Web Access Centre Blog

If you haven’t already booked to attend the first Accessibility 2.0 Conference, now would be a good time to do so. The conference, organised by AbilityNet will be held this Friday, 25th April, at City University, London.

The conference will focus on web accessibility in the Web 2.0 world. So if you’re involved in the development of social networking portals, sites using Ajax or rich in user generated content, it really should be in your diary.

AbilityNet have brought together an impressive line-up of experts on a wide range of issues that keep raising their heads whenever the words Accessibility and Web 2.0 crop up in the same sentence. The conference promises practical solutions to the Web 2.0 accessibility problems, showing cutting edge techniques and offering realistic solutions.

The Accessibility 2.0 web site, has full information on the schedule and how to book online. See you there!

Today I attended a presentation at CSUN on Creating Blogs, Podcasts and Use of Social Media Tools with Screen Readers presented by Mika Pyyhkala from the Association of Blind Citizens.

The focus of the session was to walk blind and partially sighted users through how to blog using Wordpress, use Twitter, Facebook and what poscasting tools there were out there. It was a really well thought out presentation which was written up in a Wordpress blog together with tools, resources and links. This was made all the better as everyone was sat at a laptop or PC all of which had a screen reader running.

Twitter was the area Mika seemed most excited about and talked the most in depth about. In fact his enthusiasm was such that when he asked how many people in the room used Twitter only two said yes. By the end of the session people were signing up and following his feed.

Most social networking sites have a way to go to make them truly accessible to all users with disabilities but it is great to see people taking advantage of these tools as far as they canm and Mika’s resources are a great place to start if you want to get into it. I’m a true believer in signing up to Facebook, Twitter and blogging in order to spread the word about web accessibility as well as keep up to date with what is going on.

Join us on Facebook and Twitter and follow news soundbites as well as updates on what we are up to.

At the start of February I presented at Techshare in Delhi, India’s first ever conference for technology for people with disabilities. It was an eye opening event with people gathered from both government, industry and non-profit from all over India and the world.

It was fascinating to learn about what is happening in India with regards to web accessibility and talk to different people, learn what the drivers are and what needs to be done to promote accessibility. As an invited guest blogger on the UN Global Initiative for Inclusive ICT (G3ICT) I pulled these thoughts into an article. This, I hope, will be the first of a series of articles looking at web accessibility in various locales. Next will be China as I’ll be speaking about the cross over between web and mobile accessibility at the WWW 2008 Conference and gathering information there in April.

Read Putting accessibility to information centre stage in India

it seems to be a day of conference announcements today. Accessibility 2.0: a million flowers bloom
25th of April 2008 will be held by AbilityNet 25th April.

The event will look at practical solutions to the Web 2.0 accessibility problems, showing cutting edge techniques. Jeremy Keith, author of Bulletproof AJAX and technical lead at Clearleft, will be the keynote speaker talking us through through Open Data. Other speakers include Christian Heilmann from Yahoo talking about the implementation of accessibility and Steve Faulkner, author of the AIS toolbar, talking about screen readers and AJAX.

We’ll also be speaking together with many more so hope to see you there.

I spotted Using Virtual Worlds and Emerging Technologies for People with Disabilities on Upcoming this Friday, 29th of February. The free event will be held online with live discussion in Second Life at 9am PST (slurl) as well as a follow-up discussion for the rest of the day, 10AM PST- 6PM PST, in TechSoup’s Accessible Technology & Public Computing forum.

Simon Stevens (aka Simon Walsh in Second Life) will be speaking about his work in Second Life. Simon, who has cerebral palsy manages the Wheelies nightclub for people with disabilities in Second Life and the Second Ability Second Life simulator.

Topics that will be covered during the rest of the day in the TechSoup forum include:

• Innovative ways that emerging technologies are making technology more accessible for people with disabilities
• Ways people with disabilities use technologies to expand their communities?
• How can we work to make accessibility a design priority in the virtual world as well as the real world?
• What are some free resources to help people with disabilities find accessible technology tools?
• How can nonprofit organizations help make technology more accessible for people with disabilities?

Hope to see some of you there.

At the end of the week I’ll be on the road speaking and attending a number of conferences taking me through to March.

First up is the first ever Techshare India in New Delhi. Techshare is all about technology and accessibility (web, mobile, software, audio, Daisy…) and I’m really looking forward to learning more about what is going on in India specifically and Asia in general. I’ll be giving a workshop on “Transitioning from WCAG 1.0 to 2.0″ as well as presenting with Brian Hardy from Vision Australia on “Government Web Accessibility Policies”.

After a little bit of time chilling in Goa (yay) and a quick pit stop in the office, I’ll be heading off to SXSW Interactive in Austin Texas. This will be my first year there and I’m looking forward to hearing the great and the good talking about all things web. Most of all I’m looking forward to hearing from Tim Guest, author of Second Lives. I’ll be co-chairing a Core Conversation on “Global Design: Web Sites for the World” with Glenda Sims who is lead of the Web Standard Project International Liaison Working Group which I also contribute to.

Straight after that I’m off to CSUN in LA which is the largest conference about technology for people with disabilities. This is always quite the event and a great opportunity to catch up with the latest technologies as well as familiar faces. I’ll be taking some time out after that to drive up the coast and spend some time skiing before heading up to San Francisco.

So if you are going to be out and about drop me a line, I’m sure there’ll be plenty of meet ups in the evenings to make the most of!

We’ve been talking to our friends in India and as a result Techshare is going East! Breaking the Barriers is the first ever accessibility conference-cum-exhibition bringing the entire ecosystem; the government, the
corporates, the NGOs, the disabled, the product companies, and the education providers under one roof.

Techshare India 2008 will be held on 4th and 5th February, 2008 at New Delhi, India. Continue Reading »

At Techshare 2007 I had the honour of being allowed to speak on one of my hot topics within the field of web accessibility. The presentation, on how to avoid some of the hidden barriers that make web sites difficult for disabled people who don’t have the benefit of screen readers was well received, (phew), and I promised to make it available as a download..

So for those of you who have been expecting it, and anyone else who’s curious, download
Avoid the hidden barriers to accessibility (zip file) 495KB.

Please note: Use Internet Explorer to view the presentation. It refers to issues that don’t affect other browsers. Thanks to Sheena for pointing out that I hadn’t given enough emphasis to this point.

Lastly, many thanks to all of you who attended Techshare 2007, perhaps had no homes to go to, and stayed for my presentation, which was in the last time slot of the last day of the conference.

In June 5th of this year Shawn Henry from the World Wide Web (W3C) Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) presented on “What’s new, WCAG 2.0, and current issues” hosted by RNIB in London. Shawn gave a great overview of what is happening with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2 (WCAG 2.0) as well as spent some time answering some really interesting questions from the audience.

It’s taken a bit of time to get the transcript finalised (see an earlier post on the trials and tribulations of podcast transcription) but we’re there now. A huge thank you to Stuart Colville of Muffin Research who helped organise the even and the University of Westminster where it was held.

What follows is a transcript of the talk.

Continue Reading »

The range of presentations at this year’s Techshare conference offers a wealth of choices for people interested in web accessibility, including a 40 minute spot from me. It’s quite late in the day on Friday, so I’m plugging it here, in case you don’t want to miss it.

It’s about the hidden barriers that can be built into sites when the perceived needs of one user group override the real needs of others.

Hope you can make it to room G at 15:00 On Friday 5th to hear the presentation: Avoid the hidden barriers to accessibility – produce truly inclusive websites