I wrote an article for DesignFestival.com. Popular Mistakes in Universal Web Design. It was later tweeted by Smashing Magazine (who has nearly half a million followers) which made me quite happy.

My brother visited me here in Northern California, and we took 3 jam-packed day trips to Monterey area, Napa valley, and Highway 1 to San Francisco. My cousin Italo was also in the area and we took a visit at Villa Montalvo in nearby Saratoga.

On my Web Axe podcast and blog, I wrote an analysis of (lack of) keyboard accessibility on Google Plus. I published, although a bit late, Podcast 92 “Frustrated”. I wrote a few other blogs including a listing of web accessibility events for the second half of 2011.

Lastly, and most recently, my wife and I saw Sade in concert (you know, “Smooth Operator”) at the HP Pavilion in San Jose. Great show, but not-so-good concert pictures (but the short video clip is pretty cool).

• HTML version
• Google Doc version

PS: Check out the pictures from the CSUN conference that I took!

PPS: On Saturday morning at CSUN11, I participated as a judge in the SS12 is a Code-A-Thon Challenge organized by Project:Possibility.

It was my first time in Indy, strange since I grew up only a 5-hour drive away in the Detroit suburbs. Except the humid weather and lousy flight delays on the way home, it was a great experience! It was great meeting the organizer of the event, Sara Croft, and running into the keynote speaker, John Bramblitt, at the airport. In addition to the excellent keynote speech by John, a highlight of the conference was an accessible gaming arcade provided by the AbleGamers Foundation. My presentation went well, and had a great conversation with a few visually-impaired users afterwards. Oh, and I took some photos of downtown Indianapolis.

Here’s my presentation below, a SlideShare link and embedded SlideShare Flash version. Or, go to the (text-only) HTML version.

The drive up was good, and not quite as far as first expected, about 6 hours or so from South Bay. We made a short stop to drive thru a tree, literally. I learned there’s a few trees where you can actually do this; we visited the Chandelier tree (below). Then, a little later up the highway, we saw a Bigfoot crossing sign.

Our hosts were great, and they sure showed us the outdoor classics of Humboldt county (not the marijuana though, sorry to disappoint!). But first, on the night we arrived, my friend took me out for beers with his buddies from work: about ten professors from nearby Humboldt State University. They were definitely not reserved as one might expect, but quite the opposite; fun, goofy, beer-pounding guys. And I guess I live in “Central California”, as the locals there claim that area of the state the true “Northern California”.

The highlight of the visit was probably walking through the giant redwood forest in the Redwood National Park. My kids pretended they were Ewoks, creatures from the Star Wars movie Return of the Jedi. Many of the trees are very very wide, about 300 feet tall, and can be 1,000 years old. We saw numerous large yellow slugs called banana slugs (yuck!)

We spent an afternoon in Arcata, a groovy hippie town which is home to the university. Lots of great coffee, organic food, and free spirits. The farmers market in downtown Arcata was fun, even had a bluegrass band. One ingenious woman sat on the curb with a typewriter and a sign that read “Poem Store“.

We also did some light hiking and walked along a few beaches, and even saw a bunch of seals hanging out on a sand bar. A couple swam pretty close to us, too.

We stayed overnight on the long journey home as we drove south down the coast on Highway 1 (rather than 101 as on the way up). We stopped at a couple of cool little towns, Fort Bragg and Mendocino. We stayed at cabin which was fair, but was totally worth it due to a hot tub overlooking the Pacific Ocean. The four of us took a nice, scenic dip in our underwear!

The next day we drove by some cows, and had a great brunch at fine place called Alexander’s. We crossed the Golden Gate on the way home and, even with as much fun as we had, were glad to be back home in Cupertino.

In late March, I attended the CSUN conference in downtown San Diego (Annual International Technology & Persons with Disabilities Conference). I co-presented one session with Joseph O’Connor, Accessibility of Twitter for Mobile, Desktop and Web. It was a great learning experience, and I also met many great folks who I know from the web, especially Twitter. I also spoke at the CSUN Tweetup. Check out my Flickr album from CSUN 2010.

More recently, I was interviewed for a BlindMind.net podcast: Interview with Dennis Lembree, creator of AccessibleTwitter.com & author of web accessibility blog Web Axe.

View from Manchester Grand Hyatt hotel during the CSUN conference in San Diego, California. March 2010.

I missed the workshops, but attended the 2 1/2 days of the main conference and also presented one session. The slides are posted on SlideShare.net and briefly made the “” list on the home page. You may view and DIGG the “Twitter and Web Accessibility” presentation here. It’s also embedded below.

Highlights of the conference include:

• Finally meeting Jared Smith of WebAIM.  We’ve known each other for several years online; since he was a guest in the early days of the Web Axe podcast and blog. Great guy.
• I also met other great people, and several from Europe – UK, Netherlands, and Spain. And how could I forget, John Foliot of Stanford was there, too!
• Great venue. The conference was held at a new hotel this year, the Westin Westminster, which was very nice. Much more spacious and elegant than previous years. (I attended the AHG 2008 event.) Some great restaurants, including Rock Bottom Brewery, were just across the street.
• The day before I left, it started snowing. The streets were slushy, but the snow was pretty. I was a bit nervous about my flight home, but the Denver airport did a great job and there were virtually no delays.

King Tut, Hearst Castle, and Sea Lions

First, I took the family to the special King Tut exhibit at the De Young art museum in San Francisco. That was neat, but the kids and I were very disappointed because there were no mummies!

Next, we drove down the central coast of California. We stopped in Monterey for a bit, then took a bunch of pictures thru Big Sur; it was the first time we had driven the whole way. We spent the night near Cambria and went to Hearst Castle the next day. It was a 5-mile bus ride to the castle on top of the mountain, which was neat in itself. I thought the best part of the castle was the outdoor pool. We then drove further south to Morro Bay. Cool little town with seafood restaurants, boat tours, sea lions, big beach, and one ginormous rock.

Carson and me on beach in Morro Bay

Art, Rock Stars, BBQ, Tigers, and Golf

Then I went on a trip to Michigan (just me) to celebrate my brother’s birthday. Connected in Dallas and met a few interesting people on my flights (including a army guy who just ended a 1-year tour in Afghanistan!)  I went to the Ann Arbor art fairs with my parents on the first day, then met my Web Axe co-host Ross and a few other guys at the Arbor Brewing Company. I golfed 9 holes with my brother and dad. Then took a cruise in my dad’s ’68 Mustang convertible and ate at a neat ’50s style drive-in called Tom’s Root Beer Stand. Then I went to Henry Ford Museum, where there was an awesome special exhibit “Rock Stars Cars and Guitars”. We then went to dinner at an awesome new barbecue restaurant/bar in Detroit called Slows. The last night there, we went to the Detroit Tigers Major League baseball game, and there were at least 8 home runs, and a Tigers grand slam in the first inning!

Front of Comerica Park

Garlic Festival is Last Stop

I worked this past Friday, then today I took the family to the Garlic Festival in Gilroy, California. We ate very garlicy pizza, bread, and stuffed mushrooms–all very good! It was very crowded and very hot, but a lot of fun.

Phew, OK, I think I covered most of the last couple weeks. Now back to work.