CSS animations, human rights, and big accessibility at the AB Web Meetup

Early July the W3C Advisory Board (AB) met for a face to face in Rotterdam, The Netherlands, hosted by Logius. We used the occasion to organise a get-together with the local developer community. The “Web Meetup” featured three talks looking at web standards in different ways (along with ample time to mingle). We heard about the latest in animations on the web, the process by which web standards are developed and reviewed, and looked at some of the history and application of accessibility guidelines.

About 50 of us got together at Level Level, a Rotterdam-based digital agency that was kind enough to host the meetup. We welcomed web developers, standards folks, accessibility specialists, and designers, who firmly shared one thing: a keen interest in making the web a better place.

For the occasion, the team at Level Level had connected their local calendar to a browser on a vintage iMac

A more creative web

Cyd Stumpel, freelance creative developer and teacher at the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences, started off, showing us how scroll driven animations work in practice. She explained what they are and how you can implement them today, while not all browsers support all of the features yet. Holding her microphone in one hand, typing on her laptop's keyboard with the other, she bravely live-coded various demos, directly in a browser (obviously). Pressed by an attendee, Cyd also shared a bit about the website she created for the fish doorbell project. It was great to see the evolution of the web in practice in this talk, and hear from someone so deeply immersed into actually applying the standards to the web, both as a teacher and developer herself.

Cyd talking about why CSS is awesome (Photo: Tessel Sander)

A more ethical web