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Posts by Josh Salazar

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Gatsby with a yellow arrow over to Astro
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  • Josh Salazar
Rebuilding a Library Website with Astro
The U-M Library rebuilt its website using Astro, replacing Gatsby, React, and GraphQL with a simpler, more maintainable architecture. Without changing the user-facing design or functionality, the migration reduced homepage JavaScript by 99% and image payloads by 75%, while improving performance and eliminating post-load layout shifts.
Two screenshots of the Plain Language Medical Dictionary before the updates showcasing the features of searching the dictionary by a single word or by paragraphs of text.
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  • Josh Salazar
Bringing Images and an Accessibility Focus to the Plain Language Medical Dictionary
In 2024, updates to the Plain Language Medical Dictionary (PLMD) included big improvements for accessibility and user experience, plus adding support for images. We fixed contrast issues, unclear icons, and missing labels to meet WCAG 2.1. Search also got smoother, and instructions are now clearer. In addition, we added image support with JSON updates for URLs and alt text. With our legacy hosting environment shutting down, we moved the PLMD moved to GitHub Pages as part of the project. This provides better stability and automatic updates via GitHub Actions.