Category: event

The second Accessibility Toronto Conference was another success! It was held at TELUS in beautiful downtown Toronto, Canada. Hosted by the lovely Léonie Watson (@LeonieWatson) and the always entertaining Makoto Ueki (@mak_en).

Presentation Resources (partial list)

If your presentation resource is not listed, please leave a comment or contact me on Twitter at @WebAxe.

Welcome To My World
by @SteveFaulkner

Assistive Technology: Training, UX And Design: What Devs Need To Know About UX And Aging
by @SassyOutwater

Finding The Place Where Accessibility And SEO Happily Co-Exist
by @CarieFisher

If It’s Interactive, It Needs A Focus Style
by Eric Bailey @ericwbailey

A Primer On The Designer’s A11y Responsibility
by Hala Anwar @halathinkeths

The Dark Side Of The Grid
by Manuel Matuzović @mmatuzo

Creating Accessible React Apps
by Scott Vinkle @svinkle

Making Bulb More Accessible
Related article: Making Bulb accessible – introducing the new Bulb site
by Heydon Pickering @heydonworks

Photos

Collection of A11yTO 2018 photos on Google Photos

Tweets

#a11yTOConf @heydonworks on his full stack rant. Which was not very ranty. pic.twitter.com/0tok0PlVUx

— Adrian Roselli (@aardrian) October 16, 2018

Assistive tech isn’t just screen readers! #a11yTOConf pic.twitter.com/fF5kxo0ysb

— Katelyn Lemay (@lemayke) October 15, 2018

I'm bringing some #A11yTO and axe-core stickers (thanks @dennisl) home. You can get them at the next @wearewebclerks meetup! #a11y pic.twitter.com/2d6kVuf1tL

— Manuel Matuzović (@mmatuzo) October 16, 2018

Audible gasps from the audience as @shepazu demos a tool to explore table data with a screen reader.

Not just reading the data out in order but asking and answering questions: “What are the top 5?” “How does C compare to N?”#a11yTOConf

— Stephanie Hobson (@stephaniehobson) October 15, 2018

Sustaining Accessibility – Risks:
1. critical employee turnover
2. inadequate accessible training
3. changes in regulatory requirements
4. inadequate oversight in product mgmt
5. loss of tech interoperability
by @sambhavi #a11y #a11yTOConf

— Web Axe (@webaxe) October 15, 2018

React code doesn't have to be inaccessible any more than hip-hop has to be misogynist.

— Heydon (@heydonworks) February 9, 2018

#A11YTOConf @ShellELittle
AT for dyslexia: spell checkers, voice to text, copy/paste, SRs.
For ADD/ADHD: read-only mode, ad blockers, auto-compete, captions. pic.twitter.com/8aSsnVd9hZ

— Adrian Roselli (@aardrian) October 15, 2018

Last Thoughts

Unfortunately, Eric Wright (@EWAccess) wasn’t able to give his presentation “Speech Recognition Solutions” due to breaking his ankle while he was in Toronto for the conference. Feel better Eric!

Was great to meet several folks in person for the first time whom I had known for a while online including Heydon Pickering, Eric Bailey, and Manuel Matuzović.

I discovered Steam Whistle pilsner (brewed in Toronto) which was very good!

Billy Gregory announced that the event will take place again next year in the same location (and Cordelia and Heydon invited to host!)

Here’s the review of last year’s conference (2017), Accessibility Toronto Conference a big success!

The inaugural Accessibility Toronto Conference was a big success! The event was held September 28-29, 2017 in the TELUS building in downtown Toronto. (Toronto has been a leader in conducting accessibility “camps” but this was the first “conference”.) Major thanks to the event organizers and sponsors.

Addendum Nov 6, 2017: AMI Inside: a11yTO Conference (YouTube)

Presentation Resources

Here are resources for many of the presentations. Feel free to add any to the comments.

• Designing Accessible Web Content for “Older” Users (ZIP of PDF) by Makoto Ueki @mak_en
• How do you get this damn thing to stop talking?!: Web accessibility testing (when it’s only part of your job) by Philip Springall @pipstopher
• Writing for Every Reader (Slideshare) by Stephanie Hobson‏ @stephaniehobson
• In Defense of Native Form Validation Slides | Demo by Paul Grenier @AutoSponge
• Progressive Enhancement and Accessibility (PowerPoint) by Dennis Lembree @dennisl
• Everything I Know About Accessibility I Learned from Stack Overflow by Adrian Roselli @aardrian
• Calvin and Hobbes on Accessibility by @LeonieWatson
• Accessibility: No rights without responsibility by Nicolas Steenhout‏ @vavroom
• Rethinking web accessibility on Windows by Marco Zehe @MarcoInEnglish
• Accessibility and Inclusion Beyond the Screen (Slideshare) by Linn Vizard
• No rights without responsibility by Nicolas Steenhout @vavroom

Notes

• The 7th #a11yTOCamp is scheduled for November 18 at @OCAD. Follow @a11yTO for more info.
• Great moment: Makoto strips off his flannel shirt and proudly displays a Toronto Blue Jays baseball jersey which was hidden underneath!
• Personally, it was great meeting some folks in person for the first time whom I’ve know online for years, especially @vavroom. Also met some great new folks!
• I also really enjoyed visiting Toronto—a very clean, fun, friendly, and diverse city!

Twitter

Below are some selected tweets from the conference. The event’s account is @a11yTO and the hash tag is #a11yTOConf.

.@LeonieWatson and @thebillygregory kicking off #a11yTOConf pic.twitter.com/1REL3tgYK5

— Dennis Lembrée ⛄️ (@dennisl) September 28, 2017

Live ASL and CART at #a11yTOConf, this is what inclusion is all about. pic.twitter.com/6UDzueybQJ

— Toufic Sbeiti (@TouficSbeiti) September 28, 2017

Good talk on research with PWDs by @jannacameron & @jenniferkrul. Also entertaining (and far better than mine, dammit). #a11yTOConf pic.twitter.com/q8im0eEHum

— Adrian Roselli (@aardrian) September 28, 2017

"People try to answer ARIA questions, but they don't quite know what they're doing." Need to share more and educate! @aardrian #a11yTOConf

— Scott Vinkle (@svinkle) September 29, 2017

Potentially one of my favourite slides from #a11yTOConf pic.twitter.com/RhFQ1dO8ro

— Jiwon Bang (@jiwonbang) September 29, 2017

"Accessibility is like ice cream—the longer you ignore it, the messier it gets." ~ @pipstopher #a11yTOConf #a11y

— Dennis Lembrée ⛄️ (@dennisl) September 29, 2017

Learning how @eBay does #a11y from @garcialo – check out the OATMEAL documentation! https://t.co/U20HwRGVl3 #a11yTOConf pic.twitter.com/IbHsafw61P

— Kalamuna (@kalamuna) September 28, 2017

In a recent survey, 3.4% of Stack Overflow users identified as having a disability ~ @Aardrian #A11yToConf

— The Paciello Group (@paciellogroup) September 29, 2017

Some of the designs given to developers are a bit like photos of cake – no recipe on making it happen says @IanPouncey #a11y #A11yTOConf pic.twitter.com/oO47QekAMF

— Nicolas Steenhout (@vavroom) September 29, 2017

#a11yTOConf VoiceOver #selfie challenge! @TD_Canada pic.twitter.com/CSI7syJL50

— Aidan Tierney (@AidanA11y) September 28, 2017

"Automated testing is _not_ a substitute for manual testing." @rydbergk #a11yTOConf

— Scott Vinkle (@svinkle) September 29, 2017

Great #a11y writing tips from @stephaniehobson – consider cognitive disabilities by focusing on the functional effects. #A11yToConf pic.twitter.com/9vDlkGgXyd

— Kalamuna (@kalamuna) September 28, 2017

Mobile keyboard types are important says @chriscm2006. Email, numbers, passwords. Makes a difference for #a11y and #UX. #A11yToConf pic.twitter.com/mS4rUw4sPp

— Nicolas Steenhout (@vavroom) September 28, 2017