Do not cram alt text with keywords just to improve search engine optimization. This will hinder alt text’s true purpose: improving accessibility. Focus on describing the photo's content. Search engine optimization should not be the goal for writing good alt text.

If you feel like you don't know what you don't know about accessibility, it can help to follow folks who discuss assistive technology, accessibility and disability. Here's a list of people who post a lot about those. bsky.app/profile/did:...

Thank you for attending #FreelanceFriends! This chat is coordinated by many freelancers on Bluesky! We will be back after the winter holiday season. Watch for updates and have a lovely end of 2025 and start to 2026, friends! Chat SOON! (And hopefully the hashtag issues get fixed sooooon!)

Happy holidays! May you bask in front of a cozy fireplace with the fellowship of friends and family, including the four-legged ones. Take time to honor and celebrate the ongoing gift of solopreneurship. My very best to you today and in the coming year! #FreelanceFriends. ❤️

THANK YOU - THANK YOU - THANK YOU my #FreelanceFriends. 60 minutes with you is the best-est medicine in the world. May you all have a joyous and rejuvenating holiday next week. I am very thankful for all of you. And may the hashtags be repaired soon.

Open Mic: #FreelanceFriends, now it's your chance to ask the group a question. What do you need help with in your freelance business? It can relate to end-of-year tasks, forward planning or any other topic. Comment below and let your fellow freelancers offer insight.

a3) The word of the day is "home"! Blessedly our people live close enough where there's not much travel. That's one thing I don't miss from my past life - I adore holidays in my own home rather than on the road. #FreelanceFriends

a2) Yep.. there's a pivot afoot. Hoping to take some time over the holidays to re-focus and decide what that looks like. We've had an overly large amount of stressful adulting lately - makes focus hard and clarity even harder. #FreelanceFriends

a1) Much more casually than I did in grad school. Maybe a little shopping for some tax-deductible things, but other than that not much. The big organization happens in January with tax prep. #FreelanceFriends

Good morning #FreelanceFriends! Can you believe it's our last chat of the year? I'm Amy posting from a extra blustery Lincoln. I'm no fan of weather like this in a neighborhood with very tall, mature trees.

Welcome to #FreelanceFriends! This is your weekly Bluesky chat to connect with fellow freelance professionals. Each week we explore a new topic in an hour-long chat guaranteed to build camaraderie and confidence in this crazy work style.

The world is SOOO ugly today. Looking forward to a tiny respite with my favorite BlueSky People. It's time for #FreelanceFriends!

Everyone who works on a website has a role to ensure the site and its content are accessible. This resource from Vox Media breaks down some accessibility tasks by job role, including content creators, designers, developers, project managers, and testers. accessibility.voxmedia.com

Small business friends - call your Representatives (R or D) and ask them to support a clean ACA extension. ACA is a direct investment in the health and wellbeing of small business owners and entrepreneurs.

I've set up a small monthly newsletter called Focus State. With accessibility support shrinking in a lot of orgs, I wanted to create something that divides that gap, builds community, and makes the internet a bit more fun. If you dig digital accessibility give it a look: annaecook.com/newsletter

Seriously - if someone doesn't start making t-shirts immediately, I will be so disappointed! Go Boston Yook Yarters! 99 days....

Beware of companies promising to make sites completely accessible, compliant, and immune from lawsuits with just a few lines of code. This just isn't possible. Disabled users have long said these tools don't actually help them, and can often make things worse.

AOC: I want to remind you where the real crime is. It's in the oligarchs taking $170 billion of our money from health care and food assistance and public programs and taking that and funneling it into a secret police program.

Disrespectful and insulting. According to Donald Trump, nursing isn't a professional degree. The bottom line? The entire nation, including Illinois, needs more nurses — this decision makes it even harder than ever for them to get the support they need.

Avoid forcing users to memorize information. For example, use field labels instead of placeholder text. Placeholder text disappears when users begin typing. This forces them to memorize placeholder text or delete information so they can see placeholders again.

Republicans have tried to repeal the ACA over 70 times over the last 15 years. They've had 15 years to come up with a replacement plan. 15 years later? They have no plan. And today they voted to spike healthcare premiums for over half a million Michiganders.

Every American should feel daily shame that we have allowed ourselves to not only be represented by these people, but that they are using this position to destabilize the world, kill innocent people, and act as a rogue state. Let that shame be the fuel to act, to disrupt, and to defeat them.

Just really sucks that so many of us are barely getting by (if that), and the people who stole from us are rewarded with billions. It's hard to put into words how demoralising that is.

Thank you my #FreelanceFriends for a lovely chat. Probably more therapy than biz-focused this week. (Sorry @angelatague.bsky.social! You did a GREAT job as always!) Looking forward to next week with all of you! Cheers!

a2) Adding to all the other good answers here, we tend to make PDFs of all the receipts and keep them in one gDrive folders. Then it's super easy to print them at tax time for our lovely accountant. We'd be lost w/o her! #FreelanceFriends

a1) We don't do a lot, but most of our year end business spending tends to run around Black Friday sales. Impt to make sure it's an actual deal though, esp for things that renew. #FreelanceFriends

Happy Thursday #FreelanceFriends! I'm Amy posting from a chilly and gloomy Lincoln. While I'm usually doing web/instructional design things, this morning I'm an angry constituent calling on my R Senators to extend the ACA credits. Small biz life can be hard - having health insurance helps.

Here we go!! #FreelanceFriends

Happy Thursday #FreelanceFriends!! Join us ~1 hour as Angela (@angelatague.bsky.social) leads our discussion about year-end business tax deductions and tax-filing tips. 12est/9pst -- hope to see you there!!

Ossoff: "This is one of the most consequential votes this Senate will take all year. By saying yea or nay to the clerk of the Senate later today, senators will decide whether people live or die. Senators will decide whether Georgians & folks across the country are financially ruined or have a shot."

"I can't afford to support my favorite author right now, I—" Reviews. Reviews are free AND they are a gift to authors that can keep on giving (i.e., exposure, marketing, algo boosts, etc.) Please, give the gift of reviews to your authors this holiday season. It really can make a difference!

Those were the days!

Time to call your Senators - red or blue. Tell them how important the ACA credits are to small and solo business owners and employees. #FreelanceFriends #SmallBiz #Freelance

Kasey Bonifacio's 13 Days of Accessibility is a great way to dig into the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, which are international standards used to measure accessibility. Kasey's resource makes WCAG more digestible. a11ycalendar.kaseybon.com

My weekly email to my congressman.

Heading out just a couple minutes early #FreelanceFriends! Wishing you all a pleasant week ahead!!

Happy Thursday #FreelanceFriends! I'm Amy posting from a chilly Lincoln. Winter is here, friends. I'm a web, graphic and instructional designer who dabbles in lettering and photography. Open Mic weeks are a favorite - never know what's going to happen!

Good morning #FreelanceFriends! Happy THURSDAY to you!!

Trump’s healthcare plan looks a lot like extending subsidies for the ACA. You know, like the Democrats wanted in the first place. Republicans are the lazy kid in a group project who tears shit up and hassles others for a week only to agree to sign-on on the last day to get a good grade.

Your site's users need enough time to interact with content and fill out forms. People with disabilities such as blindness, low vision, dexterity impairments, and cognitive disabilities might need more time for things such as forms. Allow users to turn off or extend time limits.

Sometimes I think it’s going to be the librarians who will save us all.

Some will publish podcasts but wait up to 24 hours before adding transcripts instead of publishing them together. The end goal should be to have the transcript ready at the same time as the podcast. This will require multiple teams working together toward that goal.

Again, every elected Democrat needs to put out a video stating exactly what Kelly and the others said. If ever there were a line to draw in the sand, it’s here. The military is not the president’s Praetorian Guard.

For screen readers to recognize headings, heading text can't just be body text or normal text that's been made to look bigger and bolder. It must be formatted as a heading. In Microsoft Word and Google Docs, this can be done in the styles box. In HTML, use the tags h1 through h6.

More of this please...

THANK YOU #FreelanceFriends for another amazing week. Wish you all a restful and renewing holiday. See you on 12/4!!

REMINDER - no chat next week as America gathers to celebrate the Thanksgiving holiday. Back again for "open mic" week on 12/4. #FreelanceFriends

A4. Best send off a client did for me was to take me around and introduce me to his colleagues and stand up and give me a testimonial at a Rotary dinner. 🤩 #FreelanceFriends

Sending good thoughts to some of our friends who are AFK today -- @angelatague.bsky.social (who left me in charge this week!) And also to @shanecarpenter.bsky.social and @strotebook.bsky.social! #FreelanceFriends

Friends helping Friends time! Celebrate your wins! Share a sad. Or ask a question for the group. This is the time for #FreelanceFriends to support one another!