Benjy Stanton

Going back to north wales in Easter and don’t know it super well so will follow this thread 👀

Any recommendations for North wales with the family? Big kiddo wants to do zipworld, but would love some other suggestions.

I’m embarrassed to say I’ve never been to Wales other than through it for ferrys to Ireland.

We went to zip world Llechwedd last year. The trampolines in the caves were amazing fun, even for the adults in the group 😂 We also went to Bala lake which I think is good for water sports like paddle boarding.

I like IA writer too. I write rough notes in markdown throughout the week. It’s synced between Mac and iPhone. Then I copy the markdown straight into my static site generator at end of the week.

Soon!

Finally picking up my van today. Just in time for … checks notes … world war 3. Cool cool cool.

Trapped in MS Office Seeking IT independence, Europe wants to escape Microsoft Office. The question is: where to?

“If Europe wants change, it cannot simply recreate the same model under a different logo. It must move beyond the document-and-format architecture altogether.” ia.net/topics/trapp...

🎉 Looking for new work.

15 years front-end dev + Design Systems specialist.

I help folks build, maintain & transform design systems.

I'm also available for focused projects, front-end builds, codebase modernisation.

Short to long term.

Let's chat - stu@alwaystwisted.com

reposts appreciated <3

"Accessibility is not a feature. It is system design.". Loved this quote (and the whole talk) from @annaecook.com www.deque.com/axe-con/sess...

Accessibility in the End of Deterministic Design (Again) YouTube video by Axe-con Stream 2

Thanks folks for joining! I am overwhelmed with kind mentions, it means the world to me. 💙

I also want to ask you all how I can best translate this talk to written format.

Do you want one big post? Multiple snippets? Toolkits?

What’s most useful for you?

www.youtube.com/live/wa9pFfR...

Nice. 👌

Nice. That’s probably a more sensible route!

Can’t tell if you are teasing or not but yes I have a hand grinder already haha

Just a short, personal post this week. #weeknote #campervan www.benjystanton.co.uk/blog/getting...

Assistive technology tools you can test with at no cost We know some public sector organisations can struggle to get access to assistive technologies and testing can seem overwhelming. Here's some advice on the free tools you can use to help.

And this is quite old. But still a good principle accessibility.blog.gov.uk/2018/09/27/a...

Doing a basic accessibility check if you cannot do a detailed one

This is a good testing plan that I sometimes follow www.gov.uk/government/p...

What is your colleague's current role, as accessibility testing can meaning different things depending on whether they are a user researcher versus a software developer for example. accessibility-manual.dwp.gov.uk/guidance-for...

Testing for accessibility How to test your service to make sure it's accessible to disabled users.

This is probably a good place to start. www.gov.uk/service-manu...

Ah the irony of going into the office, but missing standup. Probably the most important meeting of the day.

Countries that do not embrace AI could be left behind, says OpenAI’s George Osborne Without AI you will be a ‘weaker and poorer nation’, says former UK chancellor two months into job at US firm

Please leave me behind 🤣

Elon Musk & @elonmusk. 4h For a country to survive, there has to be a common culture. Nobody dies to defend a "multicultural economic zone"! American culture, with its English-Scotts-Irish origin, is great and worth fighting for. Some may not realize it, but that's why people come here. X

A win for Wales, finally.

Llef Hir, by MWSOG track by MWSOG

Dydd Miwsig Cymru hapus. Some Welsh psych folk for you this morning mwsogcymru.bandcamp.com/track/llef-hir

First gig of the year tonight. Waaay too late. Desperately need some sounds to blast any thoughts of public sector service delivery out of my brain.

Happy to try anywhere really, except for the M&M place again 🙈

London friends. 👋🏻 Any recommendations for places to visit with kids aged 10-15? We’ve really liked Camden in the past.

No probs! Thanks for sharing your process!

No notes this week sorry, but too many good links not to share. Here are the design, accessibility and public sector digital links that caught my eye. www.benjystanton.co.uk/blog/no-note...

Yeah. I’m sure there are benefits but there’s a huge risk that it makes it even harder for us to convince people that spending money on UX and front-end will make the service better in the long run.

Why isn't this all over the news? Too much other bad stuff happening? Lack of sympathy for civil servants maybe?

The scary thing with low-code is that it hides UX and front-end problems, but it still requires lots of effort from full-stack devs. So you end up with an end-product of low quality that is also expensive to maintain and deliver. It's not quick or cheap or good.