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Web Axe 2011 Year in Review
Thursday, December 29, 2011
So another year has gone by, and another bigger and better for web accessibility! One good sign is that I've noticed lots of job openings related to web accessibility, you probably noticed multiple posts on that this year. And more lawsuits going on as well, which I believe is an evil necessity to wake up many companies on the topic.The "Fixing Alt" series continued which provides alternative text for various web pages in the wild. Check out two for The Oatmeal: the Netflix Comic on the company's pricing fiasco, and 6 Reasons Bacon Is Better Than True Love.
We had a couple guest blogs including Jennison's IT Accessibility Goes To Camp. Mid-year, Web Axe joined Facebook, serving as another great avenue to share the good word. And, now you can order your own Web Axe T-shirt!
2011 was also a big year for Easy Chirp, created by Web Axe author Dennis Lembree. The accessible Twitter web app was renamed from "Accessible Twitter" and was a recipient of the AFB 2011 Access Award.
Dennis was busy in November and gave presentations for the @AccessibilityDC meetup, How To Build An Accessible Web Application, and for EASI, Twitter and Accessibility.
Other great blogs this year:
- Intro to Web Accessibility Resources
- Google Plus keyboard accessibility
- Music About Web Accessibility!
Labels: review
My T-Shirt Design
Wednesday, December 14, 2011
I designed a Web Axe t-shirt on a neat new website, ooShirts.com (although I haven't tested the accessibility). ooShirts is an apparel startup company located in Berkeley, California. I hope to give away a couple Web Axe t-shirts sometime soon, maybe at CSUN 2012. And you can always order your own!
Labels: fun
Web Accessibility Jobs, Dec 2011
Monday, December 12, 2011
More great job openings in web accessibility:
- UK: Contract web designer with accessibility & usability skills (Hampshire, UK)
- Web Accessibility Navigation Specialist wanted at Penn State University
- Web Development and Accessibility Specialist at Department of Assistive & Rehab Services (Austin, TX)
- Accessibility Specialist at TEKsystems, contract (Louisville, KY)
- IT Specialist at Department For the Blind & Vision Impaired (Henrico, VA)
- Chief Information Accessibility Officer (St. Paul, MN)
- SSB BART Group seeks Lead PHP Developer with WCAG & Java experience (San Francisco, CA)
- Section 508 Compliance Analysts, contract (Washington, D.C.)
- Section 508 Compliance Tester at Koniag Technology Solutions (Lanham, MD)
For updates on Twitter, follow me, @a11yJobs and @Accessible_Jobs.
Labels: job
Podcast 93: Teaching Mistakes
Wednesday, December 07, 2011
Dennis talks briefly about a couple of his recent presentations, a few other presentations and articles, and has a great conversation with Katherine Lynch.
Download Web Axe Episode 93 (Teaching Mistakes)
Happenings
- Busy new day job for Dennis at PayPal.
- Two recent presentations by Dennis. Shout out to Norm Coombs of EASI (Equal Access to Software and Information) and John Croston (@jfc3) for putting on the Accessibility DC meetup.
Articles
- How Expensive is Accessibility? (by @KarlGroves)
- ARIA and HTML5 Accessibility (by @WebAIM)
- Screen readers and CSS (by @RogerJohansson)
- HTML5 Video Accessibility (by @SilviaPfeiffer)
Discussion with Katherine Lynch.
Katherine Lynch who works for Drexel University Libraries in Philadelphia. Katherine is a Drupal and accessibility professional and has done many presentations and written many articles. Find her on Twitter at @katelynch. Dennis and Katherine discuss her recent article 5 Teaching Mistakes Accessibility Advocates Make:
- We assume that others don't know anything.
- We assume that others know too much.
- We get hung up on one cause of accessibility.
- We try to convert people who don't need converting.
- We blame people for not already knowing.
Related Links
- Contacting Organizations about Inaccessible Websites (W3C WAI)
- Facebook Accessibility contact form
- Fix the Web
- Thesis: Responding to accessibility issues in business
