SpoolCast: Accessibility with Derek Featherstone

SpoolCast: Accessibility with Derek Featherstone
Recorded: September 22nd, 2007 from the Webmaster Jam Session, Dallas, Texas.
Brian Christiansen, UIE Podcast Producer
Duration: 24m | File size: 14 MB
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In September, I had the opportunity to speak at the Webmaster Jam Session, in Dallas, Texas and was fortunate to meet Derek Featherstone. Derek travels the globe as a premier expert speaker on web accessibility, and was the closing keynote speaker at the conference. As expected, he gave a fascinating talk on real-world accessibility design for the web. I knew I had to pull him aside for an interview!

Derek and I spoke about how accessibility is an often downplayed, yet critical aspect of web design. We discussed:

• Accessibility is more than vision-impaired and screen reader access. What about mobility issues with touchscreens and people who use mouth and head wands?
• Does achieving technical compliance actually result in a usable design for a user?
• Can personas assist in designing for accessibility?
• Updated browsers and standards-based code: how are they helping today?
• The W3C Accessibility Checklist: Is it a goal for designers or just a starting point?

During the session, Derek mentioned the following resources:

Accessify.com
WebAIM.org – Web Accessibility in Mind

You can find Derek and his company at FurtherAhead.com, and his blog at Box of Chocolates.ca. Derek will be talking about how you can go beyond compliance and make truly accessible experiences at our upcoming Web App Summit.

Derek has a lot to teach all of us. I think you’ll find our talk enjoyable and informative!