Ladies and gentlemen of the class of ’97:

Wear sunscreen.

If I could offer you only one tip for the future, sunscreen would be it. The long-term benefits of sunscreen have been proved by scientists, whereas the
rest of my advice has no basis more reliable than my own meandering experience. I will dispense this advice now.

Enjoy the power and beauty of your youth. Oh, never mind. You will not understand the power and beauty of your youth until they’ve faded. But trust me,
in 20 years, you’ll look back at photos of yourself and recall in a way you can’t grasp now how much possibility lay before you and how fabulous you really
looked.

You are not as fat as you imagine.

Don’t worry about the future. Or worry, but know that worrying is as effective as trying to solve an algebra equation by chewing bubble gum. The real troubles
in your life are apt to be things that never crossed your worried mind, the kind that blindside you at 4 pm on some idle Tuesday.

Do one thing every day that scares you.

Sing.

Don’t be reckless with other people’s hearts. Don’t put up with people who are reckless with yours.

Floss.

Don’t waste your time on jealousy. Sometimes you’re ahead, sometimes you’re behind. The race is long and, in the end, it’s only with yourself.

Remember compliments you receive. Forget the insults. If you succeed in doing this, tell me how.

Keep your old love letters. Throw away your old bank statements.

Stretch.

Don’t feel guilty if you don’t know what you want to do with your life. The most interesting people I know didn’t know at 22 what they wanted to do with
their lives. Some of the most interesting 40-year-olds I know still don’t.

Get plenty of calcium. Be kind to your knees. You’ll miss them when they’re gone.

Maybe you’ll marry, maybe you won’t. Maybe you’ll have children, maybe you won’t. Maybe you’ll divorce at 40, maybe you’ll dance the funky chicken on your
75th wedding anniversary. Whatever you do, don’t congratulate yourself too much, or berate yourself either. Your choices are half chance. So are everybody
else’s.

Enjoy your body. Use it every way you can. Don’t be afraid of it or of what other people think of it. It’s the greatest instrument you’ll ever own.

Dance, even if you have nowhere to do it but your living room.

Read the directions, even if you don’t follow them.

Do not read beauty magazines. They will only make you feel ugly.

Get to know your parents. You never know when they’ll be gone for good. Be nice to your siblings. They’re your best link to your past and the people most
likely to stick with you in the future.

Understand that friends come and go, but with a precious few you should hold on. Work hard to bridge the gaps in geography and lifestyle, because the older
you get, the more you need the people who knew you when you were young.

Live in New York City once, but leave before it makes you hard. Live in Northern California once, but leave before it makes you soft.

Travel.

Accept certain inalienable truths: Prices will rise. Politicians will philander. You, too, will get old. And when you do, you’ll fantasize that when you
were young, prices were reasonable, politicians were noble and children respected their elders.

Respect your elders.

Don’t expect anyone else to support you. Maybe you have a trust fund. Maybe you’ll have a wealthy spouse. But you never know when either one might run
out.

Don’t mess too much with your hair or by the time you’re 40 it will look 85.

Be careful whose advice you buy, but be patient with those who supply it. Advice is a form of nostalgia. Dispensing it is a way of fishing the past from
the disposal, wiping it off, painting over the ugly parts and recycling it for more than it’s worth.

But trust me on the sunscreen.

Accessibility of HTML5 and rich internet applications

• Jared Smith (WebAIM)
• Jon Whiting (WebAIM)
• Hans Hillen (TPG)
• Steve Faulkner (TPG)

A pre-conference workshop on the accessibility features of HTML5 and ARIA, plus other advanced techniques for AJAX driven web applications.

• Accessibility of HTML5 and rich internet applications (morning session)
• Accessibility of HTML5 and rich internet applications (afternoon session)

Accessibility challenges of HTML5

• Ted Drake (Yahoo!)
• Todd Kloots (Yahoo!)

HTML5 allows web pages to behave like native applications. The HTML5 specification addresses many accessibility issues, but also introduces new challenges.

• Accessibility challenges of HTML5

Accessible HTML5 media players, captions, audio description and search

• Terrill Thompson (University of Washington)

Browser and access technology support for HTML5 media elements, captions and audio description.

• Accessibility of HTML5 media players, captions, audio description and search (PPT, 2.5Mb)
• Accessibility of HTML5 media players, captions, audio description and search (PDF, 744k)

Building fully accessible social software and rich web applications with WAI-ARIA

• Damian Chojna (IBM)
• Matt King (IBM)
• Rich Schwerdtfeger (IBM)

Understand how IBM used WAI-ARIA to create accessible forums, wikis, blogs, social networks and rich text editing.

Presentation source to be confirmed.

Role based inclusive design practices for web teams

• Lisa Herrod (Scenario Seven)

Case studies and examples demonstrating how categorising WCAG into role based groups can help increase engagement and improve overall accessibility.

Presentation source to be confirmed.

Screen reader web accessibility face off

• Jared Smith (WebAIM)
• Jon Whiting (WebAIM)

A comparison between Jaws, NVDA and VoiceOver, and their ability to handle web content and accessibility standards.

• Screen reader web accessibility face off (PDF, 955Kb)

How to eat an elephant (tackling web accessibility in a large organisation)

• Lisa Barnett (Humana)
• Wes Dillon (Deque Systems Inc)
• Preety Kumar (Deque Systems Inc)
• Sharron Rush (Knowbility)
• Elle Waters (Humana)

Case study illustrating the challenges of implementing accessibility within a Fortune 100 company, and the lessons learned.

• How to eat an elephant (Tackling web accessibility in a large corporation)

Successfully integrating accessibility in your organisation’s web development lifecycle

• Denis Boudreau (Accessibilité Web)

For accessibility requirements to be successfully built into the web development lifecycle, responsibility must be divided amongst the various contributors to the project.

• Successfully integrating accessibility in your organisation’s web development lifecycle

Next generation web accessibility: improvement of usability for disabled users

• Artur Ortega (Yahoo!)

Best practice approaches taken by Yahoo! To increase the usability of accessible web pages.

• Next generation web accessibility: Improving usability for disabled users

HTML5 Accessibility

• Steve Faulkner (TPG)
• John Foliot (Stanford University)
• Rich Schwerdtfeger (IBM)
• Cynthia Shelley (Microsoft)

Panel discussion with four accessibility experts working on the HTML5 specification.

Presentation source/notes to be confirmed.

Making rich internet applications accessible through jQuery

• Chris Blouch (AOL)
• Hans Hillen (TPG)

A look at the work being done by AOL and TPG to address the accessibility shortcomings of the jQuery widget library.

• Making rich internet applications accessible through jQuery (PDF, 651Kb)
• Accessible jQuery widget examples

• Matt May (Adobe)
• Steve Faulkner (TPG)

Learn about the features and technical differences between the two most popular platforms for creating rich internet applications, Flash and HTML5.

Presentation source to be confirmed.

Web media accessibility with HTML5

• Sean Hayes (Microsoft)

Ways to achieve WCAG 2.0 conformance with the HTML5 media elements.

Presentation source to be confirmed.

Introducing DISTCHA – Yet another attempt at killing CAPTCHA

• Vincent François (Accessibilité Web)

Could there be a secure, accessible and inclusive alternative to CAPTCHA?

• Introducing DISTCHA: Yet another attempt at killing CAPTCHA

Accessible Twitter: An update

• Dennis Lembrée (RIM)

One of the five minute micro presentations from the CSUN 2011 Tweetup.

• Accessible Twitter: An update

Managing accessibility compliance in the enterprise

• Karl Groves (Deque Systems Inc)

A look at ways to approach enterprise level accessibility, including project management and procurement.

• Managing accessibility compliance in the enterprise

Building IT awareness and community using the barcamp/unconference format

• Jennison Asuncion (Adaptech Research Network)
• James Timony (DC Public Library)
• John F Croston (Accessibility Camp DC)

A look at the barcamp/unconference format, and the practical challenges of holding an event based on first hand experience.

• Building IT awareness and community using the barcamp/unconference format

Role of engineering best practices to create an inclusive web

• Srinivasu Chakravarthula (Yahoo!)

A look at the common misconceptions about accessibility commonly felt by engineers working on web projects.

• Role of engineering best practices to create an inclusive web

How CA Technologies established a 508-compliant Video Standards Program

• Mike Paciello (TPG)

Case study from CA Technologies and TPG. Exploring the use of Section 508 compliant video as a solution for product documentation, and meeting the challenges of audio description and captioned content.

• CA Technologies and Accessible Multimedia (PDF, 540Kb)

The tribe and the challenge

Perhaps the most evocative idea to come out of CSUN 2011 was “the tribe”. John Foliot seemed to capture the CSUN zeitgeist when he described the global accessibility community as a tribe, drawn together by a shared ambition to make the web a truly inclusive place.

The Tribe was a theme that ran through many conversations and into sessions like the Web accessibility game plan. The idea seemed to gather quiet momentum throughout the week, and John issued a challenge to everyone who wants to be part of it:

Get out there, create, innovate, captivate and get a little disruptive. We have each other’s backs, let’s see what we can achieve together!

My presentation at London Web Standards introduced several screen readers, explained how they work on the web, and attempted to answer some of the bigger questions about coping with new technologies.

We weren’t sure whether there would be internet access at the venue, so I cheated slightly. All the screen reader demonstrations were pre-recorded and linked to the presentation. With some nifty sound/animation synchronisation courtesy of Tom Waterhouse, it hopefully works quite well as a stand alone download.

• London Web Standards presentation (ZIP, 5Mb)

Considerations for Accessible Mobile Application Graphical User Interface Design

Greg Fields from RIM kicked things off by presenting 10 guidelines for accessible mobile interface design. Several of the guidelines reflected best practice across all digital content types, for example colour contrast and logical grouping of information. Other guidelines focused on the importance of using native UI libraries and inheriting global settings to prevent conflicts with user defined settings.

Finite Incantatem: Neither Accessibility Nor Technology Is Dark Magic

Christian Heilmann from Yahoo! used Finite Incantatem, the charm from Harry Potter, to explain why he believes that accessibility and technology are not dark magic. Presenting a series of examples, he demonstrated the innovation that can happen when technology, accessibility and imagination come together.

Towards the end of his presentation, Christian spoke briefly about the need for passion and talent within the web community. Without the talent to innovate,, and the passion to challenge established thinking, we cannot build a better web. Christian then asked the audience to get to their feet, grab their asses and swear to do everything in their power to make the web a better place.

• Finite Incantatem Presentation

Panel Discussion – Accessibility Beyond The Desktop

• Lucy Dodd – BBC (Chair).
• Henny Swan – Opera.
• Damon Rose – BBC Ouch!.
• Julian Hartly – Google.
• Greg Fields – RIM.
• Veronika Germolina – AbilityNet.

Discussion focused on the challenges of building one web for everyone. Personalisation came through strongly as a potential way forward, with the thought that data from one original source could be tailored to suit an individual’s requirements. Bandwith concerns were raised when the suggestion of using CSS to control delivery of content specific content was made. It was also pointed out that many people use mobile sites out of preference on their desktops because of the perceived improvement in accessibility.

Read Henny’s notes from the panel discussion: Thoughts around universal access on mobile.

Understanding Deafness: History, Language & the Web

Lisa Herrod from Scenario Seven talked about the history of sign language, tracing its roots back to a small village in Kent in the 1600s. With the migration of Deaf people to America during that time, sign language also migrated and began to evolve into the language of today.

Lisa also explained that people who sign as their primary language are a cultural group, hence the use of a capital D when referenceing them. It’s the same as referring to the English, or the Chinese. People who perhaps lose their hearing during their lifetime, and who do not sign as their primary language, tend not to consider themselves part of this cultural group. It’s a clear example of the difference between the medical and social models of disability.

HTML5 & WAI ARIA Happy Families

Steve Faulkner from The Paciello Group talked about two emerging standards from the W3C: HTML 5 and WAI ARIA. HTML 5 is the successor to HTML 4.1. It is still in development, but some browsers are already building in support for small parts of the specification. For the moment though, no access technologies support HTML 5.

Steve went on to talk about WAI ARIA, a standard that allows developers to build accessibility into rich internet applications for keyboard only and screen reader users. The specification hasn’t been formally published yet, but support across both browsers and access technologies is already good.

• HTML 5 & WAI ARIA Happy Families presentation

Inclusive Design

Mark Boulton from Mark Boulton Design spoke about the designer’s role within accessible web development. He stressed the need to introduce designers to accessibility appropriately, and not through lengthy reports and complex guidelines.

Mark explained why he feels accessibility has been marginalised, and disassociated fro user experience design. Accessibility should not be left until last, or added as an after thought. It should be considered as part of the core design process.

Silverlight Accessibility

Saqib Shaikh from Microsoft echoed Mark’s thoughts when he spoke about how often accessibility is considered an optional extra or something that can be left out if budgets are tight. Sometimes a more subtle approach works best though. Saqib spoke about his efforts to promote best practice accessibility by talking to his fellow developers, and encouraging them to build in accessibility as they went along.

Saqib went on to talk about Silverlight specifically, and some of the accessibility features introduced in version 3.0. I’m afraid I missed some of Saqib’s presentation, as we were preparing for the panel session.

Panel Session – To comply or not to comply?

• Kath Moonan – AbilityNet (Chair).
• Mark Boulton – Mark Boulton Design.
• Bim Egan – RNIB.
• Léonie Watson – Nomensa.
• Lisa Herrod – Scenario Seven.
• Christian Heilmann – Yahoo!

The session looked at how guidelines and standards fit into the process of developing web technologies. Testing with people with disabilities was also discussed, and the dangers of testing with expert users was highlighted.

When looking for people to test with, focusing on the target audience and then finding people with disabilities within that group. In other words, if your website is for children, find young people with disabilities to test with, as they fall into your intended target audience.

The panel were asked why devices designed for accessibility were so often not designed to be beautiful. Although this tends too often to be the case, a community of people celebrating modern design in assistive technology can be found at Enabled By Design.

Closing Thoughts

Where do I begin? For me, the cultural insight into the Deaf community was really fascinating. I was already aware of the social distinction, but learning more about the historical development of sign language and the way that digital communication transformed social interaction for people with hearing impairments, really made a difference.

Another clear message was the need to celebrate innovation and creativity. There is so much happening with web, mobile and console technology, and so much of it is happening with people at heart. With a little imagination,, a little collaboration and a little effort, the possibilities are limitless. Let’s do it!

Cognition covers an incredibly wide range of conditions and requirements. It’s one of the least well documented areas of web accessibility, and perhaps the least understood. The four presentations at Standards.Next provided a fantastic insight into some of the key issues.

Accessibility Beyond Code

Antonia Hyde kicked off with a powerful message: People are not defined by their disability. She went on to say that people with learning disabilities do use websites, and they often treasure the ability to use the web in their own homes, where there is shelter from the bustle and distraction of the outside world.

Antonia played two videos of a gentleman using the Ebay and Amazon websites. Some key ideas that were highlighted:

• Icons and text work well together, both acting to re-enforce the message.
• Clean layouts help minimise distractions.
• Highlights, borders and other visual cues can be helpful.
• Calls to action need to be clear and consistent.
• Colour contrast is important for readability.

Antonia also explained that people don’t often know how to use their browser settings. Giving people the ability to choose text size and alternative colour schemes through the website itself can help overcome this. Providing a range of pre-defined options can also help protect the design.

• Antonia’s thoughts on Standards.Next

Autism, the Internet & Antelopes

Jamie Knight from JK3 explained that Autism isn’t being stupid or being difficult. It’s a different way of processing information and it affects people in different ways. It’s just that some people are at a more noticeable end of the spectrum than others. Jamie spoke about some of the ideas he has about information on the web:

• It’s easy to get distracted from reading information when sound is playing on the page.
• It’s difficult to follow video content when it is fast paced and the scenes change quickly.
• Transcripts and captioning can help make information processing easier.
• Using a screen reader can also help, particularly when tired.
• Converting text into sign can help give meaning to words.

Jamie also talked about the importance of literal meanings. With typical good humour, he told a story from his childhood, about the time he was told to go and wash his hands in the toilet. He did precisely that, washed his hands in the toilet bowl. Jamie really emphasised the importance of clear language and user friendly instructions.

• Jamie’s thoughts on Standards.Next

Lessons Learned Doing Usability Testing

David Owens from Transmedia Gateway spoke about his experiences of testing with people with Autism. His message was simple. If people can’t use it, you’re building it the wrong way. David went on to talk about the lessons he’d learnt:

• Keep testing scripts simple and easy to understand, to avoid frustrating people taking part.
• If the tab order of a page doesn’t follow the visual flow, it can confuse sighted people with Autism who use screen readers.
• People who find it difficult to remember tasks will benefit from style switcher widgets that let them choose text size and colour schemes.
• Don’t stop one person taking advantage of a feature, because another person may not be able to.

David also talked about the importance of sharing insights from usability testing. This really echoed the knowledge sharing and mutual learning message of the day.

• David’s thoughts on Standards.Next

Content & Cognition

Ian Pouncey from Yahoo! wrapped up the day by taking it back to basics. He talked about many of the standard concepts of web accessibility, but with a focus on cognition. Some of Ian’s key points include:

• Keep page layout consistent, particularly in terms of navigation.
• Don’t use too many fonts in the design, they can become distracting.
• Use headings and lists to structure content, as they can guide people through information and help focus attention.
• Use whitespace to effectively break apart different areas of content, but don’t justify text and create “rivers of whitespace”.
• Text should default to a readable size, and line height should be around half the height of the text.
• Limit line length to around 80 characters to help with readability.

Ian also explained that spelling mistakes can cause problems for people as they read the page. He suggested that using a screen reader was an ideal way to catch spelling mistakes before a page is published. It’s certainly true that spelling mistakes are sometimes easier to pick up when listening, rather than reading.

• Ian’s thoughts on Standards.Next

Closing Thoughts

Some key points really stood out for me during the day. For the first time I came down off the fence about style switchers. I’d never quite decided whether it was better to give people the ability to use their browser settings, or provide a widget on the page.

Now I’ve come to understand that some people will aalways find it difficult to go through their browser to make those choices.

Many of the ideas presented during the day were familiar, colour contrast, consistent design, good structure, literal meaning and so forth. What really struck me though was their importance in relation to cognition. We’re accustomed to the blunt force benefits each of these concepts bring to people with other disabilities. For people with cognitive disabilities, the impact is more subtle, but no less dramatic.

Thanks to Henny Swan and Bruce Lawson for organising the day, and to Kath Moonan for finding a great pub to continue the discussions in!