The July WAWG Meeting will be held on Tuesday, July 7, 2009 from 1:00 - 2:30 PM in room 100 North Hatcher Graduate Library. Patricia Anderson will speak on Accessible Design for Second Life (and other Virtual Worlds):
"People have become more aware of accessible design in real life architectural spaces, designing spaces to make them easy to use for persons with and without disabilities or special needs. There is also a trend over the past fifteen years to keep in mind designing web sites to be accessible. An area that is often still neglected are video games and 3d virtual worlds, which present some unique challenges to the designer committed to accessibility. This presentation will describe some of what is happening in Second Life with the engagement of the special needs communities with the programmers and developers from Linden Labs, with a focus on lessons learned and best practices."
Please contact Patty Bradley-Diehl (pattyb) with all questions. See you there.
Posted by pattyb on 2 Jul.
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The WAWG will meet on Tuesday, June 9th from 1:00 - 2:30 p.m. in Hatcher Graduate Library, room 100 North. If you have not joined us before, see the directions to the Harlan Hatcher Graduate Library page.
I am very pleased to announce that the University has finally hired a Web Accessibility and Adaptive Technology Coordinator: Scott Williams. Scott started his new position yesterday and an "official" announcement is forthcoming. He was a Web Production Manager for Michigan Marketing and Design prior to taking this new position.
During our June meeting Scott will speak about his plans and vision for the position. He will also be very interested in hearing your ideas.
Patty Bradley-Diehl
Posted by pattyb on 19 May.
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This is a reminder that we will not meet during May because of Enriching Scholarship. I have will make my slides for my two ES sessions (Best Practices for Making Accessible Web Sites / Forms and Tables) public after ES is over with. They both center on WCAG 2.0.
There has been a bit of news on Accessible Videos. Captionate is a relatively inexpensive flash video captioning solution. I hope to try it soon.
OSU has developed an accessible version of the JW Player called JW Player Controls for displaying moves on web pages. Their page gives good instructions on how to create captions using the timed-text XML format developed by the W3C, called DFXP.
I have an example (without captions) comparing the same video in JW Player and in JW Player Controls.
-Patty
Posted by pattyb on 28 Apr.
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From Marc Grossman, Accessible Technology Specialist, American Foundation for the Blind
"I want to share some exciting news with you from AFB Consulting. We recently announced the availability of our Accessibility Assurance™ Program (AAP). The AAP was launched to help our customers improve the accessibility of their web site(s) and to better serve the entire user community, including people with disabilities.
The AAP is a structured program through which participants gain access to our world-renowned network of Accessibility Consultants. However the AAP goes beyond traditional web site evaluation services. It also embraces and enables the concept of user empowerment, allowing AAP participants to directly engage users with disabilities to help solve and prevent web accessibility problems.
We are proud to announce that Marriott International has become the lead corporate participant in the AAP. You can read more about the Accessibility Assurance™ Program and our work with Marriott International at the following URLs:
Marriott press release: http://tinyurl.com/cbubgp
Marriott blog: http://tinyurl.com/dmko3n
Also, check out the latest discussion thread about our work with Facebook on TechCrunch:
TechCrunch Article: http://tinyurl.com/dabsfs
I invite you to read more about the AAP at our new web site, http://www.afbconsulting.org ."
Posted by pattyb on 14 Apr.
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For the April WAWG meeting on Tuesday, April 7 from 1:00-2:30 pm, Patty Bradley-Diehl will demonstrate Adobe Dreamweaver's CS4 Accessibility Features in room 2615 Crossroads, the School of Public Health. Please contact Patty @ pattyb@umich.edu if you need directions.
There will be no May WAWG meeting because of Enriching Scholarship.
Posted by pattyb on 25 Mar.
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A new accessible site for viewing and posting tweets: http://www.accessibletwitter.com
Posted by pattyb on 21 Mar.
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I have committed to teaching two workshops on Web Accessibility during Enriching Scholarship 2009. Registration opens on April 1.
Best Practices for Making Accessible Websites
Today our websites need to be accessible to persons with all types of disabilities. In this workshop you will learn best practices and current web standards for creating accessible websites, as well as how to test your websites against accessibility standards. Some knowledge of X/HTML AND/OR experience with web editing programs like Adobe Dreamweaver will be helpful.
Date: Tuesday, May 5
Time: 10 a.m.-12 noon
Location: 2615 SPH Crossroads
Best Practices for Making Accessible Forms and Tables
This workshop is a follow-up to the Best Practices for Making Accessible Websites workshop. You will learn web standards- and web accessibility standards- compliant methods for creating tables and forms in web pages.
Date: Wed, May 6
Time: 1 p.m.-3 p.m.
Location: 2615 SPH Crossroads
Wish me luck!
-Patty
Posted by pattyb on 4 Mar.
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The old version of the Functional Accessibility Evaluator (FAE) (http://fae.cita.uiuc.edu/) is being replaced by a new version. If you plan to continue using FAE, please read on. If not, rest assured that you will not receive any additional emails regarding FAE.
FAE 1.0 is finally here. The new version has 40+ rules that now support the Illinois Information Technology Accessibility Act (IITAA) (http://www.dhs.state.il.us/page.aspx?item=32765), which went into effect last year. FAE 1.0 also has a new scheme for managing and archiving the reports you create.
The URL for FAE, http://fae.cita.uiuc.edu/, will begin resolving to the new 1.0 version no later than Monday, March 9th (the DNS switchover will occur Friday evening). Once the new version is available, you will need to register for a new user account, as old accounts will not be carried over to FAE 1.0.
The old version of FAE, reachable at http://faeold.cita.uiuc.edu/, and reports currently stored there, will remain available for approximately two weeks after the new version is released. On March 23rd, reports and accounts there will be deleted.
--
Nicholas Hoyt
Software Development and User Interface Design Specialist Disability Resources and Educational Services (DRES) University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Posted by pattyb on 4 Mar.
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We will meet on Tuesday, March 3, 2009 from 1:00 PM until 2:30 PM in 100 North Hatcher. Patricia Anderson will present on YouTube: How it is being used for the special needs communities, and also a new tool for making YouTube videos more accessible for a broader range of visual problems.
Posted by pattyb on 25 Feb.
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Today from 2-4 is a webinar on web accessibility for the blind. I have registered, and I think it is still open. They are having another free webinar March 3rd on accessibility for persons with learning disabilities and traumatic brain injuries. Please check out:
http://easi.cc/clinic.htm
Posted by pattyb on 25 Feb.
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