This is a great way to make sure your social posts are accessible! And if you don’t know how to write alt text, join @stacykess.bsky.social and I for our “Implementing Accessibility” session at #NICAR26 on Friday!

This week, @ire.org has its annual NICAR conference. If you struggle to remember to add alt text to your images, Bluesky has a setting that will remind you. Go to "Settings," then "Accessibility." Select the checkbox for "Require alt text before posting." #NICAR26 #NICAR2026

The best time to start thinking about and talking about making a website accessible is at the very beginning, before any content or code has been written. But the second best time is right now.

For any and all who will be at @ire.org's NICAR this year, please come to these sessions about accessibility! #NICAR26

Please send! This is one of the most popular articles on my website. I always welcome new food analogies for #accessibility from anywhere in the world. Thanks for sharing @a11yawareness.bsky.social #disability #AccessibilityIsDelicious

Lots of great quotable lines from @deque's Axe-con, including this gem from @stephaniewalter.bsky.social: "You can't sprinkle eggs on the cupcake after baking it. Fixing accessibility later is messy, slow, ineffective!" www.deque.com/axe-con/sess...

Axe-con continues today!

"The rules are the rules until they aren't." —@lflegal.bsky.social, talking about the laws

Today is off to a great start, as I'm watching @lflegal.bsky.social do her "US Digital Accessibility Legal Update," which is always one of my favorite sessions.

Axe-con is a free virtual digital accessibility conference offered today and tomorrow (February 24 and February 25) by @deque.com. Registrants from all time zones are welcome! All sessions are free, recorded, and available on demand following the conference. www.deque.com/axe-con/

Looking for a very very affordable video editor to help w some overflow work on my YouTube channel. Need someone with STRONG editorial judgement and the ability to edit news footage on tech policy and complicated topics with an eye for detail. Student or teen is fine, but they need to be reliable!

Many newspapers had visual journalists. They might have had titles like "graphic artist" or "news artist," but these folks often pitched their own projects besides working with reporters. I did that job at three newspapers. None of those papers has a dedicated graphics desk anymore.

My local paper, which has won Pulitzers, now uses AI for its real estate summaries. That was someone’s job.

Reporter here. Most local / regional papers charge an initial 99 cents for a digital subscription. Try it for a year. Aim to be an engaged and informed member of the public. Democracy is counting on you.

The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing people local newspaper reporters are rarified elites instead of ink-stained wretches driving their Honda Civic to a crime scene so you know don’t have to rely on Nextdoor and the police press release.

First fish fry of the season feels like Opening Day, and today's was a winner.

But yes, the trailer does look fun!

Be prepared: "Did you see the trailer for the Mandalorian movie?" "It's called 'The Mandalorian and Grogu.'" "Right, the movie based on the Mandalorian TV show. Did you see it?" "It's called 'The Mandalorian.'" "Yes, did you see?" "Yes, I've seen the show." "The trailer." "That's for the movie."

“We plan to hire an AI rewrite specialist to ingest the reporting by Hannah and others and use AI to convert it into stories.” The editor of the Cleveland Plain Dealer said it will use AI to ‘write’ its articles. www.cleveland.com/news/2025/10...

The New York Times used a full verbatim quote in its story about AOC: "I think that, uh, this is such a, a — you know, I think that — this is a, um — this is of course, a, uh, a very longstanding, um, policy of the United States." This a rare practice in journalism. Most quotes get cleaned up.

It is really difficult to not succumb to what-about-ism here, because of all the things that any current or former president has ever said, this ranks at Number 39,069,471 of things I'd think needs to be "walked back." I can think of much better contenders than this one.

"Bad thing existed before I made it easier to do bad thing" isn't the argument you think it is.

Someone has sure already made this observation but the fact they can convert all those empty warehouses into prison camps means they could have converted them into housing, community centers, job training centers or, hell, libraries or schools all along. It’s always a matter of will not resources.

Don't give anything an Emmy until it's as good as this.

I need NBC to understand it’s MUCH BETTER TV to watch someone come from obscurity into greatness than it is to watch somebody get hyped like crazy and then not live up to it

Everyone involved in sports and the Olympics has overhyped Ilia Malinin and put the weight of the world on his shoulders. It’s not fair.

I do think it’s weird how much time NBC spends hyping up specific athletes, trying to make them stars, rather than just let stories emerge from the games organically.

"zoomers are killing the bar industry" oh interesting was it zoomers who decided a drink should cost seventeen dollars

(I do kind of blame NBC for a lot of Olympic jitters. They pick these young athletes to make the center of their coverage and then just hammer them with so much pressure.)

Would love to see NBC display a shred of awareness of the part they play in putting pressure on athletes. They build them up & put cameras in faces constantly, & when it goes badly they oooh about pressure, meanwhile Andrea Joyce is pinning down Ilia Malinin before he’s even processed his loss. -H

Van Der Beek played Dawson Leery on the hit show Dawson's Creek. He announced his colon cancer diagnosis in 2024. n.pr/3Oc2JIr

Watching now, and of course, @scopicengineer.com has me laughing within the first two minutes.

Also allowed: words like "showdown" can work in TV Guide descriptions of "Melrose Place." "A heated exchange between Jane and Sydney leads to a showdown in the pool."

"Clash" or "heated exchange" work when describing people yelling at each other on Bravo reality shows or "Drag Race." But not when describing protestors who are facing a squad of masked men who are armed with guns and tear gas.

i am increasingly bothered by terms like "showdown" or "face-off" or "clash" when used to describe corrupt and fascist power coming up against resistance because there's an implied symmetry that does not exist.

Every morning I wake up, look at my phone, and feel like I’m in the last episode of “Dinosaurs.”

In the future we're gonna look back at online gambling and prediction markets in the same way we look now at cigarettes on airplanes and lead-based paint www.wsj.com/business/med...

It is less than a month until #NICAR26, and I'm headed back to Indianapolis to teach #AccessibilityBasics with my two favorite people @emiliaruzicka.bsky.social and @patrickmgarvin.bsky.social. But wait! There's more! Stick around for the new hands-on #ImplementingAccessibility session!

Can’t wait to join @stacykess.bsky.social and @patrickmgarvin.bsky.social to present #AccessibilityBasics and #ImplementingAccessibility at #NICAR26! If you’ll be there, come join us!!

Being mad is just a brand for some people and they don’t know how to turn it off even when it makes them look small and foolish.

Attention visual journalists: I’m always open to pitches for @sciam.bsky.social’s Graphic Science column. The column tells concise stories on topics in science via graphics (dataviz, illustrated diagrams, comic-style explainers, etc). It appears in both print & online. DM me for a pitch guide.

Good to see that we've moved past "racially tinged."

The Washington Post's graphics team was a super group of some of the best people in the business. They were fundamental to the entire enterprise, as they pitched and reported many of their own projects. Hire this man immediately.

You need to hire @timmeko.bsky.social as your next graphics leader, period. Back when I was a baby data analyst wanting to make graphics & become a journalist Tim took me under his wing, taught me everything, advocated for me to work with his team. So many of us are journalists now because of Tim.

Tim was the institutional memory and heart of the Post's graphics team. He's a talented, innovative colleague and leader who never once turned down a chance to chat or work together. Both a pro and a friend.

OK, so @maris.bsky.social said "whoever figures out a way to bundle independent journalism subscriptions will be a hero." I might not make "hero" status, but I have been thinking a lot News Creator Corps, a great initiative from @rlobdell.bsky.social, @damon.kiesow.net, and others. Hear me out.

Each of the Post layoffs is a loss. And not just for the Post's staff and the Post readers. In so many ways, the Post was an aspirational place so many journalists wanted to work. And it was because of the people who worked there. This is especially true in graphics and design.

Job alert: DataViz journalist at the Seattle Times www.journalismjobs.com/1692450-data...

Lost my job at the Washington Post today, along with many of the best in the business. I want to keep covering tech and the internet. If you have leads on jobs for me or my colleagues, please reach out. I’m so proud of our work.

Amid the hundreds of colleagues we’ve lost today, I wanted to highlight the BRILLIANT data/graphics folks who any newsroom should be fighting to hire right now—threading here: