Lupe Camacho

Weekly Link Roundup #6

It’s been 6 days since my IAAP Web Accessibility Specialist exam and I’m still recovering from the marathon study session the led up to it.

I feel OK/good about my performance, but I’m still unsure about what the results will be. A couple things are for sure though: after studying for the exam, I’ve felt far more confident in my understanding of expected widget interactions, and my fear of the official WCAG and WAI-ARIA documentation has subsided a bit. 🧛

One of my new favorite haunts is the Web a11y Slack. If you’re at all interested in delving into web accessibility, there are some great teachers in there who are always available for questions. 👩‍🏫 Join us!

Weekly Link Roundup #5

Oh Wednesday, glorious Wednesday. This week has been a perfect emotional storm of work deadlines, impostor syndrome/panic attacks, wet weather, and npm issues (I’m talking to you, v3). But I’m making it through (read: barely hanging on) with the support of many a vitamin D tablet and green smoothie.

On a more positive note, tomorrow will be my one-year anniversary at my current company, and I’m feeling so grateful that I magically ended up here after a long and windy road following my dropping out of grad school. It’s amazing to be part of such a tight-knit, supportive group doing work I love.

Next week I’ll be taking the IAAP WAS certification exam so that we can highlight our expertise in web accessibility and serve our clients and their customers better. ✌️I’ve got those pre-exam jitters — wish me luck!

Weekly Link Roundup #4

Accessibility

Building accessible websites and apps is a moral obligation
“You wouldn’t tolerate a builder who didn’t bother reading the building code or educating themselves on how to properly build a house. So why is that OK for us a builders of web things?”
Accessible Page Navigation in Single Page Apps“Since we’re not relying on the native page load functionality, we’re now in the tricky business of managing focus ourselves.”
Great Big List – CSUN 2019 Presentation Links
A massive list of CSUN Assistive Technology Conference presentation links.

CSS

Things nobody ever taught me about CSS.
“…A small list of concepts I think are interesting and useful to better understand and write CSS.”

Continue reading “Weekly Link Roundup #4”

The Best Free React Course for Beginners

React has on my to-learn list for what seems like ages. I’ve tried diving in numerous times over the last few years, but either the time wasn’t right or I couldn’t find the right course or project to work through. Some courses were too hands-on, while others were too hands-off and quickly led to frustration.

So I just sat with my skill set and waited to find the motivation to jump back in.

However, with work projects on the horizon that will most likely be built using React, I decided it was high time to jump on the framework bandwagon.

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A Note To Beginners: Your Discomfort Means You’re On The Right Path

You’re wondering if you’re smart enough — talented enough — to make this career change into web development. You try hard for a week and then your motivation finally takes a nosedive when you can’t get your code to work.

You can’t wait until you’re confident in your skills and feel equipped to tackle any problem.

Let me tell you something.

It will never feel like that.

Part of the job is learning to be OK with feeling ill-equipped, underprepared, and like you’re just barely scraping by. It’s called impostor syndrome, and we all have it.

In this field, there’s so much to remember and things are amorphous and ever-changing, and The Right Way™ is up to interpretation.

You’ll grow the most when you’re wedged in that uncomfortable spot where ‘what you know’ juts right up against ‘what you don’t know.’

So don’t stick with what’s comfortable.

Don’t avoid a certain popular technology because, in your opinion, it’s a nightmare to work with.

That probably means you haven’t worked with it enough. You haven’t gotten to know it well enough to appreciate its quirks, nuances, and special powers.

(Hey you!Yeah you! I know you want to just give up on understanding CSS! And that vanilla Javascript scares the bejeezus out of you. Keep on trying.)

Never stop learning, and you’ll never stop exceeding your own self-imposed limitations.

Taking A Cue From Perfumers: Pre-Diluting Essential Oils For Blending Fragrances

One of the most difficult parts of blending essential oils for perfume is olfactory exhaustion.

A perfumer's organ with pre-diluted fragrance oils at-the-ready — A perfumer’s organ with pre-diluted fragrance oils at-the-ready

When you’re blending essential oils to try and find *just* the right proportions of each, it’s not uncommon to completely overwhelm your nasal passages.

On top of it being probably not too healthy for you to huff undiluted EOs for extended periods of time, it can be:

Wasteful: when you’re experimenting with neat (i.e. undiluted) essential oils and you don’t like the result, your blend will probably end up gathering dust on the shelf
Misleading: once you add a carrier, your blend might not even smell the same as it did undiluted

Enter the wisdom of perfumers-by-trade.

Continue reading “Taking A Cue From Perfumers: Pre-Diluting Essential Oils For Blending Fragrances”