Accessibility Toronto Conference 2019 Summary

The third annual Accessibility Toronto Conference was held recently at TELUS in downtown Toronto, Ontario, Canada. On Twitter, the hash tag is #a11yTO and the account is @a11yTO.

Accessibility Toronto Conference logo

And for the first time, both an Accessibility In Real Life conference (#a11yIRL) and a conference dedicated to accessible gaming (#a11yTOGaming). They were run the day before and after the main conference. All events were a big success!

The week even included a few social events in the evening including an entertaining karaoke party hosted by Shopify and a Tweetup hosted by Slack.

A theme which seemed to emerge from the conferences collectively was: Design *with* people with disabilities, not *for* people with disabilities.

large room with many people seating; a few people on stage in front; there is a monitor on right and live captions on left

Other notables from the conference were the adjustable desk on stage and a video puppet which reminded attendees when the sessions are about to start!

See below for a list of available presentation resources (from the a11yTO conference), selected tweets, and a few excellent conference reviews. See you there next year?

Presentation Resources (partial)

Tweets

https://twitter.com/ShellELittle/status/1187368065933234179

Other Reviews

U.S. Supreme Court Favors Digital Accessibility in Domino’s Case

A favorable decision was made yesterday (October 7, 2019) in the United States regarding digital accessibility and the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA).

The U.S. Supreme Court denied to hear Domino’s Pizza appeal of the Ninth Circuit federal appeals court decision which allowed the case to be heard. So the Ninth Circuit decision for Domino’s v. Robles stands, hooray! Digital products which are a public accommodation must be accessible or will be subject to a lawsuit (and probably lose).

The accessibility community is dumbfounded and outraged as to why Domino’s, a national pizza chain in the U.S., would spend so much money and effort into fighting digital equality rather than making their digital services accessible to all, which would greatly increase their potential customer base (and avoid bad publicity!)

Here’s Domino’s statement about the Supreme Court’s decision. Domino’s doesn’t admit that besides convenience, inclusiveness, and equality, ordering online provides other perks that cannot be received in another way, such as discounts, coupons, and rewards points. Although their call for DOJ regulation has some merit, it’s more of an unwarranted excuse. Regulations aren’t completely necessary; if passed, they would likely still be WCAG 2.0 AA, and digital products would still be subject to lawsuits.

For lots of legalese, here is the the Domino’s case (PDF) and the Domino’s ruling (PDF). See below for a list of related articles and tweets.

Domino's Pizza logo with line thru it

Articles

Tweets

https://twitter.com/accessibility20/status/1181228718439780352

Digital Accessibility Jobs, August 2019

Many more great opportunities in digital accessibility! Please leave comment more.

For more job listings on Twitter, follow me, @a11yJobs, @EasyChirp and @LyndonDunbar.

Jobs written on newspaper with magnifying glass

Summary of Accessibility Toronto Camp

Accessibility Toronto Camp occurred Saturday, May 18 at OCAD University in incredible city of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. For information on Twitter, search #a11yTOCamp and follow @a11yTO.

#a11yTO Camp logo

The camp kicked off with a warm welcome and announcements from organizers Billy Gregory, Oskar Westin, and Jenny Hiseler. Learn about all of the camp organizers on the event’s website.

Announcements during the event included the launch of a new conference Accessibility In Real Life (#a11yIRL) and an axe-pro beta program for web developers from Deque Systems.

Below are session resources, select Tweets, and a few personal notes.

Session Resources

Here’s a mix of resources from presenters of the conference.

Tweets

https://twitter.com/sophiaminmorgan/status/1130197585128493058

https://twitter.com/thedaviddias/status/1129836296212557824

Personal Notes

  • I loved exploring downtown Toronto; came across a wicked good place to eat called Rolltation — sushi burritos!
  • It was my first time at OCAD so it was cool just being there. It’s quite a funky/artsy place!
  • Met more great folks in the community including Sophia Morgan and John McNabb.
  • I have a few photos on the Instagram #a11yTOCamp feed.

Summary of CSUN ATC 2019

The 34th CSUN Assistive Technology Conference has come and gone (held March 11-15, 2019). It was another terrific event, and with approximately 5000 attendees! The big difference in this year’s event was the new location—the lovely Anaheim Marriott hotel outside of Los Angeles, California. The official Twitter hashtag is #CSUNATC19. Next year’s event is planned for the same venue next March 9 to March 13, 2020.

CSUN Assistive Technology Conference, logo

Sandy Plotin (Managing Director, Center on Disabilities, CSUN) and Jennison Asuncion (Digital Accessibility Leader!) hosted the keynote event where Johanna Lucht, a Deaf Engineer at NASA, was honored. In addition, Sean Keegan, Director of California Community Colleges Accessibility Center, was announced this year’s Strache Leadership Award recipient.

Below are a great list of session resources, a few announcements made, photos, and some fun tweets! Lastly, links to past CSUN events are listed.

Recommended Session Resources

For much more, check the Great big list of CSUNATC19 accessibility presentations (Google Sheet). Also see the TPG CSUN 2019 Round-up and the Deque Systems Presentation Slides.

Announcements

Please leave a comment with anything missed.

More Related Links

Photos

Several people standing in front of meeting room with slide still projected.
David Swallow answering questions after his session.
Large meeting room with woman standing behind table and in front of large slide projection.
Sarah Pulis of Intopia presenting.
Front of room with projected slide on left, two people standing in center, and live captions on monitor on right.
Microsoft presenting on Narrator.

Fun Tweets

Past reviews of CSUN ATC conferences