Virtual Worlds for Cancer Patients and Students with Disabilities

Virtual Worlds for Cancer Patients and Students with Disabilities

Nov 15, 2010

Virtual worlds continue to be investigated and funded to advance wellness initiatives spanning multiple demographics. Discussed here are uses for cancer patients, students with disabilities and children with autism.

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Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on Section 508

Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on Section 508

May 23, 2010

A free webinar tomorrow will go over changes to the technical provisions of Sections 508 and 255, covering how all can participate in the process to make sure that final regulations benefit current and emerging ICT.

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Impressions of the iPad

Impressions of the iPad

May 8, 2010

I’ve had the iPad a full week now, loaded it up with apps and taken it on the road a bit. It’s a game changer, but a subtle one.

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Kel Smith’s “Virtual Worlds” CSUN 10 Presentation Available Online

Mar 29, 2010

Many thanks to everyone for their kind interest in my CSUN presentation. By request I’ve posted the full slide deck with notes and annotations online.

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End of Year Twitter Updates

Dec 12, 2009

Things have been extremely busy on all fronts, so this post will take a moment to review some recent developments in digital accessibility pulled from Twitter.

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New Accessibility Developments – Giving Voice to the Web

Nov 1, 2009

Last week saw the emergence of three intriguing technologies in the areas of website vocalization and Web 2.0 usage among people with disabilities.

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Thoughts on RNIB Techshare 2009

Sep 20, 2009

The Royal National Institute of the Blind Techshare 2009 conference has now come to a close. It was great being in London, meeting many respected colleagues in person for the first time and having the privilege to witness some key presentations on the future of accessibility.

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The Responsibility of Engagement

Aug 29, 2009

There was a bit of a firestorm this week within the web design community, presenting no shortage of self-actualized vitriol and lessons to be learned. And as usual, a number of key points are being overlooked.

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Starting in the Middle

Aug 3, 2009

Questions abound concerning the potential and influence of social media marketing in the life science vertical, and the answer may very well lie in the discovery of communities of common practice.

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Web Adaptability, Social Media, and Bears

Jul 26, 2009

Leave it to me to read three completely unrelated articles in the past 24 hours, then locate some sort of connection among them. Today’s theme is adaptability.

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The Geometry of Social Media

Jun 21, 2009

A recent Twitter tactic on behalf of the insulin product Levemir raises some valid concerns — some technological, some marketing — which can be evaluated using a Mandelbrotian approach to social media. There are accessibility considerations as well.

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Gender, Disability and Identity in Virtual Worlds

May 25, 2009

A panel discussion took place this week at the International Communication Association Conference in Chicago on conceptual models of inclusion. Among the topics discussed was the role of identity, disability and gender in virtual environments such as Second Life.

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Facebook Accessibility

Apr 11, 2009

A recent blog post by Glenda Watson reported Facebook’s commitment to providing social networking services accessible to people with disabilities. Which is of course a most noble and necessary pursuit.

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Accessible Twitter

Feb 8, 2009

Among the more popular social media tools out there is Twitter, a microblogging site where users type momentary updates in 140 characters or less. Dennis Lembrée has developed an access portal for Twitter intended to better meet the needs of people with disabilities.

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WordPress Accessibility

Jan 16, 2009

Many people write blogs these days, and the number of active blogs seems to grow every day. But what about the blogging software itself — how accessible is something like WordPress? Glenda Watson Hyatt took it upon herself to investigate.

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New Software to Help People With Disabilities

Dec 20, 2008

Eight groups of volunteer software engineers recently took part in a weekend marathon of coding, developing prototypes for people with disabilities, as part of a global competition taking place at the University of Southern California.

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The Future of Web Accessibility

Nov 28, 2008

About this time of year, we begin to see an increase in articles and blog posts bravely attempting to predict future interests in various industries. The arena comprised of web design and virtual technology is no different.

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Healthcare 2.0

Oct 21, 2008

A recent Newsweek article explores the idea of making electronic health records freely available to family, friends and doctors, applying Web 2.0 concepts of open-source transparency to healthcare. Although there are understandable risks in decentralizing this information, a growing number of practitioners are beginning to embrace this new value model.

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Helping the Visually Impaired Navigate City Streets

Oct 19, 2008

A group of students from the University of Michigan have developed a mobile computing platform called Talking Points that helps people with visual impairments navigate urban areas. Using Bluetooth technology, the system provides contextual hints to read tags applied to select city landmarks.

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IBM Launches Social Accessibility Project

Jul 9, 2008

IBM has long been dedicated to investigative work in the disability space, as evidenced by improvements in multimedia browsing and the aDesigner disability simulator. Yesterday, Ars Technica reported that the company has launched a new initiative intended to make the Web more accessible for users who rely on screen readers.

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Closed Captioning on YouTube

Jun 27, 2008

During my recent speaking engagements, I received a number of queries regarding digital media accessibility for users with hearing impairments. This week Ars Technica reported the introduction of new legislation that would extend closed captioning to “some Internet video.”

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