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 ;)
I came to your site via other site (alistapart.com) where your article on the deafness and the user experience appeared. Best article I ever come across relating to the language and web content for the deaf. I am profoundly deaf (with a small d), but I happened to be much more like a hearing person culturally and education-wise. Thanks so much for the great article, and I hope it will help me explain the inadequacies of the captioning. Also, I did not know that there’s a difference between captioning and subtitling!
I just read your article @ A List Apart, it was really interesting indeed. I’m making my first steps in web development and I’m really interested in accessibility and usability. Anyway, thanks for the article and I wish you the best of luck at the voting. I won’t be able to attend but I’m sure it’ll be worth it for those who can!
Greetings from Argentina,
Gonzalo
Thanks so much for your article on A List Apart. It’s the best I’ve seen on the subject. It leaves me thinking about internationalization and re-thinking my definition of multi-lingual web sites. We often work on French and English (Canadian) sites, and this opens many questions for me: do the Deaf/deaf in Canada speak ASL? What about those of Acadian or Quebecois descent? (sorry, no accents on the iPhone…) I find myself embarrassed that I don’t know.
Hi Andrew,
Thanks for taking the time to find your way over here from ALA :)
I’m really happy that you liked the article.
You’ve inspired me to write another article on this! Come back soon so you can tell me a bit more about your personal experience with captioning and subtitles :)
Hi Gonzalo,
WOW! Argentina, that’s really very cool.
There is so much to know about web usability and accessibility isn’t there? I found the best thing for me was to get a good general idea of how it all worked and then started to learn more about the areas I was most interested in.
What do you find most interesting about usability and accessibility at the moment?
Hi Chrisopher,
Internationalization is an interesting comparison to make and I’ve been thinking about it more following some comments on my ALA post.
As far as I know, Canadian sign language is based on American (ASL)… but I don’t really know anything about the regional differences… let’s go look at wikipedia!
Oh that’s interesting. You shouldn’t feel embarrassed that you’re unsure about it.
You know, if you’re interested to learn a bit more about it, I’d suggest any of those books I listed on ALA. When the Mind Hears is particularly good for an historical perspective on how ASL originated.
Voting – done! It’s a well thought out session. The only downside? I wish I could be attending South by South West to hear the session!
All the best to you and your fellow presenters.
Looks like a great panel – hope it gets chosen! I have a step-daughter with ONE ear; it’s been interesting to see how she uses her iPod differently etc.
Actually I came over here to thank you for the great work you have been doing with WebJam. Amazing how you can remember everyone’s names – I admire your mad network/organisational skillz!