Web Standards, Accessibility & More

I just returned from the Accessing Higher Ground (AHG) 2009 conference in Westminster, Colorado (just outside Denver). Subtitled “Accessible Media, Web and Technology Conference.” The event has a slant in higher education; making college and university information accessible.

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.

I’m proud to announce that my project Accessible Twitter has been honored with the the 2009 Access IT @web2.0 Award! The award is in recognition of a project, product or service that advances accessibility on web 2.0. It is endorsed by the International Webmasters Association (IWA). The selection process assesses the relevance for the award, its impact, its affordability and openness, and its validation level. The awards event was held in central London.

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

It’s a pleasure to announce that I’m scheduled to be speaking at the 11th Annual Accessing Higher Ground conference, subtitled “Accessible Media, Web and Technology Conference”, which takes place in Boulder, Colorado this November 11-14. The conference is hosted by the University of Colorado-Boulder.

Accessing Higher Ground focuses on the implementation and benefits of Assistive Technology in the university and college setting for people with sensory, physical and learning disabilities. Other topics include legal and policy issues, including ADA and 508 compliance…

My presentation “Ajax and Web Accessibility” will cover a description of Ajax, the positive and negative aspects, and suggestions and resolutions to accessibility issues.The first two days of the 4-day conference offer a variety of labs and workshops. My presentation will be during the second half which is primarily presentations and exhibits.

I’m exciting about not only speaking and attending the conference, but also about visiting Boulder for the second time. And the conference is located at the Millennium Harvest House, which looks very beautiful.

jQuery is a great JavaScript library for fast, easy development. I met the creator John Resig at a conference last year. He’s a great guy, and I even “won” a nice jQuery book.

jQuery is a fast, concise, JavaScript Library that simplifies how you traverse HTML documents, handle events, perform animations, and add Ajax interactions to your web pages

Here’s a good overview slide show on jQuery:

| View | Upload your own

Here are some great tips for doing a presentation. This is a summary from an excellent WSG Meeting Podcast from last year , Presentation Mind Control by Paul Fenwick (29-June-2006).

• Use pictures.
• Better yet, use multimedia–audio, video, animation, etc.
• Make it emotional.
• Use anticipation–provide a challenge, a few proposals, then lastly a solution.
• Move around; don’t stand still.
• Perform live examples–beware of technical mishaps.
• Practice your presentation.
• Time your presentation (to stay within your limit).
• Do a Q & A–admit it if you don’t know answer–ask the audience.