• Audio recording of session
• Presentation slides
• Session description
• About Gian Wild

Presentation slides

Session description

WCAG2 is a long series of documents. Gian Wild knows this better than most: she spent six years on the W3C WCAG Working Group writing them. It’s a lot to ask that every developer and project manager read the complete guidelines, including informative content. However there are some very useful — and sometimes hidden — techniques in WCAG2. And some are even at Level AAA. Join Gian to find out what these are.

About Gian Wild

Gian has worked in the accessibility industry since 1998 and consulted on the development of the first Level AAA accessible web site in Australia (Disability Information Victoria). She has worked with the Disability Services arm of the Victorian Government for over thirteen years to keep the four iterations of the Disability Services site (Disability Information Victoria, Disability Services, Disability Online and DiVine), Level AAA accessible. She ran the accessibility consultancy PurpleTop from 2000 to 2005 and built the accessibility tool, PurpleCop.

Follow Gian on Twitter: @accessibilityoz

• Audio recording of session
• Session description
• About Christopher Giffard

Session description

HTML5 Video has been a hot topic for the last couple of years — but with new additions to the specification, we can now extend it beyond all recognition. In this session we’ll look at basic timed data, closed captioning and more — and as we adventure into more sophisticated uses of the technology, we’ll explore what additional value timed data can provide to your video, with attention paid to how you can implement it today.

The key focuses of this session will be accessibility, searchable media, and enriching existing multimedia experiences with timed data, all with a liberal application of flashy eye-candy. And of course we’re using the freshly minted Timed Text Track specification, soon appearing in a browser near you!

About Christopher Giffard

Christopher Giffard is a full stack web developer at the Department of Education, Employment, and Workplace Relations in Canberra. He’s somewhat new to the government, having a career background as a web guy in graphic design and advertising agencies — but hopes to bring a slice of that mad, informal world to the Australian public service.

He gets a kick out of solving problems everybody else avoids, has a soft spot for architecture and design, is particularly interested in electronic music, and the algorithmic generation thereof. His current secret project involves natural language processing… and sarcasm detection.

Follow Christopher on Twitter: @cgiffard

• Audio recording of session
• Presentation slides
• Session description
• About Lisa Herrod

Presentation slides

Session description

The application of web accessibility guidelines in a holistic manner across all roles of a web team continues to encounter resistance. This is often due to a lack of resources and knowledge, or no sense of relevancy in certain web roles. While there is solid support of the guidelines by accessibility activists and many front-end developers, a large percentage of other web practitioners in non-technical roles do not know how to integrate accessible design practices into their daily work, despite wanting to.

By re-categorising accessibility guidelines into role-based groupings, such as visual design, content writing and information architecture, guidelines become more accessible to inexperienced web practitioners across a broad range of web roles. The application of accessibility guidelines then becomes more integrated and holistic, thereby reducing project timelines and costs while increasing the overall accessibility of a site from initial design stages.

This method enables practitioners to apply skills specific to their role to a narrow range of accessibility guidelines particular to their area of expertise. For example, the visual designer would create a design and evaluate colour contrast before submitting the design to the development team. Likewise, an interaction designer would consult with the Javascript specialist to ensure the menu design satisfies relevant accessibility guidelines.

About Lisa Herrod

Lisa is the Director and Principal Consultant at Scenario Seven, an Inclusive Design Consultancy based in Sydney. With 15 years experience on the web, the past 10 years of her work has centred on design research, usability, accessibility and inclusive strategies. Lisa is best known for her role based approach to web accessibility, which has seen the re-categorisation of WCAG checkpoints into a user-centred, practitioner-focused grouping for content developers, visual designers, developers and user experience professionals.

Scenario Seven specialises in creating accessible, inclusive design strategies that integrate holistically with traditional user research practices. This includes anything from requirements gathering to the review of design documentation (functional specs, wireframes & visual designs), user research and WCAG compliance. We design for diversity.

Follow Lisa on Twitter: @scenariogirl

• Audio recording of session
• Presentation slides
• Session description
• About Wendy Chisholm

Presentation slides

Coming soon.

Session description

Many web designers and developers are motivated to create accessible sites because more people can use the site, more people can find the site, and more devices can access the site. As we migrate to HTML5 and CSS to develop applications, we further the opportunity to create far more inclusive results, no matter the preferences of your audience and no matter why they have those preferences: are they driving? riding in a bumpy bus? accessing content in the sun? or might they be blind?

In this session, Wendy Chisholm, co-editor of WCAG 1.0, author of Universal Design for Web Applications, and one of the leading experts in accessibility and universal access helps you understand the challenges to and solutions for creating accessible apps with web technologies. Wendy will cover WAI-ARIA (Accessible Rich Internet Applications), accessibility and HTML5, as well as some common accessibility pitfalls when designing and developing applications, particularly on mobile and tablet devices.

About the presneters

Wendy Chrisholm

In this session, Wendy Chisholm, co-editor of WCAG 1.0, author of Universal Design for Web Applications, and one of the leading experts in accessibility and universal access helps you understand the challenges to and solutions for creating accessible apps with web technologies. Wendy will cover WAI-ARIA (Accessible Rich Internet Applications), accessibility and HTML5, as well as some common accessibility pitfalls when designing and developing applications, particularly on mobile and tablet devices.Wendy Chisholm is an author, activist and developer. She co-wrote “Universal Design for Web Applications” with Matt May (O’Reilly, 2008), and before that co-edited Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0 and 2.0–the basis of most web accessibility policies. She has focused on inclusive web design since 1995. Being both a developer (B.S. in Computer Science) and a Human Factors Engineer (M.S. in Industrial Engineering/Human Factors), Wendy bridges communication between developers and designers. As a staff for the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) for 6 years, she helped synchronize work on the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines with developments in internationalization and mobile design.

She is currently a Senior Strategist at Microsoft, where she works to make all web-related applications throughout the company accessible.

Her personal mission is to find elegant solutions that remove barriers that prevent everyone from participating fully in society. “I am an advocate for people with disabilities, people who are injured (especially vets) and people who are aging (i.e., all of us). I want to make inclusion a reality–both online and off”.

Wendy’s photo is courtesy of Matt.

Follow Wendy on Twitter: @wendyabc

Charles Pritchard

Charles Pritchard has founded several startups during his fifteen years as a web developer. A web standards advocate and an early adoptee of HTML5, he has produced several canvas implementations enabling web applications to run on a wide variety of virtual machines. His current focus is on creating and maintaining accessible applications as a critical component of software quality.

• Audio recording of session
• Presentation slides
• Session description
• About Daniels Lee™

Presentation slides

Session description

The web platform has already taken a center role in our desktop and mobile computing lives. The next space for the web platform to take over is the biggest screen in your house — the TV in your living room. However, designing for television has its own set of demands, different than designing for desktop and mobile implementations. This talk outlines the most important best practices to keep in mind when designing web applications for TV. We’ll cover issues like directional pad navigation, user interface design for TV, color issues, and zooming, as well as discussing some unique opportunities for TV applications.

About Daniels Lee™

Daniels is a Developer Programs Engineer who’s had the pleasure of working with several developer communities since he joined the team in 2006. After starting with iGoogle gadgets, he worked closely with advertisers and agencies via Gadget Ads, then onto Geo APIs focusing on V2 to V3 migration, and now Google TV. He’s not afraid to publicly confess his love for JavaScript and recognizes its profound ability to make the web more interactive. With a growing love for HTML5 technology, sky’s the limit. On his off time, he enjoys cultivating authentic relationships while always pursuing a greater sense of self and awareness.

Follow Daniels on Twitter: @dannon81
]]> http://www.webdirections.org/resources/daniels-leetm-designing-for-the-10-foot-ui/feed/ 0 http://www.webdirections.org/resources/lisa-herrod-the-age-of-awareness/ http://www.webdirections.org/resources/lisa-herrod-the-age-of-awareness/#comments Mon, 15 Nov 2010 23:41:55 +0000 Guy Leech http://www.webdirections.org/?p=2948 Social innovation, service design and even augmented reality are now presenting real and interesting opportunities for us as traditional web practitioners. Combined with inclusive design practices, this opens up a fantastic world of change for both us and the people for whom we design.

]]> Web Directions South 2010, Sydney Convention and Exhibition Centre, October 15 11.45am.

• Audio recording of session
• Presentation slides
• Session description
• About Lisa Herrod

Presentation slides

Session description

Inclusive design. It might sound like a rebranding exercise from the Web Accessibility Marketing Team, but it isn’t. For years inclusive design and research practices have been applied to a wide variety of disciplines from industrial design to the arts, the built environment and more.

What can we learn from this? And how can we apply it to the digital environment in which we work?

Social innovation, service design and even augmented reality are now presenting real and interesting opportunities for us as traditional web practitioners. Combined with inclusive design practices, this opens up a fantastic world of change for both us and the people for whom we design.

So starting with the web, we’ll reinvigorate our passion for diversity and inclusion. Let’s declare this The Age of Awareness!

About Lisa Herrod

Lisa is the Principal User Experience consultant at Scenario Seven with over ten years of hands-on experience on the web. She has a background in standards based design and development with the last 7 years focusing on design research, usability, accessibility and user experience strategy.

Lisa believes in an inclusive, holistic approach to user experience design that permeates every layer of a site and every role on a team. Her clients range from small, non-profit organisations through to large multinationals such as Macquarie Bank, Microsoft, Sydney Opera House, Qantas and the Brooklyn Museum NYC.

Lisa is an experienced lecturer and conference presenter having spoken at conferences both locally and abroad in the UK, NZ and the US. She's a sporadic blogger and a crazy lover of whippets, with two little ones of her own...

Follow Lisa on Twitter: @scenariogirl

]]> http://www.webdirections.org/resources/lisa-herrod-the-age-of-awareness/feed/ 2 http://www.webdirections.org/resources/paul-hagon-enriching-large-data-sets/ http://www.webdirections.org/resources/paul-hagon-enriching-large-data-sets/#comments Fri, 29 Oct 2010 23:24:20 +0000 Guy Leech http://www.webdirections.org/?p=2890 Libraries contain masses of beautifully structured data collected over many years. But these records may have their flaws and might now want to be used in ways, such as location based services, that weren't imagined 30 years ago. How can we use existing API's and web services to enrich this data to enable it to be used in a variety of ways. This data also needs to be exposed for others to use and build upon. With the recent release of the Government response to the Web 2.0 taskforce, how can institutions comply with these recommendations by providing their data in usable forms for the public. What's involved in building an API into our resources and how can our data be given more meaning through semantic linkages like RDFa?

]]> Web Directions South 2010, Sydney Convention and Exhibition Centre, October 14 1.40pm.

• Audio recording of session
• Presentation slides
• Session description
• About Paul Hagon

Presentation slides

Session description

Libraries contain masses of beautifully structured data collected over many years. But these records may have their flaws and might now want to be used in ways, such as location based services, that weren’t imagined 30 years ago. How can we use existing API’s and web services to enrich this data to enable it to be used in a variety of ways. This data also needs to be exposed for others to use and build upon. With the recent release of the Government response to the Web 2.0 taskforce, how can institutions comply with these recommendations by providing their data in usable forms for the public. What’s involved in building an API into our resources and how can our data be given more meaning through semantic linkages like RDFa?

About Paul Hagon

Paul is the Senior Web Designer at the National Library of Australia and has been working on the web in cultural institutions since 1999. His job entails a mix of design, coding, and accessibility. He is a thinker and "ideas" man. He finds cultural institutions fascinating because of what they bring to society, they are rich resources of information and provide vast potential for exploring hidden treasures. Paul enjoys making these items available and telling their stories in ways that may not be the most obvious. He likes to use technology in a relevant way to enrich the way we can interact with these resources.

In 2010 Paul was named a "Mover and Shaker" of the library world by Library Journal.

Follow Paul on Twitter: @paulhagon

]]> http://www.webdirections.org/resources/paul-hagon-enriching-large-data-sets/feed/ 1 http://www.webdirections.org/resources/sandi-wassmer-inclusive-design-is-for-everyone/ http://www.webdirections.org/resources/sandi-wassmer-inclusive-design-is-for-everyone/#comments Mon, 19 Jul 2010 00:13:30 +0000 Guy Leech http://www.webdirections.org/?p=2676 Inclusive Design is currently the domain of people who design physical things, like product designers and architects, but Sandi Wassmer is firm in her belief that Inclusive Design applied in the online environment just makes sense.

]]> Web Directions @media 2010, Southbank Centre London, June 11 10.45am.

• Audio recording of session
• Presentation slides
• Session description
• About Sandi Wassmer

Presentation slides

Session description

Inclusive Design is currently the domain of people who design physical things, like product designers and architects, but Sandi Wassmer is firm in her belief that Inclusive Design applied in the online environment just makes sense.

The principles of Inclusive Design encompass so many of the practices, principles and guidelines that web designers are already using – Accessibility, Usability, User Centric Design, Progressive Enhancement and User Experience – but unlike each of these discrete practices, Inclusive Design gives designers the ability to offer choice, as a single design solution will never accommodate all users.

Sandi will talk about how the principles of Inclusive Design can be easily adopted by web designers right now. By the end of the session you’ll have the framework for becoming an inclusion activist!

About Sandi Wassmer

Sandi Wassmer is a Human Rights Internet Marketer. Yes, it is a made up term, but that is the way she sees it. As Managing Director of digital agency, Copious, she is healthily obsessed with creating great internet experiences for all and building beautiful, accessible and usable websites

When Sandi is not trying to make the Internet a better place, she writes, tweets, blogs and advocates about a whole range of issues from disability rights to accessibility and social inclusion.

Follow Sandi on Twitter: @SandiWassmer

]]> http://www.webdirections.org/resources/sandi-wassmer-inclusive-design-is-for-everyone/feed/ 1 http://www.webdirections.org/resources/damien-mccormack-accessibility-means-business/ http://www.webdirections.org/resources/damien-mccormack-accessibility-means-business/#comments Fri, 09 Oct 2009 00:28:10 +0000 Guy Leech http://www.webdirections.org/?p=2321 Over 4 million people in Australia have a disability. As a result they may use the web in a different way to you: a keyboard instead of a mouse; a screen reader instead of a screen. Accessibility is the way that you can tap into this large and growing audience.

]]> Web Directions South 2009, Sydney Convention Centre, October 8 11.45am.

• Audio recording of session
• Presentation slides
• Session description
• About Damien McCormack

Presentation slides

Session description

Over 4 million people in Australia have a disability. As a result they may use the web in a different way to you: a keyboard instead of a mouse; a screen reader instead of a screen. Accessibility is the way that you can tap into this large and growing audience.

In this session, Damien will look at why accessibility matters — not just because it is the right thing to do, or a legal requirement. He will discuss how accessibility leads to more robust, maintainable, searchable and usable websites that meet everyone’s needs. Damien will also explore the opportunities accessibility offers for mobile web design, and provide some practical advice about how to include accessibility in your next project.

About Damien McCormack

Damien McCormack is an accessibility expert and manager of Vision Australia’s web accessibility services. Seven years experience working with people who are blind or have low vision has evolved into a passion and drive to make the world more accessible. In this time, Damien has worked with a large number of government departments, commercial organisations and educational institutions promoting accessibility and providing business and technical advice across all aspects of a project. Damien is also responsible for developing the culture of accessibility within Vision Australia and experiences the challenges of delivering accessible outcomes daily.

]]> http://www.webdirections.org/resources/damien-mccormack-accessibility-means-business/feed/ 0 http://www.webdirections.org/resources/scott-hollier-boosting-new-media-accessibility/ http://www.webdirections.org/resources/scott-hollier-boosting-new-media-accessibility/#comments Thu, 08 Oct 2009 22:47:48 +0000 Guy Leech http://www.webdirections.org/?p=2263 This talk focuses on the efforts engaged by W3C and its members to promote and improve web standards and in particular HTML 5 with mechanisms to allow people with disabilities to access multimedia content, including audio and video.

]]> Web Directions South 2009, Sydney Convention Centre, October 8 1.40pm.

• Presentation slides
• Session description
• About Scott Hollier

Presentation slides

Session description

This talk focuses on the efforts engaged by W3C and its members to promote and improve web standards and in particular HTML 5 with mechanisms to allow people with disabilities to access multimedia content, including audio and video.

Scott will present the current user experiences of accessibility and the challenges of getting uptake in government. This would include the take-up of W3C access standards within government, use of WCAG and ATAG by developers, the technical challenges of video-specific implementations of captioning and audio description, and ways in which such challenges can be better addressed through the involvement of Internet users.

About Scott Hollier

Dr Scott Hollier is the Project Manager, New Media for Media Access Australia (MAA), a not-for-profit, public benevolent institution. Scott’s work focuses on making computers and Internet-related technologies accessible to people with disabilities. Scott represents MAA on the Advisory Committee of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), and is a member of several Web Access Initiative (WAI) working groups. Scott has completed a PhD titled ‘The Disability Divide: an examination into the needs of computing and Internet-related technologies on people who are blind or vision impaired’. Scott is legally blind and as such understands the importance of access at a personal level.

Photo credit: Gary Barber.

]]> http://www.webdirections.org/resources/scott-hollier-boosting-new-media-accessibility/feed/ 0