"They've got your name.
They've got your number.
They've got your hopes,
Your dreams, your future.
They've got your loved ones by the throat.
And soon enough they'll let you know."
- Electric President
I presented this one-hour session at the Assistive Technology Industry Association Conference in Chicago in October, 2009.
Abstract:
This presentation will explain each of the roles involved in the accessibility process, from user agents, to developers, to their authoring tools. Common pitfalls that each of these components suffer from will be addressed, and tips for ensuring that each component helps provide a fair user experience will be given. The WCAG 2.0 Recommendation will also be addressed. Examples of coding solutions and best practices for meeting levels of compliance for sites and applications, based on the Recommendation, will also be provided. This presentation will help people who control web content provide more and better services for users with disabilities.
With new technology comes new accessibility problems and solutions. These accessibility issues impact web users of all ages, with any disability, including limited vision, hearing, speech, movement, cognition, photosensitivity, and learning. The WCAG 2.0 Recommendation provides techniques for solving these new accessibility problems that exist for building web pages and applications. It also sheds new light on denser past, though still viable, solutions to web accessibility issues. Additionally, authoring tools and user agents are being upgraded or replaced more and more frequently. Some are being built to accommodate new, exciting technologies but at the cost of accessibility. However, there are good, robust accessibility components out there that work with new technology instead of against it, and there are steps that developers can take to encourage accessibility upgrades and fixes in the tools that they already use and need. This presentation will detail research into some of the best authoring tools and user agents available for using and building to the web. Paths to communication and steps developers can take to encourage better accessibility support in these tools will also be highlighted, and details of the work going into helping Drupal v.7 strive to be the first out-of-box web accessible CMS will also be related. Finally, clear, precise steps for improving accessibility along the lines of WCAG 2.0 in web pages and applications will be delivered. Attendees will walk away not only with a renewed sense of community in the field of web accessibility, but also with directly-applicable ideas for improving accessibility in their own pages and applications.
Links:
Slides:
click for excerpted slides (PDF)
For full presentation slides, contact me.
