Category: accessibility

Stop all the clocks

My dear friend, John Slatin, will soon pass from this earth. The selfish part of me wants to stop all the clocks right now, so I can race down to Houston and hold his hand one more time. But the wiser part of me, weeps, and knows that my life has been forever changed by knowing this dear, sweet, brilliant man.

How blessed I am to be his colleague and friend. I love you, John Slatin and I won’t let you down. I will continue to be the self-appointed goddess of accessibility for as long as I am on this planet.

Time to go and cry and listen to my Wicked CD cranked all the way up:

Blue Beanie Day: Raise Awareness of Web Standards

my teddy bear wearing a blue beanie

Do you remember when you first became a web standards believer? Whether it was last week, last year or last decade, it forever changed the way you create for the web. But, when was the last time you helped someone else understand the value of web standards? Until web standards have completely permeated our industry, it is important for us to continue to spread the word while producing content that illustrates the point.

If you haven’t heard, Monday, November 26th is “Blue Beanie Day”. What in the world is “Blue Beanie Day”? It is a great idea dreamed up by Douglas Vort of Detroit, Michigan to show support for web standards and accessibility. Here is an excerpt from the Blue Beanie Day Event Page in Facebook:

Barrier Free IT – Accessibility Internet Rally

An awesome group of technology professionals gathered today at the Texas School for the Blind to kick off the 10th year of the Accessibility Internet Rally in Austin… people like Sharron Rush (executive director of Knowbility), Hugh Forrest (SXSW-interactive event directory and 2006 AIR Austin Chair) , Teenya Franklin (AIR program manager) Jim Thatcher and Jim Allen (judge brothers). The room was pulsating with a passion for making the web available to everyone. And surprises awaited discovery. You’d think after 10 years that it would just be “the same ole thing”, but let me assure you, it was anything but that. Here are just three things that everyone was buzzing about:

Podcasts & Lyrics

I’m in a quandry. I’m producing podcasts for my favorite museum and I want to make them very accessible. I’ve taken the time to add the transcript for each podcast to the lyrics metadata of each mp3…only to discover that the most current iPods deny me the joy of seeing the transcript/lyrics.

You Lick Marvelous: Seeing with Your Tongue

Have you heard about the latest research in technology that enables a person who is blind to see with their tongue? The device is called a brainport and it consists of cameras that send electrical impulses to the tongue. A person using the device can learn to interpret the impulses on their tongue as images.

Supporting Joe

Joe Clark MicropatronageJoe Clark is the king of captioning.

Joe’s quest: To run an independent accessibility research project focused on captioning, audio description, subtitling, and dubbing. After reading the clear and achievable goals of his research, I thought, “ya know, this is a great idea and I believe Joe is the perfect man for the job.” (click, enter dollar amount, submit)

Accessibe Hugh

If you’ve ever been to SXSW, you may have had the good fortune to meet Hugh Forrest, the event director of SXSW-Interactive. Hugh is a real prince of a guy, ever so humble, hard-working and full of heart.