CSUN Summary
As I mentioned, this was the first CSUN (Conference on Technology and
People with Disabilities)* that I've attended where there hasn't been a real or implied agenda to the sessions I've attended or the people I talk to. I was chatting with a former MS coworker who said something like, "It must be nice to not to have to apologize" for where you work, or to be able to sit in on a discussion of Linux or Open Source without having to assure people that you're there just because you're curious.
As far as the "cool toys" I saw:
Blackberry Orator
It is a collaboration between Humanware, Cod Factory (who makes the Mobilespeak products for Symbian and Windows Mobile), and RIM. They showed a demo version that wasn't even an Alpha version. It is tentatively scheduled for release some time in the summer of 2009, and will run on new Blackberries with full qwerty keyboards (no partial keyboards, or touch screens.) Of what they showed us, it seems to perform the way we've grown to expect phone screenreaders to work.
Braille Displays
It looks like *everybody* has added Bluetooth to their displays. There's also the new ones from ESYS (a 12-cell and 40-cell version) that also has rudimentary text-editor and calculator built-in, and a slot for an SD card. APH has the Refreshabraille 18, an 18-cell display with keyboard that isn't much bigger than the 12-cell models. (The braille goes all the way to the edge of the device, which is how you get 6 more of them.) Imho, I think the 18-24 cell versions have the ultimate in versatility since they're small enough to be portable, but big enough to get more than two words per line.
ARIA
There's a lot of potential in the Accessible RIch Internet Applications approach. It isn't as extensible as I'd like (yet?), still limited to control definitions like treeview, but it should go a long way to improving web 2.0 accessibility. WHat it is is a set of tags that a developer can put on they're custom control (like a treeview or a menu) that allows that information to be conveyed to a screenreader. Currently, screenreaders don't know how to deal with anything other than the standard HTML-based controls. Firefox 3.07 supports ARIA, and IE 8 will support part of it. Jaws 10 is supposed to have ARIA support, and the free NVDA screenreader does as well.
Also, the raisingthefloor.net initiative looks intriguing.
There may be more, but I'm still correlating my thoughts.
* THe acronym CSUN is for Cal. State University at Northridge who has sponsored the conference, but the conference itself is the COnference on Technology and People with Disabilities. C-Sun is easier to say.
People with Disabilities)* that I've attended where there hasn't been a real or implied agenda to the sessions I've attended or the people I talk to. I was chatting with a former MS coworker who said something like, "It must be nice to not to have to apologize" for where you work, or to be able to sit in on a discussion of Linux or Open Source without having to assure people that you're there just because you're curious.
As far as the "cool toys" I saw:
Blackberry Orator
It is a collaboration between Humanware, Cod Factory (who makes the Mobilespeak products for Symbian and Windows Mobile), and RIM. They showed a demo version that wasn't even an Alpha version. It is tentatively scheduled for release some time in the summer of 2009, and will run on new Blackberries with full qwerty keyboards (no partial keyboards, or touch screens.) Of what they showed us, it seems to perform the way we've grown to expect phone screenreaders to work.
Braille Displays
It looks like *everybody* has added Bluetooth to their displays. There's also the new ones from ESYS (a 12-cell and 40-cell version) that also has rudimentary text-editor and calculator built-in, and a slot for an SD card. APH has the Refreshabraille 18, an 18-cell display with keyboard that isn't much bigger than the 12-cell models. (The braille goes all the way to the edge of the device, which is how you get 6 more of them.) Imho, I think the 18-24 cell versions have the ultimate in versatility since they're small enough to be portable, but big enough to get more than two words per line.
ARIA
There's a lot of potential in the Accessible RIch Internet Applications approach. It isn't as extensible as I'd like (yet?), still limited to control definitions like treeview, but it should go a long way to improving web 2.0 accessibility. WHat it is is a set of tags that a developer can put on they're custom control (like a treeview or a menu) that allows that information to be conveyed to a screenreader. Currently, screenreaders don't know how to deal with anything other than the standard HTML-based controls. Firefox 3.07 supports ARIA, and IE 8 will support part of it. Jaws 10 is supposed to have ARIA support, and the free NVDA screenreader does as well.
Also, the raisingthefloor.net initiative looks intriguing.
There may be more, but I'm still correlating my thoughts.
* THe acronym CSUN is for Cal. State University at Northridge who has sponsored the conference, but the conference itself is the COnference on Technology and People with Disabilities. C-Sun is easier to say.