Ashlee 🤟🏻

@ashleemboyer

Deaf, ND, multiply disabled. W3C Invited Expert participating in WCAG 3. Software eng. & consultant: @ashlee.semanticfish.com Blog: ashleemboyer.com More writing: @semanticfish.net Interests: crip theory & critical access/disability studies.

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Ashlee 🤟🏻@ashleemboyer· 7d

I knew I was having bad executive functioning issues but yesterday I learned about functional freeze. Pretty sure I’ve been there for a long time. I read that creativity and journaling can help, and I’ve already been writing with pen and paper and finding it helpful in organizing my thoughts.

Green text above a portrait layout zine on a striped rug. The text reads “day 1 zine-ing through executive dysfunction.” The zine cover has thin black text on a background of pastel colored blobs. The text reads “how to ship a landing page” in all caps. There’s a light pink paperclip on the right edge holding the zine closed.

Ashlee 🤟🏻@ashleemboyer· 16d

TIL what "mondegreens" are. Absolutely fascinating linguistic origin and history.

Written in a dark script font with a green highlight behind: mondegreens.

Then the definition in a sans serif font: misheard words and phrases.

Then a paragraph in sans serif font with a light purple highlight behind: Coined by Sylvia Wright in her 1954 essay, “The Death of Lady Mondegreen.” One of her favorite poems her mother read her was Thomas Percy’s Reliques of Ancient English Poetry. She misheard the line “and laid him on the green” as “Lady Mondegreen.”

Ashlee 🤟🏻@ashleemboyer· 23d

If I could pin a tab in Zotero... it'd definitely be this one 🤓

Top left corner of a Zotero window and the macOS menu bar. The two tabs show My Library and "Building Access". The Zotero toolbar shows the current page as 268 out of 350.

Ashlee 🤟🏻@ashleemboyer· Jul 13

Building Access by Aimi Hamraie should be required reading for anyone whose work touches accessibility 🔖 www.upress.umn.edu/978151790164...

Annotated snippet from page 168 of Aimi Hamraie's 2017 book, Building Access. The chapter is titled Epistemic Activism.

First is a quote from another work that reads: These side effects of barrier-free design are a redefinition of this concept as a much broader and more universal one that involves the environmental needs of all users, not only the disabled. . . . We all pass through stages in our lives with varying degrees of ability and disability. An environmental design that is responsive to life’s stages and the capabilities of all users can truly be termed barrier-free.

Hamraie writes: Notice that the operative phrase here is “all users, not only the disabled” and not “all users, especially disabled people.” Whereas in decades prior the discourse of “all” had excluded considerations of race, class, and gender, it now excluded disability as a category of oppression. [Highlighted] Despite appearing to expand the range of possible users for barrier-free design, [Underlined] disability universalism was giving way to disability erasure.

Ashlee 🤟🏻@ashleemboyer· Jul 13

There is a lot to unpack here and I don't have all the words for it yet. But it feels really gross that disability is positioned as an unfortunate "ever-increasing" consequence of aging. The outcome of advancements in medicine & accessibility is that disabled people live longer.

Quote in a white box on a dark background that reads: Everybody hopes to live well into their 70s, 80s, and beyond. Unfortunately, an ever-increasing percentage of people will acquire functional limitations as they age. In fact, all of us will acquire disabilities – unless we die first.

Ashlee 🤟🏻@ashleemboyer· Jul 7

Summarize, analyze, and get up to speed with these hands 🖕🏻🖕🏻

A Google Gemini alert on a purple-to-pink gradient background. The alert has an "Ask Gemini" button and reads "Summarize, analyze and get up to speed with files in this folder."

Ashlee 🤟🏻@ashleemboyer· Jun 22

See this comment in its entirety. She’s lecturing Maysoon, a disabled Palestinian, about her own community saying she doesn’t give a shit about disability justice. One principle of disability justice is Leadership of the Most Impacted. Taylor is a white disabled woman and completely out of line.

Instagram comment two days ago, from Taylor Lorenz (username taylorlorenz) to Maysoon Zayid (username maysoonzayid).

oh so you're privileged and going around on podcasts and galavanting around talking about disability *while actively infecting and harming other disabled people in Palestine who do not have access to medical treatment.* That's disgusting! And also shows exactly why NO ONE should listen to you talk about disability.

The thousands of Palestinians dying and suffering from deadly diseases because of lack of access to medical treatment aren't actually disabled to you! Neither are the countless Palestinians whose immune systems and organs have been ravaged from a genocide. You don't consider them disabled and so they're disposable to you. You'll happily infect and kill them if it means getting a podcast appearance.

Disabled Palestinians in Gaza, who are currently suffering and living through an active pandemic, are begging for masks and putting scraps of fabric across their mouths to try to stay safe and not die. Israel continues to block PPE. Meanwhile you're out here talking about how it's FINE to slaughter others by spreading airborne disease bc Palestinians without a viable disability aren't really disabled. All while Israel withholds vaccines and treatments from the sickest Palestinians.

You don't give a shit about disability justice. You have no solidarity with disabled people in Palestine or anywhere. This is just a PR opportunity for you it seems like. It's disgusting!

Ashlee 🤟🏻@ashleemboyer· Jun 18

Answering a question on my new accessibility coaching sessions: Will I be doing the work for you, or teaching you how to do it long term? Teaching is preferred, but if you have other tasks to handle ASAP I can help there too! Interested? Schedule a free discovery call: semanticfish.com/coaching

On a dark green background with a right border of doodled fish in alternating colors, 4 blocks of text arranged vertically. From top to bottom: light pink block with dark text reads, Accessibility Coaching; a large serif font in white reads, Are you doing the work, or are you teaching the process?; a smaller sans serif font in white reads, Short answer: both! Do you need the work done ASAP? Let's get it done, then I'll teach you how to do it going forward.; and a small serif font in mint green reads, Semantic Fish Creative Group.

Ashlee 🤟🏻@ashleemboyer· Jun 17

Looking for 1:1 support in work related to planning, design, development, testing, & documentation? I'm opening up 1:1 accessibility coaching sessions! ☺️ For folks who are doing their best despite declining institutional support. Info & interest form: semanticfish.com/coaching

Ashlee 🤟🏻@ashleemboyer· Jun 14

I added a new page to the @semanticfish.com website for anonymous questions! Accessibility questions are my fave but not required. ☺️ semanticfish.com/ama Depending on the content, I'll probably lean towards answering in something like a blog posts.

On a dark cyan background, a large serif text in bright green and smaller sans serif text in white. The large text says "Ask Me Anything (Anonymously!)" and the smaller text says "Use this form to send me questions anonymously. I love accessibility questions!"

Ashlee 🤟🏻@ashleemboyer· Jun 12

Doing #accessibility tests. Sharing for edu. Described in replies. 1) Button w/ visible text should be named w/ that text. 2) Don't put instructions in element names. 3) Don't put "click" in instructions. Antithetical to #a11y. 4) Instructions overly verbose. 5) Likely shouldn't be toggle buttons.

Ashlee 🤟🏻@ashleemboyer· Jun 11

This article is SO CLOSE to getting to the heart of IQ testing and gifted & talented programs. It's rooted in eugenics, segregation, classification to sustain capitalism. Disabled students are perceived 'unruly' to that goal and put in special edu classes to be 'rehabilitated' back to 'normal'.

Recommended Reading

Re-Constituting the "Disabled" Other: Historical Materialism and the Politics of Schooling
Nirmala Erevelles, 1997. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED461148.

Educating Unruly Bodies: Critical Pedagogy, Disability Studies, and the Politics of Schooling
Nirmala Erevelles, 2000. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1741-5446.2000.00025.x.

Measuring Minds: Henry Herbert Goddard and the Origins of American Intelligence Testing
Leila Zenderland, 1998. ISBN 0-521-44373-3.

Ashlee 🤟🏻@ashleemboyer· Jun 5

Meet these hands 🖕🏻🖕🏻

Notification from a web app titled, "Up next: Meet your in-product AI Assistant," with a paragraph underneath reading, "An in-app assistant that answers questions about your Harvest data and takes actions on your behalf — “how much did we bill Acme last quarter?”, “unsubmit John’s timesheet so he can fix it”, “show me projects trending over budget”."

Ashlee 🤟🏻@ashleemboyer· Jun 1

Here is what the text selection looks like. It appears the overlay visibility happens at the end of a touch event. It should probably be a tap, or at the very least ignore long press. The oveay goes away when I try to select, unless I get all the text selected in one go.

Ashlee 🤟🏻@ashleemboyer· Jun 1

Even if this isn’t new… when the alt text is really long there’s a transparent background behind the text?? This is so hard to read wtf. bsky.app/profile/ashl...

The view of expanded alt text on the linked post’s image.

Ashlee 🤟🏻@ashleemboyer· May 28

Found it! "Notes Concerning Brookville, Ind., a Century Ago" published in the Indiana Magazine of History in 1917. Retrieved from scholarworks.iu.edu/journals/ind.... The town's website has a solid history page too: brookville.in.gov/history/.

Notes Concerning Brookville, Ind., a Century Ago
By Amos W. Butler, LL.D., Secretary State Board of Charities

It is my purpose to speak of Brookville as it was a hundred years ago. What I am to say is from reminiscences of my grandfather, Amos Butler, and the notes of my father, William W. Butler, of Hadley D. Johnson and others of the older inhabitants. It is my belief that they are substantially correct, though there may be some discrepancies.

My grandfather, Amos Butler, a native of Chester county, Pennsylvania, was the first settler of Brookville. He came to its site in 1803 or 1804. The latter year he located and entered the land east of Franklin street and north of the section line running through Dr. Berry’s office. His cabin was built about 100 yards northeast of the Hermitage. The site of it has been washed away. His nearest neighbors were the Templetons north toward Templeton’s creek. He built the first grist mill about where Speer’s flour mill stood and above it a short distance a saw mill. He brought his mill irons and mill stones from Cincinnati on pack horses. Several persons came with him to assist in the work, among whom was David Stoops with whom he lived. He was the father of Robert Stoops, Sr., who was the grandfather of Harry M. Stoops. David is said to have been the father of twenty-three children.

Ashlee 🤟🏻@ashleemboyer· May 27

Why would Google make one of these icons a different color than the others... and why would they choose YELLOW 😭 #a11y #accessibility

A column of 6 icons on a light gray background, as shown in Google Calendar. From top to bottom: a clock, two people avatars, a video camera, map pin, horizontal lines representing a block of text, and a calendar. All but the video camera are a dark gray.

Ashlee 🤟🏻@ashleemboyer· May 26

Of course Indiana Governor Mike Braun would claim a “focus on affordability” when gas prices lowered due to him temporarily suspending some gas taxes

X post by Indiana Governor Mike Braun on May 25, 2026.

It includes a screenshot of state gas price averages sorted lowest to highest. The three lowest shown are Indiana at $3.962, Mississippi at $3.993, and Georgia at $4.008.

The post text reads: “Indiana entered Memorial Day weekend with the cheapest gas in America according to @AAAnews, and that didn’t happen by accident. It’s proof that our focus on affordability is paying off for Hoosiers.”

Ashlee 🤟🏻@ashleemboyer· May 2

This should be interesting: vpatcode-worker.webcraft-stephanie-fenton.workers.dev/proxy?url=ht.... (archived: archive.today/2026.05.02-1...)

Audit Complete
Target: https://vercel.com

Original Score 55%.
Remediated Score 62%.

The Accessibility Firewall has analyzed and prepared remediations for this infrastructure.

This diagnostic view is for demonstration only. On your live site, the Accessibility Firewall operates at the server level — no overlay, no widget, no injected JavaScript.

View Live Remediated Site.
Close.

Ashlee 🤟🏻@ashleemboyer· May 1

"Stop buying audits" is a red flag to me. In WebAIM's Web Accessibility Practitioners Survey #3 (Jan 2021), there were 746 responses to "Do you consider yourself to have a disability?" 29.1% said Yes. This space has A LOT of disabled practitioners! "Stop buying audits" is actually bad for us.

Snippet from Accessibility Firewall's pricing page.

Accessibility as Infrastructure.

Stop buying audits. Stop hiring developers to chase PDFs. Deploy the firewall once and your site is compliant — today, next month, and every deploy after.

Ashlee 🤟🏻@ashleemboyer· May 1

"Pointing a tool at the vendor’s site is often a good test." 100% agree with this! I manually found this issue on the original site: set `font-size: 200%` on the <html> element, set viewport to 320px wide. However they're positioning the skip to main link, it's obscuring content when not focused.

The top of the https://accessibilityfirewall.com page shown at 320px wide by 568px tall, and with font-size CSS property set to 200% on the html element. The bottom half of the "skip to main content" link is visible at the top of the page and it covers the top half of the main navigation header.

Ashlee 🤟🏻@ashleemboyer· May 1

I ran it and it said 78% just now. Small difference but still different. 🤔

Audit Complete

Target: https://accessibilityfirewall.com

Original Score 78%.
Remediated Score 100%.

The Accessibility Firewall has analyzed and prepared remediations for this infrastructure.

This diagnostic view is for demonstration only. On your live site, the Accessibility Firewall operates at the server level — no overlay, no widget, no injected JavaScript.

View Live Remediated Site
Close

Ashlee 🤟🏻@ashleemboyer· Apr 28

9 months ago, the US Department of Labor withdrew a 2024 proposed rule to end subminimum wages for disabled people. They said it’s still needed bc 40,000 disabled people were paid less than $7.25/hr in 2024. Too much ongoing discrimination to end discrimination??? www.govinfo.gov/app/details/...

Snippet from the linked federal register pages.

While the Department cited a substantial decline in the use of section 14(c) certificates-from approximately 424,000 workers in 2001 to
approximately 40,579 in 2024—this decline does not establish that no current need remains. See id. at 96473. To the contrary, the continued existence of tens of thousands of workers utilizing the section 14(c) program suggests a nonzero population for whom section 14(c) remains necessary. That inference is bolstered by comments asserting that many individuals with significant disabilities would face unemployment, underemployment, or loss of ancillary services if 14(c) options were eliminated.

Ashlee 🤟🏻@ashleemboyer· Apr 28

I think it sucks this nearly 1,000 word article includes only one critical viewpoint. 85 words, one paragraph, at the end. I'm glad it's @jaivirdi.com's viewpoint. And there should be so many more too! There is NO shortage of similar viewpoints from DHH people. They should be amplified!

Snippet from the linked article.

But some worry the focus on reversing deafness could further stigmatize deaf people.

"These kind of genetic therapies seem to reinforce this idea of deafness being a problem in need of eradication, and that the only solution for disabled people to fully assimilate into society is through a medical intervention," says Jaipreet Virdi, who studies the history of medicine, technology and deafness at the University of Victoria in Canada and is herself deaf. "We're saying: 'Oh, deafness is a problem and we must fix that.'"

Ashlee 🤟🏻@ashleemboyer· Apr 25

Experimenting with a handwritten format for IG posts. No template, created from a picture I took of a notepad! Is it eye-catching?

Half a sheet of lined paper appearing torn from a spiral notebook. It’s angled by a few degrees and looks taped down at the top right and bottom left corners. There’s a line of 4 bright dots from sunshine on the right half.

Then text written is in two weights and sizes. The first line is the smaller of the two. The quoted question is written in larger and heavier style.

“I recently came across a post that asked: What if AI could translate sign language into voice?”

Ashlee 🤟🏻@ashleemboyer· Apr 23

Think I’ll have to make photo essays be part of my first book. This strip of Franklin Road has so many memories. Like this specific DQ where I got countless medium vanilla cones dipped in chocolate. Across the street I got foil-wrapped Hershey bars and Extra gum. And tiger tails at Village Pantry.

Angled view of the front of a Dairy Queen Grill & Chill. Part of Franklin Road is visible on the right edge. The sign says “Buy 6 Dilly Bars get 6 free. 2 for $7 cupcakes.” In the grass are two other signs marketing a $7 meal deal burger and blizzards under “Summer id Calling” on a background of sunshiny pool waves.

Ashlee 🤟🏻@ashleemboyer· Apr 13

The IEDC announced a $60M deal to bring Israeli tech start-ups to Indiana. Indiana will commit $15M, Iron Nation (launched after October 7, 2023) expected to invest another $30M. Luke Messer is calling Braun courageous for supporting war and genocide. www.wfyi.org/statewide/20...

Headline of the linked article.

Statewide. Gov. Mike Braun announces $15-million investment to bring Israeli tech start-ups to Indiana.

WFYI Public Media. By Benjamin Thorp.
Published April 13, 2026 at 7:03 PM EDT.

Ashlee 🤟🏻@ashleemboyer· Apr 12

Is this a joke????????? A Section 508 disclaimer in 11px font with 3.82:1 contrast on an HHS website, RealFood (dot) gov I just took these screenshots, but here's an archive link dated 3/23/2026: archive.today/2026.03.23-0....

Disclaimer as shown on realfood.gov: This content is undergoing a Section 508 review. If you need immediate assistance accessing this content, please submit a request to DietaryGuidelines@usda.gov. Content will be updated pending the outcome of the Section 508 review.

Same disclaimer, with a browser dev tools overlay showing additional information about the HTML/CSS:

<p> element.
class dga_section_508_notice_5BUKL.
340 × 51.91 px (85:13).
Contrast 3.82:1 (fail).
Color #110000.
Font Die Grotesk A, 11px/1.18, 500.
Margin 20px 0px 0px.
Role paragraph.
Focusable No.

Ashlee 🤟🏻@ashleemboyer· Apr 11

Welp my annual subscription has finally ended. It's really too bad this is the cheapest small biz plan with Figma Design. Didn't use Make, Draw, Sites, Dev Mode, FigJam, or Slides. Have zero interest in 3,000 AI credits.

Annotation over the pricing details of Figma's Professional plan for a Full seat at the monthly rate of $20 USD. The Figma Design icon is circled and all other icons and AI credits info is crossed out. An arrow is pointing at the circle from a textbox reading "I only used this 😭"

Ashlee 🤟🏻@ashleemboyer· Apr 11

Gross. A generic <div> with an aria-label. On a Section508.gov online training at that! www.w3.org/TR/wai-aria-...