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Posts Tagged ‘web accessibility’

Disappointed in Google WAVE

November 23rd, 2009 4 comments
Google WAVE logo

Google WAVE logo

What can I say besides I’m just plain disappointed in Google WAVE. There was so much hype, so much excitement about it, and now it’s evaporated.

No HTML5

I understood that WAVE was to be done in HTML5, but it has a doc type of HTML 4.01. And actually, I found that it has a very serious case of “Divitis” (too many DIV tags). Can’t find any type of HTML5 tag at all, not even a section tag, header tag, nuthin’. Just a ton of DIVs and SPANs.

If you’re curious, here’s a look at the top of the source:

<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/strict.dtd">
<html><head><meta name="gwt:property" content="locale=en">

And the generated source:

<html><head><meta name="gwt:property" content="locale=en">

Not Accessible

Google WAVE is not web accessible. Period. Simplistically, this means that people with disabilities cannot use it, or it’s very difficult. For more on this, check out my Web Axe entry Podcast #75: Jeremy Keith Interview, Google Wave and Google Wave Preview Accessibility Review by WebAIM’s Jared Smith.

To further frustrate us web accessibility professionals, Google has stolen the name of WebAIM’s free tool WAVE (web accessibility evaluation tool).

No Usage

No one’s using Google WAVE. Most people I know now who want a WAVE invite (and that’s a lot of folks), has received one by now. And I haven’t seen much activity at all. As a matter of fact, I haven’t seen any new messages for a month now.

If you’re on WAVE, please send me a message; that may help me feel better! (smiley) My address is dlembree [AT] googlewave [DOT] NOSPAM com

Addendum

How ironic. I just noticed that I received some WAVE invites, so if you don’t have an account and still want one after reading this (smiley), please feel free to leave a comment.

I overheard something that made me think of this funny line:

Today’s Google WAVE invites are becoming yesterday’s AOL invite CD ROM disks.

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Categories: Web Development Tags: , , ,

“Twitter and Web Accessibility” Presentation at AHG

November 16th, 2009 No comments

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.
Twitter and Web Accessibility AHG 2009 Nov12

View more presentations from Web Axe.
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Categories: Events, Travel, Twitter, Web Development Tags: , , , ,

Attended “Open Web Camp” at Stanford University

September 29th, 2009 No comments

Last Saturday (Sept 26), I attended the OpenWebCamp at Stanford University. Much thanks goes to John Foliot for organizing the event and to Opera which was the main sponsor. It was a really nice time (except the hot weather). Learned a few things and met some great people, and the food and drink was great, too! Guy Kawasaki and Molly Holzschlag were the featured speakers. I spoke on Accessible Twitter which went pretty well. There was some excellent discussion on HTML5, open source software, usability, and the browser wars.

For more information, you may:

after-party gathering outside on Stanford campus during OpenWebCamp

After-party gathering outside on Stanford campus during OpenWebCamp.

Photo from OpenWebCamp album on Flickr from Barbara Haven.

Accessible Twitter at Open Web Camp

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Categories: Events, Web Development Tags: , , , ,

Access IT Award and Presentation – Accessible Twitter

September 26th, 2009 3 comments

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.
  • ACCESS-IT@Home: project, product or service that advances independent living for people with disabilities or elderly.
  • 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.

Access IT Crystal Award trophy

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

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Categories: Twitter, Web Development Tags: , ,

Awful Truth About Most Web Sites

September 5th, 2009 No comments

I was asked to write an article for Even Grounds, so I did! It’s called Accessible Experts: Dennis Lembree Talks About Accessible Twitter. Thought it’s valuable to note that the working title of the article was “The Awful Truth About Most Web Sites”. The main idea is to connect the perception of “wrong vs right”, Twitter and web accessibility, and modern coding practices.

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.

Even Grounds logo

Even Grounds logo

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Categories: Twitter, Web Development Tags: , ,

New Theme!

July 6th, 2009 No comments

My WordPress theme got tired and outdated, so I switched to a theme called iNove by NeoEase. It needed a little adjusting for standards and accessibility, but not nearly as much as most themes out there. I continue to have a very difficult time finding and recent, fully accessible, standards-compliant themes. What a shame. I published a Web Axe blog post discussing this lack of accessible WordPress themes. Hope to create one by end of summer.

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Categories: Admin Stuff, Web Development Tags: , , ,

Making Progress on Accessible Twitter

June 26th, 2009 No comments

As I mentioned a few months back,  my personal project this year is Accessible Twitter, a web-based Twitter application. It was originally written specifically for web accessibility (optimized for disabled users) and still is the main goal. But I discovered that if I want more users, I’ll have to continue working on the features.

I’m pretty happy with the progress so far. The app is still in Alpha, but hope to take it to Beta in the next few weeks. Updates are made fairly regularly, and more recent updates include the following:

  • Added a URL shortening feature.
  • Enhanced Direct Message page and funtionality.
  • Added Popular Links page and categories, too.
  • Add (limited) functionality to update user profile. (More to come.)
  • Add more data for Tweeps on the Following and Followers pages.
  • Add user data to bottom of single status page (the tweet’s PERM page).

If you haven’t tried Accessible Twitter yet, or if you haven’t been there lately, please go check it out. Oh, also, the Twitter username for the app is @AccessibleTwitr.

Accessible Twitter logo

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Categories: Twitter, Web Development Tags: ,