Thiago Piacentini
Frontend engineer & web accessibility advocate — Perth, WA
Bridging technical implementation with inclusive design.
Recent posts
- A systematic approach to keyboard accessibility testing
Keyboard testing only works when it is systematic. Here is the checklist I use on every interface I audit, and why a checklist protects against our own perception.
- A page with broken heading structure gives screen readers no map to follow
When heading levels are skipped, repeated, or placed out of order, the impact goes beyond visual inconsistency. For users who navigate by keyboard shortcuts, a broken heading hierarchy can make a page impossible to use.
- 10 things that affect accessibility before the first line of code
Accessibility is often discussed at the code level. But many of the decisions that define whether a product is accessible or not happen much earlier than that.
- Ignoring accessibility is not a technical debt. It is a business risk.
When accessibility is skipped, the cost rarely stays technical. It shows up in users who leave, in reach that never grows, and in legal exposure that was entirely avoidable.
- Accessibility starts long before the first line of code
Most teams treat accessibility as a final step — something to check before launch or fix after an audit. By then, the decisions that matter most have already been made.
- Behind every WCAG criterion, there is a real person
Accessibility is not just about guidelines — it's about real people. Semantic HTML is what connects your code to them.
- Semantic HTML isn't just about accessibility — it also affects how search engines read your content
Semantic HTML improves accessibility and also defines how search engines understand, index, and rank your content.
- 4 common semantic anti-patterns — and how to fix them
Semantic HTML mistakes happen in every codebase. These 4 common patterns silently break accessibility — here's how to fix them properly.
- Without semantic structure, keyboard navigation for screen readers simply fails.
Screen readers rely on a map built from semantic elements. Without it, keyboard shortcuts find nothing — and users have to navigate every element one by one.
- Alt text: writing meaningful image descriptions
The alt attribute does more than satisfy a validator. When written well, it gives screen reader users the same context a sighted user gets from looking at the image.