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Accessibility events in Melbourne & Sydney
Transcript
4 May 2014
Roberta: An old friend of our program, Sarah Pulis, Head of Accessibility at PWC Stamford Interactive, has come back to tell us about an accessibility event she is organising in Melbourne and Sydney and it's called A11Y Bytes. Welcome back, Sarah.
Sarah: Thanks very much, Roberta.
Roberta: So first of all, tell us all about A11Y Bytes.
Sarah: Well, A11Y Bytes is an event that is running on May 15 to celebrate Global Accessibility Awareness Day. Global Accessibility Awareness Day, otherwise known as GAAD for short, started three years ago when Joe Devon said, look, we actually need to raise awareness of the accessibility in designers, product managers, everyone who actually has an input into building accessible products. Last year I started A11Y Bytes here in Sydney and they're an evening of lightning talks, so short, five, eight minutes talks, talking about digital accessibility and also people with different disabilities. We are now also running A11Y Bytes this year in Melbourne as well.
Roberta: So what sort of presenters have you got on the bill this year?
Sarah: We've got a really nice range of presenters. Some people are talking about mobile accessibility, so having people being able to use mobile phones. The wonderful thing about mobile accessibility is that we actually are all disabled at some time through situational disability. You try and use your phone outside in glaring conditions so, you know, high contrast, for instance, helps with that. We've also got other speakers who are talking about wearables, so looking at sort of some of the future technology that can actually help with disability, accessible media players, which are always a little bit of a difficulty, and other topics like that.
Roberta: Who would you recommend to attend this event?
Sarah: Look, we're looking for anyone who works in the digital space or has contact with that space, so that could be, as I said, product managers, designers, developers, content authors. We keep it nice and light. There are a few techie presentations but certainly you don't have to be a strong technology person to come along and find out more about accessibility and people with disabilities and how they interact with their technology.
Roberta: Well, Sarah, as someone with their finger very much on the pulse what do you think are the major developments in web accessibility that we're seeing at the moment?
Sarah: Well, look, one of the things I'm really heartened with is the change in attitude of Australian companies towards accessibility. I'm talking with a lot of people who know that it's the right thing to do. They're committed to doing it. It's just about how we actually do it and it's wonderful to see that the World Wide Web Consortium, the Web Accessibility Initiative, who make up all those standards for accessibility, they're really focusing down on now making the standards a lot more, well, actually accessible to people. You know, I love asking the question, how many people have read the international standards, the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, and then I say, "How many enjoyed it?" Usually there's maybe one person in the room who actually say that because it's a pretty big tome of guidelines. They're really focusing on making it a lot more accessible to people so that it can help with the implementation.
Roberta: Well, Sarah, if people would like to come along and learn more about A11Y Bytes, what are the details?
Sarah: Well, it's on May 15, running in Melbourne and Sydney. The website is www.a11ybytes.org. The background to A11Y, it's actually a hashtag. So because accessibility is such a large word, in the Twitter sphere what they did is they took out all the letters between A and Y and that's 11 letters and that's why we get a-one-one-y but of course it's much easier to say "ally". So www.a11ybytes.org, go visit there. That will link you off to event sites where you can register for the free event. Some of the accessibility meet-up groups are also running their own events, so I know Brisbane is running their event, Perth is running an event and, I believe through the grapevine, Canberra is also running an event, although that's not up yet. So if you just go to www.meetup.com, Google "accessibility" and "Brisbane" you'll get details for those groups as well.
Roberta: Well, that's fantastic. Now, to find out more about access to the web visit Media Access Australia website, www.mediaacess.org.au, or call the office with any questions, 02 9212 6242. Thank you very much, Sarah, for this today and I hope that we might be able to talk to you after the event and see how it all went.
Sarah: That would be fantastic, Roberta.
Roberta: Okay, I've been speaking with Sarah Pulis, Head of Accessibility, PWC Stamford Interactive. Media Access Australia are supporters of this program.