Podcast #88: Quick Start to 2011

Dennis and Ross discuss the goings on in the Web Axe world, a few good articles, and a few upcoming conferences.

Download Web Axe Episode 88 (Quick Start to 2011)

Transcript of podcast 88

What's New

• Happy New Year! Intro to Web Accessibility Resources
• Monthly link archives on hold; try AccessiWatch Weekly RoundUp from Denis Boudreau (@dboudreau)
• Hardboiled Web Design (brief review)
• Comments on A quick Web Accessibility Checklist
• 25 Ways To Make Your Website Accessible - and challenges of publishing.

Articles

• Play and Say on New HTML5 Logo by host Dennis Lembree.
• Testing Accessibility of Pre-populated Input Fields by Terrill Thompson.
• Is it Now Acceptable to Require Javascript? and We Haven't Forgotten About Accessibility Have We? (Monday By Noon)
• Bonus! 20 Essential Tools & Tips to an Accessible Website

Conferences

• ATIA 2011 Orlando - January 26-29, 2011, Orlando, Florida.
• Josephine L. Taylor Leadership Institute (JLTLI) 2011 - March 11-12, 2011, Marriott Renaissance Hotel, Downtown Seattle, Washington.
• South by Southwest - Interactive (SXSWi) - March 11-15, Austin, Texas.
• CSUN 2011- March 14-19, 2011 at Manchester Grand Hyatt Hotel San Diego, California. Dennis on judges panel on that Saturday morning for Code-A-Thon Challenge organized by Project:Possibility.

Podcast #87: Web Axe 2010 Year in Review

Download Web Axe Episode 87 (Web Axe 2010 Year in Review)

Transcript of podcast 87

Transcript sponsored by Crein: Centre de recherche et d'expérimentation sur l'inclusion numérique (Centre for Research and experimentation on digital inclusion). An organization from Québec, Canada, "promoting digital inclusion of persons with disabilities".

News & Articles

• Web Accessibility Initiative - Mobile
• Colorblind fix - Augmented Reality
• Alt Test Treatments in Various Browsers

Main Segment

• The AccessU West conference by Knowbility scheduled for January 10-12 in San Jose, California, has been officially cancelled due to low registration numbers.
• Accessibility Toolkit on OneForty
• New series: Fixing Alt - If Web Browsers Were Celebrities
• Crap irony: Response to Twitter Keyboard Shortcuts
• HTML5 Sanity Check and Podcast #83: Fate of LongDesc in HTML5
• Seeing more web accessibility jobs opening: More Web Accessibility Jobs!
• 5-Year Web Axe Anniversary podcast with 9 guests!
• Third year in a row nominated for .Net Mag awards; haven’t made finals yet. Accessibility in .Net Mag Awards
• Major a11y updates in Drupal 7: Podcast #85: Drupal 7 Accessibility
• Critique - New Section 508 Web Site
• The CA.gov Web Site Accessibility Page
• Dennis spoke (substitute) at Yahoo’s BayJax! BayJax Presentation "Making JavaScript Accessible"
• Dennis' first CSUN rocked. Link Roundup including CSUN - March 2010
• Web Axe in BBC Podcast

Podcast #86: EDUCAUSE Review, AHG Preview, HTML5 Audio with Terrill Thompson

Dennis speaks with Terrill Thompson about a variety of topics including a summary of the EDUCAUSE conference; a preview of the Accessing Higher Ground (AHG) conference; community efforts to fix the web; HTML5 audio, video, and controls; and captioning.

Download Web Axe Episode 86 (Educause review, AHG preview, HTML5 audio with Terrill Thompson)

[Transcript of podcast 86]

Mentioned links

• Creating Your Own Accessible HTML5 Media Player
• The Quest for an Accessible Flash MP3 Player
• Accessible University 2.0 (test exercise page)
• EDUCAUSE IT Accessibility Constituent Group
• Mozilla Audio Data API
• DO-IT Video Search - even searches captions!

More on the EDUCAUSE Twitter backchannel

• View the E10 backchannel tweets on EDUCAUSE site
• #EDUCAUSE10 backchannel blog by Eric Stoller

News

• WebAIM: Using VoiceOver to Evaluate Web Accessibility (and also Using NVDA to Evaluate Web Accessibility)
• Topsy, a great app for searching tweets
• Tips for Designing For Colorblind Users
• Integrating Accessibility Through Design

Podcast #84: Web Axe 5-Year Anniversary

In celebration of its 5th anniversary, Dennis and Ross discuss the history of Web Axe and several memorable moments. Then, nine special guests provide excellent insight and information relating to web accessibility including Paul Boag and Bruce Lawson. It's great stuff, don't miss it!

Download Web Axe Episode 84 (Web Axe 5-Year Anniversary)

[Transcript of podcast 84]

Some History

• Dennis Lembree launched Web Axe in September 2005 with a boost from the Detroit Podcasters Network.
• Co-host Ross Johnson joined September of 2006 in Lists and Accessibility -- How and Why? (podcast #26).
• Readership continues to grow; over 5,400 Web Axe RSS subscribers (85% of my RSS subscribers are using Google Reader or iGoogle). Number of Twitter followers continues to grow (@WebAxe).
• Interesting topics for web accessibility: business reasons, bandwidth and loadtime, and screen resolution.

Memorable Moments

• Nominated three years in a row in the .net magazine Best of the Web awards.
• Web Axe featured in BBC Podcast, segment on accessibility in Pods & Blogs show.
• First interview: Jared Smith of WebAIM, Podcast #27 (September 2006).
• Podcast #74: Awards, Events & Back to Basics recorded from Santa Cruz, California (September 2009).
• Podcast #35: Usability and Accessibility Conference recorded from event in Lansing, Michigan (November 2006).
• Visit to Yahoo! Accessibility Testing Lab (July 2009).
• NFB vs. Target Lawsuit is Settled!
• Critiques invoke responses: Recovery.gov, ca.gov, section508.gov

Special Episode Podcast Contributors

• Bruce Lawson (Opera, HTML5Doctor) - great HTML5 info.
• Denis Boudreau (A11Y_MTL) - French Canadian up very late recording.
• Jennison Asuncion - Accessibility tester, researcher, and all-around nice guy.
• Karen Mardahl (STCAccess) - Wicked good technical communicator.
• Mike Gifford (OpenConcept) - Drupal expert.
• Paul Boag (Boagworld) - Well, everyone knows this guy!
• Steve Grobschmidt - User Experience Lead and blogger.
• Terrill Thompson - A cool musician, basketball fan, and Technology Accessibility Specialist.
• Tom Babinszki (Even Grounds) - Accessibility consultant and blogger.

Addendum: Podcast Corrections

• Steve Grobschmidt's last name was announced incorrectly (it's not "Aquinas", that's part of his Twitter handle).
• We state that there are 8 guest speakers; there's actually 9!
• We mentioned that Boagworld is no longer podcasting, but failed to mention that they plan on returning in January 2011. (Paul mentions this in his commentary.)

Podcast #83: Fate of Longdesc in HTML5

What's the fate of the "longdesc" attribute in HTML5? Can or should the "aria-labelledby" ARIA attribute replace it? These are some of the controversial issues discussed by Dennis and guests John Foliot (@johnfoliot), Everett Zufelt (@ezufelt), and Joe Dolson (@joedolson).

Download Web Axe Episode 83 (Fate of Longdesc in HTML5)

[transcript of podcast 83]

Related Links

• WCAG 2 longdesc technique
• W3C HTML 4.01 longdesc Specification
• Creating Accessible Images - Long Descriptions (WebAIM)
• What should be the minimum / maximum length of alternate text? (see comments)
• Firefox Longdesc add-on by Patrick Lauke

Podcast #82: Deque Labs FireEyes

Dennis and Ross speak to Dylan Barrell (VP, Product Development) and Brian Kerr (Software Developer) of Deque Systems/Deque Labs. The main topic is the newly developed Worldspace FireEyes plugin for the Firefox browser which is being released in Beta status. It is a web accessibility tool that works in conjunction with the widely used Firebug Firefox extension. You can follow Deque Labs on Twitter.

Download Web Axe Episode 82 (Deque Labs FireEyes)

[transcript of podcast 82]

NOTE: As of June 28, the Worldspace FireEyes add-on has not yet been released. It's planned for end of June.

UPDATE: On July 1, the Worldspace FireEyes beta is released! Read the FireEyes announcement.

Chatter & News

• Refresh Detroit: Drupal Meetup Summary
• Dennis Lembree presented "Making JavaScript Accessible" at the Bay Area Ajax and JavaScript Meetup (BayJax) June 15, 2010 at the Yahoo! campus in Sunnyvale, California.
• Sign the online petition for screen reader accessibility for Google Chrome.
• Critiquing CA.gov Web Site Accessibility Page
• Dennis will be speaking at the Annual Assistive Technology Conference July 29 & 30, Indianapolis, Indiana, U.S.A.
• Accessibility Viewer Application Beta "AViewer" from The Paciello Group; Blog on AViewer from Joe Dolson; ARIA, DOM
• How Government sites have and now use Skip Links
• Whitehouse.gov improving their accessibility

Podcast #81: HTML5 and John Foliot

HTML5 is hot. It's new, powerful, and exciting. But what is it exactly, and how will it make the web more accessible? Dennis discusses these issues and more with web accessibility veteran John Foliot. Topics include background on HTML5, browser support, new form functionality, how Canvas can be accessible, and much more!

Mr. Foliot runs the Stanford Online Accessibility Program. He is an active member of the W3C and is an integral part of the web accessibility community. He writes a blog entitled Unrepentant and you can find John on Twitter.

Download Web Axe Episode 81 (HTML5 and John Foliot)

[transcript of podcast 81]

Mentioned Resources

• HTML: The Markup Language
• HTML5 differences from HTML4
• HTML5 Doctor
• Bruce Lawson
• Remy Sharp
• Dive Into HTML5
• Book: Introducing HTML5 by Bruce Lawson and Remy Sharp (there's also HTML5 For Web Designers by Jeremy Keith)

Other HTML5 Resources

• Test cases with HTML5, ARIA Roles & Screen Readers
• HTML5: Techniques for providing useful text alternatives
• Slides from Access U presentation HTML5 & Accessibility
• Future Web Accessibility: HTML5 Semantic Elements (Part 2 in a series)
• HTML5 Demos and Examples

Podcast #80: Web Accessibility Successes

Dennis and Ross review a few excellent web sites. Each provides great accessibility as well as being standards-compliant.

Download Web Axe Episode 80 (Web Accessibility Successes)

[transcript of podcast 80]

Announcements

• Ross' relaunch of 3.7 Designs
• Assistive Technology Boogie (Flash) by Inclusive Technologies
• Volunteers/donations wanted for transcribing Web Axe podcasts
• CSUN was great! A few of the many folks Dennis met and hung out with:
  • @ppatel
  • @johnfoliot
  • @wendyabc
  • @mpaciello
• Future Midwest Detroit

News & Articles

• iPad releases — accessibility
• Spoken e-books
• Accessibility features (Apple)
• Apple iPad hands-on review (CNET)
• HTML5 + Quake
• Canvas element is powerful, also huge accessibility concern
• When ever you use :hover, also use :focus
• Microsoft offers UK users a choice in browser
• Hat tip to all the techie 2010 April Fools Day jokers!

Main Segment

Testco

• In 2001, a new easy-access version of Tesco.com was launched, making the online shopping service available to a higher number of customers. In 2002-3, the web-based business made a profit of £12.2 million, more than 30 times that made in the previous year.
• Reference: 3 case studies on Universal Design.

Sydney For All

• Won 2009 Vision Australia award for web site accessibility.

LF Legal

• Developed by Mike Cherim
• Article on 2-year Anniversary
• Built on WordPress!

Podcast #79: CSUN 2010 Preview

Dennis and guest Jennison Asuncion discuss the upcoming CSUN conference, formally titled The 25th Annual International Technology & Persons with Disabilities Conference. Discussion includes helpful hints about the conference, session previews, and special events. The event is March 22-27 at the Manchester Grand Hyatt Hotel in downtown San Diego, California.

Download Web Axe Episode 79 (CSUN 2010 Preview)

[transcript of podcast 79]

Related Links:

• WebAIM's 2010 CSUN Session Lineup
• Adobe at CSUN 2010
• Twitter list: Speakers at CSUN 2010
• CSUN Tweetup