I think the time has come to concede that in all probability, my friend and colleague James Edwards AKA brothercake (@siblingpastry here), has left us.
James was diagnosed with lung cancer late last year and was given just months to live. When his condition didn't respond to chemotherapy and other treatments, by early February that prognosis was shortened to days.
Both I and Ian Lloyd were in contact with him up to that time, until suddenly contact ceased. Neither of us have been able to definitively determine his fate despite repeated and increasingly desperate attempts, and after two months we have to concede that he must have died.
James had arranged for a carer to let us know when he passed but that didn't happen and we don't know why.
I want to emphasise that James was entirely sanguine about his demise and, while weak, was cheerful and robust to the end.
I also want to acknowledge that James made a massive contribution to the digital accessibility industry in all the time that I knew him.
I was fortunate to work with him in four contexts: at SitePoint, where I published his articles and he wrote books; at AccessibilityOz, where among other things he created the first accessible media player; at Tenon.io by Level Access, where we audited client websites; and finally at TPGi, a Vispero Company, where we were two-thirds of the Knowledge Center writing guidance for accessibility engineers and clients.
He was truly gifted technically, devoted his considerable skills to accessibility, and if you don't know his work in in crafting accessible design patterns, you should look it up.
Lastly, I want to say that James was a close friend of mine for over 12 years - even though we never met face to face. I will miss him terribly, and I'll do my best to live up to his legacy.
RIP brothercake.