Link Roundup - October 2010

• Color Blindness Myths and Misunderstandings by @joedolson
• Web Design for Dyslexic Users
• British Standard 8878 on Web Accessibility
• Temple Gate: An Accessible HTML5 WordPress Theme
• Awesome freebie: Web #Accessibility Checklist (POUR) Desktop Wallpaper
• Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0 to 2.0 Transition Cheat Sheet
• JAWS 12 screen reader is released
• What’s new in Acrobat X accessibility (Adobe)
• Accessibility is Not A Feature presentation slides by @uxprinciples from Accessibility Camp DC
• Do CAPTCHAs Block Spam or Your Readers?
• We Haven’t Forgotten About Accessibility, Have We?
• How to Increase Your (Podcast & Blog) Audience Through Accessibility - SlideShare presentation by @podfeet from BlogWorld 2010
• Meeting WCAG 2.0 with Flash
• Disabling JavaScript: Asking the wrong question
• JetBlue airline sued for lack of website and kiosk accessiblity. For updates follow @LFLegal
• All jQuery Mobile components are ARIA accessible
• ARIA Roles 101 - a good, brief introduction
• Top 10 Things CIOs Need to Know About Accessibility
• President Obama Signs Accessibility Act by @awkawk of Adobe
• Testing title attributes as form control labels with screen readers - from Accessible Culture
• Javascript Accessibility Guidelines
• WCAG 2.0 AAA - A Journey Not a Destination by @mgifford
• Aaron Gustafson's presentation Progressive Enhancement with ARIA (Slideshare)

Podcast #85: Drupal 7 Accessibility

Dennis speaks with Everett Zufelt (@ezufelt) on Drupal and the accessibility improvements in Drupal 7 which is now in beta. Drupal is an increasingly popular open-source content management system (CMS).

Download Web Axe Episode 85 (Drupal 7 Accessibility)

[Transcript of podcast 85]

Transcript sponsored by Accessibility DC (@AccessibilityDC), meetups on accessibility in the Washington, DC, area.

Related links:

• Drupal Accessibility Group
• Drupal Issue Tracker
• Drupal Accessibility Statement

Awards

• dot net magazine Best of the Web awards announce finalists October 20.
• Nominate Accessible Twitter in the Mashable Awards.

Conferences

• Next month is Accessing Higher Ground conference near Denver, Colorado.
• Dennis will be giving a keynote address at Knowbility’s AccessU West conference in San Jose, California, January 2011.

Hot Topics

• JetBlue sued for lack of accessibility in its website & kiosks. Filed by Law Office of Lainey Feingold (@LFLegal).
• All jQuery Mobile components are ARIA accessible.
• President Obama Signs Accessibility Act (21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act of 2010) by Andrew Kirkpatrick (@awkawk) of Adobe.
• Meeting WCAG 2.0 with Flash from Adobe.
• HTML5 accessibility, holes & fixes by Steve Faulkner and Slideshare presentation and Hans Hillen i.e. structure, form controls, canvas, audio/video.

Web Accessibility Jobs

A good sign! Here are more than several job openings relating to web accessibility posted within the last month or so. (U.S. and Canada.)

• Facebook: User Experience – Accessibility (Palo Alto, CA)
• Salesforce.com seeks Senior Accessibility Specialist (San Francisco, CA)
• Contract job Web Portal #Accessibility Business Analyst (Toronto, Ontario, Canada)
• Online Communications Coordinator/Web Developer at The National Abortion Federation (Washington, D.C.)
• ADVANTIS Global Services seeks Senior Front End Developer (Charlotte NC)
• CGI Consulting seeks a Section 508 Accessibility Specialist (Fairfax VA)
• Deque Systems seeks a Section 508 Tester (Washington, D.C.)
• Apple has four accessibility engineering opportunities (Cupertino, CA)

For more, on Twitter, follow my account @webaxe and @a11yjobs. Kudos also to @ppatel and @lauraupcott.

Link Roundup - September 2010

• Bonus! An offer to the HTML5 team to save longdesc by Vlad Alexander at XStandard
• Landmark Technology Access Bill Heads to President Obama's Desk
• Accessibility testing tools (Steve Faulkner, The Paciello Group)
• Response to HTML5 editor on Canvas accessibility (by Rich Schwerdtfeger)
• Adobe’s Andrew Kirkpatrick interviewed on Accessibility in Government (video)
• Accessibility for web writers, part 1: Introduction
• Assistive Technologies for Online Learning
• Web Accessibility day course by RNIB in Edinburgh (Oct) & London (Nov)
• Should Sighted Developers Use Screenreaders To Test Accessibility? (great comments!)
• Using Accessible Twitter With JAWS Screen Reader
• HTML5 Canvas Accessibility in Internet Explorer 9 by@stevefaulkner
• 20 Sites Assessed For Cognitive Web Accessibility
• Top 4 Reasons Why You Need to Address Web Accessibility
• WebAIM Aids eBay Accessibility Efforts
• Blind woman sues Canadian feds over online access
• Very entertaining video explaining closed captions (YouTube)
• Does your website legally need to be accessible? (U.S.)
• Web Design Guidelines for Low Bandwidth
• Web #Accessibility, Structured Negotiations & DOJ Rulemaking
• 10 Tools for Evaluating Web Design Accessibility
• WCAG 2.0 for Usability Specialists presentation (W3C) (April 2010)
• Facebook patent for 'social CAPTCHA' fails on accessibility
• Accessibility and the Law: How good UX can keep you out of court (U.S.)
• Raakt - The Ruby Accessibility Analysis Kit

About the 2010 Accessing Higher Ground Conference

So I'm starting to regret not attending the AHG conference this year (Accessing Higher Ground: Accessible Media, Web and Technology Conference). I attended (and presented) at the previous two events. This year looks just as good, if not better.

AHG 2010 will be November 15-19 at the Westin Hotel in Westminster, Colorado, located about 13 miles from downtown Denver. It's a really nice venue with nice restaurants nearby.



Over 60 presentations and hands-on sessions and 35 hours of hands-on workshops are scheduled. You can read the session descriptions here. Maybe you'll see me on the list next year!

The fees are affordable, and an early registration discount is available until October 1. Groups of 5 who register together are eligible for a 10% discount. You may register for AHG here.

I think something new this year are special session tracks from which to choose. The tracks are:

• ADA Track
• ATACP FastTrax
• ATHEN Track
• Dolphin Track
• EASI Track
• WebAIM Track

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.)

Link Roundup - August 2010

• HTML5 Issue: Longdesc Retention (W3C wiki)
• Raakt - The Ruby Accessibility Analysis Kit
• Accessible ARIA Tabs by @jkiss
• UStream videos from Montreal accessibility conference (#a11yMTL)
• Developing an Accessible Star Ratings Widget (YUI blog)
• Report Finds Five U.S. State Benefits' Websites Inaccessible (COAT)
• Ten tools to help test website accessibility
• Accessibility in Online Teaching - a great starting point
• How the Blind See the Internet (Gizmodo)
• Using NVDA screen reader to Evaluate Web Accessibility (WebAIM)
• Creating Your Own Accessible HTML5 Media Player by @terrillthompson
• Accessing Nav Drop-Downs
• Preparing InDesign Files for Accessibility (Adobe TV)
• Access Key Replacement (W3C wiki)
• CSSquirrel demos longdesc attribute in non-visual comic Alone In The Pitch Black Dark
• Accessibility Camp DC registration is open; event is October 9 at MLK Library
• YUI Theater: Accessibility on the Yahoo Homepage
• College Web Pages Are 'Widely Inaccessible' to People With Disabilities
• Web accessibility for cognitive disabilities and learning difficulties (Opera)
• Silverlight Accessibility Overview (Microsoft)
• Twitter and Web Accessibility presentation from INDATA Conference by @dennisl
• Caption any 5-minute YouTube video for $5
• Great list of free screen readers
• Video about Yahoo's Accessibility Lab featuring Alan Brightman