Categories
conference event roundup

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.

#a11yTOConf

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.

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.

https://twitter.com/jiwon_bang/status/913857498045669387

https://twitter.com/vavroom/status/913794060288225280

https://twitter.com/vavroom/status/913405306603999232

Categories
csun presentations roundup testing wcag2

CSUN17 Review

Another successful CSUN Assistive Technology Conference has come and gone. Below is a curated list of slide decks, reviews, photos, and more. Also check out my CSUN17 preview.

Slides etc. from presentations

Feel free to cite more in the comments.

Workshops

Other reviews, etc.

More awesome stuff

WCAG 2.1 First public working draft. Also see Quick Guide to WCAG 2.1 First Public Working Draft by David MacDonald

By IBM Va11yS, or Verified Accessibility Samples, is a repository of live working code samples that designers and developers can easily access to test with different assistive technologies and tools.

OATMEAL – An accessibility testing methodology for the web, by eBay. Stands for Open Accessibility Testing Methods for Experts And Layfolk—nice!

Mind Your Lang by Adrian Roselli from role=drinks event.

Photos

Terry Thompson speaking on audio description at CSUN17
Terry Thompson speaking on audio description at CSUN17
Denis Boudreau fills the Deque Suite at CSUN17
Denis Boudreau fills the Deque Suite at CSUN17
Karaoke at CSUN17, Makoto and Matt lead C-S-U-N
Karaoke at CSUN17, Makoto and Matt lead C-S-U-N (to the tune of YMCA)

More from CSUN17 Flickr album by Dennis Lembree

Categories
forms roundup

Accessible Date Pickers

Unfortunately, several shiny HTML5 features (such as the video element), ended up implemented to different levels by browsers, without good accessibility, and without an interface that satisfied designers (a nearly impossible task). This includes the date input.

And a designer should first ask, is a date picker actually needed?

Recently on Twitter, there was some discussion about accessible date picker widgets. Jason Kiss (@JKiss) did some analysis and gave feedback.

https://twitter.com/jkiss/status/720720467829493760 (Tweet no longer exists.)

I felt compelled to list the examples of accessible date pickers mentioned in the Twitter thread, so here they are. Know any other good ones?

PS: In the tweet thread, props to @handcoding, @pauljadam, and @backflip.

Related articles:

Last updated Nov 2023

Categories
color design roundup tools

Color Contrast Tools

Here are some tools that specifically check for color contrast accessibility issues on websites. And a few related links below. Know any others?

Updated April 2024. Please feel free to comment with additions and corrections.

color wheel

Categories
event roundup

Upcoming Accessibility Events

Some great accessibility events coming up!

Did I miss anything? Please add in comments.

Update Sep 24: added Ottawa and Chicago events