Accesstra at SoCraTes 2025

TL;DR: Accesstra was represented at the SoCraTes Unconference 2025 last weekend - big thanks to Georgia! Our newly certified instructor Georgia - a regular guest and enthusiastic fan of SoCraTes - traveled from Schwäbisch Hall to Soltau for us with the Early Access version in her luggage.

What is the SoCraTes Unconference?

But first the basics: “What is SoCraTes?” and “What is an unconference?”
SoCraTes (short for Software Craft and Testing) is an inspiring “class reunion” for software developers, designers and all those interested in quality, collaboration and continuous learning in IT. An unconference (also known as an open space conference) is an event format in which the participants themselves design and lead the program. Unlike traditional conferences, there are no predetermined or announced presentations, workshops or coding sessions with fixed speakers.

A format that suits Georgia perfectly, as she prefers to give spontaneous presentations. She presented in two self-designed Accesstra T-shirts - one with a unique design by an artist friend and one from her sister’s cruicut. Over the course of the weekend, Georgia led three sessions, one each on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

Georgia’s Sessions at SoCraTes

Friday: Freelancing and Anti-Work

Georgia’s first session on Friday was titled “I decided to become a freelancer because I don’t want traditional work (anymore) - let’s get into the exchange!”, which is a terrible translation of the English title “Freelancing and Anti-Work - Let’s discuss!”. The session attracted many experienced freelancers who shared valuable advice, perspectives and support on self-employment. An enriching and lively discussion unfolded, which only came to an end after almost three hours.

At Accesstra, we consider freelancers to be a particularly important target group. On the one hand because of our close cooperation with various freelancers and on the other hand because of the great added value that our tool offers especially for freelancers. An accessibility audit can be created in just a few minutes and shared directly with the stakeholders in the project. This not only saves time, money and nerves, but also significantly reduces the number of queries. In the spirit of “Read the fucking report!”

Saturday: Showcasing Accesstra

Georgia’s second session on Saturday entitled “Accesstra is the best tool for web accessibility! Let me prove it to you OR help me build it!” caught the interest of a group of curious web designers and developers and ended after almost 90 minutes of lively exchange. During this time, Georgia took the opportunity to demonstrate the current early access version of Accesstra, both the web extension and the platform. As is to be expected when IT people show other IT people something in IT, many critical and equally valuable questions and ideas were raised, for which we are very grateful.

Accesstra’s automated closed captioning option in the context of videos was particularly impressive. To illustrate this, Georgia uploaded a presentation of herself quite unselfishly and proved once again: close captioning is a good and important thing!

Sunday: Practical Accessibility Tips

Georgia’s third and final session on Sunday, entitled “Show me your website and I will give you web accessibility pointers!” was well received. Within a few minutes, the in-house SoCraTes website was chased through Accesstra and all barriers found were discussed with a laughing and a crying eye. The mountains of notes full of numerous tips and comments, which were exchanged in the session and eagerly written down by Georgia, will be processed over the next few weeks and incorporated into the further development of Accesstra.

The most requested feature of Accesstra during this session was the automated generation of text for image alt tags in HTML. This is a simple but very good habit for web developers to keep the number of barriers on a website as low as possible during development. Every image also has a textual layer, which is particularly important for screen reader users.

Conclusion: An Inspiring Weekend

After four inspiring days full of exchange, new impressions and healthy rumination, Georgia has nothing else to say but “Next year again!”. She recommends SoCraTes to anyone who is even halfway interested in IT. You will always find a sympathetic ear, a helpful link, a hug (if desired), a sparring partner for a rant about the current project or all of the above. And all this in good weather and with pleasantly strong coffee. And who knows, maybe Accesstra will be a sponsor of SoCraTes next year. Stay tuned!

Written by Georgia König
Accesstra Instructor