Categories
conference event review

Open Web Camp 4 another success!

Open Web Camp 4 took place last Saturday July 14, 2012. Turned out to be another great event organized by John Foliot (@JohnFoliot) of San Jose, California. This time, OWC was held at PayPal headquarters in San Jose (was held at Stanford the previous three years). Although the event covers different area of web development, several sessions concentrated on accessibility and others included accessibility as part of the content.

After helping with registration, I arrived a few minutes late to “HTML5: All about Web Forms” by Estelle Wyl (@standardista). The talk was a bit rushed, but packed with great information. Next, “Surf a GB with Glenda’s Thumb” was pretty interesting as Glenda Watson-Hyatt (@GlendaWH) demonstrated challenges of using a computer with a motor disability. She also asked attendees to try a web-surfing exercise while simulating a mobile impairment (by using only non-dominant hand with rubber band around fingers).

I regretted missing “Getting Your CSS Under Control” by Jonathan Snook. But instead I attended Denis Boudreau’s very relevant presentation, “Social Media Accessibility: Where Are We Today?“. This session was actually a replacement for Molly Holzschlag’s presentation; she couldn’t make the event due to TSA nonsense.

I finished the conference by attending “Unhiding The Truth Behind Hiding Content for Screen Reader Users” by Victor Tsaran (@vick08) and then a “game changing perspective” talk by Glenda Sims (@GoodWitch), pictured below.

The event was free in the past, and this year there was only a small $10 registration fee; the value is tremendous! In addition to the sessions, a t-shirt and lunch was provided to all attendees. And lunch was enjoyed by many outside in the nice Northern California weather by the pond on the beautiful PayPal campus. A nice time. I look forward to an OWC5 next year.

projected slide: You are an accessibility avenger

Related links:

Categories
android conference google presentations review

Google IO12 Review and Accessibility

I was fortunate enough to attend the Google I/O conference again this year (last year’s I/O blog). It was again held at the Moscone Center in downtown San Francisco, California. The opening keynote was a smash hit, and in addition to product announcements, featured skydivers wearing Google Glass!

On the second floor, it was a pleasure to meet Phil Strain (@pstr) in person; we’ve followed each other on Twitter for a couple years. He now works for Google and was helping out in the accessibility developer sandbox (booth). He demonstrated the latest ChromeVox. Also at the sandbox, Peter Lundblad demonstrated to me the braille output support using a new Nexus 7 tablet and a Humanware braille display.

Google announced the release of Android Jellybean (4.1) to be released through over-the-air updates to the Galaxy Nexus, Nexus S and Motorola Xoom in July. The announcement came with several Android accessibility enhancements including:

  • Speech recognition is now local to the device, no longer requiring the device to be connected to the Internet in order to use it.
  • Gesture support allowing for greater nonvisual control of the device using the touch screen.
  • Native support for refreshable Bluetooth Braille displays.
  • Source: The Mobile Accessibility Landscape

Session videos

Making Android Apps Accessible with T.V. Raman, Charles Chen, Alan Viverette, Peter Lundblad. Session description:

Android 4.0 introduced platform-level accessibility APIs so that you don’t have to be an expert to make an app that’s accessible to people with disabilities. Come learn how APIs for accessibility make your job easier. We’ll provide code examples covering touch exploration, speech synthesis, multiplatform support through use of a DPAD, magnification for low vision, braille, and more.

Advancing Accessibility for the Web with Rachel Shearer, Dominic Mazzoni, Charles Chen. Includes announcement and demo of the new Chrome Accessibility Developer Tools. Session description:

This session will help you learn through code samples and real world examples how to design and test your web apps for complete accessibility coverage. We will review APIs such as the Text-to-speech (TTS) API, tools like ChromeVox and ChromeShades and how Google products implement solutions today for users with disabilities.

Related links

Tidbits

  • I ran into Peter Hazelhurst, former VP of two of my past employers. Turns out he now is Global Head of Payments, Product Management at Google. He presented on “Introducing Google Wallet Cloud APIs”.
  • It was neat to run into Isabelle Olsson, a lead designer on the Google Glass project, outside the conference center. She had presented in the keynote.
  • The line to get the “free” devices on the first day was incredibly long; wrapped around the entire first floor! I would say it was “unbelievable”, but not too surprising considering three cool toys were being handed out including the new Nexus 7″ tablet.
  • While attending on Wednesday, my wife, kids, and parents (who were visiting from Michigan) had a great time touring downtown San Francisco!
Photo of accessibility sandbox (booth) at Google IO 2012