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During the last week of September, I attended my sixth edUi conference, edUi 2017 in Charlottesville, Virginia. Maybe it was the city, resonant with strength and togetherness after the recent tragedy. Or maybe it was the weather, close and still before the changing season. Maybe it was the program, scheduled with local encouragements on the historic downtown mall. In any case, for me, the pulse of this year’s conference felt different – less tool and technique, more context and consequence, more system and synthesis of the people (on the web), by the people (on the web), for the people (on the web). There were many great sessions, including exemplary keynotes by Cory Doctorow and Sara Wachter-Boettcher. In the end, the big themes were a pair of related topics: accessibility and designing for real life. In the dialogue between these ideas, you could hear the depositions and corroborations, the pursuits, warnings, and appeals, for more humanity in technology – to conduct our work on the web with fewer assumptions, with greater compassion, with more transparency and openness, with universal interfaces and experiences for all.