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WAI: Strategies, guidelines, and resources to make the Web accessible to people with disabilities

Web Applications Enabled - Agenda

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W3C Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) is leading Web Applications Enabled on 16 September 2009 in London, UK, as a Techshare 2009 pre-conference workshop. Web Applications Enabled is kindly supported by the RNIB Access Consultancy Services - Web Access Team.

Description

This tutorial provides training for developers who want to learn more about creating accessible Web applications. It introduces the key concepts of Web accessibility standards including W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0 and WAI-ARIA - Accessible Rich Internet Applications, to demonstrate how these can be implemented in practice to provide accessible and usable Web sites and applications. The tutorial includes contributions from different speakers, and provides an opportunity for questions and engaging discussions. Particpants will gain:

Participation

Delegates to this full day tutorial are expected to have background in Web development with HTML, CSS and scripting, and to have a basic understanding of key Web accessibility concepts. Delegates are encourage to become familiar with the following resources in preparation for the tutorial:

Participation is open to all delegates of the Techshare 2009 Conference, please see registration for more information.

Program

Wednesday 16 September, 2009

Note: The session titles and the order of the speakers may change as the agenda gets refined.

Venue

This tutorial is a pre-conference workshop for Techshare 2009 Conference, on 16-18 September 2009 in London, United Kingdom. It will take place at the same venue, please additional see venue information and travel information provided by the conference organizers. The meeting date and location are:

Wednesday 16 September, 2009

ExCeL London
One Western Gateway
Royal Victoria Dock
E16 1XL, London, UK

Registration

Registration for this tutorial is required through the Techshare 2009 Conference. Please find information about Terms and Conditions of Booking, Registration rates, and on Booking. Registering for this tutorial does not require registration for other Techshare events.

Presentations

This tutorial includes the following presentations.

Overview and Introduction to WCAG and WAI-ARIA - Michael Cooper, W3C/WAI

Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0 is designed to be applicable to dynamic Web applications. This session summarizes new characteristics of WCAG 2.0 and how it applies to rich Web application development. Then it introduces Accessible Rich Internet Applications (WAI-ARIA), which allows developers to provide accessibility semantics appropriate to the dynamic content.

Where does WAI-ARIA work? - Steven Faulkner, TPG

Which browsers and assistive technology (AT) support WAI-ARIA ? What does it mean for a browser to 'support' WAI-ARIA. What does it mean for an AT to 'support' WAI-ARIA. How is support tested? What are the current levels of support?

Taming the Browser: JavaScript Frameworks and WAI-ARIA Support - Andrew Ronksley, RNIB

Any front-end developer will know that browsers can be an unforgiving development environment in which to work. JavaScript frameworks can ease some of this pain and their popularity and usage is fast rising. Learn about the benefits of using a JavaScript framework and the current and planned levels of support for WAI-ARIA in some of the most commonly used ones.

Usability and WAI-ARIA - Joshue O'Connor, NCBI CFIT

So WAI-ARIA is becoming an accepted feature of the developer landscape. So how will users of Assistive Technology respond to these changes? Will they have to learn more complex ways of navigation or different modes of interaction? This presentation hopes to demonstrate the importance of user testing WAI-ARIA enabled applications to ensure that the reality lives up to the promise.

WAI-ARIA for pleasure: Jawbreaker in action - Lynn Holdsworth, RNIB

All work and no play...
It's not only productivity that's benefiting from the exciting accessibility enhancements WAI-ARIA brings to the table. Adding WAI-ARIA to a computer game, normally a very visual "point and click" environment, levels out the playing-field somewhat.

WAI-ARIA: Real world examples and Solutions - Artur Ortega, Yahoo!

WAI-ARIA-example in the real world: http://m.www.yahoo.com and http:/www.ysearch.com.
Description of how WAI ARIA was implented and an overview of the real world challenges we face when using WAI ARIA: e.g. focus management and virtual buffer updates and the solutions. Additionally a small overview what is actually supported: http://www.marcozehe.de/2009/07/01/the-wai-aria-windows-screen-reader-shootout/