@onsman@aus.social

@laura_carlson@mastodon.social I seem to be the "feature artist" in this week's Web Design Update, but I especially want to thank you, Laura, for including my LinkedIn post about James Edwards. Sad days, but I truly appreciate you spreading the word. ♥️

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Ricky Onsman @onsman@aus.social · Apr 13, 2026

Weekly Reading List

https://www.tpgi.com/weekly-reading-list-april-13-2026/

#accessibility #a11y #web #design #development #news

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Ricky Onsman @onsman@aus.social · Apr 09, 2026

Replying to @aardrian@toot.cafe

@aardrian @SteveFaulkner I can only guess at the logic, but if I had to it would be along the lines of "once they're older than a month, they have no value". That this is not necessarily true is part of an ongoing conversation. We've achieved some recent advances, such as reinstating author accreditation on Vispero blog posts, but there is more discussion to be had on what place technical blog posts have on the new Vispero site. TBH, we haven't even started discussion about the Weekly Reading Lists. I personally appreciate your support and will do my best to advocate for a solution that meets indutsry expectations.

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Ricky Onsman @onsman@aus.social · Apr 08, 2026

I think the time has come to concede that in all probability, my friend and colleague James Edwards AKA brothercake (@siblingpastry here), has left us.

James was diagnosed with lung cancer late last year and was given just months to live. When his condition didn't respond to chemotherapy and other treatments, by early February that prognosis was shortened to days.

Both I and Ian Lloyd were in contact with him up to that time, until suddenly contact ceased. Neither of us have been able to definitively determine his fate despite repeated and increasingly desperate attempts, and after two months we have to concede that he must have died.

James had arranged for a carer to let us know when he passed but that didn't happen and we don't know why.

I want to emphasise that James was entirely sanguine about his demise and, while weak, was cheerful and robust to the end.

I also want to acknowledge that James made a massive contribution to the digital accessibility industry in all the time that I knew him.

I was fortunate to work with him in four contexts: at SitePoint, where I published his articles and he wrote books; at AccessibilityOz, where among other things he created the first accessible media player; at Tenon.io by Level Access, where we audited client websites; and finally at TPGi, a Vispero Company, where we were two-thirds of the Knowledge Center writing guidance for accessibility engineers and clients.

He was truly gifted technically, devoted his considerable skills to accessibility, and if you don't know his work in in crafting accessible design patterns, you should look it up.

Lastly, I want to say that James was a close friend of mine for over 12 years - even though we never met face to face. I will miss him terribly, and I'll do my best to live up to his legacy.

RIP brothercake.

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