I wrote that this website was made by me with peace in mind. But what does that actually mean? I offer this page by way of explanation.
On the Quiet and Meditative Web
The internet is noisy. In a time of information glut, I aim to create work that decreases that noise, or at least makes it easier to navigate. For me, that usually means using less, not more design features.
This website was handcrafted without AI tools, with each screenshot manually created and designed for each post, folder, and header.
One day I’ll write here about why I want my internet presence to feel more quiet and meditative, but for now, I hope this description suffices.
Accessibility Commitment
If there anything I’ve learned from being a part of The Turing Way community, it’s that access is an ongoing practice. Through collaborative work with the Accessibility Working Group, we crafted a policy that defined accessibility as a social problem, not a medical one, and one that a community is responsible to steward, especially if it proports to welcome everyone.
For more about the social model of disability, please read this 1975 essay by Vic Finkelstein.
This website, while imperfect, aims to remain accessibility in a number of different ways. I know that accessibility is much more than a technical set of practices, but I
In the development of this site, I am commited to the following:
- Color palettes that meet the WCAG 2.1 AA standards
- Alternative text for all information and decorative images
- Readable font faces (this website uses Helvetica and Arial)
- Simple navigation methods for screenreaders, mouse-users, and otherwise
Currently, I am working towards adding alternative text to all images on blogs and projects.
Please, if there’s anything that doesn’t meet your accessibility standard or you have any feedback to share about the accessility of my website or resources I’ve created, please contact me at aleesteele@gmail.com.
Open Principles
When I first joined the open movement, I approached it through the lens of Aaron Swartz (1986-2013) “Guerilla Open Access Manifesto”, and what I saw to be the parallel but aligned movements of WikiLeaks and Wikipedia. Information was still power, despite the ubiquity of information glut.
A little under 20 years since it was first published, the world has changed dramatically. As an anthropologist, I was torn between what the ethnographers of openness and transparency would call a regime of neoliberalism, begging us… and what I perceived to be real and liberatory practices in communities working in open data, open science, open knowledge and otherwise.
In the years since OpenAI and others have launched, and along with that web-scraping for training AI systems at scale, the balance of power has shifted. Openess has become a vehicle for mass exploitation, despite our best intentions.
For now, I’m still practicing open principles, though I’m aware of its nuances in the present day. We’ll see if that changes (and yes, we’re allowed to change our mind)!
License
Everything on this website is licensed CC BY 4.0, but I’ve love for you to be in touch if there’s anything you found here that is meaningful or useful for you.
This page was last updated on 24 April 2026.