Conferences

The public is invited to participate in an online dialogue on the importance of technology accessibility and usability by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Disability Employment Policy and the National Council on Disability. There will be particular attention paid to the universal design in the development of workplace technology products.

The virtual town hall will run from May 15th, Global Accessibility Awareness Day, through Friday, May 30. “Advancing Accessibility and Inclusion in Social Media – The Tech Industry Perspective” is the second of three online events concerning social media accessibility that is co-hosted by ODEP and NCD

On May 15, 2014 awareness of digital accessibility, which includes web, software, mobile applications and devises, will reach new heights. Global Accessibility Awareness Day is a community-driven effort with the goal of dedicating one day to raising awareness for digital accessibility to a broad audience. The hope is that awareness increases amongst designers, developers and other people involved in information communication technology (ICT).

Businesses and individuals who are looking for guidelines to help achieve accessibility for website or digital products can refer to the Section 508 or WCAG 2.0 guidelines. It may also be helpful to seek guidance from an accessibility consultant.   

Co-workers can start to become a bit like family. As we become familiar with them it is their personality, humor, kindness and daily contributions to the business that stand out to us… that we count on. The big things that make them unique to the world can fade into the background. It’s not that we forget about those bigger things, but more that those things quiet for us in favor of the daily traits of that individual. More plainly stated: we get to know them.

Kathy Wahlbin, CEO and Founder of Interactive Accessibility and invited expert for the W3C WCAG 2.0 Working Group, Mobile Accessibility Task Force and WCAG 2.0 Evaluation Methodology Task Force, is presenting tonight at PixelMEDIA in Portsmouth New Hampshire. Kathy will discuss how the accessibility is changing and impacting today’s businesses. In addition, she will look at some of the coding and testing techniques that help bring websites and other digital content into compliance with WCAG 2.0 and Section 508.

Register for the event right away.

As the world becomes increasingly reliant on mobile devices for productivity in their work and personal lives, it is increasingly important that we look at the accessibility of the device itself as well as how publicly available digital content works with mobile accessibility features. At this year’s ATIA Conference in Orlando Florida Kathy Wahlbin, CEO and Founder of Interactive Accessibility, tackles this subject in her iOS Accessibility Workshop.

On December 16, 2013 from 3:00 to 5:00pm UTC, researchers, tutors and trainers, providers of online learning, developers of Learning Content Management System (LCMS), users with disabilities, and others are invited to participate in an online symposium on accessibility e-learning.

The symposium is being offered by the W3C Research and Development Working Group (RDWG). Participants will share e-learning experiences and research; discuss different approaches to address accessibility issues in e-learning contexts; and explore next steps to advance accessibility in e-learning environments, including Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs.)

Register on the W3C site.

This Thursday, October 24, in Berkeley, CA Frances West, director of IBMs Human Ability & Accessibility Center, will be speaking at the 15th Annual Disability Policy Summit and Ever Widening Circle at the World Institute on Disability. 

The Policy Summit will focus on improving accessibility within corporate technology policy and their online services and systems. It will feature roundtable discussions between consumers with disabilities who use access technology and industry representatives who develop that technology.

A free one day mini-conference on web accessibility will be held on October 26th from 11am to 5pm at the Mozilla London Spaces. The theme of the conference is “Creativity, Innovation and the Future” It will also look at the wider disability population. The Web Accessibility conference, which also goes by a11yLDN on social media, is aimed at end-users, web designers and developers focusing on web accessibility and user experience. It will also be appropriate for editors and authors, accessibility specialists, universities and companies, charities and more. 

May 19-20 of 2014 the Hawaii Convention Center in Honolulu hosts the 30th Annual Pacific Rim Conference on Disability and Diversity. The conference has been widely recognized for 27 years as one of the most “diverse gatherings” in the world. The theme will be: “Learn from Yesterday. Live for Today. Envision Tomorrow.” Registration is now open.

On September 12, as part of its Accessibility and Innovation Initiative speaker series the FCC will present live demonstrations of new and compelling technologies designed to enhance accessibility. Among the demonstrations will be:

• How a smartphone can scan printed material into electronic text
• How a web-browsing assistant can extract news articles for later reading
• How cloud computing can enhance accessibility for all

Dr. Yevgen Borodin who is a renowned professor and entrepreneur known for his research in computation methods and non-visual interfaces for improving web accessibility, will discuss “Improving Accessibility for the General Public.” Read additional detail on Dr. Borodin’s presentation and the live demonstration of accessibility enhancing technologies.