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

About Cognitive Accessibility & Related Articles

Cognitive accessibility is closely tied to WCAG 2.0 Principle 3: Understandable which states that "Information and the operation of user interface must be understandable". (WebAIM does a great job in explaining what Cognitive Disabilities actually are.) The guidelines under this principle are:

• Guideline 3.1 Readable: Make text content readable and understandable.
• Guideline 3.2 Predictable: Make Web pages appear and operate in predictable ways.
• Guideline 3.3 Input Assistance: Help users avoid and correct mistakes.

There's been an increase in articles about cognitive accessibility which is great because it's the most difficult and typically least discussed. Here's a great list of them below. Feel free to comment with any that were missed.

• Cognitive Accessibility Online (Yahoo)
• Cognitive Disabilities and the Web: Where Accessibility and Usability Meet?
• Cognitive accessibility testing
• Supporting comprehension for everyone
• Cognitive Web Accessibility Assessment: First Attempt, Part 1 of 3 (Clear Helper)
• 10 Organizations That Promote Cognitive Web Accessibility (Clear Helper)
• Plain Language dot gov
• How the cloud can improve the lives of those with cognitive disabilities
• Web accessibility for cognitive disabilities and learning difficulties (Dev.Opera)

Fixing Alt - Social Media Definition by Peeing

Social Media Definition by Peeing by Mindjumpers is a pretty funny cartoon. Like most, unfortunately, there is no alternative text provided. So in the second of the "Fixing Alt" series, I've taken the liberty of providing it. The cartoon is one large graphic with multiple images. Here's the alt text, with each image in a bullet point:

• Man in Twitter t-shirt, holding crotch, face strained: "I need to pee."
• Man in Facebook t-shirt, hands on hips, pee on floor: "I just peed."
• Man in Foursquare t-shirt pointing at pee on floor: "I'm peeing here."
• Man in Slideshare t-shirt, arms raised: "Why I am Great at Peeing."
• Man in Delicious t-shirt with arms crossed: "I collect my pee."
• Man in YouTube t-shirt, holding and pointing to cup of pee: "Watch this pee!"
• Man in LinkedIn t-shirt peeing into cup on floor: "I pee well."
• Man in Digg t-shirt, kneeling to 4 cups of pee: "I digg my pee."
• Man2 in StumbleUpon t-shirt, man slipping in his pee: "Ups! Discover my pee"
• Man in Quora t-shirt, scratching chin: "Why am I peeing?"
• Man in Wikipedia t-shirt, man2 in Wiki t-shirt, woman with pants off, all with arms raised: "Together, we pee-dia!"

Created by MindJumpers.com