NYS Forum IT Accessibility Committee

May 2009 Newsletter

### Edited by Joel Obuchowski

Articles and ideas for future newsletters? Please e-mail them to Debi Orton dorton@goer.state.ny.us and Joel Obuchowski jobuchow@ins.state.ny.us

NEXT COMMITTEE MEETING

May 14, 2009, 2:30pm - 4:00pm
NYS Forum Offices
24 Aviation Road, Colonie

Among the topics to discuss:
Recap of and results from "Accessibility for Executives" session held on 4/23
Status of other training programs for coming year
Agency questions and contacts

Remember, we have a NEW location for our meetings. If you need directions, please e-mail Debi Orton and Joel Obuchowski

Conference calling will be available for those who are interested, but please be sure to let us know at least a day in advance if you'd like to attend the meeting via conference call, so that we can reserve the resource.

UPCOMING EVENTS

Online Events at http://www.usa.gov

5/28/2009
Demo of the Quick & Easy Customer Profile (FREE)
http://www.usa.gov/webcontent/wmu/spring2009/demoquickandeasycustomerprofile.shtml

6/03/2009
Quick, Easy & Insightful: Conducting Usability Testing in the Wild ($50 for government)
http://www.usa.gov/webcontent/wmu/spring2009/quickeasyinsightful.shtml

Upcoming New Media Webinars for Government:

5/15/2009
Best Practices for Blogging (FREE)
http://www.usa.gov/webcontent/wmu/newmedia/blogger.shtml

6/18/2009
Google Maps and Google Earth: Uses in Government
For more information:
http://www.usa.gov/webcontent/wmu/schedule.shtml

RECENT NEWS

508 Universe Now Offers Online Learning

The federal Section 508 web site http://www.section508.gov now offers online learning modules on such topics as:
Designing Accessible Web Sites (4 hours)
Accessible Video and Multimedia (2.5 hours)
Building and Buying Accessible Software (2 hours)
Additional Accessibility & Usability Concerns (1.25 hours)
Accessible Conferences (2 hours)

You can gain access to the 508 Universe by visiting http://www.section508.gov/index.cfm and following the link to register for the 508 Universe on the right side of the page.

Facebook Commits to Making Social Networking More Accessible for Visually Challenged Users
http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/04/07/facebook-commits-to-making-social-networking-more-accessible-for-visually-challenged-users/

Gez Lemon Interview & ARIA
http://webaxe.blogspot.com/2009/05/podcast-71-gez-lemon-interview-aria.html

FEATURE ARTICLE

We have no feature article for this issue, but next month we'll publish a feature on Social Networking and Accessibility.

RESOURCES

9 Reasons Why Accessibility Matters
http://douglast.com/thoughts/archives/399

Accessibility to the Face
http://northtemple.com/2009/03/24/accessibility-to-the-face

Bruce Lawson: rel=accessibility
http://www.brucelawson.co.uk/2009/rel-accessibility/

European Accessibility Forum Frankfurt (videos)
http://vimeo.com/channels/eafra

How to use NVDA and Firefox to test your web pages for accessibility
http://www.marcozehe.de/articles/how-to-use-nvda-and-firefox-to-test-your-web-pages-for-accessibility

HTML5 & WAI-ARIA
http://annevankesteren.nl/2009/04/html5-wai-aria

Keyboard-accessible Google Maps
http://dev.opera.com/articles/view/keyboard-accessible-google-maps/

Making Accessibility More Real
http://www.456bereastreet.com/archive/200904/making_accessibility_more_real/

TPitfalls of Web Accessibility Evaluation Tools
http://www.standards-schmandards.com/2009/pitfalls-of-web-accessibility-evaluation-tools/

Updated WAVE Toolbar
http://wave.webaim.org/toolbar

Usability.gov Resources

New Media for Government Archives
http://www.usa.gov/webcontent/wmu/newmedia.shtml#past

Research-Based Web Design Guidelines
http://www.usability.gov/pdfs/guidelines.html

Virtual Worlds User Interface for the Blind
http://services.alphaworks.ibm.com/virtualworlds/

When good browsers go bad -- and they all do
http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9127875