Posted by sh1mmer on Mar 1, 2007 in
General A few people have posted links to Meri William’s new project Make me a speaker. I’ve signed up for some mentoring, but mainly because although I’ve spoken a frequently at the various places I’ve been employed I’ve never managed to become a conference speaker.
If you are reading my blog and are looking for someone who knows about Web Accessibility or Semantic Web technology to speak at your event send me an e-mail at tom_croucher@yahoo.com.
I probably have to do some obligatory horn blowing with my credentials, so here goes. I spent several years working on the Open Source Plone Content Management System as part of the UI team. I specialised in Accessibility and spent several years as a participant in good standing of the W3C’s WCAG working group. I was also an invited expert to the ATAG working group. I have contributed as an invited expert to the British Standard BSI/IST 43 on Accessibility in E-learning systems.
I also have some published, cited research on Accessibility in an E-learning environment. This work is part of the cross-over between my Semantic Web and Accessibility interests. I have contributed to the W3C’s Semantic Web Interest Group for a number of years and my dissertation was used as the basis for some work on Composite Inverse Functional Properties by the Semantic Web Best Practices working group.
Finally, my day job is working for Yahoo! Europe as a Web Developer on the European Frontpages (yahoo.co.uk, yahoo.fr, yahoo.de, etc). This means I am based in London, however I am very happy to travel.
Technorati Tags:
Web Development, Accessibility, semanticweb, trainer, speaker
Posted by sh1mmer on Mar 1, 2007 in
Accessibility Since I know there is going to be a podcast I’m just going to highlight a couple of points from the London Web Standards Group Meeting I thought were interesting to me.
I’m glad Niqui talked about FlashAid. Aral and Jeremy did a fabulous job. I posted some comments on how I would like to see Flash Aid used already, but I look forward to seeing what the community thinks.
Mike Davies talked about an example where an application he consulted on had one double quote that stopped the application from working on Firefox. This is a great example of why web standards are important. With it’s growing market share something as simple as missing double quote mark probably cost a significant amount of money.
The other point I took away from Mike was that imagination is one of the greatest tools in the accessibility toolbox. As soon as you start empathising with people with disabilities you start to be able to make sensible guesses at what they would find hard on your site. If you can’t navigate your site with the keyboard, chances are other people can’t either. Mike has really hit the nail on the head with this one.
However Ann McMeekin also made an excellent point which counterbalances the previous one. Assumptions about the way people with disabilities need a site to be can also lead to some real howlers. There are communities of experts out there to help you. If you think there is a problem but aren’t sure, find someone who really knows. The RNIB have some great resources for such things, as do a number of other sites. You can even email me at tom_croucher@yahoo.com if you like.
All in all a great session. Well done Niqui, Ann and Mike! And well done Big Stu for organising another great session.
Technorati Tags:
Web Development, Accessibility, londonevents