Author: Mark

AccessU report additions

I’d forgotten to transfer some notes I took on my PDA at one of the AccessU lunch presentations. I’ve now put them in the public Google notebook; I’ll put them here as well:

make accessibility for your site(s) a part of the editorial process, a performance measure
formal plan for conversion to accessibility: WebAIM 8-Step Implementation Plan
Gez Lemon: accessible CMS review @ juicystudio.com
Fangs Firefox extension: an alternative to reviewing sites with JAWS. From the link: ‘creates a textual representation of a web page similar to how the page would be read by a screen reader’ (interesting site title: ‘standards-schmandards.com — a pragmatic approach to to web accessibility’)

AccessU report

Here are my AccessU notes as a public Google notebook*. Just the stuff in the named section is specific to the conference.

My AccessU Powerpoint presentation for the May 15 meeting.

Overall, an excellent conference. I’ll report on the accessibility subjects covered there at the May 15 meeting. A few things new to me:

General consensus re. the longdesc attribute: if what you’d put in it is important enough to include in a longdesc, it’s better to just put that info in a visible tag, for everyone.
One way blind people using the JAWS screen reader scan a web page is by hearing it list the page’s headers and links. One result of this? ‘Skip Navigation’ may not be necessary if your headings are done properly.
I’d never bothered to understand CSS specificity (laziness inspired by Dreamweaver’s good CSS tools). But it’s easy, see Jon Wiley’s short description. I’d been just adding !important, knowing it was lame. No more.
Check Jon Wiley’s ‘Test CSS’ bookmarklet. This is a quick-and-easy CSS tweaker that appears in a new window when you drag it to your bookmarks bar and click it. It even outcools this feature in Firebug since you don’t keep losing your stuff when you change pages. I’ll demo May 15.
Flash projects can be made entirely accessible, and like many aspects of accessibility, doing so can have benefits beyond just those to the disabled. Our presenter Thea Eaton of Snert Studios is doing some very cool accessible Flash games for kids. Here’s her Flash accessibility best practices checklist.
Accessible, searchable captioning of online video using free tools. Here’s the link to the final class project (warning: speakers down or off; you’ll see why).

btw, if you use Google notebook extensively like I do, *back up important stuff there from time to time. I inexplicably lost a whole subsection after I made this notebook public, even without granting anyone edit capability.

NOTE 5-14: A kind and patient individual suggested the supposedly lost data may be accidentally deleted, in my ‘Trash’. Indeed, that was the case; it is now properly restored. Thank you!!!

training conferences upcoming BVAUG meetings

Multiple-topic meetings?

Would anyone be interested in meetings often having two, three, or even four topics? People may feel more comfortable presenting something if they don’t feel they have to fill a full hour, and more people may come if they see at least one thing being discussed that they’re interested in. A few thoughts for potential meeting topics:

Diann suggests playing some lynda.com segments, starting with ColdFusion MX Essential Training
Captivate demo; including a discussion of its potential usefulness for all developers and a comparison with Camtasia Studio
members show and explain aspects of their best or favorite sites (ones they’ve worked on or ones they just like)
Flex demo
Apollo demo
attendee reports from training conferences (myself and anyone else attending the AccessU and/or DIR accessibility events for the May and July meetings; and I’ll volunteer a segment in June after I go to the Adobe Summit User Group Manager conference)

If people would send their lists of both what they’d like to see and what they could present, we can start matching these up.

For the May meeting, I’m suggesting that the topics covered will be a report from AccessU from me and some ColdFusion essentials from lynda.com.

free resources

ActionScript 3 Class Diagram and Flex Framework Diagram Posters Available

Post author By Mark
Post date April 28, 2007
4 Comments on ActionScript 3 Class Diagram and Flex Framework Diagram Posters Available

For anyone interested in Actionscript 3/Flash 9 or Flex 2, I have some free 4 x 3 posters sent to our group by Adobe. Here are PDFs so you can see what they are:

ActionScript 3 Class Diagram (PDF)

Flex Framework Diagram (PDF)

I’m in 233 Gilchrist out by the Bush School; we have no-tag-required 30-minute parking so you could just come by and get some (email or call 862-3737 first to make sure I’m here), or I can bring them to a meeting for you to pick up there. Just let me know.

training conferences upcoming BVAUG meetings

AccessU

Post author By Mark
Post date April 5, 2007
No Comments on AccessU

We’ve been talking at the last few meetings about web accessibility. Thanks to Diann, we have Dr. Rhonda Blackburn speaking at our Apr. 24 meeting (this date changed 4-16 to reflect a rescheduling).

On this subject, I’ll be attending Knowbility’s Access U, an accessibility conference May 8 and 9 in Austin. They have a long list of classes, with topics on accessibility for PDFs, forms, tables, Flash, audio, video, CSS issues, etc.

I’ll take notes, post them here, and recap at the following BVAUG meeting. If others from this group attend, it would be great if you would each share what you learn as well.

BVAUG meeting notes training conferences

MAX 2007 will be Sept. 30 – Oct. 3 in Chicago

Post author By Mark
Post date April 5, 2007
No Comments on MAX 2007 will be Sept. 30 – Oct. 3 in Chicago

The main reason to attend MAX is simply this: Be it web design, application development, creative work, building intelligent documents, and more, you rely on Adobe products to do what you do. And this is your chance to learn new skills, discover new opportunities, and prepare for the future. Ben Forta, Edge Newsletter, July 11, 2006

The 2007 MAX site (added 6-13-07).

Here’s a MAX blog from the Chicago AUG: http://adobemaxchicago.blogspot.com/.

Here’s the site from last year.

Here’s the PowerPoint file from my MAX 2006 report at last November’s BVAUG meeting.

Some points from that file’s conclusion screen:

Adobe is making a major effort to relieve developer effort (Flash/Flex, Cold Fusion, Captivate, Fireworks, etc.)

Continuing strong emphasis on mobile technology
Major score with Verizon Wireless collaboration
Strong leveraging of the Flash platform
Apollo: Flavor of the Month?
Adobe has Microsoft envy

online training

lynda.com account request; subscription price discount for re-up

Post author By Mark
Post date April 4, 2007
No Comments on lynda.com account request; subscription price discount for re-up

As promised in the meeting Mar. 20, I officially requested a free BVAUG User Group account from lynda.com. I submitted the request Apr. 3. So far, just an automated response.

For personal subscriptions, I mentioned that the premium service at lynda.com is $375/year.* However, just this week I re-subscribed to lynda.com at work and received a $60 discount for not letting my account expire before re-upping. Might be a consideration for anyone evaluating a subscription. This must be new since this is the third or fourth year I’ve subscribed and hadn’t got a discount before.

*The difference between this and the $250/year version is the ability to download their exercise files. This is crucial for some of the tutorials but certainly not for all. Carefully look through the library before subscribing to see if the training you’d be interested in really depends on these files.