Alyssa Panetta has been designing and developing websites by hand
since Y2K. She has worked for educational mathematics software companies
and is currently a web designer/developer for the University Libraries,
University at Albany.
After a diagnosis of brain cancer in 2020 and subsequent treatment, Alyssa started a website called dear talula, where she writes letters to her removed tumor, which is preserved in a tumor research bank.
Alyssa’s
presentation will cover her personal story and how it influences her
approach to website creation. She will cover questions such as: After
all the WCAG standards are met, how accessible is your site for users
with cognitive disabilities? How can you tell? What does that mean? And
where would you start?
Here's her description:
"I'd been
making websites for over 20 years, and I didn't understand what it was
like to use the web with a cognitive disability until I developed one.
After treatment to remove a slow-growing brain tumor, I had a hard time
using most websites, including the ones I built! This real-world
experience gave me a newfound perspective on accessibility, and I
learned that there’s no better way to understand a user’s experience
than living it. It also motivated me to learn new techniques that
provide more accessible experiences for users with cognitive impairments
and redesign parts of my sites with a focus on cognitive ease."