August 13 Responding to accessibility issues in business
Register for this event on Eventbrite
Responding to accessibility issues in business: The results of a doctoral study at RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia
Dr. Chris M. Law is an expert in usability, accessibility, and universal design of IT. He has worked in industry, in government, as an academic researcher, and as a consultant. He has lived and worked in The US, Canada, Australia, Scotland, and his native country, England. He holds a bachelors in Ergonomics, a Masters in Industrial Engineering, and a PhD in Business. Dr Law is currently consulting at the Accessibility / Section 508 branch of the Social Security Administration.
All meetings take place at the Baltimore Library for the Blind and Physically Handicapped located at 415 Park Ave. Baltimore, Maryland 21201. Their website has directions by car or public transportation.
I hope you will be able to join me and would like very much if you could pass this information on to others who you feel might find these meetups beneficial.
Also, I am looking for anyone willing to come speak at these meetups. If you or someone you know would be interested, please get in touch.
July 9 Video Captioning on the Web with Russell Heimlich
The next Accessibility Baltimore meeting will take place Saturday July 9, 2011 at the Library for the Blind and Physically Handicapped, located at 415 Park Ave. Baltimore MD. The topic will be “Video Captioning on the Web”, by Russell Heimlich Register Now at Eventbrite!.
Video Captioning on the Web explores the history of video captions and how they can make the leap to the online video realm. Russell Heimlich will cover different ways for getting your videos transcribed and accessible whether it be a paid-for service or cheaper Do-it-Yourself methods. He’ll also show off an early demo of VidCapper.com, his new project that will make captioning videos on the web easier and less tedious.
This talk is good for those interested in accessibility, web application development, online video, and/or interface design.
About our Presenter
Russell Heimlich is an all-end (front & backend developer) at the Pew Research Center where he tinkers with WordPress, PHP, HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. On the side he created http://dummyimage.com and his latest venture VidCapper.com
All meetings take place at the Baltimore Library for the Blind and Physically Handicapped located at 415 Park Ave. Baltimore, Maryland 21201. Their website has directions by car or public transportation.
I hope you will be able to join me and would like very much if you could pass this information on to others who you feel might find these meetups beneficial.
Also, I am looking for anyone willing to come speak at these meetups. If you or someone you know would be interested, please get in touch.
Date and Location
Saturday, July 9, 2011
Noon-2pm
Maryland Library for the Blind and Physically Handicapped, 415 Park Ave. Baltimore MD 21201
June 11: Accessibility is Not a Checklist
The next Accessibility Baltimore meeting will take place Saturday June 11, 2011 at the Library for the Blind and Physically Handicapped, located at 415 Park Ave. Baltimore MD. The topic will be “Accessibility is Not a Checklist”, by Jimmy Chandler. You can register for the meeting at Eventbrite, though registration is not required.
Too often, people approach accessibility only when required to, and simply by looking at a checklist. But accessibility is not a checklist; accessibility happens by considering it from the beginning, understanding industry best practices, and by taking a user-centered design approach. This means knowing how people with various disabilities will interact with products in ways that are successful.
What do professionals – developers, designers, project managers — need to know and do in order to improve the accessibility of the web and mobile applications that their teams design? What industry best practices and methodologies can we leverage to cost-effectively improve both accessibility for people with disabilities and the user experience for all our customers? How can we best integrate our accessibility efforts into the project life cycle?
Jimmy Chandler will demonstrate several concepts and methods to improve accessibility that all teams can use right away. He will also share results from research he conducted this year that provides stories from people with various disabilities, including how they benefit from accessible products and struggle with inaccessible ones.
This session will include Q&A and take away materials.
About our Presenter
Jimmy Chandler, aka @uxprinciples, has been working with clients and colleagues to create web sites and applications with great user experiences since 1997. Active in the UX and accessibility communities, Jimmy is a frequent attendee, volunteer, organizer, and speaker for events in the DC area and nationwide.
Jimmy’s experience in accessibility dates to 2001, before the U.S. Section 508 regulations went into effect. This includes training project managers, designers, developers, and testers in accessibility, web design, and user experience methods, as well as conducting numerous accessibility assessments, removing barriers to accessibility, and conducting research with users of assistive technology as participants.
Jimmy’s online experience began by writing a column and moderating discussion forums on U.S. current events. More recently, he managed a team of web professionals for a Fortune 500® government contractor for five years. Currently, he leads a 5-person UX team on a web application project for the Department of Health and Human Services as a consultant with Sapient Government Services.
Jimmy has a B.A. in Government from the College of William and Mary and currently lives in Arlington, Virginia with his wife @coolacctngchick (aka Nicole).
May 14 2011, John Croston: Is Your Website Accessible?
The next meeting of the Baltimore Web Accessibility Interest Group will take place Saturday May 14, 2011 from Noon until 2pm.
John F Croston III is presenting his “Is Your Website Accessible? If not Practical Ways to Make It So.” talk. He will go over the main
ideas and pieces of code you need in an HTML page to make them accessible, which include things like skip navigation, adding proper headings (h1 – h6), ARIA landmark roles, and form items like fieldset, legend, and labels, etc.
All meetings take place at the Baltimore Library for the Blind and Physically Handicapped located at 415 Park Ave. Baltimore, Maryland 21201. Their website has directions by car or public transportation.
Initial Meetup was a Success
I’d just like to thank everyone who came out to this month’s meetup. We had a great turnout: 18 people turned out to our first meeting, even with limited promotion. I’d also like to thank our host Mollyne Honor at the Library for the Blind and Physically Handicapped.
This month’s meeting was a discussion of accessibility testing tools. I covered a wide array of browser plugins and online testing tools and gave a demonstration of Worldspace FireEyes. We also covered WAVE by WebAim and the Functional Accessibility Evaluator. (Attendees, I’ll upload my slides shortly and will update this post)
Next month’s meeting will take place on Saturday May 14th, 2011 from noon to 2:00pm. John Croston will be discussing practical accessibility techniques.