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.

I recently published a great new podcast on Web Axe, HTML5 and John Foliot (a transcript is also provided). I interview John Foliot, a professional peer whom I also consider a friend. John shares he extensive knowledge in HTML5, the W3C, and web accessibility. He works at Stanford University and is an active member of the W3C.

Lists functionality is completed on AccessibleTwitter.com, finally. It’s been in progress for like half a year! Just need to add some Ajax to enhance the experience now. But for the next month, I’ll be busy working on converting the Basic Authentication to Open Auth. Fun. By the way, Accessible Twitter experienced some site outages a few weeks ago, but it seems to be resolved. Remember that unsetting your PHP variables is always a good idea! Ugh.

So I’ve become a pretty regular FourSquare user. I’m proud to be the “mayor” of the Starbucks close to my day job, in Redwood Shores, California. No biggie, although I do get $1 off a frappaccino at any time. Although I’m not big on frappaccinos; too bad it’s not a discount on espressos con panna!

Here are some takeaways from the discussion:

• Basic Authentication to be deprecated as soon as June 2010, just a few months away! In favor of Open Auth.
• For non-web clients, xauth is suggested for authentication. You may email “api AT twitter DOT com” to request access.
• A few asked, but they didn’t respond to questions about advertising.
• An address book API is coming soon.
• They plan on using the HTML5 Geolocation feature.
• Enhancing functionality for Favorites in the API is on the list, but not a priority.
• The word “Tweet” is OK to use in an application name as long as the app is solely a Twitter app (does not include other social networking functionality).
• Follow the Twitter API at @twitterapi

• Web Axe in BBC Podcast – I was interviewed by the BBC! “Pods & Blogs” hostess dug my Web Axe web accessibility podcast and blog and called me from London.
• EASI Webinar: Twitter And Web Accessibility – I gave a webinar for the first time!
• New press release: Social Media Web App “Accessible Twitter” Enters Beta Status – finally!
• A word with the accessible Dennis Lembree on Accessible Twitter – a little about me and my project.

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.

My Twitter friend Meera Tank was kind enough to represent me and Accessible Twitter at the award event. A nice, heavy, glass trophy was given, which currently resides with Meera in London. She  accepted the award and gave the presentation that I wrote a couple days prior. You can view the presentation on SlideShare (or view the fully accessible HTML version). The day after it was posted, SlideShare chose this to be a Featured Presentation on their home page!

The other categories and winners are:

• ACCESS-IT@Web2.0: project, product or service that advances accessibility on web 2.0.
  • Winner: Accessible Twitter
• ACCESS-IT@Home: project, product or service that advances independent living for people with disabilities or elderly.
  • Winner: BBC iPlayer
• ACCESS-IT @Work: project, product or service that facilitates persons with disability to work independently.
  • Winner: ECDL Hallas
• ACCESS-IT@Learning: project, product or service that facilitates persons with disability or elderly to get educated in an affordable, accessible, usable and efficient manner.
  • Winner: RoboBraille

PS:
You may also read about this subject on Web Axe, my podcast/blog on web accessibility: Accessible Twitter Wins Award, Slidedeck

Please give me a Digg if you have an account. My Digg description is as follows:

The first in a series of articles from Even Grounds featuring accessibility experts. In this article, guest author Dennis Lembree links “wrong vs right’, Twitter and web accessibility, and modern coding practices.

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