"Smart design removes barriers"

Phone 714.235.1694 - Fax 714.242.6657 - Email info@theenabledweb.com

the Editorial page...

...in which I'll indulge occasional musings, dim light bulbs flashing in my head, event reportage, colleagues' thoughts (identified), or Q&A. Not as predictable or interactive as most blogs, not instantaneous like Twitter or an RSS feed, not as hip as YouTube, MySpace, FaceBook, and the rest—but I'll still try to provide enough content of possible interest to earn a link or a repeat visit from time to time.
–Tom

Postings

Customer service is alive!

It's easy these days to gripe about disappearing help in big-box stores, not to mention multi-level phone menus leading to who-knows-where "support centers." So I'm happy to share a recent positive experience, even though it's only peripherally related to The Enabled Web.

Improving my home video studio, I needed a small spotlight for the background drapery. Home lighting outlets don't carry anything that would work, so a quick Web search turned up the California Stage and Lighting company, just a few miles from my house. Professional supply houses can sometimes be less than enthusiastic with amateur customers, but I need not have worried about this one!

Fran, at the desk, was not only eager to discuss my request, she immediately recommended the very lowest-cost light fixture and even steered me to the $2 grab-bin of color gels instead of their usual $7 full-sheet selection. I'll probably never need a whole pro studio full of stuff, but I hope that anyone who does is able to find this testimonial. By the way, and completely unrelated to my business, similar kudos go to Wes at Chef's Toys (pro cooking equipment), Vu at my local Bank of America office, and Anthony at AT&T cellular. Vote with dollars for the good ones; vote with feet for the rest.
9/17/09

Do conferences have a future?

I've been thinking about this since my presentation last month at the HCI International conference in San Diego. HCII is quite large by academic standards—over 1300 papers in three days of parallel sessions, preceeded by two days of tutorials. Held in a commercial resort/convention center, it's expensive, too—and yes, even invited presenters pay the registration fee.

My talk was one of seven in a two-hour session; in a room that would have held 150, we had fewer attendees than speakers. Maybe our topics really were that boring, but other sessions seemed to be just as deserted, as did the registration lobby and even the Internet lounge. I have no idea if the conference organizers made or lost money; in either event, this does not seem to be an effective way to disseminate research findings or to build academic tenure and promotion resumés.

An even bigger worry to me is the CalWAC series of accessibility training conferences, which rely on attendance fees for revenue (instructors are paid). Also unlike HCII, the venue is provided by one of the Cal State campuses (Long Beach for the past three years), and the campus picks up many of the local costs. This year, State funding is simply not available either for hosting or for sponsoring attendees.

I'd love to just say, "put everything on the Web." But frankly, none of the so-called conferencing software I've used is up to the task yet. Nor could this (yet) replace my informal discussions with colleagues at HCII or the chance to make new contacts at CalWAC. Where's that Star Trek holodeck when we need it?
8/23/09

Wayne's Law of accessibility

"If a Web site meets the Level A success criteria of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.0, it meets the legal requirements of U.S. Section 508."

Wayne Dick, with his mathematician's precision, spent a lot of time developing the complete functional mapping to prove his point. I've contributed some small examples of how this works in practice, and assembled a set of recommended WCAG 2 "sufficient techniques" that developers can use to meet 508. We've presented these ideas a number of times, most recently at the CSUN conference in Los Angeles (with several of the WCAG 2 authors in attendance!). Skeptics with perseverance can refer to Wayne's mapping (on his CSULB site) and my techniques list (on tomjewett.com). If these terms are unfamiliar, see the jargon page on this site.

It's time to move forward.

The beauty of WCAG 2 is that it tells developers why they are doing something (it has to be perceivable), what has to be done (provide text alternatives for any non-text content), and how to do it (using alt attributes on img elements). Moving forward, for me, means developing this simple explanation into a tutorial or workshop that will highlight the most important whys and whats and show developers how they can attain compliance easily and confidently by using the techniques. You'll read about it here first.
6/9/09

Accessibility and usability

The twin Web accessibility training conferences—CalWAC (California) and John Slatin Access U (Austin, TX)—have recently offered specific tracks for developers, content providers, and administrators. For this May's Access U, Sharron Rush (conference Director, Knowbility Inc.) had the inspiration to add a track for usability professionals. This track was well attended; many participants were from UT or State agencies and at least two even came in from California.

I was privileged to have one of my sessions included in the usability track. (See smart analysis on this site.) Having taught user-interface courses at both CSU Long Beach and UC Irvine, I was able to explain that my techniques are simply another form of heuristic evaluation that can be incorporated into any usability testing protocol. The message seemed to resonate well with this group, perhaps out of relief to find that accessibility doesn't need to be as complicated or daunting as it might have seemed.

Yes, I've heard Web developers say something like: "Section 508 doesn't say anything about usability, so I don't have to worry about it." Enough to tear my hair, if I had any left! Conversely, usability specialists may often be busy enough that accessibility has not yet become part of their repetoire. Since I've never been very keen about turf battles and position titles, I've always contended that if it's not accessible, it's not usable— and if it's not usable it for sure isn't accessible! The takeaway for me is that the more opportunities we have (like Access U) to get the two areas of expertise talking to each other, the merrier (and more effective) we'll all be. Thanks, Sharron.
6/8/09