the co-hosts discuss D&D game mechanics and lore. The D&D sourcebooks are well-written and fun to read, but they are relatively dense. I like listening to The Dungeoncast along with reading those books to get at the information in another way, one that’s more informal and animated. If you are trying to wrap your head around D&D lore or mechanics, I would recommend The Dungeoncast as a helpful resource.

Another favorite podcast of mine is Queersplaining, which usually isn’t about SFF. However, Callie recently released a powerful and smart episode about Star Trek: Discovery and nonbinary representation: “non binary…..space?….worms?” Highly recommend! If I’m allowed a shameless plug here, I would say, check out my personal essay “Holy Shit! Representation Matters! Or, How SFF Helped Me Realize I’m Nonbinary,” which explores similar themes.

The Ezra Klein Show is another favorite podcast of mine that usually isn’t SFF-related. However, Klein recently interviewed Kim Stanley Robinson about Robinson’s new novel The Ministry for the Future. They had a great discussion about climate, art, humanity, and politics. Side-note: I’ve started listening to The Ministry for the Future, and so far it’s quite good!

Comics

I recently re-read Kim Reaper: Grim Beginnings and read (for the first time) Kim Reaper: Vampire Island by Sarah Graley. As I wrote back in 2018 about Grim Beginnings, “This adorable and fun comic is adorable and fun. It features: a college student who’s a part time grim reaper + a lesbian romance + cats + ghosts + zombies + pretty artwork. I want more please.” All of that remains true, but now having read Vampire Island, I can say that this series also includes vampires, a nonbinary best friend, and a great overarching plot arc! If you are at all interested in queer or paranormal comics, I highly recommend Kim Reaper, and yes, I still want more please.

Pepper & Carrot is an A+ webcomic. It’s about a young witch (Pepper) and her cat (Carrot), and it’s cute, funny, and gorgeous. It’s also Free Culture: the webcomic itself and all the source materials that go into it are released under Free and open-source licenses. You should read Pepper & Carrot and consider supporting its creator David Revoy.

In October, Revoy released three beautiful Pepper & Carrot books, each which contains about ten episodes of the webcomic. He also released a fourth book, The Art of Pepper & Carrot, which compiles sketches, artwork, and worldbuilding info. Since I support the comic on Patreon, my name is printed in the back of the books! I bought the books, read through them all, and really enjoyed it. I’m happy and grateful that I have hard copies of these comics now. I have enjoyed following along online as new episodes are released, but I think it’s even better to have beautiful print copies that I can get lost inside of, especially considering how gorgeous and detailed Revoy’s art is.

TV

TV-wise, 2020 has been the year of cartoons for my partner and me. We’ve watched all of Avatar: The Last Airbender, The Legend of Korra, and Steven Universe.

Most recently, we finished watching all ten seasons of Adventure Time. Before this year, I had seen a good chunk of episodes from the early seasons, but I had never really intentionally sat down to watch the show. From what I had seen earlier, I didn’t dislike the show, but nor was I particularly attached to it. (I did dislike the Ice King!) But my partner insisted that the show was awesome and that we should watch it, so watch it we did. And while I still prefer Avatar or Steven Universe over Adventure Time, I have grown to appreciate and enjoy the show.

Adventure Time is quite a different show than Avatar or Steven Universe — it ran for way more seasons and it cares much less about longer, serialized plot arcs. I enjoyed Adventure Time most when it leaned into big plot arcs. My favorite episodes were the “Finn the Human/Jake the Dog” arc and the “Islands” miniseries. Those episodes broadened the universe and told big, interesting stories. In general, the latter seasons did more of this. But as a whole, Adventure Time cares less about plot and more about having fun with its huge cast of characters: watching them go on adventures, have a good time, make friends, make mistakes, grow, and mature. That’s really cool, and I’m glad Adventure Time is like that. A lot of old cartoons hit the reset button at the end of every episode, and many newer shows have plots that are heavily serialized. Adventure Time is neither of those, and that’s great. It’s a fun fantasy world populated with great characters. It’s a place where, on a crummy day, I can go hang out with my friends Finn, Jake, Marcy, and Bonnie and have a good time. I’ve even come around somewhat with the Ice King.

We’ve now started watching Gravity Falls. It’s a fun show with endearing characters that’s on the creepy/paranormal side of things. So far, I am enjoying it!

Novels

Uprooted by Naomi Novik

I listened to the audiobook of Uprooted by Naomi Novik. My experience with this book was similar to my experience with N. K. Jemisin’s Broken Earth trilogy: marketing blurbs and descriptions of the book didn’t really captivate me, but I heard enough people squee loud enough about the book that I wanted to read it and see what all the fuss was about. And then I read it, and then I understood: it is just an exceptionally well-crafted story and an exceptionally well-written novel. Because of that, I loved it, even though there was nothing in particular about the premise that called out to me. Which is to say, I strongly recommend this book, and I’m not even going to bother telling you anything else about it. Go read Uprooted.

Relatedly, I haven’t read Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir, but I think it might fall into the same sort of bucket. Sure, lesbian necromancers in space sounds cool, but for me that’s not enough on its own to make me want to read it immediately, but I do want to better understand what all the fuss is about…

The City in the Middle of the Night by Charlie Jane Anders

I recently read The City in the Middle of the Night by Charlie Jane Anders, and I’ve been bugging my partner to read it so that I can discuss it with someone. It is a good book, and I recommend it. The story takes place on January, a tidally-locked planet far from Earth, which means half of the planet perpetually faces the sun and is deathly hot, and the other half of the planet perpetually faces into space and is deathly cold. Humans live in a couple cities in the narrow band between night and day.

That was one of the coolest things about reading the book: on January, night and day aren’t times — they are places. It was quite fun attempting to wrap my head around this concept all on its own, but it was even more enjoyable to see how Anders weaves this into the worldbuilding. The worldbuilding in this novel is A+.

This is a great novel, specifically along the axes of worldbuilding and ideas. Plot and characters, while not neglected, definitely felt like secondary focuses to me. If you want a fun, gripping read, honestly this probably isn’t it. But if you want a book that makes you think about civilization, politics, marginalization, privilege, and climate and leaves you with your head spinning, then you should absolutely read this book. Those themes are fundamental to where we are as a species right now, and this book is important.

Provenance by Ann Leckie

I re-read Provenance by Ann Leckie. (To be precise, this time I mostly listened to the audiobook version.) It remains a terrific book! Honestly, I finished re-reading this book, and I thought, I definitely want to read this book again in a year or two. I tend to only re-read one or maybe two novels a year, so that’s saying something!

I love this book because:

It takes place largely within a civilization where gender is trinary: there are men, women, and nemen, who use Spivak pronouns (e/em/eir/emself).
It takes place largely within a civilization where children are raised gender neutral and choose their name and gender/pronouns when they come of age.
It is a fun coming-of-age story about a young woman, her rivalry with her brother, and her political mother.
It’s got political intrigue, alien contact, and queer romance. (And no marginalization of queer folks!)
It depicts multiple civilizations, which are different in interesting and entertaining ways, coming into contact with and/or encountering each other.
In addition to the fun stuff listed above, it also deals with prison reform/abolition and features detailed non-Eurocentric worldbuilding that pays attention to varying levels of privilege and marginalization.

When I first read this book, it was unclear to me whether nemen were agender/gender-neutral or some sort of third gender. As I read the book this time, I was on the lookout for clues. Honestly, beyond pronouns, there weren’t many references to gender, so it’s hard to say. (The book doesn’t even use gendered honorifics. In Provenance, the most common honorific is “your excellency.” That’s wonderful. Can we please start making that commonplace?)

However, I do have one observation: I believe that children, who haven’t yet chosen their adult name and gender/pronouns, are referred to with they/them pronouns rather than Spivak pronouns. (Unfortunately, I didn’t flag this in the text, so I want to say that there’s a chance I’m mistaken here.) If children, who are treated as gender-neutral, aren’t referred to with Spivak pronouns, that implies that nemen (who use Spivak pronouns) are probably more of a third gender than they are gender-neutral. But again, I wasn’t able to pick up much from the text that described the gender of nemen, so it’s hard to be sure.

For clarity’s sake, I now need to state: this ambiguity is not a sin or error in the novel. I give this novel absolutely full marks for awesomeness, especially when it comes to gender. This novel does things with gender that, while groundbreaking, should be more common. The above two paragraphs are not a critique. Rather, they are a trans fan (me) digging deeply into a text that’s singularly important to them.

What do you think? Do you have any thoughts on Provenance? What are your thoughts on gender in the novel, specifically around children, coming-of-age, and nemen? (Or if you have thoughts on anything else I’ve mentioned here, please let me know!)

Accessibility Updates

2020-11-30T16:49:00-08:00

I’ve been learning a lot about accessibility this year, as I’ve written about in recent blog posts. (See “Accessibility Adventures: August 2020” and “Accessibility Adventures: October 2020.”) I’ve gotten a better sense of why accessibility is important, what exactly it is, and how to implement it on the web.

I realized that my website needed some accessibility updates, so I recently conducted an accessibility audit on this site and made some updates. I logged the issues on GitHub, so you can look there for the full details on the changes, but here’s a quick roundup:

I fixed a couple HTML validation errors.
I added/beautified focus styles.
I fixed a couple color contrast issues. Specifically, I updated the navbar and the footer to ensure WCAG-conformant color contrast between the text and the background.
I added ARIA labels to the social media icons on the about page, which allows screen readers to identify what those icons are.

There’s still one outstanding accessibility bug. HTML uses six tags to identify headings: h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, and h6 (h1 being the page title, h2 being a subheading, h3 being a sub-subheading, and so forth.) You should use only one h1 element per page, use headings in a logical order (1 to 6), and not skip levels. When you follow those rules, the logical structure of the site can be clearly represented to users of assistive technology. This makes it easy for screen reader users, for example, to quickly scan a page’s headings and skip around.

My site does not follow those rules. The blog post pages skip heading level 1, the homepage includes two h1 elements, and the homepage skips to heading level 5 for the sidebar.

Unfortunately, this bug is not as easy to fix as the other bugs, because to fix this bug, I’ll actually need to update the headings on most all of my blog posts. (Right now, most section headings in my blog posts start at h3 rather than h2.) It’s a simple — but somewhat time-consuming — fix. I’m planning to fix this accessibility issue soon, as part of a redesign of the site. (I’ve been learning a lot more about CSS, so I want to shift away from using the Bootstrap framework for this site and instead design the site/write the CSS on my own from the ground up.) This last accessibility bug will get fixed, but it will take me a little more time.

SFF Adventures: October 2020

2020-10-24T09:42:00-07:00

Introduction

Here’s what I’ve been reading and listening to lately in the realm of SFF. This month’s SFF adventures include portal fantasies, Robin Hood, Dungeons & Dragons, and more.

Podcasts

Flash Forward

Flash Forward, hosted by Rose Eveleth, is one of the best podcasts I know. Every episode begins with fiction: we jump ahead to a possible (or sometimes not-so-possible) future and get a taste for how it might work, and then we return to the present where Eveleth interviews scientists, activists, and SFF authors about it. If you’re in to SFF or science journalism, I highly recommend you give Flash Forward a try. In particular, I really enjoyed the recent episode “Dollars for Data,” which is all about selling our personal data.

Portal Fantasies

I enjoyed “Episode 66: Portal Fantasies Are So Gay” from Our Opinions Are Correct. It’s a fun and smart discussion about portal fantasies that touches on border crossing and policing, compares queer and normative portal fantasies, and explores how genre-savvy protagonists can mix up the standard storylines. However, one thing that they didn’t touch on was Seanan McGuire’s axes of nonsense/logic and virtue/wickedness from her Wayway Children novellas. Those novellas gave me mental schema for better understanding and categorizing fantasy universes. For a deeper dive into those axes, check out “Mapping Fantasies Into a Single Multiverse Through Seanan McGuire’s ‘Wayward Children’ Series” on Tor.com.

Blog Posts & Essays

Dis/ability

One of the themes I love exploring through SFF is dis/ability. One of my favorite stories that does this is “The House on the Moon” by William Alexander, which was published by Uncanny Magazine in their Disabled People Destroy Science Fiction special issue. Check out my review of the story on Skiffy and Fanty for more of my thoughts on why that does such a great job of exploring dis/ability through a science fictional lens. Because of my interest in this sort of SFF, I was excited to read “Five SFF Novels Featuring Disabled Characters Who Know Their Own Worth” by Allison Alexander on Tor.com. Check it out! If you have other favorite SFF stories that center characters with disabilities, please let me know!

Birdverse

I haven’t read any of R. B. Lemberg’s Birdverse works, but their new book The Four Profound Weaves looks really wonderful. I mean, a fantasy story about a transgender grandparent? Yes, please! In particular, I enjoyed reading R. B. Lemberg’s post about their new book over on John Scalzi’s blog.

Linguistics

I enjoyed “Linguistics, Sexuality, and Gender: Babel-17 by Samuel R. Delany” by Bogi Takács on Tor.com. Even if you’re not at all interested in Babel-17 by Samuel R. Delany, this review is a striking and insightful essay about how language relates to (and to some degree affects) sexual orientation and gender identity. As Takács writes, “I feel very strongly that the linguistics aspects of the story relate in a crucial way to the gender and sexuality aspects, even if this is not apparent at first.” If you’re at all interested in linguistics or QUILTBAG+ feminism, read this essay.

Policing

Another Tor.com essay that I enjoyed recently was “Entering the Police State: Toph Beifong, Power, and Authority in Republic City” Linda H. Codega. The essay title pretty much sums this one up: if you’re an Avatar fan or want to think more deeply about policing, this one’s for you! On that note, in my August SFF Adventures blog post, I shouted out a short story by Annalee Newitz which envisions a world where we defund the police and instead invest in transportation and social services. And back in my July SFF Adventures post, I shouted out a Skiffy and Fanty podcast discussion about SFF worlds without police.

Dungeons & Dragons

In August’s SFF Adventures, I looked at how Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) is changing to address racism and how a fan publication — Ancestry & Culture: An Alternative to Race in 5e by Eugene Marshall — has already offered up a critical reworking of race in D&D. At that point, D&D publisher Wizards of the Coast had announced that it would implement changes to D&D’s race system in a then yet-to-be-announced product. Now, it’s been announced: Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything! As a D&D player, this book looks awesome. I recommend “With D&D’s Next Rulebook, Character Creation Will Never Be the Same” by James Whitbrook on io9 for a deep-dive into the upcoming D&D sourcebook. Similar to Xanathar’s Guide to Everything, it will feature new classes, new spells, new monsters, and more. It will also feature an official way to rework D&D’s problematic race system. However, from what I can tell so far, the “official” way seems very open-ended and significantly less critical/interesting than the alternative presented in Ancestry & Culture (which I confess I still haven’t read! I really want to read that!). Tasha’s Cauldron won’t be published until mid-November, so we’ll have to wait until then to see exactly how the new system will work (and to see all the other cool stuff that made it into the book!).

Censorship

I also really enjoyed Ada Palmer’s essay “Censorship and Genre Fiction—Let’s Broaden our Broader Reality” in Uncanny Magazine Issue 34. If you want an A+ discussion on censorship and genre fiction, this is it.

Voice

Carrie Vaughn is one of my favorite writers, so it’s unsurprising that I enjoyed her guest post on Cat Rambo’s blog about “That Ineffable Quality of Voice.”

Comics

I recently read Virtual Unicorn Experience by Dana Simpson, the latest installment in the Phoebe and Her Unicorn series, which continues to be amazing. For more of my thoughts on the series, check out my July SFF Adventures post.

I also recently read Teen Titans: Beast Boy, a graphic novel by Kami Garcia and illustrated by Gabriel Picolo. It’s the sequel to Teen Titans: Raven, which came first in the series. They’re both superhero origin stories imagining the teen titans as modern-day teens discovering their powers. Fun reads!

Short Stories

I’m a big fan of Seanan McGuire’s Wayward Children series of novellas. In July, McGuire published a short story set in the universe on Tor.com: “Juice Like Wounds.” It’s a good series, and this is a good story that I quite enjoyed. “Juice Like Wounds” is tied in particular to McGuire’s recent novella In an Absent Dream. If you read In an Absent Dream and liked it, check this story out too!

Novellas

This summer, Tor.com published two Robin Hood novellas from Carrie Vaughn that are actually concerned more with Robin Hood’s children than Robin Hood himself: The Ghosts of Sherwood and The Heirs of Locksley. I greatly enjoyed these, highly recommend them (especially if you like Robin Hood or medieval stories), and hope Carrie Vaughn writes more stories in this universe. I particularly appreciated how skillfully Carrie Vaughn represented diverse characters in these books. These are medieval stories: it would be easy to feature all or mostly straight, abled men. These novellas definitely include their fair share of such people, but they also portray women, a character with a disability, and queer and trans characters! Thank you so much, Carrie Vaughn. As I wrote about in August’s SFF Adventures, I recently read The Crystal Shard by R.A. Salvatore, which was a fun and well-written novel that I struggled to enjoy because women and QUILTBAG+ characters were side-lined, invisible, and/or absent.

I also recently listened to To Be Taught, If Fortunate by Becky Chambers. I read this after I listened to Becky Chamber’s Wayfarers series and loved it loved it loved it. (I rave more about those novels in August’s SFF Adventures.) To Be Taught, If Fortunate is different but just as good: it’s a novella rather than a novel, and it takes place in a different universe, one that feels much closer to our own. It’s a beautiful, serious work of science fiction. It’s a profound, living meditation on humanity and the purpose of science. Similar to when I read Chamber’s novel Record of a Spaceborn Few, there was a certain point near the end of the book when the beauty and meaning of the book suddenly struck me and made me break down and cry good tears. I highly recommend this novella to everyone.

Novels

I recently read and loved The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow. What a great book! In addition to beautifully engaging with themes of family, love, and loss, The Ten Thousand Doors of January uses Doors and alternate worlds to explore our own world and to explore how the powerful exploit their power in order to maintain it.

I’ve traditionally been more of a science fiction fan than a fantasy fan. In particular, I really love space operas — they are tons of fun and often super smart. I think part of why I haven’t gravitated to fantasy as much is that I haven’t found a sub-genre that really calls to me. But that is true no longer! I have found my favorite fantasy sub-genre, and it is making me a deeper fan of fantasy: I love portal fantasies.

My love for portal fantasies was awakened by Seanan McGuire’s Wayward Children novellas, and The Ten Thousand Doors of January has further blossomed my love for this sub-genre. I enjoy classical portal fantasies like The Wizard of Oz, but in particular I love more modern portal fantasies which explore the connections between multiple universes, tell stories about characters torn between different worlds, and compare and contrast different places and cultures. These stories are fun, exciting, and interesting in ways that even the most fascinating space operas aren’t. When worlds with different natural laws or brimming with magic connect to our own, there are so many wonderful possibilities for where you can take a story.

If you have a favorite portal fantasy story, or if you know of any stories similar to Every Heart a Doorway or The Ten Thousand Doors of January, please share those reads with me!

Holy Shit! Representation Matters! Or, How SFF Helped Me Realize I’m Nonbinary

2020-10-04T11:13:00-07:00

Earlier this year, I had a fun chat with Emily Win on her podcast Our Daily Beard: “What are Spivak Pronouns? And More on the Queer Sci-fi World with Cam Coulter .”

On the podcast, I got to shout out a bunch of awesome queer and trans science fiction and fantasy (SFF) stories. I also got to talk about how reading trans SFF helped me realize that, yes, I could be trans/nonbinary, and, yes, in fact I am.

That chat inspired me to write a personal essay sharing more about how centrally important SFF is to my gender identity and genderqueerness and about how gosh darn important representation actually is. That essay is now published on Skiffy and Fanty for your reading pleasure: “Holy Shit! Representation Matters! Or, How SFF Helped Me Realize I’m Nonbinary.”

Go check it out and share it, please! I’m really proud of this essay, and I think queer/trans SFF and representation are super important topics for us all to read and talk about.

Accessibility Adventures: October 2020

2020-10-03T13:20:00-07:00

Introduction

In August, I posted about how I’ve recently discovered and have been falling in love with the world of digital accessibility: “Accessibility Adventures: August 2020.” Here’s what I’ve been up to since then.

Science Fiction & Accessibility

I enjoyed this short post on science fiction and accessibility from Sheri Byrne-Haber. As someone who is into both of those, the title caught my eye, and apparently I’m not the only one. Sheri Byrne-Haber anecdotally notes that there seem to be many people who love both science fiction and accessibility, and she suggests that’s probably because of a common denominator: both science fiction and accessibility are “about building a future that does not yet exist.” This resonated with me. I do have other reasons I care about both of them, but this is definitely a shared theme that I return to quite often.

Accessibility Audits

I enjoyed reading “What to look for in an accessibility audit” by Glenda Sims on the Deque blog. It’s a highly detailed post about different types of accessibility audits and how they are conducted. I hadn’t come across someone talking about accessibility audits in this level of detail before, so I found it really interesting.

Accessible Certification

I enjoyed reading “Diversity, Equity and Inclusion: Including Disabled People in Digital Certification, Credentialing and Licensure” by Samantha Evans in Credentialing Insights. The post examines how disability justice and accessibility relate to the world of credentialing, certification, and licensure. At the end of the post, Samantha writes:

International Association of Accessibility Professionals (IAAP) is creating a coalition of credentialing organizations, certification groups, higher education, advocacy groups, psychometric exam/test delivery industry partners and accessibility professionals this fall. The hope in bringing these audiences together is to establish agreed upon terms, standards, best practices and resources that can advance accessibility and inclusion in these shared professions and industry.

That was exciting news to me! Accessibility and inclusion in the credentialing/certification/licensure space is important, and I’m glad to see that IAAP is working with the Institute for Credentialing Excellence and other groups to make this space more inclusive.

Assistive Technology Videos

I really enjoyed this post from Axess Lab: “Videos of people with disabilities using tech.” The post collects videos of people with disabilities using eye trackers, Xbox adaptive controllers, screen readers, and switch controls to play games, shop, edit videos, and write code. It’s a wonderful collection of videos, and watching them made me think about not only how cool assistive technology is, but also how important accessibility is. Assistive technology can be a great help, but if the underlying software isn’t accessibility written — for example, can you only use the software if you have a mouse, good vision, and fine motor control? — people using assistive technologies still won’t be able to access or use it.

Accessible & Inclusive Gaming

I enjoyed this Bloomberg article by Renata Geraldo about the growing market for accessibility in the gaming industry. Video games are a huge industry, one that often has not been (and isn’t) accessible to gamers with disabilities. There’s still a long way to go, but it’s cool to read about the progress that’s happening.

I also recently came across Accessible Gaming Quarterly, a zine dedicated to accessibility and disability within the tabletop RPG space. I haven’t had the chance to read it yet, but it looks awesome. As an accessibility nerd who is also a D&D player, this looks right up my alley.

On the topic of tabletop games and inclusive gaming, here’s an excerpt from my last SFF Adventures blog post:

I have another D&D essay I recommend: “D&D will change to address racism, but someone has already done the work” by Charlie Hall on Polygon. This essay examines how race in D&D is problematic and bigoted and looks at alternatives to the current system. In particular, this essay looks at Ancestry & Culture: An Alternative to Race in 5e by Eugene Marshall, which offers a critical and progressive way to rework race in D&D. In short, it looks like Marshall splits the problematic concept of race into biological ancestry and cultural heritage. Ancestry & Culture seems like (1) a cool, non-problematic way to rework race in D&D, and (2) a work of critical race theory disguised an an RPG game. I want to read Ancestry & Culture, but I haven’t gotten around to it yet. In the meantime, I recommend any D&D fan or anyone striving to be anti-racist to check out the essay on Polygon.

Books

I recently listened to Disability Visibility: First-Person Stories from the Twenty-First Century, a new nonfiction anthology edited by Alice Wong. It’s very good! It’s a bunch of great essays on disability from a bunch of different perspectives. I loved how intersectional most of these essays were. I definitely recommend.

I also just read two books from A Book Apart: HTML5 For Web Designers by Jeremy Keith and Rachel Andrew and CSS3 for Web Designers by Dan Cederholm. In “web time,” these are old books. They were originally published in 2010 and had updated second editions released in 2016 and 2015, respectively. The age showed. For example, CSS3 for Web Designers focused mostly on using CSS3 modules for minor progressive enhancements and basically didn’t even touch on Grid layout, which is currently supported for over 95% of users. Despite the age, however, I actually did find these books quite useful. They were short, well-written, and easily digestible. They taught me about history and context that I previously didn’t know much about, such as introducing me to the Web Hypertext Application Technology Working Group (WHATWG). And they also introduced me to techniques that I didn’t really understand before, such as vendor prefixing. While I have had formal schooling that introduced me to computer programming and networking, my web design knowledge is all mostly self-taught, and these books did a good job of filling in some of my knowledge gaps.

Compliant or Conformant?

In my short time that I’ve been in the world of accessibility, I’ve already come across two words quite often: compliance and conformance. These words are used when referring to laws (such as the Americans with Disabilities Act or Section 508 or the Rehabilitation Act) as well as standards (such as the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines). I began to wonder if the two words can be used interchangably, or if there are any significant differences between the two, so naturally I did a web search.

I came across this post from Section508.gov about compliance/conformance that clearly differentiates between the two, and according to that post, in short, you must comply with the law, and technologies should conform to standards. I also looked up the definitions of these two words, which — while somewhat overlapping — also support that distinction. So it’s just that easy, right?

Not really. In practice, it seems the two words are often used interchangably. While the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) themselves do follow this distinction and refer only to conformance with the standard (not compliance), the A11y Project instead refers to WCAG in terms of compliance, and they’re not the only ones.

This is partially confusing because the two words sound similar and have largely similar meanings, but it’s also confusing because in order to comply with accessibility laws, you should conform to WCAG. Although WCAG isn’t a law, WCAG effectively has the power of law behind it (at least in the United States), so in some ways it does make sense to talk about WCAG compliance, rather than WCAG conformance.

I will do my best to use those words precisely (compliant to the law, conformant to standards), but I also want to recognize that it seems in practice these two words are often used interchangably.

FreeCodeCamp.org

I’ve been working to upgrade my tech skills with FreeCodeCamp.org. I completed their Responsive Web Design certification, and I’m currently working on JavaScript with them. Thus far, I’ve been really satisfied with their program. The interface works well for me, the content is nicely chunkable, and the curriculum exposes you to a sizable breadth of info with a gentle on-ramp. The Responsive Web Design certification also includes a set of challenges on applied accessibility, which I was glad to see. And that’s to say nothing of the fact that FreeCodeCamp is a nonprofit with tons of free content. I’m trying to stay focused on JavaScript right now, but their courses on front-end libraries and Python keep grabbing my attention.

Classless CSS Stylesheets

Recently, I was exporting a bunch of markdown notes to HTML pages, and I wanted them to look prettier than the default styling that Firefox applies. Hence, I discovered the world of classless CSS stylesheets. It’s pretty much what it sounds like: CSS stylesheets that don’t use any (or use very few) classes, relying instead upon styling semantic HTML elements. Obviously, these will not be a good fit for a great many projects. However, for converting markdown documents to simple HTML pages, it’s a perfect fit. Assuming that you’re not doing weird things to your markdown, when you export markdown to HTML, you get plain old semantic HTML, complete with zero classes, which makes it trivial to add a classless stylesheet and see your document redesigned cohesively in under a minute. There are plenty of classless CSS stylesheets out there that you can use. Some of my favorites are new, water-dark, and sakura-earthly. I downloaded a host of stylesheets, tried them all out, and had quite a bit of fun looking at all the different ways my document could be styled.

What’s the connection to accessibility? Writing in semantic HTML (assuming you’re actually using the elements correctly) is great for accessibility. Semantic HTML is relatively straightforward for assistive technologies like screen readers to access, and it renders easily and quickly for everyone else as well. Classless stylesheets encourage you (force you?) to write in semantic HTML — that’s the whole point of them. I also think that classless stylesheets can be beneficial to folks learning HTML and CSS. Applying classless stylesheets to your HTML illustrates how semantics and styling are distinct, and hopefully that can encourage more folks to seek out the most appropriate elements, rather than rely on divs and spans.

However, classless stylesheets aren’t necessarily accessible. As I wrote earlier, writing in semantic HTML is great for accessibility — assuming that you’re actually using the elements correctly. If you use a certain HTML element to achieve a certain styling, but if your content doesn’t align with that element’s semantic purpose, that’s … not great. Assistive technologies, for example, might misinterpret your content and thereby misrepresent it to users. One classless stylesheet that I fear might enable folks to do this is MVP. For example, with MVP, if you nest an aside element within a section element, it’s formatted as a centered content card. Designers might be thereby be tempted to use an aside element for a page’s main content, rather than content that’s “only indirectly related to the document’s main content,” as the Mozilla Developer Network defines the aside element. To be clear, I like MVP’s design, and its website clearly states that the stylesheet is intended only for temporary, ad-hoc purposes. However, I did want to note this potential way for classless stylesheets to be misused and lead to less accessible designs.

Website Updates

I recently did my first website remediation! At work, my team has put up an ad-hoc website this year as we’ve responded to the pandemic, pivoted to online staff trainings, and put together an online distance learning program for our clients. I identified that the color contrast between some commonly-used text and the background was not WCAG level AA conformant. With my manager’s approval, I selected a darker shade that was conformant, and I updated the text color. Hurrah for my first accessibility website fix!

On that topic, I’ve learned a lot about website accessibility over the past few months, and I’ve realized that I need to make some accessibility updates to my personal website as well as Graph Paper. I haven’t had the time to make those fixes yet, but I did conduct an accessibility audit on Graph Paper and log nine issues on GitHub. That was fun! Fixing those issues will be my next accessibility project after I publish this post.

SFF Adventures: August 2020

2020-08-28T16:45:00-07:00

Podcasts

I’ve been listening to — and really enjoying! — a new podcast: FOSS and Crafts, hosted by Morgan Lemmer-Webber and Christopher Lemmer Webber. It’s a podcast about Free/libre and open-source software, crafts, creativity, and making things, and it’s already been quite science fictional and fantastic.

Episode one is titled “Collaborative Storytelling with Dice.” It’s a fun discussion about role-playing games (RPGs). They touch on Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) of course, but they also examine other systems, such as Freeform Universal (FU). FU caught my interest, so I went and listened to an arc of the podcast Lakeshore and Limbo, an actual-play podcast that uses FU. Lakeshore and Limbo is an occult-noir detective story that comes in arcs of 3–6 episodes each, and it’s got some good humor to it as well. I quite enjoyed the arc that I listened to (“A Little Danger”). If you’re interested in FU or if you like occult-noir RPGs, I’d recommend you give it a listen!

(Also, I haven’t listened to the two most recent episodes of FOSS & Crafts yet, but those episodes are actually a FU actual-play game/podcast!)

Episode two is about the impact of machines that ‘learn’ and produce. In this episode, Morgan and Christopher mentioned AI Dungeon, a fun and interesting text-based adventure where your game master (GM) is an AI. I recommend you play AI Dungeon! I’ve had fun playing around with it, and it inspired me to GM a text-based game for my partner via Signal.

I also enjoyed episode four of FOSS and Crafts, in which Morgan and Christopher break down an academic paper looking at eight different kinds of fun. If you’re a gamer or a game designer, I recommend you give this episode a listen!

Unrelated to FOSS & Crafts — Our Opinions Are Correct released a good episode recently about indigenous futurism.

Blog Posts & Essays

Strange Horizons

I enjoyed this conversation between Becca Evans and Catherine Krahe on Strange Horizons. It’s a fun informal chat that covers a lot of different things, but I was most interested in hearing Becca share about her work as an accessibility editor for Strange Horizons. As I shared in a recent blog post, I’ve started nerding out about accessibility, so it was cool to see how web accessibility plays out in the world of genre magazines.

The Canon

I highly recommend you support Jason Sanford on Patreon, because his regular column Genre Grapevine is terrific. In a recent Genre Grapevine, Sanford rounded up how folks have been talking about “the canon” of SFF again. I liked John Scalzi’s post on the canon, and in particular, this bit:

Some works and writers will rise, some will fall, some will be rediscovered and some will be consigned to the archives, possibly forever. No canon, just a field forever in conversation with itself, choosing its conversational partners from its past rather than having them assigned from a list.

I feel like those two sentences succinctly describe why canons are problematic and not cool and poetically describe what we actually have in lieu of a canon.

What Really Sells Me on a Book

Speaking of Scalzi, Michael R. Underwood recently published a guest post on Scalzi’s blog talking about his latest book Annihilation Aria. Annihilation Aria is a space opera, and it looks like a fun read. But in this post, Underwood doesn’t really spend much time talking about his new book as a space opera. Instead, he discuss how Annihilation Aria challenges the flatly unrealistic “happily ever after” trope and instead centers characters in a long-term, committed, dynamic, and evolving relationship. I haven’t read enough stories that do that, so that — in conjunction with the fact that I love space operas and this looks like a great space opera — put Annihilation Aria on my TBR list.

Michael R. Underwood’s guest post made me think about how sometimes what really sells you on a book isn’t the concept, or the marketing copy, or even everyone else squeeing about it. Sometimes none of those things capture my attention. Sometimes, instead, what captures my attention about a book is one little highly specific detail. For me, those details are likely to be: this book has nonbinary characters, neopronouns, or a different gender system — this book is about characters in an ongoing, committed relationship — this book features fundamentally different family and community structures — this book includes characters who are religious (and who aren’t caricatures). The fastest way to sell me on a book is often to tell me one of these things about it. Do you have this experience as well? What are the specific details that can sell you on a book?

Religious SFF

On the topic of books that include religious characters, I recently read Leah Schnelbach’s Tor.com post “Six Books About Spacefaring Missionaries”. I know I’m a nerd for religious SFF because I’ve read four of these books and have the other two on my TBR list. My favorite religious SFF book is A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller, Jr., but if you’re looking for something religious and queer, I recommend Sisters of the Vast Black by Lina Rather. Anyone else out there love religious SFF? Any other recommendations besides these six?

Linguistics

I liked “‘Evil Earth’: Linguistic Worldbuilding in N.K. Jemisin’s Broken Earth Trilogy” by CD Covington on Tor.com. Are you a fan of either linguistics or N.K. Jemisin’s Broken Earth trilogy? (I know I am!) If so, I predict you’ll also enjoy this.

UFOs

We don’t have enough SFF about UFOs. Have you been paying attention to the news about UFOs? Legit people from the US military are all like, “Hey, so, our pilots have routinely encountered unidentified flying objects that we don’t at all understand. We’re not saying they’re extraterrestrial in origin, but … the odds seem pretty good that they might be. We should investigate this more seriously.” Last month, Vox published a great interview with professor Alexander Wendt about this that I highly recommend: “It’s time to take UFOs seriously. Seriously.” Please read this, and then let’s start talking and writing more about UFOs.

Dungeons & Dragons

Last month in this column, I shouted out a couple essays about Dungeons and Dragons (D&D), and this month I have another D&D essay I recommend: “D&D will change to address racism, but someone has already done the work” by Charlie Hall on Polygon. This essay examines how race in D&D is problematic and bigoted and looks at alternatives to the current system. In particular, this essay looks at Ancestry & Culture: An Alternative to Race in 5e by Eugene Marshall, which offers a critical and progressive way to rework race in D&D. In short, it looks like Marshall splits the problematic concept of race into biological ancestry and cultural heritage. Ancestry & Culture seems like (1) a cool, non-problematic way to rework race in D&D, and (2) a work of critical race theory disguised an an RPG game. I want to read Ancestry & Culture, but I haven’t gotten around to it yet. In the meantime, I recommend any D&D fan or anyone striving to be anti-racist to check out the essay on Polygon.

The Slush Pile

Lastly, I want to shout out Alex Acks’s blog post “Slush v Solicitations: Just tell us where we stand.” This blog post is half “informative and justified rant” and half “really useful resource for writers.” If you write short fiction, check it out.

Fiction

Short Fiction

I recommend everyone read “I’m with Muni — how can I help?” by Annalee Newitz. It’s a short story about defunding the police and instead investing in transportation and social services. It’s an accessible and powerful illustration of (1) what “defund the police” really means, and (2) why that’s important. The story is also a great argument for why speculative and visionary fiction is an essential component for envisioning better worlds and pushing for change. This ties back to the Skiffy & Fanty podcast episode “Speculative Dispatch #9 - A World Without Police,” which I shouted out in last month’s SFF adventures.

Merc Fenn Wolfmoor is one of my favorite short story writers, and their recent story “Bring the Bones That Sing” was a great read. It’s dark in the way that stories about death and reapers are necessarily dark, but the story’s core is warm, beautiful, and poetic. If you like either birds or stories about reapers, I recommend!

I’ve also been reading the Dystopia Triptych, a trilogy of new anthologies edited by John Joseph Adams, Christie Yant, and Hugh Howey. Ignorance is Strength features tales from before the dystopia, Burn the Ashes features tales during the dystopia, and Or Else the Light features tales set at the end or after the dystopia. The anthologies have a great lineup of contributors, and I think every author contributed three stories that tie together (one for each anthology). So far I’ve only read the stories by Carrie Vaughn and Cadwell Turnbull. Their stories were great and definitely worth-reading, and I especially enjoyed getting to read three short stories from an author set within one universe. I want to read more of these anthologies, particularly the stories by Seanan McGuire, Dominca Phetteplace, Violet Allen, and Merc Fenn Wolfmoor. However, I haven’t gotten around to that yet because the stories by Carrie Vaughn and Cadwell Turnbull were too depressing. Don’t get me wrong: they were good stories and I very much enjoyed reading them, but this is a damn hard year, and those stories left me feeling more down about the world than when I went in. Personally, I may need to wait a year and then return to these anthologies.

Novels

I recently finished listening to all three novels in Becky Chambers’ Wayfarers series: The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet, A Closed and Common Orbit, and Record of a Spaceborn Few. (Side-note: earlier this year I discovered that you can get DRM-free audiobooks from Libro.FM, and it’s wonderful.) OMG so good! Record of a Spaceborn Few made me cry, and I think Becky Chambers may have now dethroned Ann Leckie as my favorite author? You should definitely check out these books. They are fun and cozy character-centered space adventures that accessibly and powerfully deal with themes of found family, cultural diversity, friendship, artificial intelligence, grief, purpose, and the very meaning of life. Maximally recommend.

Continuing on the D&D thread from earlier, I just finished reading The Crystal Shard by R.A. Salvatore. It’s well-written; the prose and plot are both skillfully crafted. I also enjoyed reading a D&D book set in the Forgotten Realms. My problem with the book, however, is that it’s outdated. It’s set in a firmly patriarchal and sexist world with no clear QUILTBAG+ characters, and I did not enjoy that. The book itself subtly but surely endorses good principles: loyalty, kindness, and friendship. I just find it so tiresome to read a book set in a sexist patriarchy. I did expect this going into it, so fortunately I wasn’t unprepared. While I don’t currently desire to read more books in the series, I do want to read plot summaries for more of R.A. Salvatore’s books, and I’d like to read another D&D novel if I can find one that’s sufficiently queer. (Any suggestions?) Classics have their place, but new books (like Becky Chambers’ delightful books!) really are better.

Accessibility Adventures: August 2020

2020-08-05T17:05:00-07:00

In January, I started worked as a Training Specialist at Hope Services. It’s my favorite job that I’ve had so far, largely because it’s a cool blend of many cool things:

disability justice
direct support professionalism and person-centered thinking
media and technology
accessibility, accommodations, and assistive technology
documentation, training, and instructional design

In March, I almost went to the CSUN Assistive Technology Conference through the job, but I ended up not going because of COVID-19. However, planning for the conference piqued my interested in accessibility and assistive technology. Most of my professional background thus far has been in direct support, and while I enjoy it and am passionate about it, I’m more of a techie (and a writer) at heart, so the prospect of learning more about the tech side of dis/ability was really exciting. Although I was bummed out about missing the conference, my interest in accessibility and assistive technology had been awakened. (Also, it was becoming clear to me that knowing more about those topics was going to useful in my new role.)

So in an effort to learn more, I started taking Introduction to Accessibility & Inclusive Design, an online course from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign on Coursera. That course is a great introduction to how people with disabilities use (assistive) technology and how technology can be designed in accessible and inclusive ways. Taking the course made me even more interested in the world of accessibility. When I mentioned this at a monthly check-in with my boss, she gave me a few really good pieces of advice:

Start with finding the professional organizations that relate to the field.
Research the organizations and people affiliated with them, and follow them online.
Ask for informational interviews.

At first, I admit, that advice seemed reasonable but bland. However, now with a few months of hindsight, I can see that her advice was just what I needed to hear. In my research since then, I’ve come across three main professional organizations that relate to accessibility and assistive technology:

(I also want to quickly shout out two cool disability-centric organizations that I already knew about: the Society for Disability Studies and the National Alliance for Direct Support Professionals.)

Learning about these different organizations helped me mentally disambiguate the fields. For example, back in January, accessibility, assistive technology, and disability services seemed like much the same thing to me. But after learning more about IAAP, RESNA, and AHEAD, it’s much clearer to me how those those fields are distinct (albeit interlocking). Accessibility professionals are often guided by an ethic of universal design and tend to help create things that are accessible to the greatest number of people, often without the need for modifications or specialized accommodations. Assistive technology professionals, however, tend to work more directly with persons with various impairments, helping them to use specialized assistive technologies to access things and do things they otherwise may not be able to do. And professionals who work in educational settings (such as directors of disability service centers at colleges) are more likely to have a counseling background because their work often entails reviewing medical documentation. (Thanks to Maude Nazaire at SCU for taking the time to help me learn more about the university side of things!)

After learning about and disambiguating those fields, it was suddenly and surprisingly clear to me: I want to be an accessibility professional.

I care about how we construct our built environments (both physical and digital) and I value universal design because dis/ability is socially constructed, and whether a person can access something is often a question of how things are designed and built (rather than just a question of the person’s abilities).

I want to help make the world accessible and inclusive to as many people as possible. I care about this because diversity and inclusion are important. I care about this because people with disabilities are important. Moreover, dis/ability is a spectrum, not a binary on/off switch. Most able-bodied people are only temporarily able-bodied, and our access needs also vary situationally. Accessibility is important to all kinds of people.

I want to be an accessibility professional because it’s with a role with ethics and justice at the core. Not only that — it’s a specialization with tech that has ethics at its core. I’m a computer geek, but I’ve thus far shied away from jobs in tech because I’ve been consistently disappointed with the tech world when it comes to ethics, inclusivity, and diversity. In the accessibility world, however, things feel different. Accessibility professionals are constantly talking about ethics and inclusion. In part because of this, accessibility feels like a niche within the tech world where I can actually belong.

I want to be an accessibility professional because I care about standards and I like to nerd out about law. (Ask me about copyright law sometime!) Standards and the law are both important parts of this field, and I’m excited to learn about them in greater detail.

I also want to be an accessibility professional because of practical considerations. This is a field that is growing, and that seems likely to continue. Also, to borrow terminology from Cal Newport, I can leverage my existing career capital to become an accessibility professional. I am driven by passion, but I am also informed by my experience working with people with disabilities as well as my experiences with web design and ebook design. For me, accessibility isn’t a leap into something brand new, but rather a logical progression from where I’m at.

I’ve spent the last few months introducing myself to the world of accessibility and falling in love with it. While working through the Coursera class, I started listening to Nicolas Steenhout’s lovely podcast A11y Rules. (Accessibility is often abbreviated as a11y.) I read Accessibility for Everyone by Laura Kalbag, which is a friendly and detailed introduction, and I read Design for Real Life by Eric Meyer and Sara Wachter-Boettcher, which is a great book about how to think and design inclusively. I completed the FreeCodeCamp challenges on applied accessibility, and I’ve read a ton of blog posts and essays. I’ve curated the best resources that I’ve found thus far in a list below. I hope these resources can be helpful to other people who are new to this world.

This is just the start of my accessibility adventures. From here, I plan to keep reading and blogging about accessibility. I’m also going to work to improve my tech skills, connect with other accessibility nerds, and determine whether I should pursue grad school or certifications through the IAAP.

Accessibility Resources

Newsletters

Accessibility Weekly: A weekly email newsletter about web accessibility, curated by David A. Kennedy
Microassist’s Accessibility in the News: A weekly accessibility newsletter curated by Jack McElaney
WebAIM Newsletter: WebAIM’s monthly newsletter on web accessibility

Podcasts & Videos

A11y Rules Podcast: A podcast about web accessibility hosted by Nicolas Steenhout
A11y Talks on YouTube and on Twitter: Monthly virtual meet-ups on digital accessibility

Blogs

24 Accessibility: 24 blog posts about digital accessibility, published every year since 2018 during the first 24 days of December
100 Days of A11y: A blog about becoming CPACC and WAS certified
https://medium.com/topic/accessibility: Medium posts about accessibility
ADA Title III News & Insights
Lainey Feingold’s Blog
The Paciello Group: Blogs
Deque Systems: Blog
Level Access: Blog
UsableNet: Blog
Axess Lab: Blog

Essays and Blog Posts

7 Things Every Designer Needs to Know about Accessibility by Jesse Hausler
5 Common Misconceptions About Web Accessibility by Melanie Myers
The History of Digital Accessibility and Why It Matters by Marissa Sapega
Getting Started with Website Accessibility by Carie Fisher
How to write an image description by Alex Chen
How I fixed accessibility on my website and how you can fix yours by Daniela Matos de Carvalho
#a11y: Accessible or ironic? by Tatiana Mac
My Favorite Resources for Learning Inclusive Design and Accessible Design by Jessica Ivins
Advice for the Aspiring Accessibility Tester / Manager by Sheri Byrne-Haber
A Welcoming Classroom by James M. Lang
Why US law effectively mandates all software design be responsive by Sheri Byrne-Haber
Shifting from Fear to Motivation when Talking about Digital Accessibility Law by Lainey Feingold
WCAG 2.1: What is Next for Accessibility Guidelines by Glenda Sims
Section 508 Refresh (Part 1) by Matt Feldman
Section 508 Refresh (Part 2) by Matt Feldman
This Week in Accessibility: White v. Square by Sheri Byrne-Haber
App and Web Accessibility Lawsuits - What’s New in 2020 published by UsableNet
Bolt-on Accessibility – 5 gears in reverse by Steve Faulkner
Always bet on HTML by Chris Ferdinandi

Reference

A11y Coffee: Probably your best starting place for learning about web accessibility
The A11y Project: A tremendous site filled great resources and digestible and up-to-date posts about web accessibility
WebAIM (Accessibility in Mind): A great general-purpose resource site for web accessibility. WebAIM is a non-profit organization based at the Center for Persons with Disabilities at Utah State University
WAVE (Web Accessibility Evaluation Tool) from WebAIM: A powerful tool to easily and quickly evaluate a webpage’s accessibility
Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) from the W3C
How to Meet WCAG (Quick Reference) from the W3C
Using ARIA from the W3C
Mozilla Developer Network (MDN) Web Docs: Acessibility
MDN Web Docs: Handling Common Accessibility Problems
Accessibility at Microsoft
Accessibility at Apple
Accessibility at Google

Online Courses & Training

Introduction to Accessibility & Inclusive Design from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign on Coursera
Introduction to Web Accessibility from the W3C on edx.org
Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Accessibility from Georgia Tech on edx.org
Web Accessibility from Google on Udacity
Assistive Technology & Online Learning from Open.Edu
Applied Accessibility Challenges from FreeCodeCamp.org
Deque University: Online training in digital accessibility
Web Accessibility Tutorials from the W3C

SFF Adventures: July 2020

2020-07-21T16:42:00-07:00

Introduction

Welcome to SFF Adventures! This is a new column that I’m trying out. This is where I will round up everything that I am reading, listening to, and watching in the realms of science fiction, fantasy, and horror, and I’ll also talk about anything I’ve been creating or doing in these realms. I’ll shout out awesome things, give my thoughts on other things, and occasionally write short reviews.

Podcasts

My friend Emily Win recently interviewed me on her podcast Our Daily Beard and let me squee and geek out about trans SFF and my nonbinary identity! It was tons of fun, and I’m quite happy with how it turned out. (It was my first podcast, so I was a little nervous about it!) Please give it a listen, and also check out the show notes on Emily’s website for a long list my reading recommendations. Here’s the link: “Season 2 Episode 9: What are Spivak Pronouns? And More on the Queer Sci-fi World with Cam Coulter.”

Imaginary Worlds recently released two terrific episodes about COVID-19. “Episode 145: Larping in Place” investigates how the LARPing world is handling shelter-in-place and social distancing. “Episode 147: Once and Future Comic Con” looks at the history of San Diego Comic Con and other genre conventions as well as how they have been impacted by the pandemic and how they might fare in the future.

I liked the podcast episode “Speculative Dispatch #9 - A World Without Police” from Skiffy and Fanty. You’ll need to support Skiffy and Fanty on Patreon to listen to this one, but if you’re an SFF fan, you definitely should if you can! Skiffy and Fanty is fun shining force for inclusion and social justice in SFF fandom. This podcast episode is a great discussion about how police function as an arm of capitalism as well as about SFF stories that attempt to envision a world without police.

Blog Posts

I liked and recommend “Searching for Body Positivity in Fantasy” by Rosamund Lannin, published on Tor.com. It’s an important essay about feminism, fantasy, and how important it is that we do better with representation.

I liked and recommend “Toss a Coin to Your Bitcher” by Suzanne Walker in Uncanny Magazine Issue 33. It’s a really good essay that talks about disability representation in the context of The Witcher. (This essay read accessibly to me even though I haven’t seen or read The Witcher.)

I liked “Hopepunk and the New Science of Stress” by Rebecca Diem, published on Tor.com. Diem writes:

In The Upside of Stress, Professor Kelly McGonigal highlights two lesser-known models of how we respond to stress: a “challenge” response, characteristic of artists, athletes, or surgeons (also known as a flow state); and a “tend-and-befriend” response, exemplified by nurturing behaviours and desire for connection after traumatic events.

The “tend-and-befriend” response to stress made me think of Cory Doctorow’s Walkaway and Rebecca Solnit’s A Paradise Built in Hell. I love Walkaway and other stories like it, stories that pay attention to how people reach out, connect, and care for each other after shit happens. This is why this pandemic is so damn hard to live through: fear of getting infected myself or of infecting others generates a flinch response when I see others rather than an outreaching. Obviously, we can and are reaching out to each other from a distance, but mediating relationships through technology is hard and stressful in its own ways.

I liked and recommend “The Power of Queer Play in Dungeons & Dragons” by Linda H. Codega, published on Tor.com. It’s a fun essay that examines Dungeons & Dragons fifth edition as a space for queer exploration and play. Codega writes:

In D&D there is absolutely no rules-as-written, mechanical difference between any gender, sexuality, or ability. It’s all treated the same.

Including “ability” caught me off guard there! I hadn’t thought to try playing D&D as a character with a disability or impairment. It’s true: as far as I’m aware, there are no written rules for dis/ability in D&D. To me, that felt more like erasure and oversight than inclusion, but D&D is a unique game. The published game rules provide some scaffolding, but your game is really created with the people playing alongside you. If our D&D campaign doesn’t include characters with disabilities, that’s the fault of my fellow players and me, not necessarily the fault of Wizards of the Coast. Moral of the story: my D&D games need more characters who are queer/trans and more characters with impairments/disabilities. (Side thought: I can easily imagine various radical science fictional futures, but apparently I need to work on queering and decolonizing the fantasy side of my imagination.)

I liked reading “The Legacies and Dark Elves of R. A. Salvatore” by Jeff LaSala, published on Tor.com. This year, I have been playing my second-ever Dungeons & Dragons campaign, so I’ve been slowly falling into that wonderful rabbit-hole. My friends like listening to D&D podcasts like Critical Role and Dungeons & Daddies, but I personally can’t get into those. I’ve been thinking a D&D novel might be a better way for me to immerse myself in the world of D&D. I’ve heard good things about R.A. Salvatore and Drizzt, so that seems like a good place to start. I’m thinking I’ll start with The Crystal Shard by R.A. Salvatore, but what do you think? Any better suggestions for a D&D novel?

I liked Nerds of a Feather’s recent interview with Uncanny Magazine’s managing editors Chimedum Ohaegbu and Michi Trota. Uncanny is one of my favorite magazines, so I enjoyed getting to learn more about the team behind it. I was also wowed by how much work they put into the magazine. I know it takes tons of work to make a magazine, but seeing Ohaegbu and Trota spell out their workload helped me better understand exactly how much work they put in each month, and it gave me even more respect for their work. It really underscores how important it is that we actually financially support short fiction magazines.

While we’re talking about genre magazines, J. Scott Coatsworth recently published two blog posts on the SFWA blog examining how SFF magazines are faring during the pandemic and concomitant economic crisis: “Part 1: Submissions & Supplies” and “Part 2: Short- and Long-Term Prospects & the Post-COVID Landscape.” If you’re at all curious about how things have been going for SFF magazines, I recommend you read Coatsworth’s posts.

I enjoyed “The Striking Style of SFF Artist Galen Dara” by Aidan Moher, published on Tor.com. Galen Dara is my favorite artist, so of course I loved getting to learn more about her and her craft. My partner actually gave me a print of Dara’s cover for Uncanny Magazine Issue 23 as a gift. I love that print because (1) it’s gorgeous SFF artwork (featuring a dinosaur!), and (2) that issue of Uncanny features “You Can Make a Dinosaur, but You Can’t Help Me” by K.M. Szpara, which is one of my all-time favorite short stories.

Short Stories

“We’re Here, We’re Here” by K.M. Szpara

Speaking of K.M. Szpara, I loved his new short story “We’re Here, We’re Here,” published on Tor.com. I haven’t got around to reading his debut novel Docile yet, but reading this short story makes me realize that Docile really needs to be the next novel I read.

“We’re Here, We’re Here” is about Tyler, a trans man who is one of four members of Back 2 Back, a popular boy band. Tyler is expected to be the wholesome good guy in the group, the one who is supposed to follow rules and be emotionally available (AKA single) so that the band’s fans can pine after him. Tyler knows this because the label’s expectations are subtly reinforced everywhere around him, and just in case that isn’t clear enough, Tyler’s manager Jeff is explicit about these expectations anytime Tyler is seen to step out of these narrow lines. The conflict: conforming to these expectations becomes especially difficult when Tyler starts falling in love with one of his bandmates. The science fictional element to the story: Tyler has a vocal implant so that he can sing perfectly. And Jeff can fine-tune and control Tyler’s implant — and even use it to silence him.

There are a number of reasons this story is awesome:

Szpara writes great prose that’s simple and readable but also filled with emotion.
Somewhat to my surprise, I actually really enjoyed watching the boy band members interact with and support each other. They have a great camaraderie, and they’re incredibly supporting and accepting of each other. Moreover, they also have a fairly healthy (non-toxic!) masculinity.
The story centers trans and queer characters — in a popular boy band! (To me, this feels more science fictional than the vocal implant!)

However, the themes that Szpara grapples with are the main reason that I love this story. I love seeing Tyler, a trans man, as a pop icon, as a boy band hottie. As a whole, trans representation in society is still pretty terrible. Most of the time, you just don’t see trans people or characters. And when you do, it’s often not good representation. I love this story because it centers a trans character and it’s good representation that portrays Tyler in a positive light. I love this story because Tyler is a hyper-visible out trans man, and he is admired and desired by a legion of fans. It brings me so much joy to see that.

But then of course there’s the flip-side, the real conflict and drama of the story: Tyler is still repeatedly forced into narrow boxes. Tyler is expected to be rigidly binary and to be a “good and respectable” celebrity. Tyler is trans and society accepts that, but only in a certain way. Tyler is queer and society accepts that, but only in a certain way. Which aggravates me to no end because the way I see it, a good chuck of what it means to be trans and queer is to push back on society’s expectations, to create and live out new visions of sexuality, gender, identity, and community.

This story is many things, and all of them I loved. It’s a scathing critique of society’s over-narrow acceptance of queer and trans people. It’s a story about a boy band’s healthy platonic masculine love. It’s a story about a gay trans man falling in love with a bisexual man. It’s a story about a boy band sticking together and resisting their controlling manager. If any of those stories sound interesting to you, go read this already!

“Getaway” by Nicole Kornher-Stace

I really liked “Getaway” by Nicole Kornher-Stace in Uncanny Magazine Issue 33. It’s a time loop story, told from the perspective of a getaway driver. Heads-up: it’s dark, bloody, and generally depressing. However, I loved this story because:

Time loop stories are fun.
The loop is only 15 minutes or so and it’s told from the perspective of the getaway driver, which was a unique take on the trope.
It’s well written. The prose is saturated with emotion. It hooked me in and didn’t let go.
It’s written in the second-person. I quite enjoy short stories written in the second-person. (I know second-person is more uncommon and weird for novel readers, but in short stories second-person isn’t that rare, and I’ve grown to enjoy it.)

“If You Want to Erase Us, You Must Be Thorough” by L. Tu

I also really liked “If You Want to Erase Us, You Must Be Thorough” by L. Tu in Uncanny Magazine Issue 33. It’s a gripping and powerful story about genocide, imperialism, indoctrinating children, and resistance. Sadly, it’s a story with themes that can relate to any number of real world matters. It made me think of the slow-motion genocide happening to Uighurs in China and the recent reports of forced birth control.

Comics

Pepper & Carrot by David Revoy

The two most recent episodes of Pepper & Carrot are about Pepper and Carrot accompanying an army into war. “Episode 32: The Battlefield” is a fun comic about dress, representation, and prejudices; it’s fun like always. But “Episode 33: Spell of War” was really something special — you must go read it now! I’d say more, but I really don’t want to spoil it for you.

Phoebe and Her Unicorn by Dana Simpson

If you haven’t heard of Dana Simpson’s Phoebe and Her Unicorn yet, it’s time.

As a kid, I bought a copy of The Peanuts Treasury, a huge paperback tome that collected a ton of Peanuts comic strips. It was a cozy favorite of mine to read and reread. Or perhaps Calvin and Hobbes was more your thing. I’ve enjoyed my fair share of that comic strip as well; Calvin is a bit too much of a boy for my liking, but I do love how Bill Watterson continually plays and experiments with perspective and form in that strip.

Perhaps you sometimes look fondly back on Peanuts and Calvin and Hobbes and sigh and think, whatever happened to the high art of the childen’s comic strip? Where is the Peanuts of today? (Now I recognize, of course, that this is a golden age for comics and webcomics and the like, but I’m talking here specifically about children’s comic strips.) The answer is Phoebe and Her Unicorn. This is what you need in your life.

I recently finished reading all of the published Phoebe and Her Unicorn books, and I can attest to the fact that Phoebe and Her Unicorn is adorable, delightful, and magical. It’s light and childish yet meaningful for us adults as well. It’s really pretty to look at. Also, two books in the series are actually graphic novels rather than collections of individual strips, which is an extra special treat. If you like children’s comic strips like The Peanuts or Calvin and Hobbes, it’s high time you treat yourself to Phoebe and Her Unicorn. I honestly like it the best.

Introducing Graph Paper

2020-07-09T07:31:00-07:00

I recently finished designing Graph Paper, a Jekyll website integrated with Bootstrap and packed with all the features you’d expect in a modern website/blog, such as support for multiple authors, tags and categories, comments, and more. It’s intended to be a template that you can quickly fork in order to get a new website up and running. For more on this project, check out a recent blog post I wrote for the project where I share more about what it is and why I made it.

Favorite 2019 Short Stories

2020-02-04T21:04:00-08:00

Introduction

Last year, I wrote a short fiction review column for Skiffy and Fanty. Life got busy and I missed some months, but hey, that’s the way life works, particularly when you’re a fan writer/doing unpaid labor.

By my count, I read nearly 200 pieces of short fiction originally published last year. (There’s also an uncounted number of short stories that I started reading but didn’t finish.) It’s not the nearly 300 short stories that I read the year before, and it’s certainly not nearly as much as the remarkable Charles Payseur, but I’m fairly happy and impressed with myself nonetheless.

Trump-Era Anthologies

Last year, I read three of what I’m calling “Trump era anthologies”:

A People’s Future of the United States ed Victor LaValle and John Joseph Adams
If This Goes On edited by Cat Rambo
Do Not Go Quietly edited by Jason Sizemore & Lesley Conner

I enjoyed them all. A People’s Future of the United States had the most impressive roster of contributors, and it showed — its stories were excellent. The stories in that anthology engaged with contemporary themes, such as racism, xenophobia, and polarization, in relatively broad and general ways. If This Goes On took a different approach, engaging with more specific contemporary issues, like immigration, healthcare, gun violence, abortion, and net neutrality.

Favorite Stories

Last year, I was able to pick a favorite story: “You Can Make a Dinosaur, but You Can’t Help Me” by K.M. Szpara. It’s an amazing story about family, found family, dinosaurs, and trans romance that’s unlike anything else I’ve come across.

This year, I wasn’t able to choose a favorite, but I can manage to narrow it down to my top five.

“Harmony” by Seanan McGuire (A People’s Future of the United States edited by Victor LaValle and John Joseph Adams) — This is a story about queer couples and families founding their own rural community together. If you, like me, are fascinated by alternatives to heteronormative nuclear families, this story is for you. (Reviewed in more detail here.)

“Ti-Jean’s Last Adventure, as Told to Raccoon” by KT Bryski (Lightspeed Magazine Issue 105, February 2019) — This is a hyper-Canadian fable about Death. It’s equal parts fun folklore and serious cultural critique. I highly recommend this story to everyone. (Reviewed in more detail here.)

“Everything Is Closed Today” by Sarah Pinsker (Do Not Go Quietly edited by Jason Sizemore & Lesley Conner) — A delightful tale about skater girls, activism, and building community! (Reviewed in more detail here.)

“Ten Excerpts from an Annotated Bibliography on the Cannibal Women of Ratnabar Island” by Nibedita Sen (Nightmare Magazine Issue 80, May 2019) — A playful, intelligent, and cutting story, written in the form of an academic text, that actually subverts that form and criticizes the academy for perpetuating sexism, racism, and colonialism. If you love academic scholarship and theory — or, for that matter, if you hate those things — you gotta check this one out. (Reviewed in more detail here.)

“Spectrum of Acceptance” by Nyla Bright (Escape Pod Episode 689 on 18 July 2019) — This is a story about dis/ability, social structures, and utopia/dystopia. It’s one of the most intelligent and challenging stories I’ve read, largely because it dares to imagine: what if society truly centered people with disabilities? (Reviewed in more detail here.)

Finally, if you want more recommendations, check out my column on Skiffy and Fanty for more stories I loved from 2019.

2019 in Reading

2020-01-10T08:11:00-08:00

Introduction

Here’s all the books that I read in 2019:

Walkaway by Cory Doctorow
Zen to Done: The Ultimate Simple Productivity System by Leo Babauta
Uncanny Magazine Issue 26 edited by Lynne M. Thomas and Michael Damian Thomas
Dreams & Nightmares 110 edited by David C. Kopaska-Merkel (poetry)
The Only Harmless Great Thing by Brooke Bolander
Dreams & Nightmares 111 edited by David C. Kopaska-Merkel (poetry)
Born to the Blade: Season 1 by Michael R. Underwood, Marie Brennan, Malka Older, Cassandra Khaw
A People’s History of the United States by Howard Zinn
Acadie by Dave Hutchinson
The Stars Change by Mary Anne Mohanraj
A People’s Future of the United States edited by Victor LaValle and John Joseph Adams
The Lamb Will Slaughter the Lion by Margaret Killjoy
Vulture Bones Issue 4 edited by B R Sanders
Invisible Planets: Contemporary Chinese Science Fiction in Translation translated and edited by Ken Liu
If This Goes On edited by Cat Rambo
The Grace of Kings by Ken Liu
Miranda in Milan by Katharine Duckett
Uncanny Magazine Issue 27 edited by Lynne M. Thomas and Michael Damian Thomas
Legalizing LGBT Families: How the Law Shapes Parenthood by Amanda K. Baumle and D’Lane R. Compton
Radicalized by Cory Doctorow
Rocket Fuel: Some of the Best from Tor.com Non-Fiction edited by Bridget McGovern and Chris Lough
The Wall of Storms by Ken Liu
Do Not Go Quietly edited by Jason Sizemore & Lesley Conner
A Whirlwind Tour of Python by Jake VanderPlas
Uncanny Magazine Issue 28 edited by Lynne M. Thomas and Michael Damian Thomas
Plays by Roswitha of Gandersheim
Free Software Free Society (Third Edition) by Richard Stallman
Sex and the Constitution: Sex, Religion, and Law from America’s Origins to the Twenty-First Century by Geoffrey R. Stone
The Black Tides of Heaven by JY Yang
Always Outnumbered, Always Outgunned by Walter Mosley
The Red Threads of Fortune by JY Yang
The 2019 Rhysling Anthology edited by David C. Kopaska-Merkel (poetry)
Our Super Adventure: Video Games and Pizza Parties by Sarah Graley & Stef Purenins (comics)
Uncanny Magazine Issue 29 edited by Lynne M. Thomas and Michael Damian Thomas
In an Absent Dream by Seanan McGuire
So Good They Can’t Ignore You by Cal Newport
The Wild Dead by Carrie Vaughn
Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World by David Epstein (skim read & took notes)
Dragon Pearl by Yoon Ha Lee
Algorithmic Shapeshifting by Bogi Takács (poetry)
Uncanny Magazine Issue 30: Disabled People Destroy Fantasy! edited by Katharine Duckett, Nicolette Barischoff, and Lisa M. Bradley
The Second Mountain: The Quest for a Moral Life by David Brooks
This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone
The Raven Tower by Ann Leckie
Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones by James Clear
Unicorn on a Roll: Another Phoebe and Her Unicorn Adventure by Dana Simpson (comics)
The Truth About Forever by Sarah Dessen
Unicorn vs. Goblins: Another Phoebe and Her Unicorn Adventure by Dana Simpson (comics)
The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin
Unicorn Crossing: Another Phoebe and Her Unicorn Adventure by Dana Simpson (comics)
Phoebe and Her Unicorn in The Magic Storm by Dana Simpson (comics)

I also read a good chunk of short fiction. I’ll have another post coming soon in which I shout out my favorite short stories originally published in 2019. But for now, let’s review the highlights of the books that I read last year.

Born to the Blade: Season 1

This was my first venture into the world of Serial Box. I really enjoyed this story. I feel a little burned on Serial Box now, though, because this season ended on a cliffhanger, and it looks like there’s not going to be a season 2. I would like to read The Vela from Serial Box, but I don’t want to start it until I know it gets some sort of resolution.

Favorite Novels

Walkaway by Cory Doctorow: a fun and fascinating novel about the end of capitalism and the end of death. I absolutely loved it.
The Grace of Kings and The Wall of Storms by Ken Liu: Just wow. These books are stunning achievements. I’m dying to read book three in this series. More of my thoughts here.
The Wild Dead by Carrie Vaugh: a tremendously fun and smart post-apocalyptic murder mystery. It’s a sequel to Bannerless, which I also loved.
The Raven Tower by Ann Leckie: This is Ann Leckie’s new book. Therefore, it is superb.
The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin: I now understand why this series won all the Hugos. I am really looking forward to reading the next two books in the trilogy.

Favorite Novellas

Two standout novellas that I read last year were In an Absent Dream by Seanan McGuire and The Stars Change by Mary Anne Mohanraj.

In an Absent Dream is the latest book in McGuire’s Wayward Children series. This book was wonderful. The series is phenomenal. Here are my thoughts on the first three books in the series: Every Heart a Doorway, Down Among the Sticks and Bones, and Beneath the Sugar Sky.

The Stars Change is amazing. Check here for my thoughts on it.

Comics!

Our Super Adventure: Video Games and Pizza Parties by Sarah Graley & Stef Purenins was delightful. If you’re unfamiliar with their cute, geeky diary comic Our Super Adventure, you should definitely check it out.

I’ve also been reading Dana Simpson’s Phoebe and Her Unicorn books. Again, if you haven’t read these, you gotta check them out. This comic series rivals (and honestly I enjoy more than) Calvin and Hobbes and The Peanuts. I particularly loved Phoebe and Her Unicorn in The Magic Storm, which was a graphic novel rather than a collection of individual strips.

Related, you should also definitely be following Pepper & Carrot, a gorgeous and funny web comic about a young witch and her cat.

Nonfiction Hits

Here are my favorite nonfiction reads from 2019:

A People’s History of the United States by Howard Zinn: the critical view of US American history that they don’t teach you (but should) in school
Sex and the Constitution: Sex, Religion, and Law from America’s Origins to the Twenty-First Century by Geoffrey R. Stone: an engaging, deeply informative, and actually really fun read all about sex, contraception, abortion, same-sex marriage, censorship, obscenity, morality, religion, and law in the US.
The Second Mountain: The Quest for a Moral Life by David Brooks: a thoughtful and persuasive book in which David Brooks argues that lives of meaning and purpose are rooted in commitments to a spouse and a family, to a vocation, to a philosophy or faith, and to a local community.
So Good They Can’t Ignore You by Cal Newport: an easy, interesting, and persuasive read. Somewhat counter-intuitive. Newport argues that rather than following your preexisting passions, you should instead cultivate rare and valuable skills in order to have a successful career that you enjoy.
Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones by James Clear: an engaging, informative, and easy read all about habits. If you want to cultivate good habits, start here.

Recent Reading: July 2019

2019-07-20T09:00:00-07:00

If This Goes On edited by Cat Rambo

Parvus Press, 2019.

Like A People’s Future of the United States, this is another Trump-era anthology. My favorite stories were:

“Green Glass: A Love Story” by E. Lily Yu (about climate change and class divides — reviewed for Skiffy and Fanty)
“A Gardener’s Guide to the Apocalypse” by Lynette Mejía (about love and gardening after the apocalypse)
“But for Grace” by Hal Y. Zhang (about immigration and teen pregnancy)
“One Shot” by Tiffany E. Wilson (about healthcare)
“That Our Flag Was Still There” by Sarah Pinsker (about flags, patriotism, and speech)
“Free WiFi” by Marie Vibbert (about Internet access and net neutrality)
“Bulletproof Tattoos” by Paul Crenshaw (about gun violence)

Do Not Go Quietly edited by Jason Sizemore & Lesley Conner

Apex Publications, 2019.

Another Trump-era anthology. My favorite stories were:

“Oil Under Her Tongue” by Rachael K. Jones (about sex and religion, featuring biblical erasure poetry!)
“Everything Is Closed Today” by Sarah Pinsker (about building community, practicing activism, and putting together a gang of skater girls — reviewed for Skiffy and Fanty)
“The Judith Plague” by Merc Fenn Wolfmoor (about androids, Hollywood, horror movies, and sexism)

Radicalized by Cory Doctorow

Tor Books, 2019.

This is a really strong collection of four novellas all about technology, activism, politics, and society. Check out my review up on Skiffy and Fanty for my thoughts on this one.

Miranda in Milan by Katharine Duckett

Tor.com, 2019.

This novella is a sequel to Shakespeare’s The Tempest that questions and queers the original. This needed to exist and now it does!

The Grace of Kings and The Wall of Storms by Ken Liu

Saga Press, 2015 and 2016.

I haven’t read books this long in a while. The Grace of Kings is almost 200,000 words, and The Wall of Storms is around 275,000 words (around 900 pages). I have tended to steer away from long epic fantasies because I reasoned that if I read shorter books, I could read more books, which seemed like a good trade off. However, I actually had so much fun reading these books that I ended up binge-reading the second half of both novels! It was just so delightful to get deeply absorbed into the world and the story. So I am now resolved to try to read more really long books.

In particular, I loved these books because they are epic fantasies rooted in East Asian culture, rather than Medieval Europe. That was awesome, delightful, and refreshing.

These novels have a somewhat unique structure, and it’s a structure that is grounded at least partially in East Asian literary traditions. These books are centrally concerned with society as a whole and with communities of characters, rather than just with the hero’s journey of one core protagonist. Significant events often happen in the span of a few pages or even sometimes off screen. So despite being such long books, the pacing is consistently fast and engaging. Sometimes it would be a little tiring to meet so many new characters, but Ken Liu’s writing is sufficiently engaging that I never really minded taking a detour to learn about a new character’s backstory.

The Wall of Storms, in particular, is a masterpiece. While The Grace of Kings takes place in a patriarchal society, The Wall of Storms upends that and brings women to the forefront of the narrative. Thematically, The Wall of Storms is filled smart and original questions and commentary about indigenous peoples, colonization, power, leadership, and justice. And although these are fantasy novels complete with magic and gods, these novels are also deeply scientific and science fictional. For example, The Wall of Storms introduces a species of dragons, but it doesn’t rely on magic to explain them. Instead, Ken Liu incorporates a convincing scientific explanation for why dragons can fly and breath fire!

I really want to read the (yet-to-be-published) next book in this series.

Always Outnumbered, Always Outgunned by Walter Mosley

Washington Square Press, 1998.

This is a collection of interrelated short stories about Socrates Fortlow, an ex-con living in Los Angeles and trying to be a good person even though he knows he isn’t one. Socrates reminds me of Amos from James S.A. Corey’s The Expanse series — both Socrates and Amos are traumatized killers trying to be good. They’re both really compelling characters who raise big, intriguing questions: what is it to be good? When evaluating a person’s goodness, how do we balance character, actions, and history?

Walter Mosley writes really great prose. This book alternates between simple and straightforward third-person narration and really gorgeous, really readable dialect.

Side note: reading books published in the 1980s or 1990s is strange because it feels very modern, but then you can’t stop wondering: why don’t they have cell phones? Why don’t they just check the Internet? Oh, how times have changed.

Plays by Roswitha of Gandersheim

Standard Ebooks, 2019.

I reread Hrotsvitha’s plays as I was working on the Standard Ebooks edition of this text. As always, it was an enjoyable read. Check out my recent posts on The Ruined Report and on this blog for more on Hrotsvitha and my recent Standard Ebooks design project.

Legalizing LGBT Families: How the Law Shapes Parenthood by Amanda K. Baumle and D’Lane R. Compton

New York University Press, 2015.

This is a sociology book about LGBTQ+ families. It was published in 2015, pre-marriage equality. It’s about legal rights, family formation, and legal consciousness. The authors conducted interviews with 137 LGBTQ+ parents throughout the country, and looked at how they became parents, which legal rights they had secured, and their legal consciousness. Then, the authors analyzed how family formation and the seeking of legal rights were affected by a slew of factors: sex, gender, orientation, locale, geography, state laws, federal laws, media, legal actors, familial desires, social networks, race, class, etc.

This was my first introduction to the concept of legal consciousness, which I found to be an interesting, useful theoretical tool to have access to.

Mostly, I’m grateful for reading this book because it gave me a better understanding of LGBTQ+ family formation, particularly in regards to fostering, adoption, surrogacy, insemination, and the law.

Relatedly, I’ve also been binge-ing the podcast Outspoken Voices from the Family Equality Council. The podcast is all about LGBTQ+ families, and it really brings this book to life. If you’re interested in LGBTQ+ families, I’m not sure I’d recommend this book, as it’s very dry (although well-written and accessible). I would, however, recommend that podcast in a heartbeat.

Free Software Free Society (Third Edition) by Richard Stallman

Free Software Foundation, 2015.

This is a great book to read if you’re looking to learn and think more about free and open source software and why it’s so darn important.

I read the second edition of this text back in college when I was first discovering the free software and free culture movements. I read the third edition this year because: (1) I wanted to read the new essays, and (2) I wanted to engage more deeply and critically with Stallman’s ideas.

Recently, the good folks at the Software Freedom Conservancy have been putting out new episodes again of the marvelous Free as in Freedom podcast, and listening to those has inspired me to use more free software and to work to be a better free software advocate. Rereading Free Software Free Society seemed like a good place to start. I largely agree with Stallman’s arguments and conclusions, but there are a few minor points where I may disagree from him or wish to inject more nuance. I’m planning to explore and map out those points in a future project, so stay tuned for more on that.

Ebook Design Project: Plays by Roswitha of Gandersheim

2019-06-03T03:35:00-07:00

I think most people have heard of Project Gutenberg, which provides free ebooks of public domain texts, but have you heard of Standard Ebooks?

Project Gutenberg’s ebooks are notoriously ugly. They’re functional, but there’s really no work put into typography or design. This is where Standard Ebooks comes in. Standard Ebooks is a volunteer project that produces new editions of public domain texts, incorporating rich semantic data as well as modern typography and design standards. If you want an ebook of a public domain text, Standard Ebooks should be your first stop.

And now, I’ve completed my first project for Standard Ebooks! I’ve produced Plays by Roswitha of Gandersheim, a collection of six short plays by the awesome 10th century German canoness. I’ve blogged about her a few times before, so check out those posts for my thoughts about how awesome she is. Since the first English translation of her plays has finally, officially, and unequivocally entered the public domain this year, I am excited and eager to share her work with whomever I can.

Here’s the book’s cover as well as the blurb I wrote for the book:

This is the cover for Standard Ebook's edition of Plays by Roswitha of Gandersheim.

Roswitha, also known as Hrotsvitha of Gandersheim, was a tenth century German canoness, dramatist, and poet. A remarkable woman, she has been called the first Western playwright since antiquity as well as the first known woman playwright. She was inspired by the Roman comic playwright Terence, who wrote six farces filled with disguises, misunderstandings, and pagan debauchery. Upset by Terence’s immoral subject matter but also inspired by his well-crafted plays, Roswitha sought to “Christianize” his work by writing six plays of her own.

Roswitha wrote six dramas in Latin. Two are concerned with the conversation of nonbelievers (Gallicanus and Callimachus), two are concerned with the repentance of sinners (Abraham and Paphnutius), and two are concerned with the martyrdom of virgins (Dulcitus and Sapientia).

This edition, originally published in 1923, includes an introduction by Cardinal Francis Aidan Gasquet (an English Benedictine monk and scholar), a critical preface by the translator (Christopher St. John), and prefaces written by Roswitha herself.

You can download page scans of the original 1923 book from the Internet Archive. You can also download an ebook of the book from the Internet Archive; however, that’s based off a computer transcription that has more than a few errors. I’ve corrected the computer transcription and published the result on GitHub, so if you want to remix Roswitha’s plays for whatever reason, you’ll probably want to copy the GitHub repository and build off that. I’m also working on uploading the transcription to Project Gutenberg, so it should be available there as well before long.

Update (Jun. 17, 2019): The Plays of Roswitha is now available on Project Gutenberg as well.

A People's History of the United States by Howard Zinn

2019-04-06T21:45:00-07:00

Introduction

This is a good book, and I’m glad I read it. It’s also a big long book, and I’m not sure how to sum up my thoughts on it. I think I’ll try to articulate what I perceived to be the book’s main ideas, and then I’ll review some of the recurrent themes.

Main Ideas

Mainstream histories suck. They obscure our understanding of the past and serve to indoctrinate us and make us passive, often with and through patriotism. A corrective, a People’s History, is needed.
So much of the history of the United States is a history of elites struggling against the majority, trying to keep the majority fighting among itself and identifying with the elites rather than with each other. When the elites to admit change, it is because it is the smallest possible change that still permits them to maintain control.
The political systems and institutions of the US defend the interests of the elite.
When change happens, it is because the people, working together, force it.
In the post-WWII era, the US is tragically committed to funding its massive military and not taxing the super rich at super high rates, which undermines our ability to invest in peace and in people.

Featuring American Classics, such as

“the easy acceptance of atrocities as a deplorable but necessary price to pay for progress” (9)
It’s a “defensive” war, we swear.
- “Jackson began raids into Florida, arguing it was a sanctuary for escaped slaves and for marauding Indians. Florida, he said, was essential to the defense of the United States. It was that classic modern preface to a war of conquest. Thus began the Seminole War of 1818, leading to the American acquisition of Florida. It appears on classroom maps politely as “Florida Purchase, 1819”—but it came from Andrew Jackson’s military campaign across the Florida border, burning Seminole villages, seizing Spanish forts, until Span was “persuaded” to sell. He acted, he said, by the “immutable laws of self-defense.”” (129)
- “Polk spoke of the dispatch of American troops to the Rio Grande as a necessary measure of defense. As John Schroeder says (Mr. Polk’s War): “Indeed, the reverse was true; President Polk had incited war by sending American soldiers into what was disputed territory, historically controlled and inhabited by Mexicans.”“(152)
- “a White House conference two weeks before Pearl Harbor anticipated a war and discussed how it should be justified.” (411)
Hey poor people, come fight and die for me, and I’ll make you rich and famous.
- “Here was the traditional device by which those in charge of any social order mobilize and discipline a recalcitrant population—offering the adventure and rewards of military service to get poor people to fight for a cause they may not see clearly as their own.” (78)
- “We know much more about the American army—volunteers, not conscripts, lured by money and opportunity for social advancement via promotion in the armed forces.” (160)
- “There were extravagant promises and outright lies to build up the volunteer units.” (161)
- The rich could avoid service, of course (235-237)
War is actually good and safe, so long as you’re in the elite.
- “Ruling elites seem to have learned through generations—consciously or not—that war makes them more secure against internal trouble.” (79)
- “The psychology of patriotism, the lure of adventure, the aura of moral crusade created by political leaders, worked effectively to dim class resentments against the rich and powerful, and turn much of the anger against ‘the enemy.’” (237)
- “And always, as a way of drowning class resentment in a flood of slogans for national unity, there was patriotism. […] The supreme act of patriotism was war.” (295)
- “The mixed reactions of labor to the war—lured by economic advantage, yet repelled by capitalist expansion and violence—ensured that labor could not unite either to stop the war or to conduct class war against the system at home.” (317-318)
- “American capitalism needed international rivalry—and periodic war—to create an artificial community of interest between the rich and poor, supplanting the genuine community of interest among the poor that showed itself in sporadic movements.” (363-364)
- “The coming of World War II weakened the old labor militancy of the thirties because the war economy created millions of new jobs at higher wages. The New Deal had succeeded only in reducing unemployment from 13 million to 9 million. It was the war that put almost everyone to work, and the war did something else: patriotism, the push for unity of all classes against enemies overseas, made it harder to mobilize anger against the corporations. During the war, the CIO and AFL pleged to call no strikes.” (402)
Bipartisanship for war.
- “Congress now appropriated money for a war against the Seminoles. In the Senate, Henry Clay of Kentucky opposed the war; he was an enemy of Jackson, a critic of Indian removal. But his Whig colleague Daniel Webster displayed that unity across party lines which became standard in American wars” (145)
- “Through the war, as Schroeder says, ‘the politically sensitive Whig minority could only harry the administration with a barrage of verbiage while voting for every appropriation which the military campaigns required.’” (153) (reminds me of Democrats in the 2000s)
- “The liberals in the government were themselves acting to exclude, persecute, fire, and even imprison Communists. It was just that McCarthy had gone too far, attacking not only Communists but liberals, endangering that broad liberal-conservative coalition which was considered essential.” (431)
- the Democratic Party during the Gulf War: “It went along with the Bush administration. It was pleased with the results. It had some misgivings about civilian casualties. But it did not constitute an opposition.” (600)
Look! We’re bringing you democracy! Aren’t we great? Totally worth this war.
- “Accompanying all this aggressiveness was the idea that the United States would be giving the blessings of liberty and democracy to more people. This was intermingled with ideas of racial superiority, longings for the beautiful lands of New Mexico and California, and thoughts of commercial enterprise across the Pacific.” (154)
There was actually a lot of racism behind the war, go figure (157, 436)
Selective enforcement and biased/elitist/racist interpretations of the laws.
- “We see then, in the first years of the Constitution, that some of its provisions—even those paraded most flamboyantly (like the First Amendment)—might be treated lightly. Others (like the power to tax) would be powerfully enforced.” (101) See 100-101 for more.
- “It was the national government which, while weakly enforcing the law ending the slave trade, sternly enforced the laws providing for the return of fugitives to slavery.” (186)
- “In the thirty years leading up the the Civil War, the law was increasingly interpreted in the courts to suit the capitalist development of the country.” (239) Examples: contract law, health and safety laws.
- “Meanwhile, the Supreme Court, despite its look of somber, black-robed fairness, was doing its bit for the ruling elite. […] Early in the nineteenth century the Court laid the legal basis for a nationally regulated economy by establishing federal control over interstate commerce, and the legal basis for corporate capitalism by making the contract sacred.” (260) See 260-261 for more on trusts and the 14th amendment being used to protect corporations (corporate personhood) instead of African Americans.
- “Truman could have issued executive orders in other areas, but did not. The Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments, plus the set of laws passed in the late 1860s and early 1870s, gave the President enough authority to wipe out racial discrimination.” (449)
- “The first person prosecuted under the Civil Rights Act of 1968 was a young black leader of SNCC, H. Rap Brown, who had made a militant, angry speech in Maryland, just before a racial disturbance there.” (461)
- “Evidence was piling up that even with all of the civil rights laws now on the books, the courts would not protect blacks against violence and injustice” (462)
- “The events of those years underlined what prisoners already sensed—that whatever crimes they had committed, the greatest crimes were being committed by the authorities who maintained the prisons, by the government of the United States. The law was being broken daily by the President, sending bombers to kill, sending men to be killed, outside the Constitution, outside the ‘highest law of the land.’ State and local officials were violating the civil rights of black people, which was against the law, and were not being prosecuted for it.” (518)
I’d love to do that, but I can’t.
- “So Lincoln distinguished between his ‘personal wish’ and his ‘official duty.’” (191)
- “Lincoln read the Constitution strictly, to mean that Congress, because of the Tenth Amendment (reserving to the states powers not specifically given to the national government), could not constitutionally bar slavery in the states.” (187)
Using aid money to purchase influence rather than help those most in need.
- “The United States in 1865 had spent $103,294,501 on public works, but the South received only $9,469,363.” (206)
- “Meanwhile, the United States, giving economic aid to certain countries, was creating a network of American corporate control over the globe, and building its political influence over the countries it aided.” the Marshall Plan (438)
- Foreign aid was mostly military aid (569)
- Foreign aid in the Clinton administration being way too political (657-658)
Reluctant “reform that would not yield too much” (218)
- “The farmers had fought, been crushed by the law, their struggle diverted into voting, and the system stabilized by enlarging the class of small landowners, leaving the basic structure of rich and poor intact. It was a common sequence in American history.” (214) Related, the two party system as “an ingenious mode of control” (217)
- Philanthropy and public schooling as ways to maintain order and power and foster patriotism (263)
- “What was clear in this period to blacks, to feminists, to labor organizers and socialists, was that they could not count on the national government. True, this was the “Progressive Period,” the start of the Age of Reform; but it was a reluctant reform, aimed at quieting the popular risings, not making fundamental changes.” (349)
- “The federal government was trying—without making fundamental changes—to control an explosive situation, to channel anger into the traditional cooling mechanism of the ballot box, the polite petition, the officially endorsed quiet gathering.” (456-457)
Conducting half-assed investigations simply to cover your ass.
- “The whole Iran-contra affair became a perfect example of the double line of defense of the American Establishment. The first defense is to deny the truth. If exposed, the second defense is to investigate, but not too much; the press will publicize, but they will not get to the heart of the matter.” (586)
Violating our own laws for national security and foreign policy.
- “The Iran-contra affair was only one of many instances in which the government of the United States violated its own laws in pursuit of some desired goal in foreign policy.” (588)
- See 588+ for examples including the Mayaguez affair, Lebanon, and Grenada.
- (And then ironically we didn’t intervene in El-Salvador because we backed that horrific regime.) (589)
“As so often happens in cases where the government commits murder, the surviving victims were put on trial” post Waco (646)
Choosing military solutions when diplomatic ones are possible.
- “But it seems that the Clinton administration, like so many before it (Truman in Korea, Johnson in Vietnam, Bush in the Gulf War) chose military solutions when diplomatic ones were possible.” (661)
- Bosnia-Herzegovina and Kosovo (660-661)
Wanting a “bold program of social reconstruction” but not being willing to cut the military budget or super tax the super rich to pay for it. (663-664)

Recent Reading: March 2019

2019-03-09T17:00:00-08:00

Born to the Blade: Season 1 by Michael R. Underwood, Marie Brennan, Malka Older, Cassandra Khaw

Serial Box, 2018.

This was tons of fun. The mash-up pitch is: Avatar: The Last Airbender meets Babylon 5. It’s got floating islands, duels with both magic and swords, intriguing politics, great worldbuilding, and nonbinary main character. Please read it at then tweet @SerialBoxPub and ask for a season 2.

I especially liked how nuanced the villains are. There’s one clear set of bad guys, Mertika, the classic imperialist power. They suck. But I loved how Quloo, Mertika’s capitalist rival, wasn’t without faults either. Quloo also sucks. In some ways, you could even argue Quloo is worse than Mertika. (I’m writing in general terms here so as to not spoil things.) I loved this nuance. A fun effect of this is that our heroes end up running around trying to stop everything from going to shit, which I think is a more interesting storyline than a “just” war against a flat villain.

The Stars Change by Mary Anne Mohanraj

Circlet Press, 2017.

The Stars Change is a queer SF romance, set on a different planet, at a university founded by Indian immigrants. It’s mostly a human populated planet, but there’s also a good number of aliens living and working there as well. The central conflict revolves around a group of likable, everyday people cooperating to try to stop a terrorist attack conducted by radicals whose slogan is “Humans First.”

I really liked this short novel because of its:

Indian-centric worldbuilding
classic pulp SF setting and feel
deeply ingrained intersectional feminist approach
compassionate and sophisticated engagement with important contemporary political themes

I will quickly recommend this book to basically anyone.

Acadie by Dave Hutchinson

Tor.com, 2017.

This short and fun novella is short and fun. I was able to read it in a day. I liked it. The twist near the end was fun and well-executed. An impressive amount of interesting worldbuilding is crammed into this short book.

I recommend this book if you like twists or if you like stories about genetics, human modification, and/or transhumanism.

The Lamb Will Slaughter the Lion by Margaret Killjoy

Tor.com, 2017.

An anarchist community of squatters summons a demon to protect them. When it turns out the demon may be turning on them, the community begins to turn on itself.

I was inspired to read this in part because last year I read “The Fortunate Death of Jonathan Sandelson” by Margaret Killjoy in Strange Horizons, a fun, powerful, and heartbreaking story about trolling, capitalism, and immigration. (See my roundup of 2018 short fiction here.) I loved that story. You should go read it. So when I was looking for novellas to read (I got on a novella kick the other week, can you tell?) I decided to give this one a shot.

Margaret Killjoy has become a new favorite of mine for the way she portrays anarchists, punks, squatters, activists, trans people, and others who are generally not only on the margins of society but also underrepresented in fiction. When these people are represented, they’re all too often represented in problematic, caricatured, and/or flat ways. So it’s really a joy to read Killjoy’s writing, which compassionately and empathetically centers these voices.

In particular, I loved the collectivist community of anarchist squatters that Killjoy depicts in this book. One of my favorite books ever is The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin (it has an anarchist-communist society on the moon!), and while I love that book, it takes place in another star system far in the future. It’s detached from everyday life on Earth in the early 21st century. The Lamb Will Slaughter the Lion examines how people can try to live in anarchist communities now, in the present(ish) day, and it depicts squatters, punks, and activists who are currently trying to do so.

To me, the plot felt a little tight, a little too hurried. I think it would have benefited from more room to stretch. That said, the novella was long enough to be engrossing and short enough to read in a day, which is a pretty delightful length. I want to read the sequel, The Barrow Will Send What it May, and I hope that that book is able to spend more time worldbuilding and developing characters.

Walkaway by Cory Doctorow

Tor Books, 2017.

Wow. I totally loved this book. The way I see it, Walkaway is a book about the end of capitalism and the end of death. Which like … yes please I want to read that. I was mostly interested in reading about the end of capitalism(!), but I was also totally onboard for exploring the end of death as well, which Doctorow does here with much more nuance and sophistication than he did in his earlier Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom.

Let’s just pause for a moment and appreciate that here we have an intelligent, well-written novel that takes place over a span of maybe a couple decades and imagines how capitalism might end and illustrates for us the essential process by which capitalism is replaced. [Pause for a moment.] Heck yes this book is awesome!

Now let’s single out two things in particular that I loved about Walkaway.

First, throughout the book, characters get into discussions/arguments/debates about any number of topics, and these conversations can go on for pages, with the characters really diving into the arguments and exploring their implications. Perhaps some readers may get bored by these conversations or feel they are somewhat unrealistic. That was not my experience at all. I loved these conversations. I was fascinated by them and felt they were acutely realistic. I was reminded of my friend Jordan, and how he and I will often get into just these sorts of conversations. I haven’t seen him in a while, so I loved getting to vicariously enjoy these sorts of conversations while reading the novel.

Second, quite possibly my favorite thing about Walkaway is the way it imagined family and community structures. From what I can tell, this element hasn’t gotten a lot of attention in either reviews or in Cory Doctorow’s own talks about the book, so I’m thinking I may have to write an essay exploring this in more detail. But for now, I just want to point out that in the novel there are essentially two societies: “default” (which is basically today’s world nearing the point of collapse) and “walkaway,” which can be described in a lot of ways, but here I’ll sum it up as a collective of anarchist-communist co-ops. Walkaway society is formed by people who walk away from default, and the base unit of society for walkwaways isn’t the nuclear family but rather a form of community life. Walkaways mostly live together in what are essentially anarchist-communist housing co-ops. Now, one of my core research interests and artistic obsessions has to do with family and community structures, specifically with alternatives to the heteronormative nuclear family. And I find it deeply significant that, in Walkaway, the exact point at which capitalism starts to really die is when people go walkaway and begin to live in community co-ops with one another. I also find it significant that one of the main villains of the book is the father of one of the walkaways, and he does some pretty fucked up things in the name of “family.”

Lastly, this book made me happy because of its queer, transgender, and POC representation.

I tend not to reread books all that often, but I’m already itching to reread this one.

A People’s Future of the United States edited by Victor LaValle and John Joseph Adams

One World, 2019.

This is an A+ Trump-era anthology of politics, resistance, and hope. Some of the stories are dark and heart-wrenching, but others are warm and hopeful. See my recent Skiffy and Fanty review for more thoughts on this.

My favorite stories in the anthology are:

“The Bookstore at the End of America” by Charlie Jane Anders
“Our Aim Is Not to Die” A. Merc Rustad
“It Was Saturday Night, I Guess That Makes It All Right” by Sam J. Miller
“Riverbed” by Omar El Akkad
“The Synapse Will Free Us from Ourselves” by Violet Allen
“No Algorithms in the World” by Hugh Howey
“A History of Barbed Wire” by Daniel H. Wilson
“Harmony” by Seanan McGuire
“Now Wait for This Week” by Alice Sola Kim

If you want to read excellent science fiction short stories that feel hyper-contemporary, read this. I can practically guarantee you’ll enjoy it.

Invisible Planets: Contemporary Chinese Science Fiction in Translation translated and edited by Ken Liu

Tor Books, 2016.

I’m a fan of Ken Liu and Liu Cixin, and I’m also a sinophile who currently lives in China and studies Chinese, so this anthology seemed like a thing I should read.

I really liked Liu Cixin’s stories in this anthology. I also liked Ma Boyong’s “The City of Silence” and Hao Jingfang’s “Invisible Planets” and “Folding Beijing.” Generally speaking, I appreciated but didn’t particularly enjoy the other stories here.

Website Redesign

2019-03-02T00:15:00-08:00

Introduction

Over the last two months, I taught myself the Bootstrap framework for web development, and I used it to redesign my website/blog. This project was on my to-do list since April 2017, and I’m glad that I had the chance to get it done this season. The blog looks much better now.

My blog's homepage, circa 2019.

Bootstrap

Bootstrap is a fabulous tool, and I think it should be taught to beginners right alongside HTML and CSS because if you want to do some basic web design-y things (like add a navbar), it’s actually quite a bit of work if you’re just using HTML and CSS, but with Bootstrap, it’s a cinch. And it’ll look good. The basics of Bootstrap aren’t much more complicated than the basics of HTML, and Bootstrap has another significant advantage: Bootstrap is a tool for developing responsive websites, websites that shift their layout depending on whether the reader is accessing the site on a desktop, tablet, or phone.

It also turns out that Bootstrap integrates really well with Jekyll, the platform that powers my blog, which made this redesign quite a bit of fun.

What’s New

Thanks to Bootstrap, my website/blog is now responsive, so it’ll look nice whether you access it on your desktop or your phone.

I added color and photos to the blog, simple design basics that I had neglected before. They do a lot of good, go figure.

I’ve added support for both categories and tags.

I also added support for Twitter cards, so that when I post blog links on Twitter, Twitter adds a nice little box with the post’s featured image and an excerpt. Like so:

Here's a pretty Twitter card that now shows up when I post links to my blog.

And, of course, in the process of redesigning the website, I also made lots of other small typographical and design edits. All in all, I’ve very happy with the site now.

Forking My Website/Blog

This website/blog is powered by Jekyll and hosted for free on Github thanks to Github Pages.

It’s a pretty sweet setup because it means: I don’t pay hosting fees; the website is super easy to backup; it’s easy to host elsewhere if I decide to ditch Github. Also, I was able to set up a custom email and email forwarding for free through Google Domains.

If you’re looking to set up your own website/blog, you’re welcome to fork my website on Github and use it for yourself. In an earlier post I reflected on the benefits of using Jekyll and Github Pages over a platform like WordPress, so check out that post for more details. It’s a little complicated, but if you’re tech-savvy, you can probably figure it out okay. Feel free to shoot me an email if you’ve got any questions.

2018 in Reading

2019-01-20T14:00:00-08:00

Introduction

Here’s all the books I that read in 2018:

The Plays of Roswitha translated by Christopher St. John
UH-OH: The Collected Poetry, Stories and Erotic Sass of Derrick C. Brown by Derrick C. Brown (poetry)
Dream Hoarders: How the American Upper Middle Class Is Leaving Everyone Else in the Dust, Why That Is a Problem, and What to Do About It by Richard Reeves
Our Super American Adventure by Sarah Graley (comics)
Binti: The Night Masquerade by Nnedi Okorafor
Star*Line 40.4 edited by Vince Gotera (poetry)
Beneath the Sugar Sky by Seanan McGuire
The Miserable Mill by Lemony Snicket
Uncanny Magazine Issue 20 edited by Lynne M. Thomas and Michael Damian Thomas
Drink Cultura: Chicanismo by José Antonio Burciaga
Dreams & Nightmares 108 edited by David C. Kopaska-Merkel (poetry)
The Stars Are Legion by Kameron Hurley
Capricious Issue 9: Gender Diverse Pronouns edited by A.C. Buchanan
The Austere Academy by Lemony Snicket
Let Your Life Speak: Listening for the Voice of Vocation by Parker J. Palmer
Pole Dancing to Gospel Hymns by Andrea Gibson (poetry)
The Female Man by Joanna Russ
The Ersatz Elevator by Lemony Snicket
The Imperial University: Academic Repression and Scholarly Dissent edited by Piya Chatterjee and Sunaina Maira
The Vile Village by Lemony Snicket
Uncanny Magazine Issue 21 edited by Lynne M. Thomas and Michael Damian Thomas
The Missionary’s Curse and Other Tales from a Chinese Catholic Village by Henrietta Harrison
Mythic Delirium 4.4 edited by Mike Allen
A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller Jr.
In the Pockets of Small Gods by Anis Mojgani (poetry)
Uncanny Magazine Issue 22 edited by Lynne M. Thomas and Michael Damian Thomas
The Hostile Hospital by Lemony Snicket
Rendezvous with Rama by Arthur C. Clarke
The Hacked World Order: How Nations Fight, Trade, Maneuver, and Manipulate in the Digital Age by Adam Segal
The Carnivorous Carnival by Lemony Snicket
The Slippery Slope by Lemony Snicket
The Grim Grotto by Lemony Snicket
The Penultimate Peril by Lemony Snicket
The End by Lemony Snicket
Phoebe and Her Unicorn by Dana Simpson (comics)
The China Questions: Critical Insights into a Rising Power edited by Jennifer Rudolph and Michael Szonyi
Leviathan Wakes by James S.A. Corey
Uncanny Magazine Issue 23 edited by Lynne M. Thomas and Michael Damian Thomas
Teaching Critical Thinking: Practical Wisdom by bell hooks
The Bride was a Boy by Chii (manga)
Babylon’s Ashes by James S.A. Corey
Dwarf Stars 2018: The Best Very Short Speculative Poems Published in 2017 edited by Deborah P. Kolodji (poetry)
Broken Metropolis: Queer Tales of a City That Never Was edited by Dave Ring
The Three-Body Problem by Liu Cixin and translated Ken Liu
Transcendent: The Year’s Best Transgender Speculative Fiction edited by K.M. Szpara
The Dark Forest by Liu Cixin and translated Joel Martinsen
Fiyah Magazine Issue 7 edited by Justina Ireland, Troy L. Wiggins, and Brandon O’Brien
Death’s End by Liu Cixin and translated Ken Liu
Capricious Issue 10 edited by A.C. Buchanan
Mithila Review Issue 10 edited by Salik Shah and Ajapa Sharma
Over the Anvil We Stretch by Anis Mojgani (poetry)
I Am Providence by Nick Mamatas
Uncanny Magazine Issue 24: Disabled People Destroy Science Fiction! edited by Dominik Parisien and Elsa Sjunneson-Henry
Sword and Sonnet edited by Aidan Doyle, Rachael K. Jones, E. Catherine Tobler
Uncanny Magazine Issue 25 edited by Lynne M. Thomas and Michael Damian Thomas
Kim Reaper: Grim Beginnings by Sarah Graley (comics)
Discipline & Punish: The Birth of the Prison by Michel Foucault
The Remnant Fleet by Geonn Cannon
Moonstruck Vol 1: Magic to Brew by Grace Ellis and Shae Beagle (comics)
Amaryllis and Other Stories by Carrie Vaughn
Dreams & Nightmares 109 edited by David C. Kopaska-Merkel (poetry)

Let’s review the highlights.

Hrotsvitha of Gandersheim

Hrotsvitha of Gandersheim is so awesome and I love her. She’s a 10th-century German canoness, dramatist, and poet who attempted to christianize the work of Terence, the Roman comic playwright. I reread her plays at the start of 2018 and blogged about them.

This year, now that work from 1923 has finally, definitively entered the public domain, an English translation of her plays is now in the public domain. Yay! I blogged about that earlier this month and also shared an ebook of that book that I had designed.

Novellas

Beneath the Sugar Sky by Seanan McGuire was another fabulous entry in Seanan McGuire’s fabulous Wayward Children series.

Binti: The Night Masquerade by Nnedi Okorafor is a delightful and surprising conclusion to Nnedi Okorafor’s Binti trilogy.

A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller Jr.

Wow. This science fiction classic is funny, powerful, and stunningly unique, even 60 years later. I loved it.

A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket

This series was fun and surprisingly challenging at times. I hadn’t read it before, and I’m very glad I read it last year.

The Expanse

The Expanse series remains tremendous fun. If you like space opera, or if you even just like stories set in space, I highly recommend you read this series.

The Remnant Fleet by Geonn Cannon

This was a fun, queer, and relatively short space opera that I stumbled upon. Of course I loved it.

Remembrance of Earth’s Past by Liu Cixin

This is the trilogy written by Liu Cixin and comprised of The Three-Body Problem, The Dark Forest, and Death’s End (translated Ken Liu and Joel Martinsen). I really enjoyed this imaginative and expansive trilogy.

Nonfiction Hits

Here’s some of the best nonfiction I read in 2018:

Dream Hoarders: How the American Upper Middle Class Is Leaving Everyone Else in the Dust, Why That Is a Problem, and What to Do About It by Richard Reeves
The Imperial University: Academic Repression and Scholarly Dissent edited Piya Chatterjee and Sunaina Maira
The Hacked World Order: How Nations Fight, Trade, Maneuver, and Manipulate in the Digital Age by Adam Segal
Discipline & Punish: The Birth of the Prison by Michel Foucault

Short Fiction

And of course I read a ton of short fiction last year too. Check out my “Favorite 2018 Short Stories” post for more on that.

Favorite 2018 Short Stories

2019-01-19T19:00:00-08:00

Last year, I wrote a short fiction review column for Skiffy and Fanty. By my count, I read almost 300 pieces of short fiction originally published in 2018. There’s also an uncounted number of short stories that I started reading but didn’t finish. I also read one anthology and one collection of short stories that were published before 2018, both of which were awesome.

It turns out I definitely have favorite magazines and authors and themes.

Magazines. Uncanny Magazine and Lightspeed Magazine reliably published stories I loved. I really loved Capricious and Anathema as well.

Authors. With any of these authors, it was a safe bet that I’d love the story: Bogi Takács, Carrie Vaughn, Katharine Duckett, A. Merc Rustad, Nino Cipri, and K.M. Szpara.

Themes. As you’ll notice below, the bulk of stories that resonated with me were feminist and represented QUILTBAG+ characters. Other themes that resonated with me included dis/ability, community, religion.

Here are my favorite pieces of short fiction that were originally published in 2018:

“You Can Make a Dinosaur, but You Can’t Help Me” by K.M. Szpara (Uncanny Magazine Issue 23) — My favorite story of the year! About family, found family, dinosaurs, and a trans romance. (Reviewed in more detail here.)

“Volatile Patterns” by Bogi Takács (Capricious Issue 9: Gender Diverse Pronouns) — a SFnal take on cultural appropriation of dress that kinda feels like Star Wars meets Ann Leckie. (Reviewed in more detail here.)

“Sandals Full of Rainwater” by A.E. Prevost (Capricious Issue 9: Gender Diverse Pronouns) — if you’re interested in linguistics, worldbuilding, immigration, and/or gender, read this. (Reviewed in more detail here.)

“Phaser” by Cameron Van Sant (Capricious Issue 9: Gender Diverse Pronouns) — a wild, funny story that’s also a sophisticated take on the complexities of gender identity. (Reviewed in more detail here.)

“Four-Point Affective Calibration” by Bogi Takács (Lightspeed Magazine Issue 93) — an engaging and beautiful story about aliens, immigration, communication, and being understood. (Reviewed in more detail here.)

“Where Would You Be Now?” by Carrie Vaughn (Tor.com) — a prequel to Carrie Vaughn’s awesome Coast Road series that’s about rebuilding a better world after an apocalypse. Feminist, concerned with birth control, and features a queer romance.

“Graveyard Girls on Paper Phoenix Wings” by Andrea Tang (Glittership) — an awesome story about a trans girl finding herself, finding acceptance and love, and finding her people at a cemetery that’s haunted by gossiping ghosts. (Reviewed in more detail here.)

“Assistance” by Kathryn DeFazio (Escape Pod) — a mundane yet moving story about a nonbinary person with anxiety who’s emotionally supported by an assistive android. (Reviewed in more detail here.)

“Don’t Pack Hope” by Emma Osborne (Nightmare Magazine) — short, powerful tale + zombie apocalypse + trans perspective.

“Sucks (to Be You)” by Katharine Duckett (Uncanny Magazine Issue 22) — social media succubus! (Reviewed in more detail here.)

“One Day, My Dear, I’ll Shower You with Rubies” by Langley Hyde (PodCastle) — a genocidal wizard is put on trial years after the war, and his daughter is called to testify against him. She won’t forgive him, and he won’t apologize. (Reviewed in more detail here.)

“I Sing Against the Silent Sun” by A. Merc Rustad and Ada Hoffman (Lightspeed Magazine Issue 97) — if you like space opera and poetry, read this. (Reviewed in more detail here.)

“In the End, It Always Turns Out the Same” by A.C. Wise (The Dark Issue 37) — a smart, dark take on the Scooby Doo formula. (Reviewed in more detail here.)

“Every Good-bye Ain’t Gone” by Eden Royce (Strange Horizons) — a séance wherein spirits are summoned not by crystal balls or ouiji boards but rather with food. (Reviewed in more detail here.)

“Dead Air” by Nino Cipri (Nightmare Magazine Issue 71) — a fascinating, haunting audio transcript. Nita’s working on a sociologically-influenced art project. “It’s an ethnography of the people I fuck.” That’s what Nita tells Maddie, her latest … interviewee. (Reviewed in more detail here.)

“Versions of the Sun” by A.J. Hammer (Anathema Issue 5) — a fascinating, beautiful take on prophecy, destiny, and rebellion. If you like stories about religion or stories that interrogate the trope of “the chosen one,” read this. (Reviewed in more detail here.)

“Maria’s Children” by Tobi Ogundiran (The Dark Issue 40) — a tough, powerful story about toxic masculinity and patriarchy. (Reviewed in more detail here.)

“Nation Building and Baptism” by Octavia Cade (Capricious Issue 10) — following climate disasters, the people of Aotearoa/New Zealand are welcoming refugees and building a nation dedicated to conversation. A warm, hopeful tale. (Reviewed in more detail here.)

“How to Identify an Alien Shark” by Beth Goder (Fireside Fiction) — flash fiction about an economist alien shark invasion 😀

“The House on the Moon” by William Alexander (Uncanny Magazine Issue 24: Disabled People Destroy Science Fiction!) — a lighthearted yet serious story about disability. What’s the best way to illustrate the constructedness of (dis)ability? Move a European castle onto the moon. (Reviewed in more detail here.)

“The Fortunate Death of Jonathan Sandelson” by Margaret Killjoy (Strange Horizons) — a fun, powerful, and heartbreaking story about trolling, capitalism, and immigration.

“Talk to Your Children about Two-Tongued Jeremy” by Theodore McCombs (Lightspeed Magazine Issue 102) — It turns out that Two-Tongued Jeremy, the latest study app, can be terribly abusive to middle schoolers. A smart and challenging story about capitalism, exploitation/manipulation, parenting, and success. (Reviewed in more detail here.)

“How to Swallow the Moon” by Isabel Yap (Uncanny Magazine Issue 25) — This lovely novelette features a moving queer romance, a rad monster, and wonderful Filipino-inspired worldbuilding. (Reviewed in more detail here.)

“The Thing About Ghost Stories” by Naomi Kritzer (Uncanny Magazine Issue 25) — a ghost story about a folklorist studying ghost stories.

“The Rose MacGregor Drinking and Admiration Society” by T. Kingfisher (Uncanny Magazine Issue 25) — a hilarious reversal in which an array of seductive mythical beasts find themselves pining after a young woman.

Happy Public Domain Day!

2019-01-01T16:00:00-08:00

Introduction

I confess, New Years has never been one of my favorite holidays. I don’t care for most of the typical New Years traditions, and in fact, I usually try to get to bed before midnight.

This year, however, we have something to celebrate that’s genuine, meaningful, and near to my heart: for the first time in over twenty years, we have a plethora of new work entering the public domain! (In the US anyway. Unfortunately, the situation is worse in Canada.) This brings me immense joy.

Happy Public Domain Day! 😀

Lifehacker has an extensive list of what’s now entered the public domain. A couple things that stick out to me include:

“Yes! We Have No Bananas”, a song that I didn’t know I needed
The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran
The Murder of Roger Ackroyd and The Murder on the Links by Agatha Christie

And in particular, one lesser known item has now definitively entered the public domain, and this particular item brings me great joy: The Plays of Roswitha translated by Christopher St. John. More on this item (and a free ebook!) after brief rant about copyright laws.

Finally

In 1998, the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act (CTEA) extended copyright terms in the US. For many works that were about to enter the public domain, the CTEA retroactively extended the copyright term by two decades. As the awesome public domain scholar Jennifer Jenkins writes, “For works published between 1923 and 1977 that were still in copyright, the terms were extended to 95 years from publication, keeping them out of the public domain for an additional 20 years” (2). Today, work from 1923 finally enters the public domain. Next year, work from 1924 will enter the public domain. And so on. (Assuming Congress doesn’t pass another misguided copyright law.)

Why is the public domain something to celebrate?

Works in the public domain can easily be used for all sorts of purposes, and they’re often cheaper and easier to access as well. Moreover, the public domain is vital to creating new art. All art is derivative to some extent. Think of mash-up videos on Youtube, or sampling in music, or how often popular songs are used in movies, or how frequently we retell fairy tales, or how often Shakespeare’s plays are produced. Art is always building off of and responding to what came before it, and when more works are in the public domain, we have more freedom to create and we can engage in new ways with our predecessors. There’s also a social justice element to this topic, as wealthy creators can often pay to license a copyrighted work, whereas poor creators are more reliant on the public domain.

When we keep work out of the public domain, as the CTEA did by extending copyright terms for twenty years, there’s a lot we lose. Not only do we restrict the artistic freedom and speech of modern creators, but we also lock up, forget about, and sometimes even lose our cultural heritage. As Jenkins writes, “keeping older works under copyright frequently frustrates, rather than promotes, their maintenance and dissemination” (7).

It’s often easier to access writings, music, and movies from 1920 than it is to access work from 1930 or 1940. (For example, Google reveals over 500 million search results for “music from 1920,” but less than 300 million results for “music from 1940.”) When works are unambiguously in the public domain, it’s easy to archive and share them publicly, but if a work may still be under copyright, there may be crushing penalties for sharing it. With older works, it can be prohibitively time-consuming and even sometimes a futile effort to determine whether they are still under copyright and, if so, who holds the copyright. This means that people who want to use a work (people who may even be willing to pay to license it) won’t be able to reuse or build upon the original work. By the time the work definitively enters the public domain, it may already be forgotten about in the public consciousness, or the original copies may even be lost.

I want to make one final point about why our current copyright terms are awful: most works only retain commercial value for a period of a few months or a few years before falling out of circulation. Sure, some works remain commercially valuable for decades, but most works lose their commercial value within five years and then are locked up under the copyright regime for another 90 years, during which time the public develops a cultural amnesia about these works. There is an easy fix to this problem: shorter, renewable copyright terms. As Jenkins writes, “Until 1978, the maximum copyright term was 56 years: 28 years from the date of publication, renewable for another 28 years” (4). Under such a system, works that retain commercial value could remain under copyright, but works that have fallen out of circulation would enter the public domain. We should return to a system of shorter, renewable terms.

As you can no doubt tell by now, I’m quite a nerd about copyright. I learned a ton about copyright and developed my interest for it by reading two books (both of which you can read and download online for free). I highly recommend:

Free Culture: How Big Media Uses Technology and the Law to Lock Down Culture and Control Creativity by Lawrence Lessig, which examines the history and development of copyright laws in the US (and in particular examines how copyright laws responded to new technologies), and
The Public Domain: Enclosing the Commons of the Mind by James Boyle, which is a fabulous book all about the public domain and how awesome (and imperiled) it is

If you’re interested in copyright law or the public domain but you aren’t ready to pick up a book, then check out Duke University’s Center for Study of the Public Domain.

The Plays of Roswitha

Roswitha is awesome. She was a 10th-century German canoness, dramatist, and poet, and she was one of the first people to write drama since antiquity. Among her other accomplishments, she wrote six plays in which she attempted to “Christianize” the work of the Roman comic playwright Terence. I first came across her work in college, and I’ve read and reread her a few times since. I reread her plays last year, and shared my thoughts about them in this blog post, so check that out for a more thoughtful reflection on her work.

In fact, I love Roswitha so much that I’ve even designed a epub of The Plays of Roswitha. Since the text is now officially in the public domain, I can now share it with you! Here’s a link to download the ebook, and here’s the front-matter that I wrote for the ebook:

Roswitha, also known as Hrotsvitha of Gandersheim, was a tenth-century German canoness, dramatist, and poet. She was inspired by the Roman comic playwright Terence, who wrote six farces filled with disguises, misunderstandings, and pagan debauchery. Upset by Terence’s immoral subject matter but also inspired by his well-crafted plays, Roswitha sought to “Christianize” his work by writing six plays of her own.

Of her six dramas, two are concerned with the conversation of nonbelievers (Gallicanus and Callimachus), two are concerned with the repentance of sinners (Abraham and Paphnutius), and two are concerned with the martyrdom of virgins (Dulcitus and Sapientia).

This edition, originally published in 1923, includes an introduction by Cardinal Francis Aidan Gasquet (an English Benedictine monk and scholar), a critical preface by the translator (Christopher St. John), and prefaces written by Roswitha herself.

Update (Jun. 3, 2019): I’ve just finished creating an ebook of Roswitha’s plays for Standard Ebooks, a volunteer project that produces new, high-quality editions of public domain texts. This new ebook is a little bit more fancy and polished than the above version. View the book on Standard Ebooks.

Discipline and Punish by Michel Foucault

2018-12-31T09:00:00-08:00

Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison by Michel Foucault. Translated by Alan Sheridan. Vintage Books, 1995. Originally published in France in 1975.

Foucault’s Ideas

We had discussed this book in a few of my college classes, so I had some context for understanding it, but it’s still admittedly a challenging text to parse, so after I read it, I listened to the recent Philosophize This! podcasts about Foucault and his work. I’m very glad I did. Those podcasts helped a lot with my understanding and appreciation of the text.

Discipline and Punish may look like a history book, but it’s not. It doesn’t point to the past and tell us how things used to be, back then. Foucault would argue that Discipline and Punish is more of a genealogy, a book which traces how our current mechanisms of power developed over time. On the face of it, this is a book about prisons, but it’s really concerned with systems of discipline and with disciplinary power, which are at play all throughout society — in prisons yes, but also in schools, in business, in government, in the military, and even in our private lives. The key modalities of power have shifted, Foucault argues. No longer is power primarily exercised by the brute strength of the state. Nowadays, power operates and functions most significantly through discipline, a widespread and diffuse (and even internalized) system, a process of surveillance, normalization, and examination. All throughout society, we are constantly monitoring and tracking ourselves and each other and then comparing everyone to normalized standards of behavior. In this process, we become both controlled subjects and active participants, simultaneous following and reinforcing the norms of society. Discipline is the primary mode of power in our modern world, and in most cases, it shapes our behavior more significantly than the state’s threat of force.

My Reactions

The book is entirely a descriptive account. Foucault doesn’t directly argue whether this system of discipline that has developed is good or bad. Which is fair. Discipline is somewhat like a tool; it’s more or less neutral, neither good or bad. As Foucault writes:

'Discipline' may be identified neither with an institution nor with an apparatus; it is a type of power, a modality for its exercise, comprising a whole set of instruments, techniques, procedures, levels of application, targets; it is a 'physics' or an 'anatomy' of power, a technology. (215)

Which makes sense, but I still found myself a little annoyed by the fundamentally descriptive nature of the book. Foucault outlines this system of discipline through which power operates in our modern world (and he also shows his readers how things used to be different), and then he won’t say whether this shift has been a good thing or a bad thing. This was just one of my reactions to the text; I recognize that it isn’t an entirely fair criticism.

After all, discipline is relatively neutral. What really matters is how you apply it, what you use it to do, how it operates in particular contexts. For example, I’d much rather be an inmate in prison than be drawn and quartered. (Although that’s not to say I don’t have problems with prisons and their use.) On the other hand, I think schools excessively surveil and evaluate students and also reinforce behavior norms that are too narrow and constricting. In some contexts, I’m grateful for systems of discipline; in others, I’m critical. So, it’s probably more useful to talk about how discipline is beneficial and/or harmful in specific cases, rather than reduce it to the somewhat naive question, “So, is this good or bad?”

So I guess I’m a little frustrated that Foucault didn’t engage in this sort of analysis — although again, I can’t really fault him for it. The book is already of sufficient length and depth, and venturing into normative arguments would have opened up a whole nother can of worms.

Moreover, discipline has become so ingrained in our lives that, as Foucault puts it, “there is no outside” (301). It’s reach is inescapable. How can you truly know where your authentic desires end and where the internalized norms and standards of society begin? You probably can’t, not fully, not always clearly. If that’s the case, if there is no outside to the system, then it’s particularly useful to understand how exactly this system operates, and that’s a question that Foucault devotes a lot of energy to answering.

Discipline and Me

As I read Discipline and Punish, I couldn’t help but reflect on the fact that I’ve recently been researching GTD, minimalism, and Cal Newport’s work (especially his ideas concerning deep work), and subsequently I’ve been incorporating some of these ideas into a developing system of personal habits and practices. In short, I’ve been “getting productive” and getting into productivity, although I’d argue that I’m just trying to spend my time in ways that are more meaningful to me. (I need to write a future essay in which I reflect on the points of both overlap and tension between “being productive” and trying to spend my life more meaningfully.)

There is some enjoyable irony to this. As I read Discipline and Punish, I was leaning into a practice in which I routinely exercise disciplinary power upon myself. Discipline is fundamentally a process of surveillance, normalization, and examination, and I, uh, I’ve been doing all of those things to myself.

I’ve been tracking habits in my bullet journal. I’ve been logging more items on my to-do list, tracking next actions and whether tasks are completed. (Surveillance.) I’ve started time-blocking to be more intentional about how I use my time. I’ve been setting weekly goals and priorities. (Normalization.) I’ve even started taking thirty minutes to do a weekly review, wherein I review what I got done last next and select my goals and priorities for the next week. (Examination.)

I’m a cog in the system of discipline. At the same time, I’m also the manager. Well, maybe more of a middle-manager. My own agency and the normalized standards handed down from above — sometimes those blend together. It can be hard to differentiate the two. Sure, when I set my goals for the week, I am intentionally exercising my own agency, my own will, to decide what I value and what I want. But at the same time, I know that my will and my desires have already been shaped to some extent by society. Am I exercising my own agency, or following the normalized standards handed down from above? Both, probably. It’s inescapable.

I’d like to think my evolving practice isn’t as soulless and corporate as it may seem from how I’ve just described it. It certainly doesn’t feel so soulless. On the contrary, I feel more in control, and I feel like I’ve been using my time more meaningfully, in ways that better accord with my values and passions.

I see why discipline has wormed its way into practically every aspect of modern society. It’s effective, efficient, and powerful. Recently, I’ve gotten a lot done and felt more relaxed.

Anyway, moral of the story, there’s a lot to discuss with this book, and I wish I were in grad school and could discuss it all in a classroom and with classmates. Have you read it? What do you think?

Recent Reading: December 2018

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Kim Reaper: Grim Beginnings by Sarah Graley

This adorable and fun comic is adorable and fun. It features: a college student who’s a part time grim reaper + a lesbian romance + cats + ghosts + zombies + pretty artwork. I want more please.

Moonstruck Vol 1: Magic to Brew by Grace Ellis and Shae Beagle

This gorgeous, queer comic is about a handful of friends living their life in a college town filled with magical creatures of all sorts. This comic made me feel all warm and cozy inside because of its beautiful art, laid-back attitude, and diverse cast of characters.

The Bride was a Boy by Chii

This manga is a cute and heartwarming love story, created by a trans artist, sharing about her marriage and her husband. It’s a quick read, and I liked it.

Teaching Critical Thinking: Practical Wisdom by bell hooks

Teaching Critical Thinking is the third book in bell hook’s teaching trilogy. (The other two books are Teaching to Transgress and Teaching Community.) I have now read and enjoyed all three essay collections.

The essays in this book are short, accessible, intelligent, and thought-provoking, and they’re rooted in hooks’ commitment to critical pedagogy, to education as the practice of freedom. If you teach, I recommend you read all three of these books. In my experience, they’ve been great reads before starting a new term.

I am sure that I will return to these three books in the future. I’d found that reading these books has been a good way for me to break down my assumptions and default routines when it comes to teaching, a good way to pause and reflect on what I really want my teaching to do.

Uncanny Magazine Issue 23: Disabled People Destroy Science Fiction! edited by Dominik Parisien and Elsa Sjunneson-Henry

This special issue of Uncanny Magazine is really worth checking out. First off, it’s just really good. I especially loved the fiction and the personal essays about disability and SF. Secondly, I don’t think we have nearly enough disabled representation or stories that seriously engage disability, so this issue — which is all about that — felt like a welcome breath of fresh air.

Back in November, I reviewed “The House on the Moon” by William Alexander, my favorite story in the issue. At the very least, you should go read that.

The Three-Body Problem, The Dark Forest, and Death’s End by Liu Cixin (translated Ken Liu and Joel Martinsen)

I really enjoyed these three novels, which together comprise The Remembrance of Earth’s Past trilogy. Each novel is filled with really cool, really awesome ideas (mostly taken from physics) that are clearly explained and beautifully written. It’s translated from Chinese and centered around Chinese characters, which of course I enjoyed a lot, although the trilogy as a whole is much more a story about humanity at large rather than just China.

In my option, the highlights from each book were the video game in book one, the deterrence theory in book two, and the fairy tale embedded in book three. The fairy tale was especially awesome. Book three takes a three-chapter (14,000 word) detour to tell an original, wildly colorful, and imaginative fairy tale that’s littered with metaphors drawn from theoretical physics. It’s a key piece of the overall plot of the trilogy, but honestly, the fairy tale could stand on its own just fine. It’s a mark of how expansive and skillfully written the entire trilogy is.

I was a little less impressed with the ending, but I think that has less to do with Liu’s writing and more to do with my own reading. After reading Robert Charles Wilson’s short story “Utriusque Cosmi” and Excession by Iain M. Banks, the wonder of the finale felt, well, less wonderful, perhaps even slightly derivative. But I still as heck enjoyed it.

Leviathan Wakes and Babylon’s Ashes by James S.A. Corey

Over the summer, I got to reread Leviathan Wakes and read for the first time Babylon’s Ashes, the first and sixth books in The Expanse series by James S.A. Corey. I had so much fun! Honestly, this series is the most fun I’ve ever had reading. It’s filled with excellent scifi action, character conflict, and political drama. The prose is sharp, accessible, and immersive, and the worldbuilding and themes are interesting and engaging.

Since in the last paragraph, I described the series as “filled with excellent scifi action,” I feel compelled to pause and reflect on the role of violence in stories, because I think too often in scifi in particular, we tend to glorify (or at least mindlessly enjoy) violence.

In general, I have mixed feelings on this subject. On one hand, the stories we tell these days are so violent that it can be a little hard for us to tell stories about non-violent conflict. I don’t like this, and I wish we had more stories about good people trying to sort out their differences or overcome adversity through non-violent means. (One of the most impressive and mind-bending aspects of Le Guin’s Earthsea books is how thoroughly they eschew violent conflict.) That said, humans are all too often an all too violent species, so it does makes sense to include violence in the stories we tell about ourselves. The Expanse series is filled with violence, sometimes violence at a mind-bogglingly large scale. The series doesn’t glorify violence, and in fact it often analyzes the tragic and toxic effects of it and features protagonists who are trying to stop it. Moreover, I’d argue that the series does include its fair share of non-violent conflict as well. So when I describe The Expanse as “filled with excellent scifi action,” I guess what I mean is:

The series treats violence seriously and doesn’t glorify it.
The series uses violence to more powerfully engage its themes.
The series uses violence to create a suspenseful and exciting reading experience.
Also, the action in the series forces me to think about physics and space and thereby feel in awe of both nature and science.

I loved Babylon’s Ashes. It’s my favorite book in the series so far. It’s probably the most fun book I’d ever read. I liked all the viewpoint characters, the book skillfully balanced human political drama with wild and mysterious alien elements, and the pacing was damn near perfect. Some of the other Expanse novels have given me a sense of fatigue near the end, as the setbacks and challenges kept piling on top of each other, but I did not have that experience with this novel. Babylon’s Ashes was fabulous.

If you like SF and if you like reading things which are, you know, fun, you gotta check out The Expanse (both the book and the TV series).

I Am Providence by Nick Mamatas

Often, I find myself returning to this idea: our expectations greatly affect our experience of reading a book, sometimes more than anything else. For more of my thoughts on this, see my posts about The Left Hand of Darkness and A Series of Unfortunate Events.

For whatever reason, my expectations were somewhat off base for this book. I Am Providence is about an H.P. Lovecraft convention. The book examines the politics of exclusion and racism within the Lovecraft community, and it begins with a rather grotesque murder. I had expected there would be more otherworldly elements to this book. There were some. A recurring narrator POV was the dead man, his ghost (or something like it) tethered to his body in the morgue. Beyond that element, however, much of this book felt to me like a relatively straightforward murder mystery.

I enjoyed the books’ commentary and exploration of Lovecraft, the Lovecraft community, and the unsavory, unjust, and problematic elements of those (racism, sexism, ableism, etc). But — because of my misguided expectations — I kept waiting for Cthulhu to rise from the deep, or something like that anyway, so I was ultimately disappointed when that didn’t really happen.

The Remnant Fleet by Geonn Cannon

I picked up this book in the 2018 LGBT+ StoryBundle back in June. It’s a short novel, and it looked like a fun, queer space opera, so of course I could not resist.

I like this book! This book was fun! And queer! And filled with many of my favorite space opera tropes! Such as: dozens of humanoid species, each with their own quirks and customs — a spaceship crew that calls to mind Firefly — weird, creepy aliens — and many more. It also featured a lot of different character POVs, something which I really like, and it handled that really well. While there are certainly a couple main characters, the book is mostly concerned with a community of characters. Also, one of the main characters is nonbinary and uses ze/hir pronouns, which of course I also loved.

I must also raise content warnings for this book for rape and sexual abuse. There is some very heavy stuff in this book. I think it handles it well, and all in all the book still felt relatively upbeat, at least for me anyway, but you should definitely be aware of this before you start reading.

Transcendent: The Year’s Best Transgender Speculative Fiction edited by K.M. Szpara

Of course I loved this. Look at the title. Look at who edited it. My favorite stories were:

“The Shape of My Name” by Nino Cipri
“Contents of Care Package to Etsath-tachri, Formerly Ryan Andrew Curran (Human English Translated to Sedrayin)” by Holly Heisey
“The Need for Overwhelming Sensation” by Bogi Takács
“The Librarian’s Dilemma” by E. Saxey
“Where Monsters Dance” by A. Merc Rustad

Amaryllis and Other Stories by Carrie Vaughn

Carrie Vaughn is such a good writer. I wish I could write prose like her. Her stories are lush, detailed, and immersive but also accessible, character-centered, and skillfully plotted. Before reading Amaryllis and Other Stories, I had read a lot of her short fiction published online and also her novel Bannerless, which I loved. It was one of my favorite novels of the year, and I still find myself thinking about it fairly often.

So I figured it was time that I check out her collection of short fiction. It was fabulous, as expected.

I especially loved the final three stories, which all take place in the same universe as Bannerless. I’m looking forward to reading The Wild Dead, the sequel to Bannerless, next summer. (I know The Wild Dead is already out, but I haven’t had a chance to read it yet.) I really hope she writes more stories set in this world. I also think I need to write an essay looking at the series as an ambiguous utopia in the tradition of Le Guin’s The Dispossessed.

I tried to select some of my favorite stories to shout out, but … I like practically all of the stories in this collection! To list out my favorites would be nearly the same as listing the table of contents. (Have I mentioned that Carrie Vaughn has become one of my favorite writers?) So in lieu of listing my favorites, I’ll just shout out the three stories that take place in the Bannerless universe. These stories are a great point for jumping into Carrie Vaughn’s work.

“Astrophilia”
“Bannerless”
“Amaryllis”

Lastly, I’d be remiss not to also mention that earlier this year, Tor.com published “Where Would You Be Now?” by Carrie Vaugh, another short story set in the Bannerless universe. I super loved that story also. Check it out!

Recent Short Fiction

And of course I’ve also been reading lots of short fiction for my short fiction review column over at Skiffy & Fanty.

Recent Reading: July 2018

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Introduction

Over the last several months, my reading time has largely been split between genre classics and recent political nonfiction. (And short fiction.)

Let’s start with the genre classics.

The Female Man by Joanna Russ

Originally published in 1975.

This books succeeds by the strength of its wild prose and daring, imaginative worldbuilding. There’s certainly a plot here; although I confess, I couldn’t follow it very easily. But I hardly cared about that! The prose was so much fun! It was playful, smart, powerful, and surprising.

Looking for daring new wave feminist SF? Something that’ll make The Left Hand of Darkness look tame? Go read this. It still deserves to be read, and it’s tons of fun.

A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller Jr.

Originally published in 1959.

For first being published in 1959, this story has held up surprisingly, impressively well. A Canticle for Leibowitz is a powerful set of three post-apocalyptic novellas set in a Catholic monastery in the Southwestern American desert. The first novella is set in the nadir of a dark age, the second at the start of a renaissance, and the third takes place in a rebuilt civilization on the edge of war. It’s somewhat reminiscent of Asimov’s Foundation series; both works chronicle a bastion of civilization and culture attempting to bring a dark age to an early end.

As a whole, A Canticle for Leibowitz is funny, powerful, and stunningly unique. The third novella is the pièce de résistance — it’s one of the best things I’ve ever read. It’s basically speculative theology, situating an informed, sympathetic take on the Catholic teachings on euthanasia beside a nuclear holocaust. It’s disarmingly brave and challenging. This book left me changed, in the way the best books do, especially to younger readers.

Honestly, the third novella is stunningly original; at multiple times as I was reading it, I literally set the book down and thought, “Wow! I can’t believe I’m reading this. I can’t believe this was written. This is amazing!” In this way, A Canticle for Leibowitz reminds me A Wizard of Earthsea, another classic of the field that somehow still feels all to original, all too contemporary, important, and challenging.

Now that I’ve squeed at maximum volume for too long, I’m slightly concerned I may have given you overblown expectations that will ruin your reading experience. So let me boil my thoughts down to these two more restrained observations: (1) This is a deserved classic — it still holds up; (2) Admittedly, I love this book a lot because A Canticle for Leibowitiz hits a grand slam on one of my genre obsessions: serious, sympathetic treatment of religion and theology.

Rendezvous with Rama by Arthur C. Clarke

Originally published in 1973.

This book was okay. Although the prose was sharp and clear, the social norms were aggravatingly outdated, and the ideas were interesting but tame compared to more modern SF. I enjoyed this book well enough as I read it, but when I finished, I set down it and had no desire to read anything else by Arthur C. Clarke. Which is good. My TBR list is way too long. It’s actually really nice to have had a taste of an author and to be able to confidently remove them from your reading list. There’s so much other stuff out there, it’s nice to be able to narrow down my reading.

Relatedly, I also tried to read The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester just the other month. I read 20-30 pages of it, but it was doing nothing for me, so I gave up, returned it to the library, and scratched it off my reading list. I was proud of myself! I displayed an important skill: being able to shamelessly give up on a book that’s not working for you.

A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket

I hadn’t read these before. This series was enjoyable, but I needed to adjust my expectations to enjoy it.

Each book in the series starts with a warning and a suggestion. Snicket admonishes his readers that the events portrayed in the book are dreadful and terrible, and Snicket attempts to persuade this readers to put down the book and choose another. At first, I thought this was a cute bit of black humor to set the tone for the story. I was foolish and wrong. Snicket’s warnings, as unexpected and funny they may seem, are earnest. These are not happy books. The moments of levity and joy the Baudelaire siblings experience do not counterbalance their hardships. The first book was especially tough for me to read, as I watched the Baudelaires experience abuse, neglect, and exploitation — three harms I had to undergo training for before starting my last job.

But once I adjusted my expectations, I largely enjoyed the series. The prose is comfy. The plots are engaging. The overall series arc is intriguing and skillfully executed. The books become increasingly thematically complex. Interestingly, however, the final book of the series caught me off-guard again. Despite my experience reading the first twelve books in the series, I started reading book thirteen expecting (or perhaps just blindly hoping for) a nice ending, in which questions were answered, compatriots reunited, and safety reasonably assured. Instead, the final book answered some questions, raised new ones, left several threads either loose or knotted, and delivered a scene with shocking thematic and symbolic weight. It wasn’t what I was expecting, but that’s my fault.

In the Pockets of Small Gods by Anis Mojgani

Write Bloody Publishing, 2018.

I’ve been waiting this book of poetry since 2011, when I read The Feather Room by Anis Mojgani. Sure, Anis has had two books out since then, but neither of those were books of dedicated new poetry. Songs From Under the River (2013) collected Anis’ performance repertoire. It’s a treasure to own, but it didn’t include much new work. The Pocketknife Bible (2015) is awesome and featured lots of new work, but it’s just something else altogether.

The Feather Room basically taught me how to write poetry. Eventually, I realized that 90% of my poetry was derivative of Anis’ style in that book. Which is fine, really — imitating good work is how we improve our craft. But I’ve been dying to see how Anis himself would improve his craft, wondering in what new directions he would take this future work. In the Pockets of Small Gods provides the answer. In this book, Anis blends mythology with his own life, and turns his joyful talent for magic realism to the waters of grief. It’s accessible yet deep, and I imagine I’ll be rereading this one quite a lot.

The Imperial University: Academic Repression and Scholarly Dissent edited Piya Chatterjee and Sunaina Maira

University of Minnesota Press, 2014.

The Imperial University is an academic anthology, collecting essays addressing the history and politics of power at universities. This book did a good job introducing me to the field of critical university studies, and it also hooked my interest in the field. I’ve been interested in critical pedagogy since I was a junior in college, and critical university studies is a fascinating extension of those same questions.

My favorite essay in the book is “Teaching by Candlelight” by Vijay Prashad, a fascinating examination of how students’ academic freedom is subtly yet powerfully affected by neoliberal capitalism. I walked away from the essay with a clearer awareness of how my own studies have been affected and shaped by social trends. I highly recommend this particular essay, and the book as a whole is also worth reading.

The Missionary’s Curse and Other Tales from a Chinese Catholic Village by Henrietta Harrison

This is a really cool book, but it was a little too academic for my liking. Basically, it’s something like a 500 year history of one particular Chinese Catholic village. Harrison puts forth and illustrates a few interesting observations about acculturation, and it’s fascinating to see how the terms “Chinese” and “Catholic” can actually seem not contradictory and possibly even complementary. It’s a cool, interesting book, but it’s dry. There were a lot less tales and a lot more academic legwork than I was hoping for.

The China Questions: Critical Insights into a Rising Power edited Jennifer Rudolph and Michael Szonyi

Harvard University Press, 2018.

This book is cool! It’s a collection of 36 essays about China, addressing politics, international relations, economics, the environment, society, history, and culture. The essays are written by a bunch of Harvard scholars writing for a general public audience, which is fantastic. The essays are detailed and intelligent yet still generally accessible. The essays are also short, which is nice, although some are surprisingly dense. I can easily imagine the scholars pulling teeth to make these essays as short and accessible as they are, and frankly I love it. We need to make academics write for general purpose audiences more often.

The China Questions was just published earlier this year, which makes the essays delightfully timely and up-to-date. If you have any interest in China, I recommend you pick up this book soon and read any essays that pique your interest. I most enjoyed the essays relating to politics and society, but I read the whole book and discovered something interesting in most of the essays.

The Hacked World Order: How Nations Fight, Trade, Maneuver, and Manipulate in the Digital Age by Adam Segal

PublicAffairs, 2017.

This is a great book to pick up if you want to learn more about the increasing role of “cyber” in geopolitics. This book is accessible, readable, interesting, and also fairly information-dense.

I was somewhat surprised by how many topics covered by the book I was already familiar with. It made the book slightly less engaging than I’d hoped, but it was also a nice affirmation that, after following news and commentary about these issues for several years, I’ve actually learned a thing or two.

So Now I Review Short Fiction

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Introduction

The Skiffy and Fanty Show is a science fiction and fantasy podcast network, mostly focused on prose fiction but with some regular coverage of movies as well. The show also runs a blog filled with reviews of recent genre publications. Skiffy and Fanty is a great place to find interesting interviews, discussions, and reviews.

And now, I’ve joined the team! I’m writing a monthly short fiction review column for the Skiffy and Fanty blog. My first three reviews are already up.

Why?

Since falling down the SF rabbit hole a few years ago, I’ve been looking for ways to build community with fellow SF nerds.

This has been tough.

None of my friends have the same passionate interest in literary SF that I do, and for the last few years, I’ve been moving around a lot and working jobs with weird hours, which has prevented me from connecting with local communities. Mostly, I’ve fed my desire for SF community by vicariously listening to The Coode Street Podcast, Geek’s Guide to the Galaxy, and The Skiffy and Fanty Show. More recently, I’ve also been looking for ways to do some labor for the community, to get involved and give back.

Then, back in January, I noticed that Skiffy and Fanty was looking for more contributors to their blog. I knew I should apply. Writing reviews for Skiffy and Fanty would be a great way to fulfill both goals: finding community, and getting involved and giving back. Suddenly, it seemed that the last year and a half of book blogging I’d done actually had a purpose: I had experience writing about SF literature, and I had a portfolio of work I could point to.

Now What Exactly?

I’m reviewing short fiction, at the pace of one review per month. In my reviews, I’m trying to be mostly positive and minimally critical. Short stories are super subjective, and I’m new to this; no one needs me to be negative. (More on this in the next section.) Also, the short story market for SF is massive, so I’m trying to do what I think is most useful for me to do: shout out my favorite stories, encourage folks to go read them, and offer my thoughts on those stories. To couch it in “Skiffy and Fanty” speak, I’m going to squee about and signal boost my favorite stories, and in particular, I’m trying to highlight stories by new writers and writers with marginal identities.

In the interests of transparency, here’s my method. First, I read all the original fiction in my favorite genre magazines. Then, I branch out and read as much short fiction from across the field as I can each month. Then, I go back and reread the stories that I might want to review: those are the stories that I enjoyed the most, that I found the most interesting, and that are by new writers or writers with marginal identities. Lastly, I write about them!

Again, in the interests of transparency, I want to name some of my favorite magazines, short fiction writers, novelists, and themes. (This is not an exclusive list!) If our favorites overlap, then hopefully my reviews can help point you to some stories that you’ll enjoy. If you don’t like my favorites, that’s fine—my reviews might not be for you.

Favorite magazines: Uncanny Magazine, Lightspeed Magazine, Nightmare Magazine, Escape Pod.

Favorite short fiction writers: A. Merc Rustad, Bogi Takács, Ken Liu, Carrie Vaughn

Favorite novelists: Ursula K. Le Guin, Ann Leckie, James S.A. Corey

Favorite themes: (1) Feminism! I love feminist stories, especially stories that include and center QUILTBAG folks. (2) Religion! I love invented and actual religions, I love worldbuilding that pays attention to religion, and I love stories that feature people of faith (especially liberal people of faith!). (3) Community! I love stories that feature intentional communities and stories that rethink the heteronormative nuclear family as the base unit of society. (4) The Commons and Free Culture! If a story is influenced by David Bollier, Lawrence Lessig, or Richard Stallman, I’ll probably like it.

Three things I’ve read (and loved!) recently that engage these themes are: (1) Capricious Issue 9: Gender Diverse Pronouns (QUILTBAG feminism); (2) “Graveyard Girls on Paper Phoenix Wings” by Andrea Tang (religion with QUILTBAG feminism); and (3) “Where Would You Be Now?” by Carrie Vaughn (community with QUILTBAG feminism).

Identity, Labor, and Sustainability

I will try my best to ground my reviews in the language of opinion. That means focusing on how I react to each piece rather than saying any given piece of short fiction is “objectively” good or bad. I’m not going to recommend the “best” stories in any given month, just my favorites. I’m not covering the whole field, and I’m not trying to. I make no pretenses to providing objective, critical, authoritative reviews.

I think it’s important that I take this approach for several reasons. One, short fiction is super subjective. Two, I’m a relative newcomer to the field. Three, there’s so much short genre fiction being published that there’s no way I can even pretend to cover it all. (And if I tried to cover it all, there’s no way that’d be sustainable.) Four, there are some serious cultural politics at play in short SF reviewing, and I’m entering with significant privilege. In April, Rose Lemberg wrote in a fantastic Twitter thread:

Of ALL the reviewers who highlight their favorite/standout work, it is telling that only white men get asked to provide more critical reviews. […] There is an underlying problem with our field, that people expect and even DEMAND a certain kind of authority (and criticizing gaze is definitely an expression of authority) from white men. […] I want to break the underlying assumption that only one demographic should offer an unbiased critical view.

You should really read Lemberg’s full thread. You should also read Bogi Takács’ related thread on the cultural politics of critical/negative reviews. Charles Paysuer has also written insightfully about “objectivity” in short fiction reviewing.

So yeah, short SF reviewing has diversity issues, and as someone with significant privilege, I think it’s important that I work to ground my reviews in the language of opinion.

Relatedly, in a thread posted last November, Bogi Takács wrote:

The reason SFF reviewing and especially short SFF reviewing has diversity issues is very similar to the general state of publishing - It is very frequently unpaid. A lot of the people who can afford to do it thus tend not to be marginalized.

That’s true! Case in point: me! I can afford to write unpaid monthly reviews. This is why I’ve made the choice to intentionally highlight work by new writers and writers with marginal identities. I’m trying to counter the diversity issues inherent to the field, which is especially important for me to do, given my cultural positionality.

Relatedly, I’m also conscious about the unpaid labor I’m doing in writing these reviews. On Twitter and across the web, I’ve seen writers warn other writers against undervaluing themselves and doing too much unpaid/free labor. That definitely makes sense, and it’s caused me to reflect on my own relationship with this form of unpaid labor. I don’t have any real misgivings about it. I have the time for it, it benefits the community, and it benefits me: writing for Skiffy and Fanty is helping connect me with the SF community and gain experience writing about SF literature. (Also, it’s not like anybody is profiting off my labor here either.)

More interesting than the mere fact that I am doing some form of unpaid labor are questions of sustainability, endurance, and burnout. No, writing one monthly column is not causing me to burn out, but it has caused me to think more about productivity and sustainability. How productive do I want to be? What exactly do I want to produce? What does a healthy, enjoyable, and sustainable pace look like? I’m someone who knows my own limits very well, and it’s important to me to abide by them. Often, I’ll at look other writers’ outputs and be simply confounded as to how they do it all. And then I’ll see them post about how burned out they are, and I’ll think, Oh. That’s how they do it all. Okay, I’ll pass. I’m happy here in my slow zone.

I just find this all interesting, because I’m already aware of how reviewing short fiction has affected my productivity. In just these last three months, I haven’t blogged as much or read as many novels as I used to. It’s a fair trade off: less blogging, less books, more short fiction, more experience writing about SF lit, more engagement with other SF geeks. But I imagine these questions only get more challenging and balancing it all only becomes more difficult as times goes on.

Going forward, I’ll still try to periodically post about what I’m reading, but instead of writing relatively detailed posts about what I’ve read each month, I’m going to focus more on writing good short fiction reviews for Skiffy and Fanty. My blog posts about reading will be fewer and shorter. Perhaps I’ll find other interesting things to blog about. (I currently have a couple essay ideas percolating on the sidelines of my mind.)

Anyway, now I review short fiction, and those are my thoughts on it. I welcome feedback and advice! Let me know if you like my reviews or if/when I’ve said something problematic. You can tweet me @camncoulter or send me an email. See you in the future.

Recent Reading: February 2018

2018-02-08T10:32:00-08:00

Beneath the Sugar Sky by Seanan McGuire

Tor.com, 2018.

In the subgenre of portal fantasy, children are liable to stumble through a doorway into a world of magic, daring, and adventure. Seanan McGuire’s Wayward Children series of novellas asks the question: What happens to these children after the adventure, once they return to our world? Eleanor West’s Home for Wayward Children is a boarding school for such children as they attempt to process their fantastic experiences, adjust to life back upon our comparatively mundane planet, and dream of a chance to return to their magical homeland. Beneath the Sugar Sky is Seanan McGuire’s third Wayward Children novella to be published by Tor.com. McGuire’s second book in this series, Down Among the Sticks and Bones, was a prequel, and Beneath the Sugar Sky picks up shortly after the events of Every Heart a Doorway, the first book in the series.

I think Beneath the Sugar Sky was my favorite one yet. And that’s saying something, because both Every Heart a Doorway and Down Among the Sticks and Bones were superb.

In the Wayward Children series, Seanan McGuire writes likable, delightful, and diverse characters, and I get seriously attached to almost all of them. In Beneath the Sugar Sky, we get introduced to a new character, Cora. She’s the main character, through whose eyes we experience the story. Cora is a new student at Eleanor West’s Home for Wayward Children, and she’s a mermaid! Or at least, back in her portal fantasy universe, she was. She’s a swimmer and a runner, she’s kind, self-conscious, and brave, and she’s fat. I note that she’s fat because it’s important to her character, and Seanan McGuire writes and characterizes Cora so well. It’s sad and absurd to say it, but it’s unfortunately too rare that writers include fat people in their stories, and it’s even rarer when fat people are the main characters of a story (and even rarer when the story doesn’t centrally focus on the character’s size). Instead, Seanan McGuire writes a developed character through whose eyes I deeply enjoyed experiencing the story, a character whose size is only one fraction of her complex identity.

Although Cora may be the main character, I’m not sure she’s the protagonist. In Beneath the Sugar Sky, we also meet another new character, Rini, who literally falls out of the sky. Rini shows up with a quest: she needs to stop her mother Sumi from being dead so that Rini doesn’t disappear and get erased from existence. Rini’s from a nonsense world, which explains the unique logic behind her quest. Rini is a fun character; she pulses with nonsense, color, and energy, and she has high stakes motivating her to accomplish an impossible quest — if she can’t stop her mom from being dead, she won’t exist! The balance between Cora and Rini works great. Rini drives the story forward, and Rini’s nonsense is all the more strange and enjoyable when seen through Cora’s viewpoint. (Cora herself went to a world of Reason.) To my pleasure, Kade and Christopher, who both originally appeared in Every Heart a Doorway, also join in on Rini’s quest. I loved getting to spend more time with both of them, to learn more about their back-stories, and to see them take on a new challenge.

It has to be said: Seanan McGuire handles diversity so delightfully well. Basically all of her characters have a marginal identity along some axis (or more than one axis), and in the Wayward Children series, McGuire makes space for main characters with identities that are all too rare in fiction: Nancy, the main character in Every Heart a Doorway, is asexual; Jack, the main character in Down Among the Sticks and Bones, is queer; and Cora in Beneath the Sugar Sky is fat. Another character in Beneath the Sugar Sky has a physical disability. Another character is Mexican-American, and another character is transgender. In all cases, Seanan McGuire pays attention to how these identities affect and shape the characters, but she also writes round, developed characters who are so much more than just their marginal identity.

Beneath the Sugar Sky significantly deepened the world-building for the entire Wayward Children series; I think this was my favorite aspect of the book. The first book, Every Heart a Doorway, introduced readers to Eleanor West’s Home for Wayward Children and attempted to categorize fantasy worlds along two axises: Logic and Nonsense, and Virtue and Wickedness. Down Among the Sticks and Bones was a beautiful and moving story, and it dove deeply into the back-story of two of my favorite characters, but it didn’t ultimately contribute much to the greater world-building of the Wayward Children series. Beneath the Sugar Sky does. It examines the connections between worlds and how those connections affect people, inter-world travel, and magic, and in doing so, Beneath the Sugar Sky answered a few questions I had leftover from Every Heart a Doorway.

Moreover, the world-building in this series is outstandingly unique. As Seanan McGuire further develops the universe in which this series takes place, she also deepens my own understanding of the whole subgenre of portal fantasies. After reading Beneath the Sugar Sky, I now swear that McGuire has hidden a dissertation on portal fantasy subgenre within her Wayward Children series. I want more of this series because Seanan McGuire’s Wayward Children books are fun stories told in beautiful prose with delightful and diverse characters, but I also want more of this series because I want to read more of McGuire’s developing dissertation on portal fantasies. In the meantime, while I wait for the fourth volume in this series, I find myself already wanting reread the first three volumes, this time in chronological order.

Seanan McGuire has written a fabulous series. If you enjoy portal fantasies, gorgeous prose, or delightfully diverse characters, read Sean McGuire’s Wayward Children series. I recommend you start with either Down Among the Sticks and Bones or Every Heart a Doorway.

Binti: The Night Masquerade by Nnedi Okorafor

Tor.com, 2018.

Binti: The Night Masquerade picks up right where Binti: Home left off. So much so, that I recommend reading Binti: The Night Masquerade immediately after reading Binti: Home. I didn’t do this, and consequently I was a bit confused for the first couple chapters.

Binti: The Night Masquerade is delightful and surprising. There were at least two moments in the book that made me pause and ask myself, Wait, did Nnedi Okorafor actually just do that? I wasn’t just surprised, but blindsided. Near the end of the novella, I finally started picking up on what Nnedi Okorafor was actually attempting to do with Binti: The Night Masquerade (and the whole Binti trilogy actually). At that point, I started to have immense fun watching Okorafor put it all together. I’d say more, but I don’t want to risk spoiling a delightfully surprisingly book.

Nnedi Okorafor’s Binti trilogy of novellas is one of the most unique and surprising things I’ve read, and I want to re-read the whole thing so that I can better understand, appreciate, and savor it.

The Plays of Roswitha translated by Christopher St. John

London: Chatto & Windus, 1923.

Hrotsvitha of Gandersheim was a 10th-century German canoness, dramatist, and poet. She’s awesome. She was one of the first, if not the first, person to write drama in the West since classical antiquity. In her plays, Hrotsvitha tries to Christianize the work of Terence, the Roman comic playwright. In a prologue to her work, Hrotsvitha mentions how many of the nuns of Gandersheim Abbey enjoyed the plays of Terence for his beautiful Latin and his comedy despite the immoral content of his plays. Terence’s plays not only offended the sensibilities of medieval nuns — his plays offend modern sensibilities as well. In Terence’s play The Eunuch, a man disguises himself as a eunuch in order to rape a woman whom he lusts after. But it all turns out okay (according to Roman sensibilities) because he marries her at the end of the play. You can imagine why medieval nuns would feel conflicted reading his work. So in her six plays, Hrotsvitha takes the comic disguises and misunderstandings of Terence and reworks them into plays that not only glorify God but also deeply honor women, celibacy, and faith.

Hrotsvitha’s plays are funny. Some of the humor is intended, such as one scene when a man attempts to rape three Christian virgins and instead, through the grace of God, mistakes dirty pots and pans for the women and ends up covering himself in soot. Some of the humor in Hrotsvitha’s plays, however, is created through the act of reading these medieval plays through our modern sensibilities. The characters often seem simple, naive, and overly zealous in their faith (as well as overly excited by the prospect of martyrdom). However, for being so committed to medieval values (especially celibacy) Hrotsvitha is refreshingly contemporary in her call. She values celibacy, yes, but she doesn’t stigmatize or look down upon the prostitutes in her plays. She doesn’t worship a harsh God of rules, as we might imagine of medieval Christianity. In Hrotsvitha’s plays, the paramount sin is despair, losing faith in the immensity of God’s forgiveness, love, and grace. Two of her plays feature prostitutes who convert to Christianity, and while the plays definitely look down upon prostitution generally, Hrotsvitha still treats her women characters with respect and admiration. Indeed, the heroes of Hrotsvitha’s plays are the women, not the men, which is — how to say — fucking awesome, especially considering her historical context.

Hrotsvitha of Gandersheim. 10th-century German canoness. One of the first, if not the first, person to write drama in the West since classical antiquity. Feminist par excellence. Yeah — I kind of have a crush on her some days.

Dream Hoarders: How the American Upper Middle Class Is Leaving Everyone Else in the Dust, Why That Is a Problem, and What to Do About It by Richard V. Reeves

Brookings Institution Press, 2017.

In Dream Hoarders, Richard Reeves examines the problem of class in America. Although Reeves doesn’t absolve the “one percenters” of their sins, his critique is aimed primarily at the American upper middle class — the top twenty percent. Reeves argues that the upper middle class is not only privileged in general terms, but also engages in unfair “opportunity hoarding,” that is, privileged in ways that directly harm the rest of society. Reeves examines the role meritocracy plays in class stratification and argues that the upper middle class create an unfair “glass floor” to pass their status down through generations, at the cost of true upward mobility for the bottom eighty percent.

The book is written in generally accessible prose, is great on details, and gives the reader a few clear take aways and action items. If you’re in the upper middle class (or think you might be close to it), read this book and think it over carefully.

2017 in Reading

2018-01-04T11:52:00-08:00

Introduction

Here’s everything I read in 2017:

Fruits Basket Collector’s Edition, Vol. 5 by Natsuki Takaya (manga)
“The Venus Effect” by Joseph Allen Hill
Liselotte and Witch’s Forest 2 by Natsuki Takaya (manga)
Ancillary Sword by Ann Leckie
The Four Pillars of Investing by William Bernstein
Ancillary Mercy by Ann Leckie
The Last Witness by K.J. Parker
Star*Line 40.1 ed F.J. Bergmann (poetry)
The Dream-Quest of Vellitt Boe by Kij Johnson
Binti: Home by Nnedi Okorafor
Pansy by Andrea Gibson (poetry)
Fruits Basket Collector’s Edition, Vol. 6 by Natsuki Takaya (manga)
Our Super Adventure by Sarah Graley (comics)
Early Retirement Extreme by Jacob Lund Fisker
Finding My Elegy by Ursula K. Le Guin (poetry)
How to Think About Money by Jonathan Clements
The Pocketknife Bible by Anis Mojgani (poetry)
The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin
Community and Growth by Jean Vanier
The Fall of Fergal by Philip Ardagh
Heir of Mystery by Philip Ardagh
The Rise of the House of McNally by Philip Ardagh
Arcadia by Tom Stoppard (play)
The Tombs of Atuan by Ursula K. Le Guin
The Bad Beginning by Lemony Snicket
The Reptile Room by Lemony Snicket
The Wide Window by Lemony Snicket
Liselotte and Witch’s Forest 3 by Natsuki Takaya (manga)
Fruits Basket Collector’s Edition, Vol. 7 by Natsuki Takaya (manga)
“Semiotic Disobedience” by Sonia Katyal
Use of Weapons by Iain M. Banks
All Systems Red by Martha Wells
Fruits Basket Collector’s Edition, Vol. 8 by Natsuki Takaya (manga)
Oracle Bones by Peter Hessler
The Churn by James S.A. Corey
The 2017 Rhysling Anthology ed David C. Kopaska-Merkel (poetry)
Passing Strange by Ellen Klages
The Invisible Hand by Ayad Akhtar (play)
Fruits Basket Collector’s Edition, Vol. 9 by Natsuki Takaya (manga)
The Things We Do For Love by K.J. Parker
Killing Gravity by Corey J. White
Fruits Basket Collector’s Edition, Vol. 10 by Natsuki Takaya (manga)
On Bullshit by Harry Frankfurt
Hammers on Bone by Cassandra Khaw
Fruits Basket Collector’s Edition, Vol. 11 by Natsuki Takaya (manga)
Fruits Basket Collector’s Edition, Vol. 12 by Natsuki Takaya (manga)
Y: The Last Man – Book One by Brian K. Vaughan and Pia Guerra (comics)
Y: The Last Man: One Small Step by Brian K. Vaughan and Pia Guerra (comics)
The Civil Servant’s Notebook by Wang Xiaofang
Theatre Topics: Volume 25, Number 3, September 2015 ed Gwendolyn Alker
The Farthest Shore by Ursula K. Le Guin
The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
Stunt Water by Buddy Wakefield (poetry)
Dwarf Stars 2017 ed Robin Mayhall (poetry)
The New Rosary in Scripture by Edward Sri
Code 2.0 by Lawrence Lessig
Star*Line 40.2 ed F.J. Bergmann (poetry)
Y: The Last Man: Safeword by Brian K. Vaughan and Pia Guerra (comics)
Y: The Last Man – Book Three by Brian K. Vaughan and Pia Guerra (comics)
Down Among the Sticks and Bones by Seanan McGuire
Screaming by John Reinhart (poetry chapbook)
Y: The Last Man – Book Four by Brian K. Vaughan and Pia Guerra (comics)
Steering the Craft: A 21st-Century Guide to Sailing the Sea of Story by Ursula K. Le Guin
Y: The Last Man – Book Five by Brian K. Vaughan and Pia Guerra (comics)
Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom by Cory Doctorow
Witches of Lychford by Paul Cornell
Tranny: Confessions of Punk Rock’s Most Infamous Anarchist Sellout by Laura Jane Grace
Educating for Insurgency by Jay Gillen
Bannerless by Carrie Vaughn
Nightmare Magazine Issue 49: POC Destroy Horror! ed Silvia Moreno-Garcia
Islamic Exceptionalism: How the Struggle Over Islam Is Reshaping the World by Shadi Hamid
Star*Line 40.3 ed F.J. Bergmann (poetry)
Provenance by Ann Leckie
Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2016 ed John Joseph Adams
How Everything Became War and the Military Became Everything: Tales from the Pentagon by Rosa Brooks
Nemesis Games by James S.A. Corey

No joke, 2017 was a productive, delightful year in reading for me. As a slight disclaimer, however, I will note that on the above list, I have labeled which reads were plays, comics, and poetry, but I have not labeled which reads were novellas — and I did read a lot of novellas last year.

Now, let’s look at some highlights.

Ann Leckie

Ann Leckie is my new favorite author. She’s the space opera goddess for our times. Last winter, I read her Imperial Radch trilogy, a profound and enjoyable meditation on empire, identity, and justice. And this past autumn, I read her new book Provenance, which is basically most of the awesomeness of the Radch trilogy condensed into a smaller tale in a new, fascinating civilization. Ann Leckie is a masterful world builder. She pays careful attention to the details of dress and food, she has a keen eye for class differentials, power imbalances, and issues of justice, and she brilliantly and successfully experiments with gender, politics, and aliens. I kind of want to write a dissertation on her.

Fruits Basket

Fruits Basket is Danae’s favorite manga series. I understand why. I also love it. The series features a huge ensemble of well-developed, likable characters who grow and mature together within a beautiful web of mutual relationships. It’s one of those series where, by the time you finish reading it, the characters all really feel like your friends. It’s fabulous.

Y: The Last Man

My old community-mate Pat introduced this comic book series to me. Y: The Last Man tells the story of Yorick Brown and his pet monkey, the only two survivors of a mysterious plague that instantly kills every other mammal with a Y chromosome. It’s a post-apocalyptic adventure that’s fun, interesting, pulpy, enjoyably stupid, well-plotted, tightly-paced, and featuring great characters. It’s tons of fun.

Nonfiction Hits

I read some great nonfiction this year as well. Stand out nonfiction books are:

Awesome Novellas

I read tons of novellas this year. My four favorites are:

Unlikely Exploits

Philip Ardagh is one of my favorite children’s authors because of his Eddie Dickens series. This year, I finally got around to reading one of his other series, the Unlikely Exploits trilogy. This trilogy is one of the most delightful, genuinely surprising things I’ve ever read, and I actually like it more than his Eddie Dickens series (which is still very close to my heart). The three books in this trilogy are:

The Fall of Fergal by Philip Ardagh
Heir of Mystery by Philip Ardagh
The Rise of the House of McNally by Philip Ardagh

The Expanse

The Expanse remains at the top on my “Generally Recommended” list. Put simply, The Expanse series by James S.A. Corey is the most fun I’ve ever had reading — yes, I find it more fun than Harry Potter. The first book in the series is Leviathan Wakes. Go read that. This past December, I read Nemesis Games, the fifth book in the series, and like every other book in the series, it totally rocked.

The series also has a TV show (also called The Expanse) airing on Syfy. It’s third season starts soon. Go watch it. To my mind, it’s the best show currently on air.

Recent Reading: December 2017

2017-12-19T11:52:00-08:00

Provenance by Ann Leckie

Orbit Books, 2017.

Last winter, I read Ancillary Justice, Ancillary Sword, and Ancillary Mercy by Ann Leckie, which make up the Imperial Radch trilogy. I loved that series, and Provenance secures Ann Leckie’s place as my current favorite writer.

Provenance is a smaller tale than the trilogy, which is understandable — it’s a self-contained, standalone novel. Provenance takes place in the same universe as Ancillary Justice, after the events of Ancillary Mercy, but in a different pocket of the universe. This is a fun setup: we get to see fallout from the events of the trilogy, but we also get to be immersed in a whole new culture. I enjoyed reading Provenance after the trilogy, but it can also be read on its own.

Provenance takes place in a different society than Leckie’s Radch trilogy, which allows her to world-build an entirely new culture — one of Leckie’s signature strengths. Most of the action in Provenance takes place in Hwae, a republic obsessed with vestiges, relics of important persons and events. Leckie pays careful attention to gender, dress, food, politics, and power differentials in creating the Hwae civilization, and it pays off. Provenance has an enjoyable narrative, but for me the sweetest parts of the book were the world building. Especially the aliens. Ann Leckie is a joy when she writes aliens.

Interestingly, I noticed that the structure of Provenance is basically an miniature version of the Imperial Radch trilogy. Ancillary Justice and the beginning of Provenance are wild, space opera adventures. Ancillary Sword and the middle of Provenance are political dramas uniquely shaped by the idiosyncratic cultures Leckie creates. And Ancillary Mercy and the end of Provenance raise the stakes, neatly intertwining action, character drama, and political drama.

I strongly recommend this book, but I also have to note that it isn’t entry-level SF. Leckie makes casual, unexplained references to space elevators. The Hwae have a third gender, complete with invented pronouns. (Awesome!) Provenance isn’t hard science fiction, so you won’t get lost or confused about technical details. In fact, there are hardly any infodumps in the book, but that means there’s a good chance you’ll end up lost or confused if you’re not familiar with common tropes of the genre. I think Provenance is awesome and I recommend it widely, but I also want to note that if might not be for everyone.

The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2016 edited by Karen Joy Fowler and John Joseph Adams

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2016.

My favorite stories were:

“The Apartment Dweller’s Bestiary” by Kij Johnson
“By Degrees and Dilatory Time” by S.L. Huang
“The Daydreamer by Proxy” by Dexter Palmer
“Headshot” by Julian Mortimer Smith
“Things You Can Buy for a Penny” by Wil Kaufman
“Rat Catcher’s Yellows” by Charlie Jane Anders
“Three Bodies at Mitanni” by Seth Dickerson
“Ambiguity Machines: An Examination” by Vendana Singh

How Everything Became War and the Military Became Everything: Tales from the Pentagon by Rosa Brooks

Simon & Schuster, 2016.

Rosa Brooks is a Georgetown law professor and the daughter of left-wing antiwar activists who has worked with the State Department and Human Rights Watch. She is also married to a U.S. Army Special Forces officer and has spent a couple years working inside the Pentagon. That is to say, she’s in a really interesting position to write about the military, and she’s written a really interesting book. How Everything Became War and the Military Became Everything is a lot of things: a memoir, an anthropological survey, a piece of journalism, and a law journal article. It’s great.

Brooks begins with a survey of the modern US military. She writes:

Modern military personnel […] analyze lines of computer code in Virginia office buildings, build isolation wards in Ebola-ravaged Liberia, operate health clinics in rural Malaysian villages, launch agricultural reform programs and small business development projects in Africa, train Afghan judges and parliamentarians, develop television soap operas for Iraqi audiences, and conduct antipiracy patrols off the Somali coast. They monitor global email and telephone communications, pilot weaponized drones from simulated airplane cockpits thousands of miles away, and help develop and plan for high-tech new modes of warfare, from autonomous weapons systems operated by computers using artificial intelligences to DNA-linked bioweapons.

That is to say, the US military does a lot of things not traditionally associated with either the military or war. Brooks surveys these functions and outlines how this state of affairs came to be. Brooks is less concerned with the outsize role of the Department of Defense compared to, say, the State Department — where others might argue that the military should stick to just war, Brooks is more concerned that whatever the military does, it does well. Brooks is most concerned about the dangers of a degrading boundary between war and peacetime and how the post-World War II order is being subverted and challenged in dangerous ways. The nature of war is changing, Brooks argues, and we are sliding into a state of perpetual war. Brooks puts forth an important argument that we need to develop new institutions and norms capable of protecting human rights and the rule of law in this new era.

This is a kick-ass book, although I recognize it isn’t for everyone. I recommend this book if you get excited by questions of sovereignty, international law, and the use of force. I recommend this book if you’re intrigued or agitated by the drone war or Guantánamo Bay. I also recommend this book if you want to better understand the functions of the modern military. If this all sounds cool, but you’re not ready to read a 350 page book, click here to listen to Rosa Brooks discuss How Everything Became War and the Military Became Everything on an episode of the marvelous Lawfare Podcast.

Nemesis Games by James S.A. Corey

Orbit Books, 2015.

Nemesis Games is the fifth book in The Expanse series by James S.A. Corey. I read the fourth book, Cibola Burn, back in August 2016 and blogged about it back then.

The Expanse is my favorite book series and the most fun I’ve had reading. Go read Leviathan Wakes, the first book in the series, right now. Also, The Expanse has been adapted into a TV show on Syfy. (The show is also called The Expanse.) The TV show is also amazing. Go watch it right now also.

Nemesis Games, in particular, was another solid addition to the series. It had great character moments, a couple fabulous moments of space adventure awesomeness, and marked a striking turning point in the series.

Recent Reading: November 2017

2017-11-01T09:29:00-07:00

Tranny: Confessions of Punk Rock’s Most Infamous Anarchist Sellout by Laura Jane Grace with Dan Ozzi

Hachette Books, 2016.

Laura Jane Grace is the frontwoman for the punk rock band Against Me!. Against Me! is a great band, and Tranny is a great book.

There are two intersecting storylines that the book follows: Laura dealing with being transgender, and the band’s journey from being little-known DIY punks to signing with a major record label and beyond. Both of those journeys are fascinating and emotionally compelling. As someone who has not read much about the music industry, punk rock music, or being transgender, I found Tranny to be an accessible and gripping introduction to all of those topics. And if you are familiar with either transgenderism or puck rock music, I doubt you’ve encountered these two subjects tied up together in the unique way that they are in Laura Jane Grace’s life.

Moreover, Tranny was just a fun read that gave me insights into a band I like. It makes me want to read more about bands and the music industry.

I strongly recommend this book to everyone.

Bannerless by Carrie Vaughn

John Joseph Adams Books, 2017.

Bannerless is a post-apocalyptic murder mystery, and it’s as fun as that sounds like.

Carrie Vaughn’s prose is superb. It is accessible, immediate, and packs a punch when she wants it to.

Bannerless has a split narrative, with chapters alternating between the present-day murder mystery and a coming-of-age tale for the protagonist. In Bannerless, the split structure is executed marvelously. Each narrative thread paralleled and informed the other, so that after finishing a chapter I was not only excited to read the next chapter in that narrative thread, but I was also excited to simply read the next chapter. Often, novels with a split narrative structure leave me frustrated, wanting to skip ahead to stay with one narrative thread, but Bannerless is the best deployment of a split narrative structure I have come across—and that’s saying something, because I’ve read The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin. (I think I would argue that while The Dispossessed is a better book, Bannerless makes better use of the split narrative structure.)

Another thing I liked about Bannerless is the way it envisions community. The base social unit in Bannerless is the household; most households in the book consist of either multiple generations of one family or of multiple families living together. Although we don’t get to see too much of it, I really liked the dynamic in Enid’s Serenity household, which comprises of Enid, her partner, and another adult couple.

Nightmare Magazine Issue 49: People of Colo(u)r Destory Horror! edited by Silvia Moreno-Garcia, Tananarive Due, and Maurice Broaddus

October 2016. http://www.destroysf.com/people-of-colour-destroy-horror/

My two favorite stories in this collection are “A Diet of Worms” by Valerie Valdes and “Wet Pain” by Terence Taylor.

“A Diet of Worms” is an existential horror story about working a dead-end job at a movie theatre. What’s horrific in this story is the prospect of working a shitty dead-end job for all of one’s life. “A Diet of Worms” is told in second-person present-tense, which can easily feel awkward and contrived, but Valdes actually makes great use of this narrative mode. I really enjoyed this unique story.

“Wet Pain” is about the long-distance friendship between two friends. When one of them moves back to New Orleans, something starts changing him in ominous ways. What’s horrific in this story is American racism; it almost takes on the qualities of an otherworldly virus. At 10,000 words, “Wet Pain” qualifies as a novelette rather than a short story, and Taylor does a fantastic job slowly building up the terror and surrealism with each page.

Islamic Exceptionalism: How the Struggle Over Islam is Reshaping the World by Shadi Hamid

St. Martin's Press, 2016.

Islamic Exceptionalism is a fascinating book about Islamism, liberalism, and democracy in the present-day Middle East. Shadi Hamid defines Islamist movements as “those that believe Islam or Islamic law should play a central role in political life and explicitly organize around those goals in the public arena.” He writes, “Though they now find themselves eclipsed by radicals, the most politically influential Islamist groups have generally been of the mainstream and nonviolent variety, so it’s worth focusing considerable attention on them, even if they may not be the ones who, today, attract the most headlines.” Islamic Exceptionalism is an important book because Hamid takes time to explain, with context and history, mainstream Islamism and its place across the contemporary Middle East. Mainstream Islamism is a central force animating much of Middle Eastern politics that, when discussed in the West (if and when that happens), is often spoken of in prejudiced ways by the far right. If you want a solid, well-researched, level-headed introduction to these important political movements, Islamic Exceptionalism is a must-read.

Hamid writes, “Two related arguments form the core of the first half of this book. The first is that Islam is, in fact, distinctive in how it relates to politics. Islam is different. […] This admittedly is a controversial, even troubling claim, especially in the context of rising anti-Muslim sentiment in the United States and Europe. ‘Islamic Exceptionalism,’ however, is neither good nor bad. It just is, and we need to understand it and respect it, even if it runs counter to our own hopes and preferences. Second, because the relationship between Islam and politics is distinctive, a replay of the Western model—Protestant Reformation followed by an enlightenment in which religion is gradually pushed into the private realm—is unlikely.” Like any good liberal, I get a little anxious when I read that: “Islam is different.” It reminds me of Donald Trump calling for a “a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our country’s representatives can figure out what the hell is going on.” Indeed, this book occupies politically sensitive territory when it makes that first argument. However, that said, I found Hamid’s argument well-researched and carefully crafted, with a respectable sense of academic detachment. In short, I found Hamid’s argument generally convincing.

“The second half of this book,” Hamid writes, “is about the different, contrasting models of how to resolve the dilemma of the once and future Islamic state.” Hamid surveys mainstream Islamist movements in Egypt, Turkey, and Tunisia, before focusing on the Islamic State for a chapter. The final chapter examines how to balance the tensions between Islamism, liberalism, and democracy.

In exploring the role of Islamism in contemporary Middle Eastern politics, Hamid has some fascinating insights into liberalism and democracy more generally. In the West, we often use the phrase “liberal democracy” to describe our modes of government, and correspondingly we tend to imagine that liberalism and democracy go hand-in-hand. But what about when they don’t? States in the Middle East threaten to become illiberal democracies, places where liberalism and democracy are actually competing values. How do you understand, compare, and rank liberalism and democracy when they fall in tension with each other?

Islamic Exceptionalism surveys and evaluates different models of integrating (or separating) society, religion, and politics, and in doing so, this book was actually fantastic fodder for SF world-building. It made me ponder different shapes religions can take and different modes of interaction between religion and the state. What if a religion is legalistic? What if a legalistic tradition develops within a context of dispossession and diaspora? Within a context of governance? Does the state suppress religious expression? Protect it? Not care? Are citizens governed by nationwide laws? Or are subjects governed by the rules, regulations, and norms of their own religious and ethnic groups? How are constitutions created? How is power shared between different social groups? Is the state a democracy? If so, is it a liberal democracy? Are liberal vetos built into the system to protect against majoritarian rule? How big must the majority be before it can overrule the veto? What if a significant majority doesn’t want liberal vetos? How are the values of liberalism and democracy balanced? How polarized is the populace? How powerful is the state? How high are the stakes? All these questions were floating through my head as I read this book. So if contemporary politics aren’t your thing but you do like to create imagined worlds (and you have some interest in politics and religion), this book will actually be a fantastic research tool for you.

The Catholic Church in China

2017-10-10T06:30:00-07:00

The good folks at America Magazine recently did a great feature on the Catholic Church in China. There’s a feature article and a documentary. I recommend both.

The feature article is by Ian Johnson, a leading scholar of religion in China. He also teaches at The Beijing Center for Chinese Studies. When I studied abroad there, I didn’t take his class, but I did read his book Wild Grass for my Chinese politics class. (That’s a fantastic book if you’re looking for some long-form journalism on China.) The point here is, Ian Johnson is fantastically well qualified to write on the Catholic Church in China for America Magazine. His article is an accessible overview of the status of the Catholic Church in China and its major challenges.

Reading Ian Johnson’s essay and watching the documentary have made me excited all over again to be heading to China next August with the Maryknoll China Teachers Program. In the meantime, I’ll have to keep studying my vocab and watching Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf.

Recent Reading: September 2017

2017-09-25T11:15:00-07:00

Down Among the Sticks and Bones by Seanan McGuire

Tor.com, 2017. View book details on Tor.com

Down Among the Sticks and Bones is a fabulous prequel to Seanan McGuire’s fabulous Every Heart a Doorway. You can absolutely read it on it’s own.

Down Among the Sticks and Bones is, essentially, a portal-fantasy fairy tale. Two sisters find their way to another world. One ends up in the care of a vampire, the other ends up as a mad scientist’s assistant. This is a touching, powerful story set in a beautiful, dark world written in gorgeous, enchanting prose. Just go read this already.

Y: The Last Man by Brian K. Vaughan and Pia Guerra

DC Comics, 2011.

My JVC community-mate Pat mailed me the first two books in this series a while back. Y: The Last Man is a comic series (now complete and collected in five books) about Yorick Brown and his pet monkey, the only two survivors of a mysterious plague that instantly killed every other mammal with a Y chromosome. Yorick is an amateur escape artist and recent college grad, an English-major type. At the start of the story, he’s in NYC, but after the plague hits, he tries to get to Australia because, you know, that’s where his girlfriend is.

I am deeply grateful that Pat put this series into my life. I’ve read a handful of other comics and graphic novels, and Y: The Last Man is the most fun and gripping comic I’ve come across. Y: The Last Man is a fun, post-apocalyptic adventure. Sometimes it’s pulpy and stupid (in a good way). Sometimes it’s smart and interesting. It never takes itself too seriously. It’s well-plotted and tightly-paced. It’s got great characters, and it had a bigger emotional impact on me than I had expected it would.

I definitely recommend Y: The Last Man if you want a fun post-apocalyptic comic series.

Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom by Cory Doctorow

Tor Books, 2003.

In the wild future of Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom, death is no big deal. You’ll just get downloaded into another body. Instead of cash, the future runs on Whuffie, a form of reputation scoring. Various ad-hocracies have taken over managing much of the world—including Disney World, where the book is largely set. And if you ever get bored, you can always deadhead for a century or two.

If the lingo in the previous paragraph overwhelmed you, you aren’t alone. This book isn’t entry-level SF. That said, once you grok the core lingo, the book becomes highly readable.

One of the challenges of overcoming death, however, is that your stakes suddenly seem quite small. And indeed, this story’s stakes are small: the central conflict is about which group gets going to run the Haunted Mansion at Disney World. If you’re a Disney fan, these might be gripping stakes for you, but they weren’t for me. However, that said, this book doesn’t pretend to be Lord of the Rings. Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom is a 200-page SF comedy set in a wonky future Disney World. If that sounds like fun to you, it probably will be.

Witches of Lychford by Paul Cornell

Tor.com, 2015. https://publishing.tor.com/witchesoflychford-paulcornell/9781466891890/

Witches of Lychford is yet another Tor.com novella that I pretty much picked up on impulse. In this book, a chain supermarket wants to build a new location in a small English town. There’s a catch of course: the town stands on a barrier between our world and some seriously dangerous dark scary forces, and the new supermarket would shatter that precious barrier.

Here’s the best thing about Witches of Lychford: it’s up to three protagonists to save the day, all of whom are likable adult women with interesting backstories. There’s Judith, the town crank. There’s Autumn, the skeptic who runs a magic shop. And there’s Lizzie, the vicar who’s having a crisis of faith. I read a lot, but I would be hard-pressed to point to another book with three well-developed, adult women protagonists.

Recent Reading: August 2017 (Round 2)

2017-08-30T09:33:00-07:00

The Civil Servant’s Notebook by Wang Xiaofang

Translated from the Chinese by Eric Abrahamsen. Penguin Books China Library, 2012. Originally published in 2009.

A couple months back, it occurred to me that contemporary American politics looks a lot like a Chinese political thriller: a large cast of characters; lots of talk of corruption; factionalism and in-fighting; a vague sense of paranoia; and a group of people secretly investigating top level figures for crimes (Mueller’s special counsel in the states; the party discipline commission in China). So naturally, I decided it would be fun to re-read The Civil Servant’s Notebook by Wang Xiaofang, a book I originally read while studying abroad in China.

I enjoyed this book on my first read, but I was able to appreciate it much more during this second reading. The Civil Servant’s Notebook does two things which threw me off on my first reading, but which are actually very cool. First, almost every chapter is from a different first-person POV. A few characters get more than one POV chapter, but even those characters only have a total of two or three POV chapters in the book. I’ve never read anything else structured like this, but admittedly it is a fairly Chinese way of telling a story: prioritizing the journey and the story of the community over individuals. Second, not all chapters are from the POV of humans. Some chapters are from the POV of entities such as “The Government Square” and “The Office Chair.” These chapters tend to be farcical and insightful. These two structural choices distanced me from the story on my first reading, but on this second reading, I actually really enjoyed these choices and the variety they brought to the story.

I’m not sure I can say that re-reading The Civil Servant’s Notebook gave me any new insights into American politics in the age of Trump, but the novel did surprise me in one way (Spoilers to follow!): it was surprisingly optimistic. Sure, there’s corrupt officials and selfish decisions, but generally speaking, the corrupt officials get taken down. The selfish choices come back to bite. There are some real heroes in this story, who face adversity and manage to overcome it. There’s good people doing good work, and at the end of the day, it generally pays off.

The Farthest Shore by Ursula K. Le Guin

Pocket Books, 2004. Originally published in 1972.

The Farthest Shore is the third book in Ursula K. Le Guin’s Earthsea series. Like A Wizard of Earthsea and The Tombs of Atuan, it’s a solidly fantastic book with beautiful, wise prose. I liked Arren, Ged’s companion in this book, but I also felt like he could have had a stronger character arc. That said, it’s really hard for any character to measure up to Tenar, the protagonist of The Tombs of Atuan. While The Farthest Shore may be my least favorite book in the Earthsea series, the whole series is beautiful, gorgeous, and moving.

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

Dutton Books, 2012.

I liked John Green’s writing style in The Fault in Our Stars; it’s accessible yet powerful. This book is also enjoyably sad. However, I did not like the characters so much. I didn’t like Augustus. Hazel was okay. I actually did like the parents, although their role was comparatively minor.

If you want a sad, accessible page-turner, I recommend this book.

Code 2.0 by Lawrence Lessig

Basic Books, 2006.

As a huge Lawrence Lessig fan, I’ve been meaning to read this book for some time now. It’s important, original, and shockingly prescient. Code, originally published in 1999, argues that cyberspace can and will become an increasingly regulated space, that this change will largely be effectuated by code, and that we are unprepared for this challenge. Those claims aren’t exactly novel today, but remember, back in 1999 the Internet was the new wild west. Most of us laughed at the idea of the net being a perfectly regulated space.

Not only is Code prescient, but it contains one of the clearest, most intelligent approaches to regulating cyberspace that I have come across. Lessig examines how effective regulation is achieved not only through the law, but also social norms, the market, and architecture. He explores how these four modalities of regulation can be balanced in cyberspace, and he carefully reflects on how our constitutional values can be preserved in the process. Basically, what I’ve trying to say here is, anyone who wants to regulate (or talk about regulating) the Internet needs to read this book first. Moreover, if you don’t care about regulating the Internet, you should probably still read this book, as it will give you a better understand of the multitude of ways in which you already are regulated online.

Code 2.0 is actually a revised version of the original text. Lessig published Code 2.0 in 2006, at which point it was already clear that Lessig was right about increasingly Internet regulation and it’s concomitant challenges. Standing here today in 2017, it’s clear that these challenges are still with us, and many of them have gotten worse. So go read this book before we screw things up even more.

Recent Reading: August 2017

2017-08-01T14:50:00-07:00

The Invisible Hand: A Play by Ayad Akhtar

Back Bay Books, 2015.

In this play, a middle-manager at a hedge-fund is kidnapped by extremists in Pakistan. Nobody will pay ransom for him, so instead he needs to play the stock market to make his ransom. It’s a brilliant pitch and the way it’s executed makes for my favorite type of theatre.

The Things We Do For Love by K.J. Parker

Reprinted in The Year's Best Science Fiction and Fantasy Novellas: 2015 Edition, edited by Paula Guran, Prime Books, 2015.

One of my favorite things about the TV show Futurama is the character of Bender. He’s a character with great enthusiasm for the baser things in life—money, drugs, stealing, cheating, and the like. He’s upfront and honest about his base values, and somehow that makes him a tremendously fun character.

K.J. Parker has a great skill for writing characters like Bender. The narrator in The Things We Do For Love is a lot like Bender; he’s an unapologetic thief, who actually undergoes a personal crisis when he discovers he has been doing good for much of his life. Parker also adds enough philosophical depth to his stories to make it interesting, but never compromises his story for the ideas. This makes for really fun reads. This is one of my favorite novellas by him, and I’ve read a few others.

Also, The Things We Do For Love has one of the funniest opening scenes I’ve come across:

"It's perfectly true, gentlemen of the jury," I said. "I murdered my wife. I put hemlock in her milk, she drank it, she died. It was no accident. I did it on purpose."

I glanced nervously over their heads at the sundial on the far wall. Time was getting on. How long does it take to find a self-confessed murderer guilty and string him up, for crying out loud? But the jurors were gazing at me solemnly, still and quiet as little mice, expecting more. What? Did they think the confession, the cut-and-dried, open-and-shut admission of guilt I'd just so thoughtfully given them was some sort of rhetorical trick? Yes, probably. In any event, they weren't convinced. I blame the lawyers.

"Just to clarify," I said. "I did it. The mandatory sentence for murder is, I believe, death." I lowered my head. "I rest my case."

Killing Gravity by Corey J. White

Tor.com, 2017. View book details on Tor.com.

Are you still in withdrawal from Firefly getting canceled? This novella might hold you over for a couple days.

In Killing Gravity, a mean, shadowy group cruelly experiments on young women and girls, somehow giving them physic powers. One of those women, Mariam Xi, escapes, meets up with a crew of quasi-outlaws, and seeks revenge.

It was a fun read, but I’m not sure I’m coming back for the sequel.

Hammers on Bone by Cassandra Khaw

Tor.com, 2016. View book details on Tor.com.

In this novella, a young kid asks a monster to kill another monster. Fast moving, with a couple good twists. I loved the narrator voice—a hard-edged, 1950s private investigator type voice—but it did start to wear on me by the end.

On Bullshit by Harry Frankfurt

Princeton University Press, 2005.

It would probably be a good idea for every US American citizen to read this essay by Quinta Jurecic: “On Bullshit and the Oath of Office: The ‘LOL Nothing Matters’ Presidency,” and then this short book by Harry Frankfurt. This is also a great, related essay: “What Happens When We Don’t Believe the President’s Oath?” by Quinta Jurecic and Benjamin Wittes.

Fruits Basket by Natsuki Takaya

This manga series tells the story of Tohru Honda and the Sohma family, a family cursed to be possessed by the spirits of the zodiac animals.

What’s really impressive about this manga series is how well it handles its large cast of characters. The core ensemble consists of over fifteen characters. Most of the characters start off in a place of darkness, but over the course of the series, they grow and mature into really beautiful people tied together in a very human web of mutual relationships. Natsuki Takaya does a phenomenal job managing this large cast of characters: developing their personalities, giving each character a complete arc, and just letting the characters hang out and have fun together.

Highly recommended.

Recent Reading: June 2017

2017-06-23T14:01:00-07:00

Use of Weapons by Iain M. Banks

Orbit Books, 2008. Originally published in 1990.

Amazing, awesome world. Beautiful structure. Fun plot. Dull prose.

Use of Weapons is the third book in Iain M. Banks’ Culture series. The series can be read in any order. This is the third book I’ve read in the series, and it does the best job of introducing the reader to the marvelous world that Banks has constructed. My favorite book in Banks’ Culture series remains the first one that I read, Excession. That one was more interesting, more fun, and less accessible than Use of Weapons.

Banks’ prose can be annoyingly over-descriptive at times, but his stories are fun, they’re filled with awe, and they feature top-rate world building. I would love to live in the Culture that his series portrays. It’s arguably a utopia, it’s unlike anything else I’ve ever read, and I recommend that everyone read at least one of Bank’s works from this Culture series so that you can envision the world he crafts.

All Systems Red by Martha Wells

Tor.com, 2017. View book details at Tor.com.

I’m normally not one for reading books on impulse (my reading list is far too long), but I stumbled upon this book in the library and went for it. I am glad it did.

Fun, tightly structured plot. Good characters. Great first-person narrator voice.

Oracle Bones: A Journey Between China’s Past and Present by Peter Hessler

HarperCollins, 2006.

A bit bland at times, but overall an interesting, informative book. Follows the lives of Hessler’s friends and acquaintances in China and elaborates on the historical context behind their lives. Read River Town by Peter Hessler first, and if you like that, you’ll probably like this too.

The Churn: A Novella of The Expanse by James S.A. Corey

Reprinted in The Year's Best Science Fiction and Fantasy Novellas: 2015 Edition, edited by Paula Guran, Prime Books, 2015.

The Churn is a novella set within James S.A. Corey’s Expanse series, which is my favorite book series. The Churn fills in character backstory for one of the main characters in the series, but it can be read on its own too.

If a science fiction novella set in a future Baltimore about a friendly sociopath sounds fun to you, you’ll probably enjoy this. I did.

The 2017 Rhysling Anthology edited by David C. Kopaska-Merkel

Check out by blog post on The 2015 Rhysling Anthology to learn what a Rhysling anthology is.

My favorite poems were:

“Spoiler Alert” by Matt Betts
“My Pet Alien” by Dennis Caswell
“Bottle Cast Upon a Dry Sea” by G.O. Clark
“The Dark Between the Stars” by G.O. Clark
“Godzilla vs. King Kong” by James S. Dorr
“Why Elephants No Longer Communicate in Greek” by Timons Esaias
“After” by Herb Kauderer
“Learning the History of War” by J.J. Steinfeld
“The Persecution of Witches” by Ali Trotta
“Classification of Folktales” by Margaret Wack
”*For Quick Sale*” by Greer Woodward
“Exploratory Colony 454—15th May, 2052” by Lore Bernier
“When the Gunman Comes” by Edith Hope Bishop
“Data Mine” by Alexandra Erin
“Elegy for Iain Banks” by Vince Gotera
“The Lies You Learned” by S. Qiouyi Lu
“Thirteen Ways to See a Ghost” by Shannon Connor Winward

My favorite poem was “When the Gunman Comes” by Edith Hope Bishop. You should go read that now.

Passing Strange by Ellen Klages

Tor.com, 2017. View book details at Tor.com.

A really great novella. If queer women in San Francisco in 1940 sounds fun to you, read this.

Recent Reading: May 2017

2017-05-19T11:49:00-07:00

Introduction

After reading a couple long, dense books, it was time for a little reading re-charge. Which means: children’s books!

The Fall of Fergal, Heir of Mystery, and The Rise of the House of McNally by Philip Ardagh

Philip Ardagh is one of my favorite children’s authors. He wrote The Eddie Dickens Trilogy and The Further Adventures of Eddie Dickens (a sequel trilogy), delightful books which feature a young, polite boy, Monty Python style madness, and a chatty, irreverent third-person narrator.

The Fall of Fergal, Heir of Mystery, and The Rise of the House of McNally comprise a trilogy which has nothing whatsoever to do with Eddie Dickens. The trilogy is called Unlikely Exploits, and it’s great fun.

Minor spoilers to follow.

Each book has its own unique style, and the latter two books build brilliantly on what comes before. The Fall of Fergal starts out fairly mundane—it’s not boring, but it’s not fantastical either. At least, until the end of the story. The Fall of Fergal ends with a hilarious, strikingly absurd reveal that works perfectly.

Heir of Mystery stays in the territory of the speculative and fantastic. Whereas The Fall of Fergal mostly revolves around a typing competition (mundane, as I said), Heir of Mystery is in many ways a mad scientist story. It’s fun; the mad scientist is marvelously wacky, and I enjoyed seeing our protagonists in scary, unfamiliar territory.

And then The Rise of the House of McNally just goes totally off the rails. The first two books in the trilogy leave readers with some unanswered questions, and The Rise of the House of McNally answers those questions—by introducing new characters and plot threads and by deploying countless science fictional tropes and absurdities. Time travel usually makes stories get crazy, but time travel is only the start of it here. Some readers might think there are too many tropes, too much absurdity, or too much insanity in this book. I, however, am not such a reader. This trilogy was one of the most delightful, genuinely surprising things I’ve ever read. These three short books feature a strikingly large number of plot threads, science fictional devices, and fantastic tropes, and Ardagh skillfully weaves these together, carefully compounding the threads of madness. Children’s literature at it’s finest.

The Tombs of Atuan by Ursula K. Le Guin

The Tombs of Atuan is the second book in Ursula K. Le Guin’s Earthsea Cycle. The first book in this cycle, A Wizard of Earthsea, was actually the first book I blogged about. And now here we are, one year later, with the sequel.

The Tombs of Atuan rocks. Once again, Le Guin writes a marvelous high fantasy story driven by internal character development rather than militaristic conflict. Le Guin also continues to slowly decenter her narrative from the (typical) white male perspective.

A Wizard of Earthsea is about a young boy who goes on to become one of the world’s greatest wizards—not an uncommon trope. However, Le Guin challenged the usual western narrative by making most all of the characters in her world have brown or black skin. In The Tombs of Atuan, the protagonist is a girl called Arha, a priestess who holds an important role in her society. Ged, the hero of A Wizard of Earthsea, is featured in The Tombs of Atuan, but only because his storyline intersects with Arha’s. It’s a brilliant way to write the second book in a series: introduce a new protagonist, and make the hero from the first book a supporting character. This way, Le Guin gets to continue Ged’s story while at the same time telling another coming-of-age story, centering the book around a different voice. Just like with A Wizard of Earthsea, Le Guin’s The Tombs of Atuan still feels contemporary, still has wisdom to share about the stories we tell. It’s also just a darn fun, engrossing read.

The Bad Beginning, The Reptile Room, and The Wide Window by Lemony Snicket

The Bad Beginning, the first book in Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events, begins with a warning:

If you are interested in stories with happy endings, you would be better off reading some other book. In this book, not only is there no happy ending, there is no happy beginning and very few happy things in the middle.

I thought this warning was mostly rhetorical. I thought that the miseries of the series would be fodder for a macabre, black humor. I’m a big fan of black humor. I thought the above warning was a funny, creative way to open a series filled with lighthearted black comedy.

I was wrong.

I should have heeded that warning more seriously.

In A Series of Unfortunate Events, the Baudelaire children encounter not only misfortune (which can often be silly) but also real misery (which is almost never silly). The Bad Beginning was a surprisingly difficult read. While in Count Olaf’s care, the children are abused and neglected. It wasn’t funny black humor; it was upsetting. Perhaps I was so affected by it because my job requires abuse and neglect training.

I did enjoy the book. The writing was friendly, albeit dark. I felt compelled to keep reading because I wanted to reach the end of the book, for I guessed (correctly) that the Baudelaire children’s fate would improve (if only slightly) at the book’s conclusion.

The next two books in the series, The Reptile Room and The Wide Window, were less upsetting. There were more happy things in the middle of those books, and there was also less abuse and neglect in those books. I guess I find sociopathic villains less upsetting when they aren’t the legal guardians and care providers of our heroes. Go figure.

I want to read more of this series, but I’m going to need some time before I can return to it.

New Blog, New Website

2017-04-27T13:15:00-07:00

For almost a year now, I have been blogging at https://cameronncoulter.wordpress.com, blogging largely about what I’ve been reading. Now, however, I’ve migrated my blog to http://www.cncoulter.com. [Edit: And now, in 2022, I’ve moved my site over to https://www.camcoulter.com.]

So what’s up with that, you ask?

I’ve decided that I want to start submitting poetry for publication, and before I do that, I wanted to set up a website and mailing list. It made sense to migrate the blog over to the new website.

As the About This Site page will tell you, this website is powered by Jekyll with the theme Jekyll Now and hosted on Github thanks to Github Pages. But what all does that mean?

Jekyll is a static site generator. You give it some config files and a bunch of markdown files, and Jekyll generates a static website; that is, a website made up of HTML and CSS files and the like — no server-side scripting or databases. There are tons of themes you can use to make your Jekyll website look pretty with relatively little work, and it’s also fairly straightforward to customize the structure and style of your site. I started with the Jekyll Now theme and then tweaked it for my needs, adding a landing page, a blog archives page, and more.

Once I decided to set up a website and blog, my first thought had been to use Wordpress. Wordpress is simple to use, but also loaded with features. I have happily been using it to blog for the last year, and I also have experience installing Wordpress via the command line. However, I also had to consider hosting costs. If I used a professional Wordpress hosting service (like Wordpress.com or HostGator), I wouldn’t have to worry too much about backups (as the service would largely take care of that for me), but professional Wordpress hosting services are more costly than I like. After all, I’m setting up this website for my writing, something which currently isn’t making me any money, so I’d rather not spend $100 a year on a website if at all possible.

Of course, I could also host Wordpress myself on a VPS. This would still have a cost, but it’d be cheaper than using a professional Wordpress hosting service. The dilemmas with this option, however, are security and backups. If I run my own server, it’s my responsibility to ensure the website is secure. Now, I’m fairly tech-savvy; I believe I can secure a Wordpress server well enough for my needs, but I’d rather offload this responsibility to professionals if possible. Additionally, backups are important, but backups with Wordpress are tricky because Wordpress is complex. You have your website (the /var/www/ folder), the database which powers your website, and you also have your config settings on your server.

So I researched the question, and I decided to use Jekyll instead. Jekyll doesn’t have all the bells and whistles of Wordpress, but it has enough features to meet my needs. Thanks to Github Pages, I can host my Jekyll website for free. However, I’m not tied to Github; I can easily migrate my Jekyll website to a VPS or another hosting service if I wish. Also, backups with Jekyll are beautifully simple. My website is a git repository. If my server crashes, no worry; I’ve got a copy of the repo on my desktop computer. If my desktop computer crashes, no worry; I can clone the repo from the server.

There’s one downside to using Github Pages: if I choose to use a custom domain name (as I have done) (instead of using a URL that looks like cncoulter.github.io), I can’t configure my website to use HTTPS, a protocol that encrypts the connection between your web browser and the server. This means that your ISP and sysadmin can see which pages on my website you load. With HTTPS enabled, your ISP and sysmin (and other snoops) can still see that you are connecting to my website, but they can’t identify which specific pages you are viewing. This is, as I said, a downside, but it doesn’t eclipse the other benefits of Jekyll and Github Pages. I’d like to have HTTPS enabled, but given that no one will be conducting sensitive business on my website, it isn’t vital. (That said, if you can figure out a good way to setup HTTPS on Github Pages websites that use a custom domain name, please let me know.)

I also found out a way to have a custom email for free. I got my domain name from Google Domains, set up email forwarding, and then followed Google’s instructions to send mail from my forwarded email address. This way, I can use a custom email address without setting up an email server or paying $5/month for G Suite.

If you’re a writer looking to set up your own website, I’d like to point out that you are welcome to fork this website’s repository on Github and use my website as a template for your own. Now, admittedly, my website isn’t all that pretty, but it is functional and hosted for free. (At some point in the future, I am planning to do a pretty redesign of my site using Bootstrap.) The website code is licensed under the MIT license, a free and open source license that allows you to modify, distribute, commercially use the software. Feel free to shoot me an email should you have any questions about the process.

The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin

2017-04-20T14:42:00-07:00

Ace Books, 2000. Originally published in 1969.

This book had a lot of hype. It’s hyped as one of Ursula K. Le Guin’s best novels, and Le Guin is hyped as one of science fiction’s best writers. I have read The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin, and that book blew my world, which furthered my internal hype and expectations for this book.

This was a good book. Did my expectations for it decrease my satisfaction of it? Yes. Expectations screw with the reading process. Did my high expectations ruin the book? No, it’s still a good book.

The Left Hand of Darkness gets lauded for doing really cool stuff with gender. That wasn’t my experience of the book. Two thoughts on that.

Thought the first. This was first published in 1969. No doubt, by 1969 standards, this book did really cool stuff with gender. However, I read The Left Hand of Darkness after already having read Stars in My Pocket Like Grains of Sand and Ancillary Justice. Does The Left Hand of Darkness fuck with gender? Yeah. Is it cool? Yeah. Is it mind-rearranging? Not quite, at least for who I am right now.

Thought the second. Although The Left Hand of Darkness does some pretty mischievous stuff with gender, I don’t think gender is the primary theme of the book. I found this book contained more touching, profound commentary on loyalty and betrayal and patriotism and nationalism than it did on sex and gender. Example in point:

No doubt that Karhidish cooking was better than Orgota. As I ate, I remembered Estraven’s comment on that, when I had asked him if he hated Orgoreyn; I remembered his voice last night, saying with all mildness, “I’d rather be in Karhide. …” And I wondered, not for the first time, what patriotism is, what the love of country truly consists of, how that yearning loyalty that had shaken my friend’s voice arises, and how so real a love can become, too often, so foolish and vile a bigotry. Where does it go wrong?

So, yeah. I might have been reading this book looking for apples when I should have been looking for pears. Still a good book. I am definitely going to read more Ursula K. Le Guin. But I’d recommend The Dispossessed as a starting point for Le Guin newbies. That novel’s got an anarchist-communist society on the moon. Hard to go wrong with that.

Community and Growth by Jean Vanier

2017-04-12T08:05:00-07:00

Revised edition. Paulist Press, 1989.

L’Arche communities are places where people with and without intellectual and developmental disabilities share life together. In Community and Growth, Jean Vanier (the founder of L’Arche) outlines his thoughts on (you guessed it!) community and growth.

This book is both accessible and dense, which is an interesting combination.

It’s accessible because the language is simple and direct. Every chapter is divided up into short sections (usually just a couple pages long), so it’s easy to pick up. The writing easily inspires reflection, especially if you have experience living in intentional community.

It’s dense because there are many ideas and thoughts crammed into this book. While it’s easy to pick up and read a short section, it’s difficult to read this book straight for an hour. Either you’ll have to keep pausing to reflect, or—if you don’t pause to ponder—the book will lose much of its depth and meaning.

Community and Growth can be a bit dull at times, but it can also be rather profound at other moments. I especially liked the last few chapters on welcome, meetings, living with every day, and celebration. If you live in an intentional religious community, pick up Community and Growth, and read a few pages each day.

Binti: Home by Nnedi Okorafor

2017-03-25T22:11:00-07:00

Tor.com, 2017. http://publishing.tor.com/bintihome-nnediokorafor/9780765393104/

I loved this. It was short and satisfying. It’s the sequel to Binti, which won a Nebula and a Hugo Award, and which I read this past summer.

Admittedly, I felt ambivalent about Binti. On one hand, it didn’t resonate all that much with me, which was a shame because it had received a lot of hype. (Perhaps it had gotten too much hype, at least for me anyway.) On the other hand, I noted that Binti was “well-written science fiction that’s imagining a future I’m not seeing elsewhere.”

So somewhat surprisingly, I really dug Binti: Home. I connected more with the cultural/family conflict. The writing seemed sharper. The story developed in delightfully unexpected directions. The stakes rose. And of course, perhaps reading with smaller expectations helped me enjoy it more.

I read Binti: Home because I wanted to give this story another chance, but I will read whatever Binti book comes next because I want the thrilling, insightful, and imaginative conclusion.

Trump Wrecked My Story

2017-02-17T19:49:00-08:00

This month, I am working on evaluating my short story collection Lucy & Calvin’s Adventures in World Domination: Series 1. I just finished rereading it, taking note of where I was awesome, where I was lazy, and where I didn’t make sense. I gotta say: overall, I’m pretty impressed with myself for writing this. There are some real moments of awesomeness. There are also, of course, some thorns in this story that need to be edited out. But here’s one thought I didn’t expect to have at this moment: Trump wrecked my story.

I did not expect to find this thorn in my story. The President of the United States makes a brief appearance in the finale of Lucy & Calvin Series 1. I wrote this scene in the summer of 2015; I drafted this fictional president before this last presidential campaign. The character of the president is only referred to as “the President.” You can picture Obama. You can picture Bush. You can picture the president from Independence Day. But if you picture Trump, the scene doesn’t work. The president I wrote is a skilled, confident, and nice guy. Trump is not.

For most of my life, I have lived in an America with certain expectations of presidential decorum. Trump has, of course, shattered these. This observation isn’t anything new, but this is the first time I have encountered “Trump fallout” so abruptly in my artistic life. If I leave the scene unchanged, it feels outdated. But the humor of the scene won’t work if I make my fictional president a capricious buffoon. And this is all complicated by the fact that Lucy & Calvin’s Adventures in World Domination is admittedly a somewhat political text, and referencing “the President” in anything published after Trump’s inauguration invokes symbolism that this story isn’t prepared to deal with.

So here we are: less than a month into Trump’s presidency, and already staring down the uniquely artistic challenges posed by his presence in the White House. While I am nauseous to imagine what the next four years will bring in terms of politics, I am energized to see what the next four years will bring in terms of artistic responses to politics.

P.S.: I’ve already edited away this thorn Trump has introduced, and I’m happy to say that I did so by adding another joke to my story, and without compromising my story’s thematic integrity. Admittedly, it was a small thorn, but I’m just surprised the election of a president could create a thorn in my story at all.

The Dream-Quest of Vellitt Boe by Kij Johnson

2017-02-17T19:45:00-08:00

Tor.com, 2016. http://publishing.tor.com/thedreamquestofvellittboe-kijjohnson/9780765386519/

I first encountered Kij Johnson when I was reading the March 2016 issue of Clarkesworld Magazine. I hadn’t heard of her before, and I read her story “Coyote Invents the Land of the Dead.” That story did not work for me. The language was too abstract for me, the story too ethereal. It had a cool vibe, but no staying power. After I read the story, I encountered some cognitive dissonance while reading the author blurb:

Kij Johnson is a three-time winner of the Nebula Award, and has also won the Hugo, World Fantasy, Sturgeon, and Crawford Awards.

Wait, what?

Of course, that’s just how it is sometimes. One award-winning writer resonates with you, another doesn’t. That I could mistake such an accomplished writer for such a juvenile one, however, stuck with me. I wanted to give her another try.

And then the fabulous Jonathan Strahan, an editor whose tastes I often enjoy, voiced high praises for The Dream-Quest of Vellitt Boe by Kij Johnson. It turned out that Johnson’s novella was a feminist re-imagining of a Lovecraft story. After reading The Ballad of Black Tom, I have been eager to read more Lovecraft re-imaginings, so I decided to give Johnson’s novella a shot.

I’m glad I did.The language of The Dream-Quest of Vellitt Boe still had Kij Johnson’s distinct flair (although I’m not sure if I can define what that is), but it was also noticeably more grounded and easier to understand, which I appreciated. While I found much of Vellitt Boe’s eponymous dream-quest to be a boring tale couched in pretty language, the ending of the novella was marvellous, beautiful, and wise. Maybe I shouldn’t be getting your hopes or expectations up, as maybe I enjoyed it all the moreso from having low expectations, but I’d only be exaggerating (not lying) to say that her story has made me a better person.

Yep, Kij Johnson definitely deserves her impressive bio, even if her work and my tastes don’t often align. And by the way, The Dream-Quest of Vellitt Boe stunningly succeeds as a feminist re-imagining of Lovecraft. So, reader, go read some Kij Johnson and enjoy yourself while you grapple with her unique style.

The Imperial Radch Trilogy by Ann Leckie

2017-02-14T02:36:00-08:00

Ancillary Justice, Ancillary Sword, Ancillary Mercy by Ann Leckie. Orbit Books.

Gosh, wow. I have a new core pillar in my sacred halls of science fiction. (The other core pillars belong to Frank Herbert, Ursula K. Le Guin, Iain M. Banks, and Kim Stanley Robinson. “Core pillars” are of course an arbitrary distinction which changes yearly.)

Ann Leckie’s Imperial Radch trilogy is a profound and enjoyable meditation on empire, identity, and justice. On one hand, it engages these themes in a far-future setting, one largely divorced from contemporary politics. On the other hand, any deep engagement with empire, identity, and justice will have profound resonances for our contemporary society.

I should note that this isn’t entry-level SF. Two things I adore about this series may be a bit strange for some readers. First, the Radchaai society does not distinguish gender. Second, in Radchaai society, some spaceships are crewed by human bodies controlled by the spaceship’s AI. These bodies are called ancillaries. The Imperial Radch trilogy is narrated by one such ancillary. That is to say, the series narrator is an AI that can be in multiple places at one time and communicate with other AI minds at will. I think Ann Leckie did a marvellous job telling the story from this point of view, but it’s the first time I’ve encountered such a narrator, and this (combined with Radchaai society’s lack of gender) might be big hurdles for some readers. However, I must say, these features were some of my favorite parts of the books. Therefore, Ann Leckie’s Imperial Radch trilogy isn’t only a meditation on empire, identity, and justice, it’s also a study in gender and point-of-view. Yeah, it’s that awesome.

Recent Reading: December 2016

2016-12-26T20:41:00-08:00

Queer Style by Adam Geczy and Vicki Karaminas

London: Bloomsbury, 2013.

This book was actually assigned back in college. I was instructed to read it at the end of a term in which I was overloading with 25 units. I did not read it then. But I wanted to read it! So I finally got around to it now.

This book fails on writing style, but content-wise is actually pretty interesting. I don’t think I’ve ever read anything as “academic ivory-tower” as this book, and I’ve read some ivory-tower bullshit before. Honestly, I kind of want to re-write this book sentence by sentence and make it accessible, but I’m not enough of a masochist to actually do that. (Also, no one has yet offered to pay to do so.) Nonetheless, the content covered is actually pretty interesting. The early chapters fill in some interesting fashion history that we’ve forgotten as a society (macaronis and dandies, I’m looking at you), and the latter chapters on drag and non-Western cultures are so interesting that they’re fun, in that academic sort of way.

Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind by Shunryu Suzuki

New York: Weatherhill, 2004. Originally published in 1970.

Awesome book. I read it before, but didn’t get as much out of it. There’s a lot of depth hidden within this text. If you have some experience of Zen/meditation/mindfulness and think Zen/meditation/mindfulness is cool, I quickly recommend this book.

The Alchemy of Stars: Rhysling Award Winners Showcase edited by Roger Dutcher and Mike Allen

Science Fiction Poetry Association, 2005.

Check out my post on the 2015 Rhysling Anthology for some context on Rhysling Awards. This anthology presents the first 27 years of Rhysling Award-winning poems. These poems are altogether very weird, but you’ll be surprised by just often often they succeed. If you’re interested in speculative poetry, this is probably your best place to start. Just know that it does not end here.

Second Foundation by Isaac Asimov

2016-11-28T00:21:00-08:00

New York: Ballantine Books, 1983. Originally published by Del Rey in 1953.

Second Foundation is (ironically) the third book in Asimov’s Foundation series, and it read a lot like the first two Foundation books. The first three books in the Foundation series — Foundation, Foundation and Empire, and Second Foundation — comprise a trilogy. The success of the original trilogy pushed Asimov to later write several more novels set in the universe.

The Foundation books weirdly feel both outdated and fresh. Outdated because the far-far-far future Asimov envisions looks like a mash up between feudalism and 1950’s America. I was reminded of 1950’s America by the way the characters spoke and interacted with each other, and also by how rapidly digital technologies have outdated Asimov’s vision of the future. The gender system of 1950’s America also remains largely intact; I’m not sure I’d call these books sexist, but they are thoroughly patriarchal. Sometimes I find the outdated-ness of these books fun; sometimes it gets annoying.

However, for being old, Asimov’s Foundation trilogy also feels original and fresh. There are large backdrops of war and violence throughout the books, but the violence almost always stays at the periphery. The core of each story revolves around an interesting problem and characters searching for an answer. There’s a lot of dialogue in which characters hash out their theories. I also developed my own theories for how each crisis would be overcome, and usually I managed to get part of it right and part of it wrong. Reading the Foundation novels is a lot like playing a fun mind-game. Other books feel like this too at times, but I don’t think I’ve read anything that felt quite as much like a fun mind-game as Asimov’s Foundation trilogy.

Moreover, the first three Foundation novels are actually collections of novellas. Between these novellas, major characters change and time advances by hundreds of years, but there remains a sense of coherence, a sense of progress in the overall plot. That’s pretty cool. I’m not sure I’ve read any other series that functions quite like that. So the structure of the Foundation trilogy also feels fresh.

If you like mind-games, read Foundation. If you liked Foundation, read Foundation and Empire and Second Foundation.

Think Like a Commoner: A Short Introduction to the Life of the Commons by David Bollier

2016-11-17T18:36:00-08:00

New Society Publishers, 2014.

In Think Like a Commoner, David Bollier provides a newbie-friendly introduction to “the commons.” If you’ve heard of the commons, chances are you’ve heard of the so-called “tragedy of the commons,” a term coined by Garrett Hardin in 1968. The thing is, Hardin doesn’t seem to have understood what a commons was. A commons consists of a a commonly-held resource, plus a community, plus a set of shared social norms and protocols regarding how to steward the resource. What Hardin thinks of as a commons is actually an unmanaged common-pool resource. I’m trying to say: if all you know about the commons is the “tragedy of the commons” (or, if you don’t even know about that), you need to read Think Like a Commoner. It’ll change the way you see the world in a small (but fundamental) way.

Most of us don’t even see the commons, even though they’re all around us. In fact, we interact with digital commons all the time; examples include Wikipedia and Free and open source software (which powers the Internet, Chromebooks, Android phones, and countless Internet-of-Things devices). Commons are also commonly (and effectively) used to manage natural resources.

Think Like a Commoner is a fantastic book, and I suspect I will be pushing it onto my friends for years to come. In this short, readable book, Bollier introduces the commons, outlines several types of enclosures of the commons (the real tragedy, in which commoners are dispossessed of jointly-held resources), and powerfully argues that the commons can function as an alternative to the state and the market as a system of production and governance. Often, Bollier argues, commons are fairer, more efficient, and more empowering than either the market or state when it comes to producing and managing resources.

Commons offer one of the most hopeful visions of the future that I have come across, and this book encapsulates that hope in an interesting, accessible way. I recommend everyone read David Bollier’s Think Like a Commoner.

The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories by Ken Liu

2016-11-05T15:38:00-07:00

Saga Press, 2016. http://www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-Paper-Menagerie-and-Other-Stories/Ken-Liu/9781481424370

All in all, a fantastic collection. I recommend to all without reservation.

This collection showcases Liu’s strength and versatility as a writer of short fiction. The Paper Menagerie does a masterful job engaging and negotiating between fantasy and science fiction, and between Eastern and Western culture. Liu also experiments with form a fair deal; this is always interesting and well-done, but sometimes you get a story without a plot. Fortunately, only a few pages later, you will be in the middle of a fantastic story with a plot. So no harm done really, and the experimentations with form are inventive and enjoyable.

Highlights:

The Perfect Match
Good Hunting
The Regular
The Paper Menagerie
All the Flavors
The Litigation Master and the Monkey King

Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adiche

2016-11-05T15:21:00-07:00

Perhaps I have been reading too much SF, but this work of contemporary literary fiction didn’t sit well with me. It was “literary” and “contemporary” in a way that had a somewhat bitter taste, like black tea that’s steeped too long. Not exactly a bad read, but it certainly didn’t live up to the hype.

The plot felt mundane and predictable, and the inclusion of frequent racial commentary and blog posts (while interesting) felt like a form of pandering to a progressive, white, upper-class audience. I don’t think Adiche meant it as such, but like I said: I’ve been reading too much SF. For me, Americanah‘s racial commentary just felt shallow and tame after reading Nnedi Okorafor’s Binti and Victor LaValle’s The Ballad of Black Tom.

Every Heart a Doorway by Seanan McGuire

2016-10-12T15:43:00-07:00

Tor.com, 2016. http://publishing.tor.com/everyheartadoorway-seananmcguire/9780765385505/

The concept behind Every Heart a Doorway is brilliant: in all those portal fantasies we love so much, what happens after the hero returns home to our world? How do they adjust to life in our banal, bureaucratic universe? Fortunately for Nancy, who has just returned from the Hall of the Dead, her parents have transferred her to a boarding school filled entirely with kids like her, kids who have found doorways to magical lands and then got sent back to the “real world.”

Every Heart a Doorway has a fabulous central conceit, likeable (and delightfully diverse) characters, and a fun plot. If you enjoy portal fantasies, go read this.

I do have one reservation. Every Heart a Doorway is made up of two parts, and the two parts felt oddly disjointed to me. In the first part, Nancy begins adjusting to life at her new boarding school, and in the second part, the adventure really takes off. While I enjoyed reading the whole novella, I felt the first half made some promises to me that the second half promptly broke. In short, I expected the second half to be concerned with an internal conflict in a non-magical world, and I got the opposite of that. I enjoyed the second half that I got, mind you, but I also feel like a story I wanted to read got stolen right out from under me.

Normally, I am hesitant to critique a book for being something other than what I wanted or expected it to be. (See my post on Children of God.) Nevertheless, I raise this critique here because I felt like the first half of Every Heart a Doorway really set up some promises that the second half ignored. Granted, Aurora by Kim Stanley Robinson also sets up one type of story and ends up as altogether another story, and I loved Aurora. However, Aurora at least left clues in the first half as to where it we might end up. With Every Heart a Doorway, I felt as if I was reading one book for the first half and then jumped into a parallel universe and was reading a similar but different book for the second half.

Every Heart a Doorway may have felt disjointed to me, but I must reiterate that its world was exceptionally interesting, its characters were likeable and impressively diverse, and its plot was simply fun. Seanan McGuire has contracted with Tor.com to write more novellas set in this universe, and I’m going to read them.

Common Wealth: Economics for a Crowded Planet by Jeffery Sachs

2016-10-12T14:20:00-07:00

Jeffery Sachs is an awesome guy; he’s the director of The Earth Institute at Columbia University and a special adviser to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon. I first came upon his writings when I was doing Model UN in high school, and I found that Sachs could easily link clear explanations of global issues with actionable policy recommendations. Common Wealth certainly fits this description as well.

Common Wealth examines three pressing global concerns: environmental degradation, rapid population growth, and extreme poverty. At first, Common Wealth reads like a white paper on these issues; if you don’t know much about these issues, this book is a great place to start. Once Sachs explains each of these issues, he looks at what we can do about them. Helpfully, he distinguishes the roles governments, non-profits, businesses, and citizens can each play.

If we take quick action as a unified global society, these daunting challenges can be overcome within fifty years, Sachs argues. He illustrates a path by which to eliminate extreme poverty, stabilize the global population, and embrace sustainable development. This may seem overly optimistic as I describe it here, but Sachs’ argument is clear and well-argued.

Sachs may be optimistic about the possibility to peacefully resolve these issues during this century, but he does recognize that such accomplishments are far from inevitable. The last section of the book examines how foreign policy needs to be reworked in order to eliminate extreme poverty, stabilize the global population, and avoid environmental catastrophe. The first half of the book reads like a white paper; in the second half, Sachs makes his best and most original arguments. He argues that we have consistently over-invested in the military and neglected the power of foreign aid as a tool of stability. In a world in which foreign policy challenges are primarily political, economic, and environmental, he argues we must invest in international sustainable development to defuse unstable regions before they erupt into violent conflict. If for whatever awful reason I become president one day, I want Sachs in my cabinet.

Common Wealth is clearly written, grounded in science and policy, and especially friendly to people new to these issues. I recommend this book if extreme poverty, rapid population growth, and environmental degradation are new topics to you, or if you want to better understand the fundamental challenges (and policy choices) facing us this century as a planet. If you already have a good grasp on these issues, I still recommend you read the last few chapters of Common Wealth, in which Sachs persuasively argues that our foreign policy must focus on pre-emptive sustainable development rather than post-hoc military interventions.

Children of God by Mary Doria Russell

2016-09-28T18:31:00-07:00

New York: Fawcett Books, 1999.

Mary Doria Russell wrote this awesome book called The Sparrow. It’s a tale of Jesuits, space-travel, and first contact with an alien world. I recommend it. If you read and enjoy The Sparrow, chances are you’ll also enjoy its sequel, Children of God.

Spoilers below!

How much can you hate on a book for not being the book you want it to be? It seems to me that the answer has got to be: not much at all. So I guess my largest complaint about Children of God isn’t really all that valid, making Children of God a superb achievement (like The Sparrow). Nevertheless, there are a couple things that make me a little more reserved in my excitement for Children of God.

Children of God feels a little like eight books in one: there’s a relationship drama, an epic military fantasy, two coming-of-age stories, a political and anthropological study, a mafia story, a science fiction adventure, and a thesis on the problem of evil. It is to Mary Doria Russell’s eternal credit that these stories all flow together and are each individually captivating. (The one glaring exception: Sandoz’s abduction onto the Giordano Bruno. It just didn’t feel real within the world she build. Interestingly, in the acknowledgements, Russell writes, “One of the great and enduring benefits of having written The Sparrow has been the friendship offered me by many members of the Society of Jesus; I hope they will forgive me for the kidnapping in this book. Vince Giuliani and I knew it was a lousy thing to do, but we just couldn’t think of any other way to get Emilio to go back to Rakhat!”)

Children of God has a ton of different plot lines; chapters routinely jump forward or backward any number of years, and the reader continually meets new characters. And amazingly, this all largely works. I was invested in all the different plot lines. I really enjoyed meeting new characters and seeing the world from their points of view. Despite jumping between the future and the past, the story wasn’t spoiled; instead, this helped me to focus on the story’s larger themes. Moreover, it is so easy to botch all this up: jumping around in time, managing a large cast of characters, and raising complex themes — these are all very easy to do poorly. And yet Russell succeeds with grace.

So here’s my largest complaint: I wanted an unabridged version of each of those eight different stories within Children of God. Give me a novella which examines Sandoz’s and Gina’s relationship. Give me an epic military science-fantasy saga describing Hlavin Kitheri’s reign as Paramount and the Runa campaign against the Jana’ata. Give me a YA coming-of-age story focused squarely on Ha’anala and Isaac in the midst of all this. Give me a spiritual and scientific retrospective written by the Jesuits. In Children of God, each of these stories is abridged. We only get a taste of each one. We meet a new character, fall in love with them (or grow to hate them!), see them do something fantastic, and then move right on. These were good stories, and I didn’t want to see them so abridged.

And yet one story wasn’t abridged: Emilio Sandoz’s. Children of God is his story, start to finish. I wanted Children of God to give me the unabridged telling of those eight different stories. It doesn’t. Instead, it uses those eight sub-stories as backdrop to a much smaller story: Emilio Sandoz making sense of what happened to him during his first mission to Rakhat. This is the one plot-line we never lose focus on, the one plot-line that gets fully fleshed-out. How much can you hate on a book for not being the book you want it to be? It seems to me that the answer has got to be: not much at all. I wish Children of God was really eight different unabridged stories. But it’s not. It’s one story, with a lot of fantastic things happening in it. When I look at it in this light, Children of God is beautifully complete. When I don’t look at it in this way, it feels like it is trying to do too many things at once.

I loved the character of Emilio Sandoz, but I also loved all the other characters and wish I had had more time with each of them.

Two things are for sure though. 1) Mary Doria Russell can write some beautiful prose:

“Go back down the mountain, my heart,” Suukmel advised serenely. “Listen to Isaac’s music again. Remember what you thought when you first heard it. Know that if we are children of one God, we can make ourselves one family in time.”

“And if God is just a song?” Ha’anala asked, alone and frightened.

Suukmel did not answer for a while. Finally she said, “Our task is the same.”

2) I am sad that my time with all these characters is over. Children of God is anchored in interesting characters relating to each other in deeply human ways. I think I’ll now have to go read Russell’s other novels to enjoy her other characters.

Purple and Black by K.J. Parker

2016-09-06T20:33:00-07:00

Burton, MI: Subterranean Press, 2009.

I enjoyed reading K. J. Parker’s novella The Devil You Know, so when I stumbled upon another K. J. Parker novella at the library, I picked it up. When I saw that it was an epistolary novella, I knew I had to read it. Just the other week, I had the thought that the epistolary form is regrettably underused.

Fabulous choice on my part to read Purple and Black; I think I have a new favorite writer. I liked this even more than The Devil You Know. Parker brilliantly weaves accessible, fun, and funny writing with interesting philosophical ponderings. He also writes fantastically likeable characters and places them on both sides of the conflict.

In Purple and Black, Nicephorus, an academic at heart, becomes emperor after the rest of his family kills each other fighting over the throne. Since he has no one in the capitol he can trust, Nicephorus recruits his college buddies into key positions. Nicephorus places one of them, Phormio, in charge of a military campaign on the Northern frontier. Purple and Black is made up of letters exchanged between Nicephorus and Phormio, as they attempt to fend off assassination and quell a mysterious insurgency. It has a slow, enjoyable build and an absolutely thrilling ending.

If you have any interest in good writing, political philosophy, or military fiction, read Purple and Black by K. J. Parker.

Story of Your Life by Ted Chiang

2016-08-30T16:57:00-07:00

Reprinted in Lightspeed Magazine Issue 31. December 2012. Originally published in 1998.

I heard about Story of Your Life by Ted Chiang because it has been adapted into a movie, Arrival, which will be released in November. The science fiction circles that I follow online all seemed to have good things to say about Chiang’s novella, so I figured I would give it a read.

Good call, on my part. Story of Your Life is a great novella. I really enjoyed it, and it’s quite different from much of what I read.

Although I read a lot of science fiction, I tend to not read much hard science fiction. The stories I read usually have less to do with science and more to do with society, culture, and perhaps religion. I stories I read are classified as science fiction because they take place in the future and they posit (although don’t explain) advanced technology.

Story of Your Life really felt like I was reading science fiction. I had to pause and think about linguistics, physics, and speech acts while reading this story. The introduction of these concepts was handled very well, very clearly. I had fun pausing to think these ideas over, and the images these ideas built in my mind contributed powerfully to the story.

Chiang had to know (or research) quite a good deal about linguistics, physics, speech acts, and writing in order to pull this story off. I’m very impressed. I got really excited when he brought speech acts into the story, because that’s something I already know a fair bit about, so I felt slightly less intellectually incompetent compared to Chiang.

Ted Chiang is brilliant, and the image he crafts in your head during this story is startlingly original and beautiful. Go check it out.

The Devil You Know by K.J. Parker

2016-08-28T13:50:00-07:00

New York: Tor.com, 2016. http://publishing.tor.com/thedevilyouknow-kjparker/9780765384478/

I read this novella solely because I stumbled upon its marketing text and fell in love with its premise: the world’s greatest philosopher sells his soul to the devil, and the demon managing his case thinks he’s up to something. It raises the question: how do you out-trick the Father of Lies?

The writing was perfect. It was clear and engrossing. It helped me be absorbed by and enjoy the story. The plot started off a bit slow, but that’s not a complaint: it was interesting and funny. (The humor in this story was handled very well.) I really enjoyed the way the ending came together. Very satisfying. A less skilled writer would have left me feeling cheated.

An altogether fun, interesting read.

The 2015 Rhysling Anthology: The Best Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror Poetry of 2014 edited by Rich Ristow

2016-08-27T03:05:00-07:00

Science Fiction Poetry Association, 2015.

I have a lot of random passions, hobbies, and interests. Arguably, the most niche interest I have is speculative poetry, poetry influenced by science fiction, fantasy, and horror themes.

The small hub of this geek-literary ultra-niche is the Science Fiction Poetry Association (SFPA). The SFPA runs the major awards of the genre. The Rhysling Award recognizes the poem speculative poem of the year. There are two categories: “Best Long Poem”, for 50 or more lines (or, for prose poems, 500+ words), and “Best Short Poem”, for 49 or fewer lines (or, for prose poems, 1-499 words). The Dwarf Stars Award recognizes the best speculative poem of 10 lines or fewer (or, for prose poems, 1-100 words). The Elgin Award recognizes the best speculative poetry book or chapbook published in the preceding year.

I find all of this fascinating. As far as I can tell, the SFPA has just under 100 active members. I think that’s adorable. I also think it’s awesome that an active community of people exists around poetry influenced by science fiction, fantasy, and horror themes. I fell in love with poetry through performance poetry, and I still admittedly harbor my suspicions and biases against other styles of poetry. However, there’s something about speculative poetry that speaks deeply to me. I read a lot of speculative fiction, but sometimes prose can fail to communicate everything I find enchanting about scifi, fantasy, and horror. Speculative poetry thrives in those lacunas.

Anyway, let’s move on to what I actually read. Members of the SFPA nominate poems for each year’s Rhysling Awards. Those poems are then complied into an anthology, which is sent out to SFPA members. (The public can of course buy the anthologies as well. That’s what I did.) SFPA members read the anthology and then vote for their favorites to select that year’s Rhysling Award-winning poems.

Again, I think this is really cool. This process means that Rhysling Anthologies are both a selection of the year’s best speculative poems as well as a tool, a voting instrument for SFPA members. It wouldn’t really be practical to expect SFPA members to hunt through the various venues in which Rhysling-nominated works are published in order to vote, so the Rhysling Anthology puts them all in one place. This means that The 2015 Rhysling Anthology doesn’t actually tell you which poems won the award, because the anthology was published before the voting occurred. If, like me, you have The 2015 Rhysling Anthology and you want to know which poems won the Rhysling Award, you can just look up up online. I found this kind of cool; it let me judge the poems on my own, and then go see if my favorite poems were also loved by others.

Anyway, here are the poems in The 2015 Rhysling Anthology that I’m crazy about:

“A Work In Progress” by G.O. Clark
“Heere ther be Gods” by David C. Kopaska-Merkel
“Leap” by Grace Seybold
“Dare I Keep the Body” by Stephanie M. Wytovich
“Una Canción de Keys” by Lisa M. Bradley
“Rule 44” by Robert Payne Cabeen

(No, I’m not presently a member of the SFPA. Yes, that will soon change.)

Cibola Burn by James S.A. Corey

2016-08-20T19:39:00-07:00

New York: Orbit, 2015. Originally published in June 2014.

Cibola Burn is the fourth book in The Expanse series by James S. A. Corey, the pen name for Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck. After reading Cibola Burn, it’s official: The Expanse is the most fun reading I’ve ever done — including Harry Potter.

The Expanse tells the story of humanity 200 years in the future. We’ve colonized the solar system, and we’re just starting to reach beyond it. It’s a space opera that wraps action, adventure, mystery, horror, and political intrigue all around great human characters.

Cibola Burn wasn’t my favorite book in the series, but I still greatly enjoyed it. I enjoyed all the point-of-view characters, I found the character’s problems to be interesting, and the pacing felt just right. It had smaller stakes than the first three books in the series, but since I loved all the characters, I didn’t mind; I was sufficiently invested. In contrast, while I loved the drama and conflict of the previous book, Abaddon’s Gate, I didn’t care for one of the POV characters and the last fourth of the book felt overly grueling.

This series is stupendously fun. I highly recommend to all. Go start with the first book in the series: Leviathan Wakes. You’re in for a treat. Also, check out the TV series adaptation; season one of The Expanse premiered on Syfy this last December. It was awesome.

Oh, and be warned: these books are binge reads. They will demand it.

Binti by Nnedi Okorafor

2016-08-20T19:30:00-07:00

Tor.com, 2015. http://publishing.tor.com/binti-nnediokorafor/9780765384461/

Binti is a young woman and a member of an ethnic minority in a distant future. She runs away from her family and goes halfway across the galaxy to attend university. On the way there, something bad happens. (To say what specifically would be somewhat of a spoiler.)

This was a good read, although I wasn’t overly wowed by it.

The Positives: The aliens were well-designed, and Binti’s slow relationship with the aliens was handled very well. Science fiction tends to ignore ethnicity; Binti makes it a central concern.

The Negative: Binti didn’t really leave much of an impression on it. Binti won a Nebula Award and a Hugo Award, but honestly I can’t articulate why. It’s definitely well-written, but it just didn’t stick with me. That said, if I were a person of color, I imagine this story might resonate more with me.

Nnedi Okorafor is currently working on a sequel to Binti, which I plan on reading. Maybe it’ll resonate more with me or help me appreciate Binti more. At the least, it’s well-written science fiction that’s imagining a future I’m not seeing elsewhere. (Huh. Maybe that’s why it’s winning all the awards…)

The Ballad of Black Tom by Victor LaValle

2016-08-20T19:29:00-07:00

Tor.com, 2016. http://publishing.tor.com/theballadofblacktom-victorlavalle/9780765386618/

Last year, I read “The Call of Cthulhu” by H.P. Lovecraft. I read it, and I understood all the buzz around Lovecraft. His style of cosmic horror was addicting. Horror as a genre typically doesn’t appeal to me because I’m not much for violence or gore, but Lovecraft’s style of horror resonated perfectly with me.

That said, “The Call of Cthulhu” is profoundly patriarchal and racist. While I read it, this upset me and took me out of the narrative. Instead of being scared during certain scenes, I chuckled at the terror Lovecraft surely felt toward non-whites. I wanted to return to Lovecraft for his awesome style of horror, but I hesitated, knowing that I would again encounter his ridiculous racism, racism which worsens the story as a whole and is frankly not enjoyable to read.

So The Ballad of Black Tom felt like a gift from God. Start with Lovecraft, toss out the racism, replace it with sophisticated racial commentary, and you’ve got The Ballad of Black Tom. It’s beautiful. It’s a real treat. I hesitate to read more Lovecraft because his racism is such a turn-off, but I already feel like I need to re-read LaValle’s The Ballad of Black Tom so that I can more fully appreciate it’s racial commentary. Honestly, it’s brilliant. This novella deserves to be studied in literature and ethnic studies classes.

Brilliant, sophisticated racial commentary aside, the horror in the novella succeeds as well. There’s a great slow, creeping build to a fabulous scene at the half-way point. After the half-way point, I doubted whether the ending would carry the horrific pay-off for which I had hoped. Fortunately, it delivered. Maybe I just haven’t read enough horror, but I found LaValle’s climax to be original and deeply unsettling.

If Victor LaValle reimagines another Lovecraft story, I’m buying it.

And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie

2016-08-09T01:40:00-07:00

New York: Bantam Books, 1983. Originally published in 1939.

My JVC community read this book as part of our community book club. We were looking for a fun, page-turner “beach read,” and I must say this book certainly fit that bill.

And Then There Were None is a fun, page-turning mystery-thriller; it’s a tale of ten strangers stuck together on an island … and then they start dropping dead one by one. The mystery and suspense are brilliantly conceived. I won’t say too much more because I don’t want to spoil it. However, if you’re looking for a page-turning mystery-thriller, look no farther.

Note: this book is very British. This made me feel distanced from the book for the first couple chapters, but after the first death, reading this book felt natural and I was pulled right into the story.

Note: the characters in this book are clearly racist. Almost amusingly racist. I would hesitate to say the book itself is racist, but I’m also not convinced that it isn’t racist. So be warned on that front.

This book was also great fun to read as part of a book club. I really appreciated dissecting the book with my community-mate Pat after we finished reading it. I correctly guessed the murderer but not the method, while Pat correctly guessed the method but not the murderer. I really had fun chatting about this with him.

I eagerly recommend this book. (I’d also include a caveat concerning racism. It’s hard to appreciate something racist.) However, you might want to hold off reading this book until you have someone with whom to read it, for once you finish reading it, you may very likely be twitching to discuss it. I know I was.

The Cook Up: A Crack Rock Memoir by D. Watkins

2016-08-04T21:32:00-07:00

New York: Grand Central Publishing, 2016.

D. Watkins grew up in East Baltimore amid drugs, addicts, dealers, and gun violence. After his dope-dealing brother died, he inherited enough cocaine and heroin to put together a crew and start dealing. The Cook Up tells his story of getting into — and eventually getting out of — the game.

This book is great. If you are at all interested in Baltimore, racism, inner-city problems, the social effects of drugs, or cultures radically different than the middle-class suburban Catholicism that I knew growing up, go read this book. It’s well written, and it gives you a great story with which to better understand the culture of drugs and guns that thrives in East and West Baltimore.

Once you’ve read The Cook Up, go read The Beast Side: Living and Dying While Black in America, also by D. Watkins. The Beast Side is short collection of insightful essays addressing everything from Instagram and vegetables to gentrification and Freddie Gray. The essays in The Beast Side usually open with a slice-of-life story from Watkins’ life in East Baltimore and then offer an insight on larger social/political issues. I read The Beast Side earlier this year, and I definitely enjoyed it. However, I think that I read D. Watkins’ books in the wrong order; I think I’d appreciate The Beast Side more after having read The Cook Up. This is simply because once you read The Cook Up, you have a lot of context with which to better understand the essays in The Beast Side. The Beast Side certainly stands on its own; I just think the greater context would yield a richer reading experience.

Also, D. Watkins knows how to write well. Both books are written accessibly; the chapters/essays are short, the vocabulary is simply/accessible, and D. Watkins quickly hooked my attention in each chapter/essay.

Fantasy Magazine Issue 58: Women Destroy Fantasy! edited by Cat Rambo, Terri Windling, and Wendy N. Wagner

2016-07-26T00:26:00-07:00

“The Scrimshaw and the Scream” by Kate Hall

Not bad.

“Making the Cut” by H.E. Roulo

An interesting take on superheroes.

“The Dryad’s Shoe” by T. Kingfisher

AWESOME.

A reimagining of Cinderella which asks: what if, instead of wanting to go to balls and marry the prince, Cinderella just wanted to garden? This short story examines class, vocation, and gender in fun, interesting ways, and it’s got beautiful dialogue.

“Drowning in Sky” by Julia August

I can’t say I really got this one.

“Miss Carstairs and the Merman” by Delia Sherman

A good, interesting story, although a bit dull. If you like 19th-century lady scientists, this one is for you.

“Silver or Gold” by Emma Bull

This one was pretty cool, although it didn’t leave a strong impression with me.

“The Abominable Child’s Tale” by Carol Emshwiller

This story was awesome. Go read it. It’s told in the first person, from a child’s point of view. The plot is good, but the narration and point of view is handled so well that you just need to go read it now.

“The Glass Bottle Trick” by Nalo Hopkinson

A good story! It starts off slow, but the ending is definitely worth it.

Pedagogy of the Oppressed by Paulo Freire

2016-07-26T00:24:00-07:00

New Revised 20th-Anniversary Edition. Trans. Myra Bergman Ramos. New York: Continuum, 1997.

Great book.

Admittedly, Pedagogy of the Oppressed suffers from a death of real-world examples. This, however, might not be a great sin, for I found the dearth of examples to help me apply the ideas to my own experiences. Since Freire comes from a very different cultural context than me, I think that if he had included more of his real-life examples, this book would have felt less applicable to my own experiences.

The language in this book is admittedly dense, but once I understood how Freire was deeply Marxist and Christian, the language was a lot easier to parse. It was also kind of fun to read somehow who quotes Mao Zedong for theoretical support.

The actual ideas in this book are of course fantastic. Freire brilliantly critiques the banking system of education, and every time I heard someone mention Pedagogy of the Oppressed, this was the big idea associated with the book. This was, for sure, insightful. However, the biggest take away for me was the reason why Freire hates the banking model of education. Freire wants persons to view themselves as agents of change within a dynamic universe, a universe open to change, and a dialogical and problem-posing method of education, Freire argues, is the only way to accomplish this. This theoretical framework and reasoning impacted me much more profoundly than Freire’s critique of the banking system of education. Additionally, the second half of the book is a profound meditation on dialogue to which I cannot do justice in summary, so I’ll just quote this fabulous line: “Dialogue is the essence of revolutionary action.”

If this book convinced me of anything, it’s that we need more dialogue. Honest, real, listening dialogue.

Recent Reading: Short Stories

2016-06-26T15:36:00-07:00

Introduction

I’ve been reading a lot of short stories recently, so I figured I would group them all together in one post. Here we go.

“Beauty” by David Barr Kirtley

A contemporary, ironic retelling of Beauty and the Beast. It’s a funny delight.

“Power Armor: A Love Story” by David Barr Kirtley

Another very fun and funny story. It develops very quickly, so to tell you about it might spoil some of the fun. So just go ahead and read it.

“Torn Apart and Devoured by Lions” by Jeffrey Wells

This short story is part of a fantastic anthology I read a couple years ago called Machine of Death. All of these short stories feature a device which tells you how you are going to die. It’s completely accurate, but also awfully cryptic. In this fun story, a telemarketer has discovered that he’s going to be torn apart and devoured by lions, and … he’s incredibly excited about it.

“The Tell-Tale Heart” by Edgar Allan Poe

What a fun story! A classic tale of an unreliable narrator torn apart by his own madness. It’s such a brief story with such gorgeous prose that it almost feels more like a narrative, prose poem than a short story.

“The Cask of Amontillado” by Edgar Allan Poe

Another fun tale of a murderous, unreliable narrator. The prose is less delectable than “The Tell-Tale Heart,” but this story arguably has more suspense, which is appreciable.

“Dog Star” by Arthur C. Clarke

A short story about a dog, earthquakes, and the moon. It’s nothing special, but it’s not bad.

“Beware of the Dog” by Roald Dahl

This story was really something special. It starts with a WWII RAF pilot in a crashing plane. It’s arguably just historical fiction, but it reads like a creeping horror story. I really enjoyed it.

Apparently before Roald Dahl wrote a fantastic library of children’s books, he wrote adult stuff, including a collection of ten short stories about flyers and flying, inspired by his own experiences in the RAF. Reading “Beware of the Dog” makes me want to check out more of his lesser-known stuff.

“Thank You, M’am” by Langston Hughes

In this story, a boy tries to steal a lady’s purse and gets an unexpected response. I haven’t read a lot of Langston Hughes, but I always like what I read by him. This story is no exception. I should really pick up a book of his short stories one of these days.

“Divided by Infinity” by Robert Charles Wilson

2016-06-16T13:11:00-07:00

"Divided by Infinity" by Robert Charles Wilson. Tor.com, 2010. Originally published in Starlight 2, edited by Patrick Nielsen Hayden, Tor Books, 1998.

Earlier this year, I read Robert Charles Wilson’s short story “Utriusque Cosmi“ — and I loved it. It’s one of my favorite two short stories. (The other is “The Crack” by Mikel Jollett, the lead singer for The Airborne Toxic Event.) Wilson has a great talent for taking a large, crazy, mind-bending science fiction concept and weaving it around an intimate, personal story. He does this both in “Utrisque Cosmi” and “Divided by Infinity,” and they are both fantastic. (I definitely preferred “Utrisque Cosmi,” although both stories are fantastic.)

Remembering how much I enjoyed “Utriusque Cosmi,” I went out and searched for another Robert Charles Wilson short story to read, and I found “Divided by Infinity” up on Tor.com. I read it and was delighted by it. The story really starts moving when the protagonist gets a handful of books, old books written by the masters of science fiction. But there’s something strange about the books: the protagonist, who read science fiction with the passion of a devout when he was younger, recognizes none of the titles. The books are old, they weren’t recently printed, but they’re titles which the authors are supposed to have never written, much less published. It’s a fabulous conceit. Imagine holding an Issac Asimov mass market paperback in your hands. According to the copyright page, the book was published in 1952, and the book certainly looks and feels like it was published back then. But the title isn’t one you recognize. Your friends haven’t heard of it. It’s not listed on Wikipedia. It’s not listed anywhere on the Internet. It’s a haunting, brilliant idea, and, from there, the story speeds up and raises the stakes on a massive scale.

Having read two fabulous Robert Charles Wilson short stories this year, I think it’s soon time that I start reading Spin, Wilson’s much-acclaimed Hugo Award winning novel.

The Geek Feminist Revolution by Kameron Hurley

2016-06-15T19:33:00-07:00

New York: Tor Books, 2016.

The Geek Feminist Revolution is a collection of essays by speculative fiction writer Kameron Hurley. The essays examine writing careers, pop culture, sexism, racism, the responsibilities of those crafting stories and narratives, and even getting diabetes while living without health insurance. The collection has an introduction, an epilogue, and four divisions: Level Up, Geek, Let’s Get Personal, and Revolution.

It’s a great book. Just go read it. I stormed through it in a week and found myself trying to sell it to a good handful of my friends.

I started following Kameron Hurley’s blog a couple months back, and I found myself excited to read every new blog post. Hurley is funny, inspires me to be a better and more committed writer, and makes me re-think how we construct narratives. So when I saw that she had a new book of essays coming out, I couldn’t really resist — despite already having too many things on my reading list. I made the time for The Geek Feminist Revolution. I couldn’t not. And once I started, I couldn’t put it down.

It’s a great book. Just go read it.

The Colored Museum by George C. Wolfe

2016-06-15T17:12:00-07:00

New York: Grove Press, 1988. The Colored Museum premiered in 1986.

The Colored Museum is an 80’s satire about race. It’s composed of a series of vignettes which each uses stereotypes, archetypes, and hyperbole to make a play which pointedly, insightfully, and uncomfortably examines race in America. In 2016, the play’s cultural references feel quite dated, but there’s something indelibly enjoyable about how 80’s this play can feel.

It’s a good play. It’s funny, insightful, short; the themes of the vignettes are varied but also interrelate well.

Plays always lose something when you read them instead of watch them, and this play loses more than most. Unlike a Realist, chronological play, there isn’t a narrative to pull you into the play as a whole. Each vignette needs to grab your attention on its own, which most of them do very well. However, I can’t help but think that I’d love to see this play performed live some day. Like the best satire, The Colored Museum makes you laugh while feeling awkward and uncomfortable, and both humor and awkwardness are really enhanced while in a live audience.

Putting Education to Work: How Cristo Rey High Schools Are Transforming Urban Education by Megan Sweas

2016-06-13T19:17:00-07:00

New York: HarperOne, 2014.

Before I started my year of service at Cristo Rey Jesuit High School in Baltimore, I read More Than a Dream: The Cristo Rey Story by G. R. Kearney, which tells the story of the first Cristo Rey school in Chicago. I found the book to be detailed, interesting narrative nonfiction, and I appreciated the fodder for reflection on my upcoming year.

Putting Education to Work feels like a sequel to More Than a Dream, so it feels appropriate to have read it as the service year is winding down. Where More Than a Dream tells the story of the original Cristo Rey high school, Putting Education to Work is concerned with the Cristo Rey Network of schools and its national impact. Putting Education to Work reads less like narrative nonfiction and more like a policy paper, which makes the book somewhat dull. However, since it’s a short book (six chapters; less than 250 pages), I finished it before it really began to feel tiresome.

For a brief, readable, academic introduction to Cristo Rey schools, Putting Education to Work fits the bill. However, I would recommend the average reader first read More Than a Dream and then pick up Putting Education to Work as a detailed afterword.

The Piano Lesson by August Wilson

2016-06-08T20:45:00-07:00

New York: Plume, 1990.

This play is awesome. I wish I had to read it back in my college Theatre History courses, and since I didn’t, I’m glad to have read it now.

The Piano Lesson depicts a black family’s struggle over what to do with an intricately crafted piano, a haunted symbol of their heritage. The play is well-crafted and features interesting characters, a well-paced plot, accessible language, and that enjoyable pseudo-realism of the best theatre (think Death of a Salesman and Our Town). It’s good drama; just go read/watch it.

I really do wish that I had read this while taking Theatre History. In that sequence, we read two plays firmly rooted in the African-American experience: Ntozake Shange’s For Colored Girls and George C. Wolfe’s The Colored Museum. I like both of them, but both plays are very abstract/expressionistic. The Piano Lesson feels like a good realist counter-weight to those two works.

The Jesuit Guide to (Almost) Everything: A Spirituality for Real Life by James Martin, S.J.

2016-06-07T20:20:00-07:00

New York: HarperOne, 2012. Originally published in 2010.

I’ve spent a lot of time in Jesuit environments the past several years: I went to a Jesuit university, and now I’m serving in the Jesuit Volunteer Corps at a Jesuit high school.

So on one hand, A Jesuit Guide to (Almost) Everything by James Martin wasn’t anything new to me, which made slogging through its 400 pages not particularly exciting or revelatory. However, on the other hand, this book did do a good job of uniting, solidifying, and gently expanding what I knew of the Jesuits and Ignatian spirituality. Since I’ll soon be leaving Jesuit environments for the foreseeable future, I’m grateful for that service. (And, of course, Martin is very clear about this book being an introduction; as such, it’s not really fair to critique it for being elementary. If I wanted upper-division Ignatian spirituality, I should have read something else.)

The first half of the book looks at Ignatian spirituality, God, and prayer, and the second half takes that out into the world, examining simple living, relationships, discernment, and vocation. The first half was a struggle, as the book definitely passed my tolerance threshold for reading about prayer. Although I must say, while I found it painful to read about Ignatian contemplation and lectio divina, I do appreciating having a better understanding of what they are and how they fit in with Jesuit life. I enjoyed the second half much more. I didn’t have any revelations or notable insights, but I did find it pleasant to read and reflect on simple living, relationships, discernment, and vocation.

Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston

2016-06-05T13:43:00-07:00

New York: Harper Perennial, 2006. Originally published in 1937.

The sophomores have been reading Their Eyes Were Watching God for class, and by “reading,” I really mean “listening.” Someone uploaded a fantastic audiobook version of this text to Youtube, and the sophomores have been listening to it and reading along.

I understand why: the language in this book is beautiful and gorgeous, but it’s also weighty and demanding. Their Eyes Were Watching God tells the journey of Janie, a black girl/woman living in Florida during the early 20th century. The book alternates between prose — beautiful, formal, literary prose — and dialogue — strong dialect flowing with the rhythms of black vernacular. The novel switches between the two, but rarely mixes; there are very few he said‘s and she said‘s surrounding much of the dialogue. Reading the dialect on the page can be extremely tough, but the audiobook really brings it alive.

Some stories are best told as novels, others as movies, others as graphic novels. Their Eyes Were Watching God isn’t a novel, not really. It’s a story to be heard, first and foremost. It’s an audiobook or perhaps a back porch epic. If you want to read this book, do yourself a favor and pick up the audiobook. The language is gorgeous — both the prose and the dialogue. You’ll want to bask in it and admire it, and it’s hard to do this without listening to it.

I must say, though, that like much “literary fiction” I found this book rather boring. “Fun” is not a word I would use to describe Their Eyes Were Watching God. Of course, the core of the story doesn’t really relate to me. The book is about Janie’s relationships and her process of discovering herself, and I expect that women and persons of color would relate to Janie’s story more than I — and, subsequently, enjoy it more and take away more from it than I did. The language is beautiful, and the book as a whole is assuredly well-written, but reading it felt a bit too much like work for my tastes. (This is why I tend to prefer genre fiction: there’s a much higher likelihood of getting a fun and gripping plot while still leaving room to accomplish anything that “literary fiction” accomplishes.)

The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros

2016-06-01T13:09:00-07:00

New York: Vintage Contemporaries, 1991. Originally published by Arte Público Press in 1984.

The House on Mango Street is a short book — 110 pages. It’s composed of vignettes, each about 2 pages long. None of the vignettes especially wowed me, but they are all recognizably well-written.

I’m a big believer in short chapters; they make a book much more readable, and The House on Mango Street scores many points just for its structure. The opportunity cost of reading this book is minuscule, and since the writing isn’t bad, I’d say this book is worth reading.

While reading The House on Mango Street, I thought one weakness of the work as a whole was how loosely connected the vignettes are. The vignettes lacked an overarching plot, which made reading the book a bit dull. However, I was pleasantly surprised by how well the final vignettes built upon earlier ones, raised the stakes, and tied the book together as a whole. It made me wish that I had appreciated the earlier scenes more carefully, so as to be more strongly affected by the conclusion.

One last thought: this is a book firmly rooted in a culture that is not my own. I found it difficult to relate to this work, which is part of why I didn’t find the book overly gripping. I suspect someone with more proximity to first/second generation Latino/a culture in the US would appreciate this book more than I did. Nonetheless, I did enjoy the look into a different culture and appreciated how easy the book was to read.

A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin

2016-05-25T14:42:00-07:00

Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2012. Originally published by Parnassus in 1968.

Ursula K. Le Guin knows what makes A Wizard of Earthsea a good book. In a 2012 afterword, she describes the major reasons why A Wizard of Earthsea succeeds. I think this book succeeds, and I’m glad to be able to say that 48 years after its initial publication (although I’ll digress on this later). So not only has this literary titan written a classic, but she has simplified my job of responding to it.

A Wizard of Earthsea chronicles the formation of a young boy, Ged, into a wizard. A young Ged, foolish and hotheaded, unleashes a hellish shadow from a realm of unlife which stalks him and which even Ged’s teachers don’t understand. Before Ged can truly be a free wizard, he must confront his shadow.

On the face of it, this book may look like any other fantasy bildungsroman: a male hero in a patriarchal world, gifted with enormous powers, leaves his home, encounters a shadowy evil power, overcomes it, goes on to greatness, and becomes the stuff of legends. As Le Guin writes in her 2012 afterword, “It’s in this sense that A Wizard was perfectly conventional. The hero does what a man is supposed to do: he uses his strength, wits, and courage to rise from humble beginnings to great fame and power, in a world where women are secondary, a man’s world.”

But even in 1968, Le Guin was all too bored with fantasy conventions, so she tweaked the pattern, ultimately leaving me delighted and charmed.

First, she upends the racism ingrained in many of our stories. The hero and his comrades have copper, brown, and black skin. The only white characters we meet are the barbaric Kargish raiders. Le Guin doesn’t dwell on these differences; she calmly and simply notes it as she would any minor regional difference. As she writes, “I was bucking the racist tradition, ‘making a statement’—but I made it quietly.”

Most refreshingly, Le Guin rejects the fantasy trope of a Great Battle Between Good and Evil. Instead, she happily writes that “there are no wars in Earthsea. No soldiers, no armies, no battles. None of the militarism that came from the Arthurian saga and other sources and that by now, under the influence of fantasy war games, has become almost obligatory.” Le Guin argues, “War as a moral metaphor is limited, limiting, and dangerous.” What does she offer instead? Rather than fight a war or vanquish a foe, “Ged has to find out who and what his real enemy is. He has to find out what it means to be himself. That requires not a war but a search and a discovery … The discovery brings him victory, the kind of victory that isn’t the end of a battle but the beginning of a life.” We need more stories like this, stories which challenge our moral imagination.

Le Guin also avoids the problematic trope of rugged individualism. All too often we glorify characters who go it alone, thereby undervaluing cooperation, collectivism, and human solidarity. At one point, Ged insists to a friend that since he started his quest alone, he will finish it alone. His friend gently reminds him that “Pride was ever your mind’s master,” and that there are a host of good reasons why they should go together. When the two friends agreed to venture together, I was surprised and delighted.

My only critique of the book is the extensive foreshadowing of Ged’s legendary status. The shadow is a worthy enemy, but the occasional references to Ged’s future great deeds eliminated much (yet not all) of the dramatic tension. The climax felt less powerful than it otherwise might have as a result.

Nonetheless, I’m struck by how original I found this nearly 50-year-old staple of fantasy. Le Guin deftly avoids the tired, problematic cliches of the genre while sketching a haunting villain, an archipelago brimming with adventure, and a magic system beautifully concerned with true names. A Wizard of Earthsea is exactly the sort of fantasy adventure I’m looking for today, almost fifty years after its initial publication.

However, I must now digress, for while it speaks to Le Guin’s talent that her old book still feels original, this might also speak to the failure of the larger field. Admittedly, I am less well read in fantasy than I am in science fiction, but I find myself asking: why haven’t more authors followed Le Guin’s lead and more often broken these conventions? Why do fantasy stories seem to feature predominately white or light skinned characters? Why do our stories seem to overvalue rugged individualism? And — my largest complaint — why, when I think of fantasy, do I think of a Great Battle Between Good and Evil? (Again, admittedly, I am less read in fantasy than scifi, and perhaps this trope is no longer prevalent in literature, but surely it remains dominant in film.)

If it meant that our stories featured more persons of color, valued an ethic of cooperation, and lacked a blind adherence to militaristic metaphors, I would be happy to have A Wizard of Earthsea feel less original today. But as it is, the book still feels contemporary, important, and challenging.