Accessible Twitter Receives AFB 2011 Access Award

Congratulations to Accessible Twitter which has been honored with the American Foundation for the Blind (AFB) 2011 Access Award. Other recipients are CBS, Lexmark, and Walt Disney Parks & Resorts.
An Access Awards Ceremony will be held Friday, March 11, at the 2011 Josephine L. Taylor Leadership Institute (JLTLI) conference in downtown Seattle, Washington.
Accessible Twitter is a web application which serves as an alternative to the Twitter.com website. It is designed to be easier to use and is optimized for disabled users. In addition to all modern desktop browsers (and IE 6), Accessible Twitter runs on virtually any user-agent such as Lynx (text browser), screen readers, the Kindle, Braille displays, and web-enabled mobile devices.

Music About Web Accessibility!

Here's a great list of music about web accessibility! Includes the premiere of the full Web Axe theme song.

• WCAG 2.0 Theme Song by David MacDonald (YouTube).
• Assistive Technology Boogie - fun, and it's accessible Flash! (direct Flash link)
• "Man With Small F" (The Inaccessible PDF Song) by Terrill Thompson. Listen at end of Web Axe Podcast 77 (Interview with Terrill Thompson) or from Terrill's album Flavors.
• inaccessible song by Daniel Davis.
• Listen to the Web Axe theme song! (MP3) composed by my good friend Jeff Ensign.

Anyone have a song to add?!

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

Even More Web Accessibility Jobs

Great to list even more accessibility jobs!

Web Accessibility Specialist at Modis in Wilmington, DE (long-term contract). Modis is seeking aWeb Accessibility Specialistfor a long term contract position with their industry leading client.The Accessibility Specialist will be responsible for identifying and suggesting potential solutions for accessibility violations based on W3C WCAG 2.0 standards.

Web Accessibility Specialist at DeVry University, Wood Dale, Illinois. The primary purpose of this position is to consult with course developers on the guidelines and application of web accessibility to online courses created in Kinect. This includes researching section 508 and determining enhancements needed to course structure and media.

Accessibility Product Manager at RIM (BlackBerry) in Canada (Waterloo, Toronto, Ottawa). The Accessibility team is responsible for ensuring BlackBerry products and services are usable and accessible by the widest possible audience. This includes researching, specifying, designing and driving through to implementation various internal and external accessibility solutions. The successful candidate will be the voice of the customer and responsible for driving, from concept to implementation, emergency access BlackBerry solutions that meet the needs of persons with disabilities, wireless carrier partners and applicable legislation.

Accessibility Practice Lead, Atlanta, GA, 6-month contract. Collaborate with the User Experience and Development teams in planning, documenting and testing usable accessibility compliant interfaces. Proactively determine process, efficiencies, patterns, training and communication opportunities to improve our online experience for all users. Present and conduct training sessions for various teams on web accessibility process, planning, documentation and testing. Complete audits and test current and new products for compliance. Draft and maintain standards documents and remain abreast of trends and developments in the area of web and software accessibility.

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.