Heya! Welcome to the second edition of the Frontend Engineering Explained newsletter of 2025. The world is still looney and so, now more than ever, it is our responsibility to be steadfast and stand up for what we believe to be good.
It is not the time to stay quiet but, adding more fuel to the fire will also not help. We must therefore find ways to protest silently and show who we are through our actions. And as always be kind to each other. βοΈ
My Journey to the International Association of Accessibility Professionals (IAAP) Web Accessibility Specialist (WAS) Certification
I have always been curious about the certification offered by the IAAP, thanks to the foresight of those at Factorial (where I work) I can study for and take the Web Accessibility Specialist certification in April 2025.
As some of you may know, I like to give back to the community at every chance I get π and so, I will share my journey through a series of blog posts and who knows what else. You can read my introductory post on my blog and also my first post where I share some thoughts on certifications in general and provide an overview of what the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines are.
The HTML Dialog Element: A Native Solution for Accessible Modal Interactions
I advocate for using open web standards and only relying on libraries and frameworks when there is a true need. I am well aware that the web platform does not satisfy every need nor should it. But I would encourage you to first look at the web platform before grabbing a library. Especially CSS and JavaScript have been exploding over the last two years and are not slowing down, but HTML is not standing still either.
While you must be decerning when using a modal dialog, there are times when it makes the most sense for a specific UI interaction or user flow. To be honest, sometimes a design also calls for it and you may not be able to convince people to reconsider. Thanks to the dialog element, we can now at least ensure that the modals we do implement are accessible and require almost no JavaScript.
Part Five of Building a Profile Page with HTML and CSS
If you have been following along, you might be excited to learn that I have released part five of the series on building a profile page using HTML and CSS. In part five, we will finish up the page layout, fix some bugs that show up along the way, and learn more about the `rch` unit, favicons, and open graph.
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