Some of you may already know that I worked as an Auslan sign language interpreter for many years prior to working on the web. It was a brilliant job that presented me with so many experiences I would have never otherwise had, interpreting all kinds of things from flower arranging to colt castration, dental hygiene for animals (using the head of a dead dog) to job interviews, work place training and medial appointments.
Initially I was worried that over time I’d lose touch with the language, culture and connection I had as I moved to an online environment. So it’s very cool to find myself in a place where I’ve been able to connect such diverse professions into something deeper than either could have been on their own.
Good things come to those who wait
Fingers crossed, I’ll be presenting a panel at South by South West next March with two friends I greatly respect and have the huge honour of working with through WaSP’s International Liaison Group: Henny Swan and Glenda Simms.
The panel is called Aging, Cognition & Deafness: The Quirky Corners of Web Accessibility, and this is what we want to say:
Bored with accessibility? Over AJAX, ARIA and yet another Jaws demo for dummies? Struggling to find a challenge in checklists? Join us in discussing the quirky corners of web accessibility where we’ll look at technical approaches to aging, deafness, cognitive disabilities and more.
During the panel we hope to cover questions such as:
- How does deafness impact on access to online information?
- Are subtitles enough to provide accessible content to the deaf?
- What techniques can I apply to make my site more accessible to the deaf?
- What sort of research has been done around people with multiple disabilities?
- Which WCAG criteria do I need to be aware of?
- Are there different considerations in user testing sites with deaf/aged/cognition users?
- Why are clinical cognitive disabilities less important than functional cognitive disabilities in web design?
- What design techniques can improve the usability of online forms for older users?
- Can rich media projects like SecondLife be accessible?
- How could I increase the readability of a web page for a person with dyslexia?
If you think it sounds interesting, give us your vote… Even if you can’t make it over to Austin next year, hopefully it’ll ensure I do ;)
