Lightning talks

Open source accessibility tool roundup

Blake Bertuccelli-Booth — Equalify.app

Next-generation tools, built using technologies like Rust and gRPC, are leading the way in providing more efficient accessibility testing, making it easier and faster to ensure that your products are accessible to everyone.

In this lightning talk, I'll give you a quick overview of how these open source tools are changing the game for accessibility testing. I'll also cover key ways you can get started using them, including how to integrate them into your development workflow and best practices for accessibility testing.

Webforms that convert: Unlocking conversions on mobile

Lydia Fine — University of Iowa, Tippie College of Business

After seeing website conversions (i.e., filling out forms) tank on mobile devices, my team (the University of Iowa Tippie College of Business marketing team) decided to rethink lead generation forms on our Drupal-powered website. Our new tactic — a multi-page form with a draw-you-in first question — resulted in a YUGE increase in leads captured, without cannibalizing from the existing forms. I'll share how we did it, the trick to making this type of form work best and the results we earned.

Where's the map? A journey into management

Katelyn Mills-Erickson — University of Iowa

In recent years, turnover and retirements have led to an influx of new management throughout higher education. Young millennials are finding themselves stepping into leadership positions, perhaps for the first time. In admissions, where entry-level roles churn quickly, new managers may find themselves immediately jumping in to train new employees in addition to learning their own role.

In this session, I will share the dos and don'ts I have gleaned over the past two years as a fresh-faced manager. I'll share what I learned about supervising as well as being a supervisor, and how you can find your path to success. Come with me as I share my adventure, the wrong turns I took along the way and how I came to embrace my new responsibilities.

The benefits of deleting code: How to refactor and optimize your codebase with confidence

Mike Miles — MIT Sloan

Deleting code can be an intimidating and permanent action for many development teams. As a result, teams often rely on other strategies, such as commenting out code or leaving obsolete code in place, which can lead to a cluttered and confusing codebase. This approach can make it difficult to navigate the codebase, resolve bugs and improve the application. In this conference talk, we will explore the benefits of deleting code from a codebase and how it can improve the overall quality of the application. Attendees will learn how to identify obsolete code and properly remove it, as well as document the changes for future reference. We will also discuss how to restore deleted code quickly and effectively, should the need arise. By empowering development teams to delete code confidently, attendees will be able to improve the overall efficiency of their codebase, leading to faster bug resolution and a better developer experience.

If I knew then what I know now: Confessions of a recovering web professional

Steven Lewis — Blessed Trinity & St. Patrick

What hath Athens to do with Jerusalem? Oh, sorry, what hath web professionals in common with clergy? Quite a lot, it turns out. Time in seminary prepares one quite a bit for a career in the realm of higher education. You don't have time to go spend seven years in grad school to prepare for a career with a 50% cut in pay, so this Lifetime Honorary Member of HighEdWeb comes to you, so you don't have to. Lewis reflects on the lessons of seminary he could have used as a web professional.