Categories
awards conference event

ACCESS-IT Workshops and Awards

ACCESS-IT 2009 is a two-day event on Accessibility and Assistive Technology to be held September 22 and 23 at Microsoft (UK), Victoria, London. The event includes two workshops and an awards ceremony. It is hosted by Microsoft and will be located at its Cardinal Place location in Central London. You may register for ACCESS-IT 2009 at any time.

The ACCESS-IT 2009 Awards program honors accessible technologies from a project, product or service in the following four categories: Home, Work, Living, Web 2.0. About 100 nominations have been submitted from 24 countries; there are 19 finalists and 44 have received a good practice label.

Accessible Twitter has been named a finalist! All finalists will be rewarded at the ACCESS-IT 2009 event ceremony September 23.

Categories
cognitive webaim

Evaluating Cognitive Web Accessibility

In WebAIM’s article Evaluating Cognitive Web Accessibility, the most varied and complex area of accessibility is addressed. Cognitive accessibility is more prevalent than all physical and sensory disabilities combined, but seems to be dealt with the least, probably because it’s most difficult to pinpoint as well as to solve. Much needed general principles and specific guidelines (referred to as a checklist in article) are provided in the article.

Here are the principles listed for cognitive accessibility:

  • Simple
  • Consistent
  • Clear
  • Multi-modal
  • Error-tolerant
  • Attention-focusing
  • Improving web accessibility for this audience will improve access for everyone

The guidelines are categorized under:

  • Assistive Technology Compatibility
  • Consistency
  • Transformability
  • Multi-modality
  • Focus and Structure
  • Readability and Language
  • Orientation and Error Prevention/Recovery
Categories
"assistive technology" alt conference event

Fall Web Accessibility Events

Here’s a list of some conferences and events this fall relating to web accessibility. Please feel free to add more in the comments.

Techshare 2009

Workshops, presentations and exhibitions from organisations and leading figures representing the digital technology disability sector.
16-18 September 2009
ExCeL conference and exhibition centre
London, England

Standards.Next – Cognition and accessibility

Northampton Square
London, England EC1V 0HB
Saturday, September 19, 2009 (1-4 pm)

EdUI 2009 Conference

For web professionals in higher education.
September 21-22, 2009
Charlottesville, Virginia, U.S.A. (at the University of Virginia)

Accessibility 2.0

The UK’s only Web 2.0 accessibility conference.
22nd September 09
London, England
Hosted by AbilityNet

An Event Apart, Chicago

Two Days Of Design, Code, and Content
October 12–13, 2009
Sheraton Towers
Chicago, Illinois, U.S.A.

12th Annual Accessing Higher Ground

Accessible Media, Web and Technology Conference
November 10- 14, 2009
Westminster, Colorado, U.S.A (near Denver)
Keynote Speaker: T.V. Raman, Research Scientist, Google, Inc.
Hosted by the University of Colorado at Boulder

NOTE

I just have to add, I’m pretty disappointed in some of the code on these sites, especially with the (lack of) alternative text, the most basic checkpoints for web accessibility. In the Accessibility 2.0 site, the logo is missing alternative text! And on the Ed UI site, the date and location in the header is also missing alternative text; there is repeated content (under Get Updates); and my pet peeve, redundant title attributes (in menu). Correct me if I’m wrong, but this is pretty careless and poor example.

Addendum 27 Aug

Closing the Gap

Changing lives with assistive technology
Minneapolis, MN
October 15-17, 2009
Preconference Workshops – October 13-14

Web 2.0 Expo New York

November 16-19, 2009 at Javits Center
New York, NY
Register by October 8 and Save $350

Categories
administrative awards podcast

Web Axe Nominated in 2009 .net Awards

Web Axe is nominated for Podcast of the Year in The 2009 .net Awards by .Net Magazine (@netmag).

There are 17 categories, but you don’t have to vote for all at one time. Categories include best web app, mobile site of the year, and standards champion.

Voting closes 12th October 2009. The judges will then decide the winner from the top 3 in each category. Winners will be announced December 8th.

The awards have an excellent group of judges including: Jeffrey Zeldman, Paul Boag, Andy Budd, Christian Heilmann, Jason Santa Maria, Jon Hicks, Ryan Carson and Jonathan Snook.

Web Axe was also nominated last year (2008). Boagworld won the award.

Categories
administrative

Affordable niche advertising!

Web Axe is now offering audio ad space in each podcast. Additionally, you get a link on the blog. Standard rate is $150 (U.S. Dollars) per podcast.

Anyone interested may contact me by:

  • Email to: web axe [at gmail] NOSPAM! dot com
  • Direct message on Twitter (@webaxe)
  • Leave a comment on this blog post.

More Details

  • Valuable, unique niche market. Target this highly specialized audience! (accessibility advocates, web coding gurus, etc.)
  • PayPal is preferred.
  • Rate may vary depending on length and placement.
  • $150 rate is for an audio ad under 20 seconds.