Thanks to everyone who came out to the meeting last night. If you didn’t make it, you missed a great presentation on accessibility!

Watching how a screen reader user navigates a website was “eye opening”. Great discussion and lots of interaction by people who attended, including many “I didn’t know that” moments made this one of our best meetings ever.

Some highlights from the meeting:

• 85% of the population has a disability that affects computer use
• There is slow progress toward making sites accessible – Newspaper websites are “getting it”, laying out their sites in a more linear fashion
• When your website is not accessible, it’s not just affecting a blind user, it’s affecting a blind business person
• TEITAC recommendations for Section 508 (thanks to Mike Paciello of The Paciello Group)
• Google has accessible search, with no ads
• Web Accessibility Resource List (Word) from Cathy McAdam
• Web Accessibility Presentation Summary and Resources (Word) from Mary Donnelly

Thanks to Nick DeNardis and EduCheckUp for spreading the news about our meeting.

It was our first meeting at Washtenaw Community College, which meant we had plentiful, free parking, signage for the event, a fantastic meeting room, with projector and a computer. Small things, I know, but it meant I didn’t have to coordinate getting a laptop and projector or worry about other meeting logistics.

Video courtesy of VC Web Services

Where: Washtenaw Community College, Ann Arbor, Michigan. We will be meeting in Room 103 at the Morris Lawrence Building (map). Plenty of free parking is available adjacent to the building.

When: Wednesday, November 19, 2008, 6:30pm – 8:00pm

Speaker: Mary Donnelly, Senior User Experience Consultant at Evantage Consulting and Cathy McAdam, ACSW

Abstract

Making the web usable for all visitors is the primary goal of creating an accessible website. The W3C estimates that close to 20% of all website visitors have some form of disability, whether cognitive, visual, hearing, or physical. These disabilities affect how visitors access a website, whether on a computer with assistive technology, laptop, or cell phone.

Learn what website accessibility is, why it is important, and what you as a web professional can do to provide a more accessible website for all website visitors. See how a screen reader views a web page and discover the different methods for testing website accessibility.

Mary Donnelly is a senior user experience consultant with Evantage Consulting. Her extensive experience includes user needs analysis, low and high fidelity prototyping, usability testing, research study design, and heuristic evaluation and assessment.

At the March 2008 EKU Web Accessibility Conference, Mary presented “An accessibility study of an online resource directory geared towards people with disabilities and seniors.”

Mary is an HFI Certified Usability Analyst, a member of the Usability Professionals’ Association, and the Society of Technical Communication.

Cathy McAdam, ACSW, has 20 years experience in rehabilitation medicine as a medical social worker at the Rehabilitation Institute of Michigan.

In 1999, Cathy started her own company as a consultant focused on advocacy for assistive technology, and provision of career development services. She runs a tutor program for libraries for basic computer skills for Greater Detroit Agency For The Blind and Visually Impaired.

She leads grants focused on assistive technology for people with disabilities to drive systemic change that will permanently improve access to assistive technology devices and services, check out Cathy’s website.

Her focus on career development is closely linked to her drive to impact the availability and use of assistive technology to improve employment outcomes for people with disabilities. She is a primary consultant for DiverseAbility.

Please comment if you plan on attending. Thanks!

Join us for demo night on October 15, 2008 at the Wayne State University Undergraduate Library. Celebrate with us as we have our first Refresh Detroit meeting in the city of Detroit!

We’re looking for people who will demo their creation, design, illustration, application, tool, or product. Each person has five to ten minutes to present and answer questions. Our demo night last spring was such a success, we had to extend it to the next month to allow everyone to show off their latest work!

Demo night is a great opportunity to share your work, see what others have been working on, and get feedback on works in progress.

Special thanks to Heidi Hansen who organized this event, and to our sponsors:

• ASIS&T Student Chapter at Wayne State University
• Wayne State University Library & Information Science Program

Where: Wayne State University Undergraduate Library, 5155 Gullen Mall, Detroit, Michigan 48202 (map). We’re meeting in the Community Room on the 3rd floor of the library.

Parking: The closest parking will probably be Parking Structure #2 on Anthony Wayne Drive, which is a short walk down Williams Mall to the Undergraduate Library. Parking Structure #5 is another option (it’s next to Parking Structure #2).

For visitors, parking is $3.75 at the gate, quarters or dollar bills only.
Note: there is metered parking, but it’s only for one hour; the parking garage is likely the best option.

When: Wednesday, October 15, 2008 6:30PM-8PM

Interested in demoing your work? RSVP by commenting below with your name and application/design/tool/product, so we have an idea of how many people will be presenting.