It all started with levels of CSS knowledge. Roger followed that up with levels of HTML knowledge (remember kids; that’s the most fundamental and important technology on the Web). Anne added his own take.
Dean came along with a tongue-in-cheek list of levels of JavaScript knowledge. I’m at about level 4.5 (I still attach events the old-school way but document.all? yuck!).
Then Joe contributed levels of accessibility knowledge. I started snickering by level two:
Has seen blind people on American TV shows, and knows the first thing they will ask you is “Can I feel your face?”
By level six, I was laughing out loud:
Coauthored Friends of Ed book; business partners have coauthored O’Reilly books and/or have colour deficiency… Has cooed at Zeldman’s baby… Speaks at Web-standards conferences. Hosts visiting fellow developers in spare bedroom.
Level seven was soya-milk-out-of-the-nose funny:
Author of minor star in gauzy firmament of accessibility books. Interested in subtopics so obscure even the actual disabled subgroups affected don’t really care. Overarching competence acknowledged, if begrudgingly, yet often viewed as subordinate to grating personality “quirks.” Difficult to feed, let alone have fun with, when staying over in spare bedroom. Viewed as derailing WAI process. Typically the only X in the village irrespective of village or value of X.
Ah, Joe! Come back to Brighton. We no longer have a spare bedroom but we do have a spanking new sofa-bed.
The bedroll may now resume. In fact, the idea has even spread to Denmark.