Derek Featherstone
April 7 9:00AM
Overview:
Your reputation—and the reputation of your agency or company—depends on
bulletproof, functionally elegant web apps that will work now and in the
future. Using your application shouldn’t frustrate users; their experience,
regardless of who they are, should be effortless.
Want a truly usable, accessible web app? Learn from a world-class teacher how
to harness Ajax, break out of your usual development routines, and build
intelligently, using the technologies you really need.
We won’t just be covering the basics or theoretical situations. We’ll be
examining research and real-life test cases. You’ll see assistive
technologies and prototypes of new techniques in action. During this intensive
workshop we’ll even put a selection of existing web apps through their paces
— zeroing in on how well they meet the needs of people with a variety of
disabilities
Who’s this workshop for?
To get the most out of this workshop you will have some experience with
building web sites and applications, and know at the basics of web
accessibility practices. There are equal parts design and development in this
workshop and can be delivered in half- or full-day formats.
What will you learn?
* grasp the difference between accessibility for web apps and for websites
* build intelligently — plan for accessibility from the outset of a project
* understand the significance of JavaScript and how to use it wisely
* implement simple HTML techniques that help ensure accessibility success
* recognize the impact of Ajax and dynamically-generated content on people with
disabilities — and know what to do about it
* create an effective strategy for building more accessible applications that
work with current assistive technology and anticipate future developments
* see how various assistive technologies interact with modern web development
techniques such as DOM Scripting and know how to make developmental decisions
based on this first-hand experience
* define best practices for testing the accessibility of your own web
applications
* explore the practical uses of WAI ARIA in your web apps
This workshop has received rave reviews in Australia, New Zealand, and a
variety of locations around North America.
April 10 11:30AM
Summary:
Dive straight into accessibility at the edges of user experience. Learn about
tools and techniques you can use right away in your quest to craft the most
usable and accessible of applications and sites. More importantly, we’ll look
at the concepts behind the techniques so you can start experimenting on your
own, and walk away inspired—and ready to inject accessibility into the web.
Overview
In this not so everyday look at accessibility, we'll look at 10 experimental
concepts and techniques that were developed by:
1) identifying accessibility needs
2) generating ideas to accomodating these needs
3) creating and testing experimental solutions that meet these needs
In doing so, we'll put your skills as a new or experienced Information
Architect or designer to the test as you leave looking for accessibility and
usability issues to solve in sites and applications that you build or work with
every day. You'll approach the work that you do with new insight into what is
possible when we talk about accessibility as part of user experience. Armed
with these innovations, a few readily available tools, and your insight into
people, you'll be able to work with your teams to start solving more
accessibility problems today.