Accessibility by Lauren Woodrick, Chatbots by Paul Houle

Lauren Woodrick: Accessibility: The Crafting of a Friendlier and More Considerate Web

While performance and user flow considerations are often top of mind for developers, designing to make your sites and apps easy and pleasant to use for folks with various impairments can be more enigmatic and fall through the cracks. But it doesn't have to be that way! We'll take a look at what WCAG 2.0 (Gesundheit!) outlines, followed by techniques and tools you can use throughout the development process to meet accessibility standards and make your corner of the web nicer for everyone.

Paul Houle: Chatbots: Present, Past and Future

Chatbots are growing in popularity as developers face the limitations of the mobile app. User interfaces that simulate a human conversation, the history of chatbots goes back to the late 18th century. I'll take you on a tour of that history with an eye on finding insights on what is possible today and in the near future with chatbots. Issues Covered: Amazon Alexa, Facebook Messenger Chatbots, Alan Turing, and much more.