Categories
conference event

Canceled Accessibility Event

Very disappointing news today. The AccessU West conference by Knowbility scheduled for January 10-12 in San Jose, California, has been officially cancelled due to low registration numbers.

The AccessU training conference in Austin, Texas, May 17-19, 2011, will be held as usual. This event is the original from Knowbility and continues to be very successful. You can also follow Knowbility on Twitter.

Still, it’s so saddening that a web accessibility event with major speakers (such as Derek Featherstone and yours truly) has such little interest. Especially in Silicon Valley. Here are some reasons I suspect. Can you think of any other?

  1. Accessibility is not “cool” in Bay area where other exciting web technology is created.
  2. Bad timing; beginning of year may be not ideal for people’s personal schedules and business’ budgets.
  3. Competition – too many other great webinars, conferences, and meetups to choose from.
Categories
twitter

Accessibility Toolkit on OneForty

I’ve created an Accessibility toolkit for accessibility-related Twitter applications on the website OneForty, a great directory of Twitter-related apps. A “toolkit” is a collection of apps with a theme in common. There are only four apps listed in my toolkit so far, so I’d surely welcome any suggestions. Note that the app must be listed on OneForty to be included in a toolkit.

oneforty logo

Categories
conference event

Upcoming Accessibility Events

Here are some great events relating to web accessibility that are occurring soon.

Any missing in the next month? If so, please add in the comments.

Categories
"fixing alt" alt

Fixing Alt – If Web Browsers Were Celebrities

A humorous infographic was recently published and twittered about, If Web Browsers Were Celebrities (full image). I’ve noticed more than several of these in the last few months, and one big issue about them continues to nag me: there’s no sufficient alternative text! (Also a good case for the longdesc attribute!)

So I decided to to my typing skills to work and provide the alternative text. Hopefully there will be more of these to come on this blog. So here it is, the alt text from the If Web Browsers Were Celebrities infographic:

Browser Compatibility; If Web Browsers Were Celebrities

[Each item includes a nice, large browser icon and a cartoon-style avatar of the celebrity’s face.]

Firefox – Can do no wrong, though not as spry as it once seemed. Would be: Morgan Freeman.

Chrome – The new hotness. People love it so much they’re nervous it will go wrong and embarrass them later. Would be: Christopher Nolan.

IE6 – Everyone thought it died a long time ago, but still seems to crop up all over the place. Would be: Betty White. [LOL!]

IE7 – After years of giving it chance after chance, performance never gets better. Would be: Matthew McConaughey.

IE8 – Trying desperately to stay relevant, even though it’s still the same thing. Would be: The Shatner. [William Shatner]

Safari – Reliable performance, seems to be everywhere. Would be: Samuel Jackson. (Just wait til he collaborates with “Chrome”)

Flock – Hip, but people don’t take it seriously anymore. Would be: Michael Cera.

Netscape – When it died, everyone said “Oh yea, that one!” and then forgot all about it. Would be: Walter Matthau.

Opera – Only ever used if you already have 100 tabs open in IE, Firefox isn’t available, and you have no toher choice. Everyone agrees it looks nice, though. Would be: J-Lo. [Jennifer Lopez]

IceWeasel – Who? You mean that weird one? Would be Kristen Schaal (AKA Mel on Flight of the Conchords)

Requires No Browser – Is unquestionably Keanu Reeves. [Avatar of Keanu says “Wo”]

Infographic: If Web Browsers Were Celebrities, small size

Categories
roundup

Link Roundup – November 2010

Addendum (thanks Jennison!)