Category: web standards

John Slatin Access U: May 5-7 in Austin, Texas

Is your web site accessible to people with disabilities? Does it meet federal standards of accessibility? The John Slatin Access U is a two day training institute designed to provide needed accessibility skills to IT professionals. Classes offered at John Slatin Access U will help developers and policy makers create electronic information technology that is accessible to everyone – including people with disabilities. Registration is now open for the 2008 conference, held May 6 and 7 at St. Edwards University in Austin, TX.

The training institute, produced annually by Austin non-profit Knowbility is for anyone with IT responsibilities who believes that the Web should empower all people. World-renowned accessibility experts lead the classes, many of them hands-on, to help promote a better understanding of both the need and the techniques for inclusive IT design. From the basics to the bleeding edge, Access U will provide the resources needed to reach as many people as possible. On May 8th , Derek Featherstone will offer a post-conference session Real World Accessibility for AJAX and Web Apps. You can’t ask for anything better than this!

Get Naked with Dustin Diaz!

Today is CSS Naked Day! How can I resist? I’m gettin’ naked by shedding my css and showing nothin’ but deliciously semantic mark-up. Reminds me of when I look in the mirror with no make-up on and love the bare bones me.

Thanks Dustin for this creative way to strip down, while emphasizing the importance of separating content from presentation.

Come on, it doesn’t hurt one bit. Let your design down, just for 24 hours!

The John Slatin Fund Accessibility Project

John Slatin

Live your life with courage and though you are often afraid, never fail to take that next step forward.

As many of you know, John Slatin passed away last week, and in celebration of how his life has touched so many of us in the accessibility arena a project is being launched that will both honor his memory and assist his family with significant expenses that remain from his long illness. There is a new project designed to help.

The basic idea is this:

Captioning Sucks! Now Let’s Fix It!

Imagine that all of your media devices suddenly and permanently went mute. Would you have access to the information you need? For some, this situation is already a reality. And the current state of captioning is…well…let’s be honest, “Captioning Sucks!”

People with disabilities deserve full access to rich media content. I think captioning is one of the biggest challenges in making content accessible. Oh, don’t get me wrong; captioning is technically easy to do. So, what is the problem? Captioning is time consuming and does not happen auto-magically. How do we fix it? A wonderful starting point is the Open and Closed Project. What is the Open and Closed Project?

Bikes + Beer + BBQ + Browsers

I’m counting the moments until SXSWi 2008 begins. Every year holds new adventures like the Bike Hugger Beer & BBQ on Saturday, March 8.

Imagine…free beer, bikers, bbq and the latest buzz on the IE8 Browser…does that sounds like geek heaven, or what?

And, for the true biker, don’t miss the first ever Bike Hugger Urban Ride with stops at REI and the Blanton Museum of Art, with the Bike Hugger Beer BBQ as the final destination.

See you there!

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: