John Slatin AccessU | May 14-16, 2013
John Slatin AccessU
Now there are two ways to attend John Slatin AccessU – in person or online!
If you are among the lucky ones who will gather in Austin, we are looking forward to welcoming you in person next week. But if you can't travel at this time, you can still attend a (shorter, less comprehensive but still) GREAT lineup of accessibility classes right At Your Desk.
View AccessU at your Desk classes and schedule.
From the Margins to the Mainstream
As Austin begins to warm toward summer, there’s no cooler place to be than with the passionate speakers and instructors for this May’s AccessU! Now in its second decade, AccessU provides courses and workshops from the world’s best instructors in the technologies, techniques and issues focused on inclusive, beautiful Web and document design and development.
This year, some of the highlighted speakers and topics include include Henny Swan from the BBC, who will focus on Mobile Accessibility; Shawn Lauriat from Google, who will help us take on accessibility challenges in Complex Web Applications, and Knowbility’s own Molly E. Holzschlag who will demystify the emerging Open Web Platform. Be sure to check out the full course and workshop catalogs to learn more about all of our fantastic presenters and content, as well as our opportunities for socializing and networking during evening events.
AccessU keeps close to the heart of the ideologies of Open Web - that the Web we create must transcend the platforms, operating systems, browsers and most importantly - societal barriers imposed on anyone seeking access to the information and services we create every day. To do this well is a fine art as well as deep technology.
Come and join in for a great experience that will leave you with new learning, inspiration and passion for building the Web – the way the Web was meant to be!
Next Tab: Registration2013 Registration Rates & Deadlines
| February 28th, 2013 | March 28th, 2013 | April 25th, 2013 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Access U (May 14-15, 2013) | $390.00 | $435.00 | $495.00 |
| AccessU Post-Conference (May 16, 2013) | $295.00 | $325.00 | $375.00 |
| AccessU+ (Includes Conference & Post-Conference Registration) | $625.00 | $695.00 | $795.00 |
| AccessU at Your Desk (Selected Virtual Sessions Plus Access to the Archives) | $125.00 | $125.00 | $125.00 |
A 20% discount is available for groups of 10 or more. Email kim@knowbility.org for more details.
Attend John Slatin AccessU in person or online!
05-08-2013 Now there are two ways to attend John Slatin AccessU – in person or online!
If you are among the lucky ones who will gather in Austin, we are looking forward to welcoming you in person next week. But if you can't travel at this time, you can still attend a (shorter, less comprehensive but still) GREAT lineup of accessibility classes right At Your Desk.
AccessU 2013 proudly presents...
05-06-2013 Check what AccessU 2013 has in stock for you with some of the best accessibility experts around such as Kimberly Blessing, Whitney Quesenbery, Denis Boudreau, Molly Holzschlag, Google's Shawn Lauriat, Karl Groves, Lainey Feingold and many and much more!
AccessU at Your Desk
04-20-2013 Help us to choose the classes for AccessU at Your Desk.
John Slatin AccessU 2013 dates announced!
01-15-2013 Save the date! John Slatin AccessU will be coming back to St. Edwards from May 14 - 15, 2013 and AccessU Post conference on May 16 - stay tuned for registration information, speakers, and more!
Next Tab: ClassesFeatured Classes
"Change" is Not a Four-Letter Word
AOL was one of the coolest tech companies around – in 1996. But in the early 2000s, losing dial-up customers to DSL and cable, it tried to entice customers to stay by creating more ‘exclusive’ content that could only be accessed with the AOL software. By 2006, however, nearly all AOL content was on the open web and employees were publicly talking about open source and web standards. What happened?
Kimberly Blessing, a long-time web professional and “one web” evangelist, was part of AOL during this time and experienced the organization’s counter-productive fear of change. To counteract it, she appointed herself as change agent and led initiatives to adopt web standards, performance, and accessibility best practices, and to build new publishing tools based on these tenets, which helped the company emerge from its walled garden.
Throughout her career, Kimberly has taken up the change agent mantle and learned valuable lessons about what makes a change initiative succeed or fail. In this keynote, she will empower you to embrace your inner change agent as she shares stories about some of the change efforts she’s been a part of, both successful and unsuccessful.
Accessibility is Broken: A Game Changing Perspective
You know your web and mobile apps should be accessible, but wrapping your brain around how to make this a reality without killing your schedule or your budget is mind-boggling. Time to turn your overwhelming accessibility challenges into a fulfilling, engaging and addictive game. Are you ready to become an accessibility avenger? Join Glenda Sims as she shares how to employ proven game mechanics into the real life adventures played out in the Legend of Accessibility.
From BAD to Good: Using the W3C's Before-and-After Demo
The Before and After Demonstration is a multi-page resource that shows an inaccessible website and a retrofitted version of this same website. Also included are annotations of key accessibility issues and a sample evaluation report. This session will illustrate a number of practical uses for this valuable resource such as developing presentations, learning and teaching about accessibility barriers, and writing accessibility evaluation reports. The session presenter was a member of the W3C demo committee during the early stages of its development in 2009.
HTML5 & WAI-ARIA Forms w/ jQuery Validation
Connecting labels to inputs is easy! But what about required fields, error messages, and keyboard focus? Learn to make totally accessible forms that work great for everyone including screen reader and keyboard-only users!
"Change" Is Not a Four-Letter Word
We are excited to announce Kimberly Blessing as our keynote speaker for John Slatin AccessU 2013! Kimberly was once referred to as an “internal agitator” – the part of the washing machine that does the hard work of getting laundry clean – because of her passion for stirring things up and making things better in the organizations she works with and on the Web at large.
Kimberly's topic will be: "Change" Is Not a Four-Letter Word.
AOL was one of the coolest tech companies around – in 1996. But in the early 2000s, losing dial-up customers to DSL and cable, it tried to entice customers to stay by creating more ‘exclusive’ content that could only be accessed with the AOL software. By 2006, however, AOL content was nearly all on the web and employees were publicly talking about open source and web standards. What changed?
Kimberly was fortunate to be part of AOL during this time and was the change agent behind many of these organizational and technical changes. Throughout her career, she’s been part of many similar initiatives and has learned valuable lessons about what makes a change initiative succeed or fail.
In this keynote, Kimberly will teach these lessons as she shares stories about some of the change efforts she’s been a part of, both successful and unsuccessful.
About Kimberly Blessing
Kimberly is a director at Think Brownstone, an experience design consultancy. In her nearly 20-year career on the Web, Kimberly has evangelized design, code, and accessibility best practices while holding senior engineering and management roles at Comcast Interactive Media, PayPal, and AOL. She has served on the W3C HTML and CSS Working Groups and was a member and co-lead of the Web Standards Project, the grass roots organization that helped the web standards movement get beyond the “browser wars”.
A graduate of Bryn Mawr College (B.A., Computer Science) and The George Washington University (M.Sc., Computer Science), Kimberly is also a passionate advocate for increasing the number of women in computing and technology fields. She lives in Philadelphia, a city not unfamiliar with stirring up trouble.
About John Slatin AccessU
AccessU, an annual accessibility training institute presented by Knowbility, provides three days of instruction in how to make electronic information technology accessible to everyone - including people with disabilities. If you believe that the web should empower all people, need information about how to meet state and federal accessibility mandates, or are a commercial web developer who wants to understand emerging best business practices for the web, AccessU will provide the resources you need.
Join world renowned accessibility experts for two days of classes to improve your skills and better understand the the need and the techniques for inclusive IT design. For everything from the basics to the bleeding edge, AccessU is the place to be in May!
Who is John Slatin?
Dr. John Slatin was the founder of the Accessibility Institute at the University of Texas. In 2002, Sharron Rush, John Slatin, and other accessibility leaders sat in his office and brainstormed ideas for classes they wanted to make available to the community. Each class was written on a sticky note and moved around a white board until the outline for a kick-ass conference - the very first AccessU - was formed. In keeping with the Knowbility spirit to make accessibility fun, they planned some great social events around the classes, and each year following, the community grew and the classes improved. In 2008 when John died after a gallant fight against leukemia, the conference was named in his honor.
AccessU Location
AccessU is located on the campus of St. Edward’s University, a private institution located in the heart of South Austin.
St. Edward’s University Website
Hotel Accommodations & Directions
Group rates are available at Wyndham Garden Hotel, located at Woodward and I-35. All conference attendees are responsible for securing their own room; be sure to ask for the Knowbility group rates. Call 512-448-2444 to make your reservation.
From the North: Take IH-35 south to Exit 231 (Woodward Street) turn left at the light. The main hotel entrance is on the left.
From the South: Take IH-35 north to Exit 230 (Ben White Boulevard/Hwy 71/Hwy 290): stay on the IH-35 frontage road going north for 1.5 miles. The hotel entrance is on the right.
From Austin-Bergstrom International Airport: Take a left (west) out of the airport on I-71/Ben White Boulevard. Proceed 5 miles and turn right onto Woodward Street for .5 miles. The hotel entrance is on the right.
Meals
Breakfast and lunch on each conference day are included in the cost of attendance.
Efforts will be made to prepare an inclusive menu; however, those with significant dietary restrictions are encouraged to prepare and bring personal provisions.
- Tuesday May 14th
- Breakfast: Everyone will be eager to hear the legal update from Lainey Feingold. Registration opens at 7:00 am and we will provide plenty of coffee and a Texas taco bar breakfast in the ballroom, as we get ready for her 8:00 am talk.
- Lunch: Provided for all at 12:30 and Kimberley Blessing will give the keynote talk at 1:00 pm.
- Wedesday May 15th
- Breakfast: Sleep in. Classes don't start until 9:00 am and we will serve only a continental breakfast of coffee, pastries, and fruit.
- Lunch: Once again provided in the Mabee ballroom with an assistive technology demonstration at 1:00 pm that you won't want to miss.
- Thursday May 16th
- Breakfast and lunch for post conference registrants.
*** Please note that only registered and paid attendees will be able to attend the post conference sessions. There are no pro bono seats in these sessions. Thanks for understanding.
Other Accommodations
In the spirit of inclusion, we make every effort to accommodate the special needs of our conference attendees. If you have a request or particular need, please contact Mike Rush Community Programs Manager, at 210-365-5074
Support AccessU
We need your support. Volunteer to help with the conference or become one of our sponsors.
Volunteer
Volunteer with us at AccessU to not only support the program, but receive a discount off of your registration! Volunteers help to guide conference attendees to their classes, assist with registration, and many other conference-related tasks. To sign up, please complete the volunteer form. Be sure to tell us that you’re volunteering specifically for AccessU in the comments and questions field.
Sponsor
Through sponsorship of AccessU, your company or organization will make a high profile statement of support for technology inclusion, for people with disabilities and for emerging accessibility standards. Several sponsorship levels are available; don’t wait to sign up!
Donate
As a registered 501(c)(3) organization, Knowbility presents AccessU through the generosity of our partners and supporters. To contribute to this program, and keep accessible technology education coming back year after year, donate to Knowbility today!
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