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Twitter Roundup - January

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Wow, this first month of 2010 flew by! So much going on in the Twittersphere, as usual. Here's a quick summary of some great articles mentioned in the Twitter accessibility community. Please comment with anything outstanding that I've missed!

Also, on a sad note, we recently mourned the loss of Jack Pickard; a huge loss in the web accessibility community. Jack was a great web accessibility expert and advocate.

• Alt attributes by Ian Pouncey
• Web accessibility myths by Ian Pouncey
• Accessibility and Social Media by Joseph Dolson on practical ecommerce
  
• 10 Things to Check Before Using a CAPTCHA from SitePoint
• The Accessibility Checklist I Vowed I’d Never Write from northtemple
• Facebook Accessibility project wiki
• Blind Bargains: Access Awards
• WebAIM Study: Screenreaders and Javascript Co-Exist from Ajaxian
• Office 2010: Accessibility Investments & Document Accessibility
• Getting Started with VoiceOver from Apple
• Using Skip Navigation Links from Even Grounds
• Assistive and Mainstream Technologies from Even Grounds
• GH Releases the First-Ever DAISY Player for Mac
• Is Web accessibility a human right? from Rebuilding The Web
  

Labels: alt, captcha, news, screenreader, socialmedia, twitter, webaim

1 comments

More on WebAIM's Screenreader Survey

Friday, January 22, 2010

WebAIM's Screen Reader Survey a few months ago (October 2009) sure drew a lot of attention, and for good reason. It is a much needed and well written survey, performed by one of the leading organizations in web accessibility, WebAIM. Here are some articles written in response to the survey. If you know any others, please leave a comment and let us know!

Related Articles

• Screen reader software usage shifts on desktop and mobile (iheni)
• Results from WebAIM's screen October 2009 screen reader user survey (456 Berea St.)
• WebAIM screen reader users follow up survey (Less Fuss Design)
• WebAIM Screen Reader User Survey Results (evolt.org)
• WebAIM Study: Screenreaders and Javascript Co-Exist from Ajaxian
• WebAIM's previous Screen Reader Survey (January 2009)

My Observations

Some of the more outstanding results of the survey I believe are:

• 75% of respondents said they do NOT have JavaScript turned off (most had it on).
• The most problematic items seem to be the same predictable items, unfortunately. The top 10 includes CAPTCHA, Flash, alternative text, forms, and headings.
• 42% surveyed said they didn't know ARIA Landmarks for navigation existed. I highly suspect this number will steadily decrease.
• Although over 66% of users reported JAWS as their primary screen reader, almost half said that free or low-cost screen readers (such as NVDA or VoiceOver) are currently viable alternatives.

Labels: article, screenreader, survey, visual

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Podcast #77: Interview with Terrill Thompson

Sunday, January 10, 2010

Dennis speaks with Terrill Thompson, technology accessibility specialist at DO-IT, a program at the University of Washington.

Download Web Axe Episode 77 (Interview with Terrill Thompson)

[transcript of podcast 77]

In addition to Terrill's background and DO-IT, topics of discussion include:

• Video captioning and the University of Washington YouTube channel.
• Accessible NCAA Tournament Bracket.
• CSUN and other conferences.
  
• making Blogger blogs more accessible (and WordPress).
  
• Terrill's music.
  

Labels: captions, conference, podcast, video

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Web Accessibility Conferences in 2010

Sunday, January 03, 2010

Here are some web accessibility conferences this year, 2010. Details for some of the annual events are not announced yet. Please comment with any changes, additions, and comments.

This post is periodically updated throughout 2010.

ATIA 2010 Orlando
January 28 - 30, 2010
Caribe Royale All-Suites Resort & Convention Center
Orlando, FL

California Web Accessibility Conference (CalWAC) (Knowbility)
February 8 - 10, 2010, Santa Clara, CA

Techshare India 2010
15th - 16th February 2010
India Habitat Centre, New Delhi, India

International Technology & Persons with Disabilities Conference
March 22-27, 2010
San Diego, CA
Manchester Grand Hyatt Hotel

Power Up 2010 Conference and Expo
April 26 and 27, 2010
Holiday Inn Select, Columbia, Missouri
presented by Missouri Assistive Technology

W4A 2010
7th International Cross Disciplinary Conference in Web Accessibility
April 26-27, 2010
Raleigh, North Carolina, U.S.A.
Hosted by North Carolina State University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Techshare Mobile 2010
Presented by Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB)
Birmingham, UK
Tuesday, June 15, 2010

The John Slatin Access U (from Knowbility)
Monday, May 10th and Tuesday, May 11th , 2010
St. Edward's University, Austin, Texas

Penn State Web 2010 Conference
June 7 and 8, 2010
Penn State Conference Center
Keynote by Jeffrey Zeldman

Aiming for Accessibility: Meeting Standards, Making Change
University of Guelph (Ontario, Canada)
June 8 and 9, 2010
Keynote Speaker: Christine Karcza of I can do This

ACCESS-IT Seminar (hosted by AbilityNet)

ICCHP
12th International Conference on Computers Helping People with Special Needs
July 14-16, 2010, Vienna University of Technology, Austria
Pre-Conference July 12-13, 2010

AHEAD: Association on Higher Education And Disability
July 12-17, 2010
Denver, Colorado, U.S.A.

Annual Assistive Technology Conference (from Easter Seals Crossroads)
July 29 & 30
Indianapolis, Indiana, U.S.A.
*Web Axe host Dennis Lembree is speaking!

Illinois Web Accessibility Conference and Expo (Jon Gunderson)
September 29, 2010
Keynote Speaker: Victor Tsaran
Registration is closed; reached capacity

Accessibility Camp DC
October 9, 2010; 9:30 AM - 5:30 PM
MLK Library
Washington, DC, U.S.A.

HighEdWeb (Higher Education Web Professionals)
October 10-13, 2010
Cincinnati, Ohio, U.S.A.

Assets 2010
The 12th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility
October 25-27, 2010
Orlando, Florida

Accessing Higher Ground
Accessible Media, Web and Technology Conference
November 15-19, 2010
Westminster, Colorado, U.S.A.

An Event Apart

• Seattle, April 5-7
  
• Boston, May 24-25
  
• Minneapolis, July 26-27
  
• Washington, D.C., September 16-17

4th European eAccessibility Forum (Paris)

Labels: "assistive technology", conference, event

4 comments