AbilityLinks 10 Year Anniversary Celebration and Business Leader Breakfast Forum
Anikto is proud to endorse AbilityLinks, a job opportunity website for workers with disabilities and inclusive employers. The initiative from Marianjoy Rehabilitation Hospital is celebrating a decade of providing networking opportunities and career placement services.
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Random Thoughts from Barcelona
Last week I had the honor and pleasure of taking part in the first ever International Conference on Translation and Accessibility in Video Games and Virtual Worlds at the Universitat Autónoma de Barcelona in Barcelona, Spain. Here are some random thoughts.
Accessible Web Experience for MLB
In a week where my area saw two major snowstorms, I am comforted by the thought that pitchers and catchers report for spring training in just a few days. Baseball fans with disabilities may have additional reasons to rejoice.
“Virtual Worlds” Presentation at Interaction10
Next weekend I’ll be speaking at the Interaction10 conference in Savannah GA, hosted by the Interaction Design Association (IxDA) at the Savannah College of Art and Design, on the topic of virtual worlds and people with disabilities.
“Virtually Inclusive” Presentation at Temple University
On January 25, I’ll be speaking at the Temple University College of Science and Technology as part of their colloquium series. The talk will cover ongoing and emerging trends in Web and digital accessibility.
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Anikto in the E-Access Bulletin
Anikto has a piece in the latest issue of the E-Access Bulletin on the applicability of Universal Design to virtual environments.
Kyle Soucy: Trends in Usability Testing
Anikto is proud to sponsor a talk by Kyle Soucy for PhillyCHI on June 24, on the topic of trends in usability testing.
Killing the Web Accessibility Stereotype
Providing safe and barrier-free access to digital means of commerce makes good business and ethical sense. There still appears to be an assumed dichotomy, however, between websites that are attractive but also accessible.
WebAIM Screen Reader Survey
The fine folks at WebAIM released the results of a survey conducted among users of screen readers. Some of the results confirmed items I either already knew or assumed to be true, but there were a few surprises as well.
Why Google Lively Failed
This week Google pulled the plug on Lively, the virtual world platform introduced less than five months ago to compete with Second Life. There are many speculative reasons why Lively was doomed from the start, but the product’s demise can be attributed to one essential failing: in developing the beta, Google didn’t work to their strengths.
Should You Provide an Accessibility Statement on your Website?
When an organization takes the time and effort required to provide a fully accessible online experience, there is justifiable pride in detailing the many features that have been implemented on behalf of users with disabilities. The question remains as to whether it’s of value to list these operable benefits on a dedicated page within the website.
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Evaluating E-Government for Section 508
This week saw the release of a paper by Dr. Paul T. Jaeger on the importance of evaluating e-government websites for accessibility. The paper details a number of tactical approaches to testing e-government applications, with the intention of summarizing the issues and methods involved with user-centered evaluation.
Virtual Worlds, Cognitive Disorders and Usability
I’ve been spending a whirlwind week shuffling between various sessions as part of the 2008 Usability Professionals’ Association (UPA) conference, including a most interesting session regarding users with cognitive disabilities and how to design for their needs.
Designing for Baby Boomers
Many of the benefits of web accessibility can also be applied to sites targeted for Baby Boomers. As more and more people enter their late 50′s/early 60′s, we must take into account this rapidly growing online demographic. Last month the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) produced a document exploring this very topic.
Web Accessibility for the Hearing Impaired
With regards to web accessibility, we mostly concern ourselves with impairments of vision and motor skills. However, we cannot forget the need to provide accessible video content for the hearing impaired. Peter Abrahams, Practice Leader of Accessibility and Usability for Bloor Research, investigates the pros and cons.
Interview with T.V. Raman, Research Scientist at Google
Bill Cullifer, Executive Director and Founder of the World Organization of Webmasters (WOW), recently caught up with T.V. Raman at the seventeenth annual WWW2008 Conference in Beijing. His interview with Raman is part of this month’s WOW Technology Minute, and it’s a terrific insight into the various educational challenges surrounding web accessibility.
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Structural-Semantics for Accessibility and Device Independence
Darren Lunn, a third year PhD student from the Human Centred Web Lab Research School of Computer Science, has introduced a framework that seeks to bind Semantic Web technologies with specific visual structures to accurately transcode across a diverse range of web content vehicles.
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Here’s What’s Missing: A Number
Seth Grodin talks about a backlash over green marketing – marketers’ promise to contribute to the welfare of our environment if we buy their product or service – and feels that it’s not too long before consumers become increasingly cynical. Grodin suggests that assigning a numeric value to a proposed benefit legitimizes these efforts, and I say we need to do the same with accessibility.
Principles of Universal Design
The term Universal Design describes a broad-spectrum approach intended to benefit everyone, including and not limited to people who have disabilities. The idea behind user-centric Web design is this: if we can develop solutions which accommodate users with the highest degree of physical challenge, then everyone will benefit.
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