Dennis speaks with Terrill Thompson, technology accessibility specialist at DO-IT, a program at the University of Washington.

Download Web Axe Episode 77 (Interview with Terrill Thompson)

[transcript of podcast 77]

In addition to Terrill’s background and DO-IT, topics of discussion include:

• Video captioning and the University of Washington YouTube channel.
• Accessible NCAA Tournament Bracket.
• CSUN and other conferences.
• making Blogger blogs more accessible (and WordPress).
• Terrill’s music.

Web Axe – Practical Web Design Accessibility Tips – Podcast and Blog

WebAIM’s Screen Reader Survey a few months ago (October 2009) sure drew a lot of attention, and for good reason. It is a much needed and well written survey, performed by one of the leading organizations in web accessibility, WebAIM. Here are some articles written in response to the survey. If you know any others, please leave a comment and let us know!

Related Articles

• Screen reader software usage shifts on desktop and mobile (iheni)
• Results from WebAIM’s screen October 2009 screen reader user survey (456 Berea St.)
• WebAIM screen reader users follow up survey (Less Fuss Design)
• WebAIM Screen Reader User Survey Results (evolt.org)
• WebAIM Study: Screenreaders and Javascript Co-Exist from Ajaxian
• WebAIM’s previous Screen Reader Survey (January 2009)

My Observations

Some of the more outstanding results of the survey I believe are:

• 75% of respondents said they do NOT have JavaScript turned off (most had it on).
• The most problematic items seem to be the same predictable items, unfortunately. The top 10 includes CAPTCHA, Flash, alternative text, forms, and headings.
• 42% surveyed said they didn’t know ARIA Landmarks for navigation existed. I highly suspect this number will steadily decrease.
• Although over 66% of users reported JAWS as their primary screen reader, almost half said that free or low-cost screen readers (such as NVDA or VoiceOver) are currently viable alternatives.

Web Axe – Practical Web Design Accessibility Tips – Podcast and Blog

Today, Chris is talking about a small button on your Camera that can help Depth of Field. Depth of field is the area in your image that is in focus. Shallow depth of field is a small, shallow area in focus, while landscapes tend to have rather wide depths of field.

Show Links:
» Leo Laporte – [...]

Digital Photography Tips from the Top Floor (Audio/Video)

[See post to watch Flash video]
Watch in high quality (right click to save)
Win one of only 15 hand-embroidered t-shirts right from Kathmandu!

The rules:

Build a triptych that shows your personal interpretation of ADVENTURE (you can use Mosaic Maker to create it)
Upload the file to the Trek Shirt Flickr group
Add your preferred size in the description of [...]

Digital Photography Tips from the Top Floor (Audio/Video)

Chris joins us to talk about Canon’s new 7D DSLR. And no, it doesn’t replace the 5D. In fact, it isn’t full frame like the 5D. It’s more an upgrade to the 50D. Don’t forget our assignment … PRESSURE.

Show Links:
» Leo Laporte – The Tech Guy
» The TWiT netcast [...]

Digital Photography Tips from the Top Floor (Audio/Video)

Wow, this first month of 2010 flew by! So much going on in the Twittersphere, as usual. Here’s a quick summary of some great articles mentioned in the Twitter accessibility community. Please comment with anything outstanding that I’ve missed!

Also, on a sad note, we recently mourned the loss of Jack Pickard; a huge loss in the web accessibility community. Jack was a great web accessibility expert and advocate.

• Alt attributes by Ian Pouncey
• Web accessibility myths by Ian Pouncey
• Accessibility and Social Media by Joseph Dolson on practical ecommerce
• 10 Things to Check Before Using a CAPTCHA from SitePoint
• The Accessibility Checklist I Vowed I’d Never Write from northtemple
• Facebook Accessibility project wiki
• Blind Bargains: Access Awards
• WebAIM Study: Screenreaders and Javascript Co-Exist from Ajaxian
• Office 2010: Accessibility Investments & Document Accessibility
• Getting Started with VoiceOver from Apple
• Using Skip Navigation Links from Even Grounds
• Assistive and Mainstream Technologies from Even Grounds
• GH Releases the First-Ever DAISY Player for Mac
• Is Web accessibility a human right? from Rebuilding The Web

Web Axe – Practical Web Design Accessibility Tips – Podcast and Blog

In this last episode before the Everest Trek 2010 we’ll look at the difference between different size panoramas and wide angle lenses, we’ll find out what’s better on a crop camera, 35mm or 50mm, and I’ve got some tips regarding low-light action sports photography.

Download the MP3 for this episode
Show Links:

Everest Trek 2010 – LIVE coverage
Focus [...]

Digital Photography Tips from the Top Floor (Audio/Video)

The first one that caught Chris’ eye is WAITING OR A LICK. Great example of Depth of field. And a title that tells a story.
Iron Photographer. Three ingredients: natural light, something round, and texture.

Show Links:
» Leo Laporte – The Tech Guy
» The TWiT netcast network
» Tech Guy [...]

Digital Photography Tips from the Top Floor (Audio/Video)

The author and main host of Web Axe, Dennis Lembree, is interviewed in a podcast on the BBC! It’s in the show entitled Haiti, BIL and accessibility on the BBC Pods & Blogs section. The BBC podcast can be found here, but is only available for seven days as it is then replaced by the following week’s program. (The interview starts at about 14 minutes 30 seconds into the podcast.)

The show notes state:

New and social media should not be left out of the equation of course. Dennis Lembree makes the Web Axe podcast about accessibility and has also created a Twitter reader that he says is 100% accessible.

Much of the phone interviewed was edited down, but it’s still another win for awareness of web accessibility. In addition to Web Axe, Dennis mentions AccessibleTwitter.com and the Detroit Podcasters Network.

Addendum

Just before Dennis, accessibility expert and evangelist for Yahoo, Artur Ortega is interviewed.

You can download the BBC podcast here! (It’s no longer available on the BBC page.)

Web Axe – Practical Web Design Accessibility Tips – Podcast and Blog

Hosts Dennis and Ross discuss a variety of topics.

Download Web Axe Episode 78 (Web Accessibility News)

[transcript of podcast 78] (Much thanks to Joseph Montanez for helping with transcription.)

Announcements

• About the 2009 .net magazine awards
• Web Axe site/template updates including:
• Blogger bar removed (and Google search added).
• Recent Tweets now shown! (from @webaxe)
• Web Axe in a BBC Podcast!
• Transcription
• Web Axe is seeking volunteers for transcribing podcasts. Please email or comment if you are interested.
• Transcription of Pocast 74 (Awards, Events & Back to Basics) by Jennison Asuncion.
• Transcription of Podcast 76: Web Accessibility Disasters – provided by Katherine Lynch.
• WordPress plug-ins by Ross! (for better CMS usability).
• Editor Tabs
• CMS Dashboard
• Dashboard Pages
• List of Web Accessibility Conferences.

News

• New release of screenreader emulator Fangs; now updated for FireFox 3.6 by Peter Krantz (and moved to Mozilla site).
• @Jennison on Twitter rocks:
• Started 2 great new accounts: @a11yevents and @a11yjobs.
• Suggests #tsaccess as a hashtag to focus discussion on touchscreen accessibility.
• iPad Accessibility Good for grandma?
• Slides and transcript from webinar by Dennis “Twitter & Its Accessible Issues & Solutions” (see Week 2).

Articles

• The new target.com and accessibility
• A call for consistent ALT text cross browsers
• 10 Tools for Evaluating Web Design Accessibility

Web Axe – Practical Web Design Accessibility Tips – Podcast and Blog