Podcast #91: Game Plan, CSS, Lawsuits & Events

Dennis and Ross discuss the "Accessibility Game Plan", a couple good CSS tips, upcoming events, and a few lawsuits, and more!

Download Web Axe Episode 91 (Game Plan, CSS, Lawsuits & Events)

Transcript coming soon.

What's New

• Ross' book update
• Accessible Twitter is now Easy Chirp!

The Game Plan

• Barriers to Improving the Accessibility Game Plan
• Accessibility: Let's put away the wrecking ball!
• Takeaways:
• It about semantics (pun): universal design, inclusive design
• Educate others in a web camp, Refresh chapter, UPA.
• Share your and others' solutions.
• Practice what you preach.
• Advocate accessibility groups, websites, etc.

Careful with CSS

• Testing the accessibility of the CSS-generated content (with before/after pseudo selectors)
• CSS Background Images and Accessibility

Lawsuits

• Berkeley-based nonprofit sues CNN.com for not captioning online videos and CNN Being Sued For Lack Of Closed-Captioning Online
• National Association of the Deaf Files Disability Civil Rights Lawsuit Against Netflix and Netflix sued by deaf group over lack of subtitles
• Court to Hear Argument in JetBlue Accessibility Case. "JetBlue has asked Judge to throw the case out of court, arguing that California's disability civil rights laws do not apply to JetBlue's website or kiosks."
• Just announced: Blind Students Sue Florida State University for Discrimination

Conferences & Events

• AccessU keynote by Dennis
• Accessibility at Google IO 2011
• Events July thru Dec 2011 & IT Accessibility Goes To Camp

Jobs

• Scotiabank seeks a Project Leader Accessibility and Inclusion (contract), Toronto, Canada
• Mozilla seeks an Accessibility Engineer
• New Editions Consulting (for DHS?) seeks a Senior Accessibility Analyst in Washington, DC. Ability to successfully complete a secret clearance is required.
• Just announced: Web Accessibility Engineer at MIT

Events July thru Dec 2011

Here are some great web accessibility-related events for the remainder of the year. Know any others?

HCI International 2011: Universal Access in Human-Computer Interaction
July 12-14
Orlando, Florida (Hilton Orlando Bonnet Creek)

ARIA & jQuery UI Accessibility Hackathon
July 11-12
Toronto, Canada (Inclusive Design Research Centre, OCAD University)

Open Web Camp III
Saturday, July 16, 8:30AM to 5PM PST
Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA
Twitter: @openwebcamp #owc3

Accessibility Camp Montreal
August 26, 2011
Montreal, Canada
Twitter: @A11yMTL

Boston Accessibility Unconference
Saturday, September 17, 10am to 5pm EST
Twitter: @a11ybos

Accessibility Camp Toronto
Saturday, September 24
Toronto, Canada (downtown, specific location to be announced)
Twitter: @A11yCampTO Email: a11ycampto at gmail dot com

Web Accessibility London Unconference
Wednesday, 21 September 2011, 10am to 4pm
London, UK (City University London)

Accessibility Summit (online event)
Tuesday, September 27, 9-5 Central Time

Accessibility Camp DC
Saturday, October 22
MLK Library in Washington, DC
Twitter: @AccessCampDC

Assistive Technology Industry Association (ATIA) Chicago Conference
November 3-5
Schaumburg, IL

14th Annual Accessing Higher Ground
Accessible Media, Web and Technology Conference
November 14-18
Westin Hotel in Westminster, Colorado

Ottawa Accessibility Unconference
Friday, December 2
Ottawa, Canada

IT Accessibility Goes To Camp

A guest blog by Jennison Asuncion.

June 1 marked the date of the second Accessibility Camp Guelph. Led again by Sean Yo, it took place in an appropriate spot for a barcamp-type event, The Bullring Pub at Guelph University (Ontario, Canada). As with the five other accessibility camps I have been involved in over the last two years, Accessibility Camp Guelph offered participants a no-cost opportunity to build and drive an agenda and conversations focused on IT accessibility/inclusion.

I have been asked why I so enthusiastically "instigate" and champion the accessibility barcamp/unconference movement. As I said during Accessibility Camp Seattle last month, I have a keen interest in making the topic of IT accessibility, accessible, to the people who have a hand in making it happen: from the devs, to the usability and UI design folks, and everyone in between. As I experienced attending the first accessibility camp in Washington D.C. in 2009, the barcamp/unconference format lends itself perfectly to this purpose. By its very nature, it calls for a free, less formal, open atmosphere where folks with varying levels of experience with and perspectives on accessibility, including end-users with disabilities, come together to chart the day, discuss and learn. If the numbers of attendees and feedback surveys are any indication, these dedicated accessibility camps are being well-received. What's more, they are building community (the tribe), and have inspired monthly Accessibility DC and Accessibility Baltimore meetings.

Plans are underway in 2011 so far for events in Montreal, Toronto, Ottawa, Boston, Washington D.C., and London UK. Want to learn more? Why not consider putting on an accessibility camp in your city. An accessibility camp website maintained by John F. Croston III is a good place to start.

You can also follow @A11yEvents on Twitter for the latest on these and other accessibility gatherings and traiditional conferences.

Accessibility at Google IO 2011

So I attended the first day of Google I/O 2011, my first time at a Google event. I was glad to hear a fair amount of talk about accessibility. There were at least 3 sessions focusing on the topic (see below) and a breakout area where you can talk with developers.

There was even an accessibility "Developer Sandbox" area which was great. I tried out the ChromeVox screen reader on a Chromebook with help from Google's Rachel Shearer. I got a quick demo of the built-in TalkBack screen reader on an Android mobile device. Mika Pyyhkala and I were shown the LevelStar braille device running Android. The University of Washington showed off their mobile ASL Android project which used video chat technology.

Some tips for Android development from the sessions are:

• In Android code, ensure images, especially ImageButtons, are labeled with contentDescription.
• Use standard controls.
• Stick with standard or modified views; custom very complex to make accessible.
• Ensure all controls reachable with D-pad and Trackball.
• Test with screen reader using D-Pad. To turn on, enable accessibility under Settings/Accessibility, then enable Talkback.
• Take advantage of device's "many eyes and ears" for alternative input/output (microphone, speaker, touch screen, camera, GPS)

The sessions specific to accessibility were:

• Accessibility: Building Products that Everyone Can Use by Brad Green, Erin Rosenthal (on YouTube)
• Leveraging Android Accessibility APIs To Create An Accessible Experience by Charles Chen, T.V. Raman, Tim Credo (on YouTube)
• Creating Accessible Interactive Web Apps using HTML5 by Dominic Mazzoni, Rachel Shearer (on YouTube)
• Added via comment below: The YouTube Caption API, Speech Recognition, and WebVTT captions for HTML5 by Naomi Black, Cynthia Boedihardjo, Jeffrey Posnick (on YouTube)

More resources:

• My Flickr album from Google I/O 2011
• Google Accessibility Resources for developers and publishers: APIs, captioning, and standards
• Android Developers - Designing for Accessibility
• The official Google I/O 2011 announcements

Tim Credo, Charles Chen, and T.V. Raman on stage at Google I/O.

Podcast #90: Articles, Events, Jobs, Twitter

Dennis and Ross discuss a variety of topics including recent articles, conferences and events, some accessibility-related job openings and resources, and updates on Accessible Twitter.

Download Web Axe Episode 90 (Articles, Events, Twitter)

Transcript of podcast 90

What's New

• About Ross' book deal!
• TweetList now free with ad support (accessible Twitter iPhone app).
• Fixing Alt
• 6 Reasons Bacon Is Better Than True Love
• How one decides to build a web browser

Articles

• How blind people see the Internet (MSNBC)
• Font Resizing Widgets: A Help or A Hindrance to Accessibility? (Glenda Watson Hyatt)
• Accessible Tabs – Part 2: The Solution (Nomensa)
• Keyboard Accessibility For Web Applications (Jonathon Snook) Todd Kloots, Yahoo Mail
• 21 PDF Techniques for WCAG 2.0 (W3C)
• Web Accessibility: 10 Common Developer Mistakes by Joe Dolson

Conferences & Events

• CSUN Wrapup: Tweetup, student contest, Web Axe Post-CSUN Resources.
• John Slatin AccessU Accessibility Conference from Knowbility, May 17-19, Austin, Texas.
• Free presentation on Evolving Standards in Accessibility, Wed, May 25, London, UK. A half-day event covering the new British Standard for web accessibility, BSI8878, and the international accessibility standards from W3C, together with practical examples.
• jQuery ARIA Hackathon, July 11-12, Toronto.
• Future Midwest - April 28th - 29th (UX focus).
• Next year no overlap between CSUN and SXSW.

Jobs

• Deque Systems seeks 508 Tester on-site in Washington, DC (on WebAIM)
• WCAG2 Content & Compliance Officers (Australia)
• Dartmouth college seeks an Experience Designer - Accessibility in Boston (on LinkedIn)
• AbilityNet seeks Head of Accessibility and Accessibility/Usability Consultants (London, UK)
• More:
• New! AT Work job board for accessibility and assistive tech specialties.
• On Twitter, follow @Accessible_jobs and @a11yjobs.

Accessible Twitter Updates

• Accessible Twitter over 2 years old!
• Accessible Twitter receives AFB 2011 Access Award.. Other recipients are CBS, Lexmark and Walt Disney Parks & Resorts.
• Speech from AFB Awards

Post-CSUN Resources

My last podcast previewed CSUN (The 26th Annual International Technology & Persons with Disabilities Conference), which happened last week. It was a great success. Fortunately a few folks have written great summaries of the event, listed below. Also, I've posted some CSUN11 photos on Flickr.

Here are two excellent resources for session presentations and more:

• The Great Big List from the 2011 CSUN Conference by Curb Cut.
• CSUN 2011 Web highlights by Leonie Watson.

Some notable blog posts:

• My March Madness - John Foliot.
• CSUN 2011, jour 1 : compte-rendu des conférences (English translation) - Denis Boudreau.
• Notes on #csun11 - Joshue O Connor
• Lightening Talk on Accessible Twitter updates at CSUN Tweetup - Dennis Lembree.

Suggested presentations relating to web accessibility are:

• Accessibility of HTML5 and Rich Internet Applications (WebAIM and The Paciello Group): ARIA Morning Session | ARIA Afternoon Session
• Accessible HTML5 media players, captions, audio description and search (PDF) - Terrill Thompson.
• Making rich internet applications accessible through jQuery (PDF) - Chris Blouch (AOL) and Hans Hillen (TPG)
• Using the barcamp/unconference format - Jennison Asuncion, James Timony and John F Croston.
• Improving Web Accessibility for the Elderly - Roger Hudson.
• DISTCHA: an attempt to kill CAPTCHA - Vincent François & Samuel Sirois.

Any more to add? Please comment!

Additions

• Successfully Integrating Accessibility in your Organization's Web Development Lifecycle - Denis Boudreau.
• Role of engineering best practices to create an inclusive web - Srinivasu Chakravarthula.
• CSUN: A recap from the week in San Diego - Technology for the Blind.
• CSUN 26th Annual International Technology and Persons with Disabilities Conference, San Diego - Virtual Imaginings.
• IBM CSUN 2011 presentations

Podcast #89: CSUN 2011 Preview

Dennis and special guests Jennison Asuncion (@Jennison) and Jared Smith (@jared_w_smith) discuss the upcoming CSUN conference in San Diego, California, at the Manchester Grand Hyatt Hotel, March 14-19, 2011. The official title and website is: 26th Annual International Technology & Persons with Disabilities Conference.

NOTE: Apologies for the poor quality. (But the content is outstanding!)

Download Web Axe Episode 89 (CSUN 2011 Preview)

Transcript of podcast 89

Sponsor:
Project:Possibility is a nonprofit organization dedicated to creating open source software that benefits the disabilities community, and educating students on accessibility and universal design concepts. This is accomplished with the SS12 Code for a Cause: an opportunity for students to make a profound difference by developing innovative, empowering projects for persons with disabilities, as well as the chance to work with industry professionals.

Jennison presenting:

• Building IT Accessibility Awareness and Community Using the Barcamp/Unconference Format. Wednesday, 9:20.
• Do We Need to Change the Web Accessibility Game Plan? Panel with John Foliot, Sandi Wassmer, and Jennison. Thursday, 3:10.

Jared presenting:

• HTML5/ARIA pre-conference workshop w/ Steven Faulkner and Hans Hillen of TPG. All day Tuesday.
• Screen Reader Web Accessibility Face-off. Wednesday, 3:10.
• Do We Need to Change the Web Accessibility Game Plan? Panel with John Foliot, Sandi Wassmer, and Jennison. Thursday, 3:10.
• WebAIM's Screen Reader User Surveys: Data and Trends. Friday, 8am.
• Preview of WAVE 5 on Friday, 10:40.

More info:

• There is a (now annual) CSUN Tweet-up Thursday at 6pm. Lightning talks, food, and fun! (Contact Jared if you want to sponsor.)
• The Twitter hash tag for the event is "#CSUN11".
• Exhibit Hall-Only entry will be free once again.
• CSUN On Lanyrd
• CSUN11 on LinkedIn
• CSUN11 on Facebook
• Saturday morning: Dennis on a panel of judges (Sat morn) for the SS12 Code-A-Thon finals!
• Register for CSUN11