Ashlee M Boyer

Dog mom to Trooper & Tango | Engineer of software | Lover of learning | Partner of Zach | She/her | HOH šŸ‘‚šŸ» | Owner of all views | #SpooniesWhoCode | Creator of #textua11y

Journey of a Disabled Web Developer

She's written 61 Posts

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My Favorite Resource for Making Accessible Custom Components - February 07, 2020

I'll admit: making web apps accessible can be challenging, especially when you're new to it. It requires thinking from the perspective ofā€¦

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2019 Blog in Review - January 01, 2020

Table of Contents Personal Blog Stats DEV Stats 2020 Plans In April of 2019, I knew I needed to change my life. I was extremely unhappy in aā€¦

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How to Dynamically Create Many Similar CSS Classes with Sass - December 19, 2019

Let's say you allow 5 sizes of icons in your web application and they're in 6-pixel increments: 12, 18, 24, 30, and 36. Your Sass file mightā€¦

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Dear Women & Girls - December 04, 2019

Dear Women & Girls, Take up space. You are smart and deserving. If a man or boy tries to make you feel otherwise, refer to this list ofā€¦

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How to Come out of Burnout - October 27, 2019

To be completely honest: I have no idea what the answer is here. I don't think there's just one correct answer. Burnout is so unique toā€¦

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Udemy Needs to Review Courses and Vet Instructors - September 16, 2019

Trigger Warning: violence against women My Twitter mentions exploded today over tweets I made about misogynistic Udemy course that hasā€¦

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How I Keep Coding When I'm Low on Spoons - September 03, 2019

A few days ago, I came across a tweet thread by my e-friend, @TheCodePixi. She's working on making #SpooniesWhoCode a thing, so make sureā€¦

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Build a React & Firebase Blog Site: Part 3 - September 02, 2019

We've reached the third part of our React & Firebase series. In part one, we learned how to set everything up. Last time, we made a page forā€¦

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Build a React & Firebase Blog Site: Part 2 - August 27, 2019

Welcome back! This is the second in a series of posts that will teach you how to build a blog site using React and Firebase. If you haven'tā€¦

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Build a React & Firebase Blog Site: Part 1 - August 26, 2019

Welcome! This is the first in a series of posts that will teach you how to build a blog site using React and Firebase. This one willā€¦

I'm Starting a Newsletter! - August 25, 2019

Sign up to get an email every time I publish a new blog post. Hope to catch you in the e-box! šŸ˜Š https://ashleemboyer.com/newsletter/

Re-Create an Image with Colorful Text - August 11, 2019

Hey, friends! It's been a while, but I'm back with something fun. Yesterday, I tweeted out about an image I analyzed and then re-createdā€¦

Show Me Your Favorite Thing You've Organized - July 03, 2019

I love organizing things (when I'm not feeling overwhelmed by the number of things I need to do at my house šŸ™ƒ). If you have something youā€¦

My Journey Into Software Engineering - July 02, 2019

I started college in the fall of 2013 as a Chemical Engineering major at a small private engineering school in Indiana. That first quarterā€¦

How did you plan your #100DaysOfCode? - June 28, 2019

I'm joining the #100DaysOfCode challenge next Monday, July 1st! There are a lot of things I want to try out and want to spend a little timeā€¦

Why isn't our world more accessible? - June 25, 2019

Next time you walk around some city streets, take a look around. What's the sidewalk like? If it's made out of bricks, does it look veryā€¦

Working in Circle City, Day 4: Community - June 20, 2019

The AM The CEO took some time to talk about the company's vision this morning, but not before we had a tornado drill! šŸ˜‰ It was anā€¦

Working in Circle City, Day 3: "Do Better Work" - June 19, 2019

The morning I can't help but find myself fascinated by everything here. While I'm doing my 10-minute walk from my car to the office, Iā€¦

Working in Circle City, Day 2: Be Nice to People in Traffic - June 18, 2019

Day 2 was pretty quiet and smooth, but still exciting. I had two on-boarding meetings and will have one or two per day through next weekā€¦

Working in Circle City, Day 1: Many Firsts - June 17, 2019

My new job is downtown Indianapolis. Today was my first day for a whole list of things! šŸš— Parked in a parking garage all day šŸš¶šŸ¼ā€ā™€ļø Walkedā€¦

Get Started with HTML Video Captions - June 14, 2019

Did you know you can add captions to <video> elements with a little HTML and a VTT file? I didn't know until today! It's really easy to doā€¦

Do you use tools to manage your schedule? - June 13, 2019

I'm finding myself busier than ever and would love to hear what tools you use to keep yourself organized. When I was in college, I usedā€¦

How I Get Things Done When I'm Feeling Overwhelmed - June 12, 2019

Fiona Thomas, author of Depression in a Digital Age, has a free ebook called How to Get Stuff Done with Depression. In it, I found adviceā€¦

It's OK to Change Your Mind - June 11, 2019

Last week, I was feeling fired up and ready to go. I wrote a whole post about some exciting things and plans. {% link ashleemboyer/good-newsā€¦

Why and How You Should Use Twitter for Networking - June 07, 2019

Disclaimer: This post isn't for bragging. I've had people ask me whether or not Twitter is worth it. I joined Twitter less than 60 days agoā€¦

Get to Know the People You Pay - June 06, 2019

I made some shouty tweets on Sunday. Here's the first one, and the one I want to focus on for this conversation. {% twitterā€¦

I Tried the Top 5 Coding Challenge Websites - June 05, 2019

Thank you to everyone who replied to the following tweet! It's an excellent list of sites people like to use. {% twitter 113392706203986739ā€¦

Good news, textua11y updates, and my plan for future writings - June 02, 2019

šŸŽ‰ I got a new job In two weeks, I start a new position as a front end software engineer. I've been looking for a couple of months for aā€¦

I am a web developer, hard of hearing, and an a11y advocate, Ask Me Anything! - June 01, 2019

Really, anything. I don't claim to be the spokesperson for all disabled people that need web accessibility, but I'm here to give you my ownā€¦

How to Handle touchstart Events with Stacked Elements - May 31, 2019

I came across some issues on touch screens where I have a navigation menu expanded and the common "shadow" showing on the non-menu portionā€¦

I Know You're Tired - May 30, 2019

Life is really hard sometimes. We're all going through something. You're not alone. What you're doing is hard work. It's taking up a lot ofā€¦

After 30 Days of Writing on DEV.to - May 29, 2019

This past month of publishing one post per day far exceeded my expectations. I was inspired to do this challenge by the co-hosts of theā€¦

Introducing textua11y: A Color Contrast Tool - May 28, 2019

Yesterday, I made a post about ideas and going after them. Every idea is a learning experience. There are no dumb ideas. {% linkā€¦

Just Make That App - May 27, 2019

As someone who's new to the web dev game, I find it hard to accept all my ideas as good ones. Yes, you read that right, all ideas are goodā€¦

Minimalism and Habits - May 26, 2019

Charles Duhigg's The Power of Habit is an awesome book that gets into the science of decision-making and forming habits. My favoriteā€¦

Yes, You Should Have Hobbies Outside of Code - May 25, 2019

I came across an excellent tweet last night by Twitter user Amycruz: This is such a great point. I see many devs talking about how hard itā€¦

Explain Containers Like Iā€™m Five? - May 24, 2019

I thought I understood containers for a second, but the more people tweet about them on Twitter, the more confused I feel. So, could youā€¦

A Haiku About Pausing - May 23, 2019

Still feeling under the weather, but I mustered up the brain energy to write this little haiku: ā€œIā€™m not really sure If it is against theā€¦

Sometimes You Have no Choice but to Pause - May 22, 2019

Iā€™ve said this before, and Iā€™ll say it forever: your health is more important than anything else. Take care of your body. Feed it goodā€¦

How to Start Teaching? - May 21, 2019

I'm taking an hours-long final later, so today's post is going to be super simple. What are your do's & don't's for getting started inā€¦

My dog Trooper gazing out a screen door where nothing is going on.

What You Can Learn from Your Dog about Mindfulness - May 20, 2019

Since I've lived in apartments for the entire 3 years I've had my dog, Trooper, Zach and I have always had to walk him with a leash. Ourā€¦

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How to Study for a Test by Making a Website - May 19, 2019

With my crazy schedule of driving 1.5 hours one-way for a class four days a week, I haven't had as much time to write code outside of workā€¦

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Aim to Never Stop Learning - May 18, 2019

You will never know everything. There's too much information out there and not enough time to learn it all. What this means is, sometimes weā€¦

Graffiti on a concrete wall that reads "Question every thing/body/day".

Don't be Afraid to Ask Questions - May 17, 2019

There's no such thing as a stupid question. There may be stupid timing for it, such as a student asking when an exam is 5 minutes after theā€¦

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Throw All of your Email Subscriptions in the Garbage - May 16, 2019

I do. not. care. about inbox zero. :) Too often, it becomes less about efficiently managing your inbox and more about rushing to have noā€¦

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Don't be Afraid to Admit Your Weaknesses - May 15, 2019

Do you know what it means when you can admit your weaknesses? It means you've probably recognized the following: You are less afraid to beā€¦

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Just do The Thing - May 14, 2019

I don't know where Joshua Fields Millburn was inspired by his advice, but Steven Pressfield, Nike, and he all have roughly the same thing toā€¦

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GPA Isn't Everything - May 13, 2019

I'm finishing up my degree at one of the top undergraduate engineering schools in the country. Applicants are typically at the very top ofā€¦

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Build a Multi-Page Gatsby Site from JSON - May 12, 2019

I decided to take this approach when I made https://blackbirthdays.com. Originally, for the month of February, it showed a different personā€¦

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How to Accept Rejection in Your Professional Life - May 11, 2019

Rejection sucks, and for some reason, rejection from acquaintances and strangers especially sucks. Maybe you submitted a proposal to give aā€¦

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Let People Have Emotions - May 10, 2019

Work (hopefully) doesn't consume our entire lives. Every single one of us comes from a different background and we're also all in veryā€¦

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What it Means to Learn Out Loud - May 09, 2019

I first heard the phrase "learn out loud" from the Office Hours podcast. In this article, podcast co-host T.K. Coleman gives us threeā€¦

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The Top Five Books on my TBR - May 08, 2019

I hate reading more than one book at a time, but here I am, reading three. I think? I can't even be sure. This is why I should practice selfā€¦

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The Perfect First Project for Exploring Any JS Framework - May 07, 2019

The worst part of finishing a tutorial is not knowing what to do next. You could go look up some app ideas online, but aren't you tired ofā€¦

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Things You Shouldn't Say to a Disabled Person About Why Your App Isn't Accessible - May 06, 2019

Not that I feel the need to explain myself, but I want to share that I'm hard-of-hearing. It's genetic and just about everyone on my familyā€¦

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I Wrote Zero Lines of Code Today - May 05, 2019

Sometimes, you need a day. When you have a job in tech, the amount of available knowledge to us can both incredible and staggering. We fearā€¦

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Don't Forget to Take Breaks - May 04, 2019

Do you want to know what I most often forget to do when I'm working really hard? I forget to eat. That's a funny thought at first. Like, howā€¦

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Why I'm Converting my Blog and Portfolio to Gatsby - May 03, 2019

Why, yes, I would love to be done with the set up of my sites so I could focus more on the side projects I want to post on my portfolioā€¦

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Neither You nor Your Work Has to be Perfect - May 02, 2019

Let's face it: nothing you make will ever be absolutely perfect. Some people may not like the final product. Maybe you could remove aā€¦

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It's OK to Be Scared - May 01, 2019

Originally written in late February 2019 The unknown is absolutely terrifying, probably because we can't control what we don't know. Butā€¦

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How to Identify Your Knowledge Gaps in Under an Hour - April 30, 2019

The vast knowledge of the tech world can be so overwhelming. People throw out buzzwords all the time on Twitter: Kubernetes, Rails, Reactā€¦