wendy chisholm

Moved!

2009-03-13T14:35:00.000-07:00

I have retired my blogspot blog in favor of a wordpress blog on my own server: Wendy Chisholm AND we have a blog for the book, Universal Design for Web Applications (O'Reilly Media, 2008) AND I've been twittering and flickring and all sorts of stuff. The one stop shop for everything Wendy is: friendfeed.com/wendyc. So, find me and let's chat. I look forward to hearing from you.

Web 2.0 Expo, SXSW, Scripting Enabled-Seattle

2008-08-25T15:17:00.000-07:00

Matt and I are speaking at the Web 2.0 Expo in New York City on 17 September. I look forward to seeing familiar faces! We submitted a panel to SXSW called, “Inclusive Universe 1.0.” I would love to get back to Austin to be involved in the cutting-edge dialogs that happen there, so please support our session. Only 4 more days to vote, so do it now! I *really* wanted to attend Scripting

Please donate to help Nick move to New York

2008-08-21T13:49:00.000-07:00

I received this through the DO-IT discussion list. Please consider a donation to help help Nick cover $3000 in moving expenses.If you've never heard of Nick Dupree, a quick search on the web will bring up some interesting facts. Nick is a 26 year-old health care activist, writer, and former student from Spring Hill College in Mobile, AL. He also has an undiagnosed physical disability which

Slides

2008-07-11T15:39:00.001-07:00

I've posted my slides from Tuesday's presentation on slideshare (inclusive universe). However, the flash that is embedded on the slideshare page is not accessible: the buttons are not labeled and the alt-text has been stripped from the PDF. I've sent a comment via their web site. Anyone know someone who works there? I'd love to talk to someone in person.Therefore, here's a tagged PDF version (

today's stew

2008-07-10T08:41:00.000-07:00

It's interesting that comments on my previous stew focused on types of toilets (although, I am happy to have learned about the toto 2000). I'm not sure if that means the idea of monetary incentives for accessible web design should be flushed...This morning as I prepared for my commute to work (the walk to the basement of our house), I was thinking about the comments on Scoble's Will videoblogs

Eating my own dog food

2008-07-09T16:52:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, I presented as part of a social media event and had an awesome time. The other speakers were stimulating and fun.For the first time, instead of creating my slides in XHTML/javascript (I like Eric Meyer's S5), I used Open Office Impress. I figured, "why not." We're using Open Office for the book and it works pretty well. Plus, I noticed I could export my presentation in tagged PDF.

cheap and easy?

2008-07-02T11:51:00.000-07:00

At barcampSeattle, Bryan, Dylan, Matt, I, and several others started a dialog about helping people adopt accessible design practices. The summary of our discussion was, "make it cheap and easy." Last week, inspired by a comment from tantek, the dialog continued on twitter. We compared accessible design to green/environmentally-friendly design....and doughnuts. :)I've been working on a mental stew

flickr experiment

2008-07-01T12:33:00.001-07:00

Testing for textOriginally uploaded by anneke boudreauThe book...in process. This is a screen shot taken with my phone then emailed to flickr. I wanted to see what they would do with the text.First, I edited the title of the photo on my phone from random text (imgnnn) to "Testing" then I created an email with "Testing for text" as the subject and "Will this text show as description?" in the body.

Event: Perspectives on Social Media

2008-07-01T10:25:00.000-07:00

I'm speaking at an event at zaaz next week that ought to be a lot of fun. Here's the line-up: "Mobile 2.0: Design and Develop for the iPhone and Beyond" - Brian Fling, Flingmedia http://www.flingmedia.com/"Money, Media, and Your Mom's Peach Cobbler - Social Media Marketing Done Right" - Justin Marshall, ZAAZ www.zaaz.com"Single Athletic Female seeking Single Slender Male - The marriage of social

Favorite Harriet McBryde Johnson quotes

2008-06-13T16:16:00.000-07:00

My copy of "too late to die young" has several bent pages with underlined passages. Here are a couple of my favorites."We need to confront the life-killing stereotype that says we're all about suffering. We need to bear witness to our pleasures." About a trip to Cuba, "It's the old socialist formula, 'From each according to ability, to each according to need,' played out one to one. It's hard

"the float"

2008-04-14T15:13:00.000-07:00

At lunch last Friday, I learned about "the float." Today, I found this article, What PayPal does with your money that says, "The money-transfer service earns interest on funds in its custody" and describes how other folks are kind of miffed at paypal. Cool. I'm not alone.Actually, now that it's been explained to me, I'm not miffed anymore. Now, I'm just puzzled. Why couldn't the customer

another dumb user - me

2008-04-11T10:26:00.000-07:00

I am schooled in the ways of human factors. I know that if your user feels dumb, there is probably something wrong with your system. I know that you should give your user a way to back out of a mistake. I know that most of the "user errors" that cause harm could have been prevented by better design.I feel dumb.Here's my situation: Yesterday, I tried to transfer money from my checking account

The John Slatin Fund Accessibility Project

2008-04-02T19:06:00.000-07:00

Would you like your site reviewed for web accessibility?The John Slatin Fund Accessibility Project matches accessibility experts with companies that would like a brief review of their site for accessibility. In return, the site owner is asked to contribute a minimum of $500 to The John Slatin Fund. The John Slatin Fund was established to help John’s beloved Anna offset the medical expenses

jollification

2008-04-01T09:15:00.001-07:00

Dictionary.com Word of the Day - jollification: merrymaking; revelry.

Thank you

2008-03-25T18:20:00.000-07:00

Here are a few brief glimpses of memories; they don't do justice to the awesomeness that is John Slatin.I went to dinner with Anna and John then we went to Body Choir. I wasn't sure what to expect, but I was blown away. At first, I felt a little awkward, but I started moving to the music then realized that I was connecting with people without words. Through movement, eye contact, I was

irony

2008-02-28T10:08:00.000-08:00

Back in the day, Java was supposed to be our "write once, run anywhere" solution. Today, all those beans live on the server handling service calls from other "write once, run anywhere" RIAs. All that promise of fame and glory and they end up hiding in the background. Poor beans. They just weren't flashy enough. heh.

Go with the flow

2008-02-21T10:19:00.001-08:00

Throughout my programming career, I have learned (and forgotten) Basic, Pascal, C, C++, Java...not to mention all of the various application-specific scripting languages that I can't even remember the names of...but, throughout all that learning and forgetting, one thing remains constant: flow diagrams. Seeing them again this morning is like rediscovering that cozy old blanket from college.

Super Silence

2008-01-25T12:40:00.000-08:00

Pepsi ad to give Super Bowl viewers a moment of silenceThe pregame advertisement features a joke that originates from the deaf community and will play out on screen over 60 seconds of total silence, a veritable eternity when it comes to the noisiness of Super Bowl ads.The joke goes like this: Two guys are driving to their friend Bob's house to watch the Super Bowl. Once they get to Bob's street,

Haptic Tattoo

2008-01-11T10:24:00.000-08:00

I love tattoos. I love inclusion. I love futuristic ideas.The haptic tattoo is all three.

Inspired by BBC's Technologies on the rise in 2008

2008-01-04T11:18:00.000-08:00

Each time I see predictions for new technologies, I wonder how long it will be until they are accessible. Perhaps 2008 will be better than previous years - let's take a look at the technologies listed in the BBC's Technologies on the rise in 2008 and make some accessibility predictions for the upcoming year.THE WEB TO GO "Google announced its Gears application whilst Adobe launched Air and

Art and language

2007-11-27T10:31:00.000-08:00

From the L.A. Times: A new film about a troupe of disabled performers delivers a message of empowerment.As I read the first paragraphs of the story, I dreaded that the director, Liu Xiao Cheng, was using disadvantaged people for his personal gain. But, as I read further, it seems he genuinely wants to change how people think about abilities."It wasn't enough for this troupe to arouse people's

Rulings and olympics and online media captioning, oh my!

2007-10-04T14:13:00.000-07:00

It's been an emotional two days in the world of accessibility.I've been reading reactions to the judge's ruling that Target should stand trial and I looked at the site this morning - the one that includes "several improvements" that were made in reaction to the suit. I keep expecting someone to say, "Just kidding! We uploaded this site from the wayback machine, circa 1998. Here's our

universally accessible play area

2007-09-28T11:21:00.001-07:00

universally accessible play areaOriginally uploaded by anneke boudreau We recently traveled to the midwest to visit family. Since we were traveling with a 2 year old, we stopped at as many playgrounds as time would allow.Two of them were accessible. The photos that I took of the play areas didn't turn out, but they both had a ramp that allowed access to the play structure (the towers,

Add to my to-do list

2007-09-22T07:16:00.001-07:00

clipped from www.456bereastreet.comOverall the examples keep the promise the book makes in that they are creative, standards compliant and up-to-date, but there is just a little bit too much inaccessible image replacement going on for my taste. Not a huge problem, but I would have liked to see at least one

captions

2007-09-04T15:24:00.000-07:00

One of the coolest things about academia is free access to Lexis-Nexis. Each week I search for "accessibility" and never tire at the interesting things I stumble upon. A couple weeks ago, it was an article in Game Developer magazine that ends:It's important to keep in mind that game accessibility isn't strictly about contributing to the gaming experience of disabled gamers. As Reid Kimball,

Ten-second test

2007-09-02T14:41:00.000-07:00

My husband and I have been role playing - heh. He's an executive at a manufacturing company and I'm a universal design/accessibility advocate. We have mock conversations where I try a new sales pitch and he tells me why it won't work. Yesterday, I thought I had the perfect pitch - he wasn't shooting it down and was asking great questions, until wham! I veered off into technobabble about CSS.

Increasing target size

2007-08-30T13:35:00.001-07:00

In 1996 there were over 40 sets of web accessibility guidelines that we attempted to coalesce into a single document. One of the sets focused on increasing the size of active elements to make easier targets for people with dexterity issues. 10 years later, iPhone users want larger targets - finally a use case that sells. I hope all those folks looking for larger targets will learn how to

Viewports

2007-08-30T13:13:00.001-07:00

I look forward to comparing UAAG/ATAG/WCAG to the Optimizing Web Applications and Content for iPhone. It's good to know there is at least one thing in common, "viewport." clipped from www.alistapart.comThe iPhone makes prominent a little-discussed web development concept: the viewport. To deal with the problem of

Structure and SEO

2007-08-15T12:31:00.001-07:00

Are you concerned about search engine optimization? If you make excellent use of CSS but your HTML lacks good structure, consider this quote from a 21 March 2007 PC Magazine article, "Remember that search engines read the HTML source code, so optimize your code so that it's easy for bots to find keywords in the text." If you add structural elements, such as headings and paragraphs, search