On Our Radar: Communication Builds Community

This week, we at ALA have been thinking about processes of inclusion—that is, how we communicate with our communities. Who (and what) gets to be included? How do we use vocabularies, fonts, even emojis, to make those choices? And how do those choices create our culture?

Here’s what’s on our radar:

Anna Debenham, technical editor:
The UX team at Salesforce have written about the difficulties they’ve had coming up with color schemes that look good and meet the WCAG2 guidelines on color contrast—so they’ve built a wonderful site called Color Safe that generates color palettes that meet these guidelines. It’s great to see companies release tools like this that help make everyone’s sites more accessible.

Marie Connelly, blog editor:
I really loved this piece over on Hopes & Fears on how the Deaf community is incorporating new terminology (think: selfie, photobomb) into American Sign Language. It touches on so many things I love: words, the subtle complexities of language, and the beautiful messiness of community collaboration. I think the examples of how the Deaf community works through this process offer great food for thought for any of us working on content and communication.

Caren Litherland, editor:
“I’m pretty content,” writes Indra Kupferschmid in a pragmatic survey of the current state of web typography. Almost anything we could ever do in print, we can now do on the web; the web “forces us to think about typography in terms of parameters and to get clear about content versus form.”

Ethan Marcotte, technical editor:
Kathy Sierra’s essay on skater culture is a fascinating, moving look at a once-inclusive industry that, over time, marginalized its female members. It’s also an urgent warning for the digital industry, which faces a similar crisis.

A gif about a music video we are into:

What about you?
What stories are drawing your attention? Got any posts, pictures, tools, or code you want to share? (We love sharing!) Tweet us what’s on your radar—and what should be on ours.