Accessify In Shortlist for SXSW Web Awards

It gives me great pleasure in breaking my posting drought to announce that Accessify's Tools & Wizards page (home of such tools as the List-O-Matic, Acrobot and other accessibility related tools) is in the shortlist for this year's web awards at the South by South West Web Awards. It'll be in great company (as the other shortlisted sites show) and I'm personally very pleased that it got as far as this (I certainly didn't expect it to).

The problem I have now is that I feel duty-bound to go along and attend, which is no easy thing as I recently took a career break and am currently on the other side of the world watching the budget very carefully! If anyone can help me with this predicament, I'd love to hear from you. Ah, so here's where the begging bowl gets reeled out ...

If you would be willing to sponsor my trip from Sydney (where I expect to be by early March) to Austin Texas, I could do the following:

• Add a company logo/credit and link back on the Tools & Wizards page (anyone visiting SXSW's nominations list will be pointed to this page). This is not the same as the standard footer text that is on Accessify's pages - it will be more prominent than this.
• Mention to anyone I meet personally how gracious you've been by helping me to be there.
• If the site wins, I will ensure that the sponsor gets a mention in the acceptance speech and on the post-event video that they shoot with the winning entries

Note that this page will be getting significantly higher visits as a result of the award nomination and sponsoring this page will offer greater exposure for anyone willing to help out. Please also note that I would prefer any potential sponsor to be an Internet-related business (web design/hosting/consultancy/development etc); it also make most sense to the sponsor, as it will be primarily web professionals who will be visiting this page from SXSW's site.

If you are interested in helping me, or if you would like to find out more information, please drop me a line using the contact us page.

The Rolling Rampage

Dave Shea passed me a link to Rolling Rampage, the site is a great example of the use of Web Standards for a very sexy looking site. I'm not convinced on the Accessibility due to the text being difficult to read, and thought twice before posting about it, but I figured it would be a good idea to let you have your say in the forum.

Partner Projects

Don't forget to check out what's happening with the projects that are currently partnered with Accessify Forum:

WaiZilla

The first open source project aimed at producing a cross platform web-site accessibility testing tool. Links:

• WaiZilla at mozdev.org
• WaiZilla Discussion

AccessibleNet.org

More Accessibility related links than you can shake a stick at. Links:

• AccessibleNet
• AccessibleNet Discussion

The Guild of Accessible Web Designers (GAWDS)

It's a gulid for accessible web designers, that's probably you, so join it! See the following links for more information:

• GAWDS.org
• GAWDS Discussion

Accessibility Toolbar

Recently mentioned at WaSP the Accessibility Toolbar provides Internet Explorer with:

....one-click access to the validators....snap your browser window to a specific resolution without manually dragging a corner.....turn CSS off at any time.......and beyond!

After a brief try I highly recommend this toolbar for anyone involved in building Accessible sites, the tools are very useful, the only caveat is that you must have JavaScript on for the tools to work (and there still seem to be a few issues that need sorting out, but nothing too serious). For similar options for other browsers see the above linked WaSP post.

Web Standards and Accessibility Presentation

I'm giving an introduction to Web Standards and Accessibility in Hull (UK) on the 29^th of January, full details.

New browser for users with learning difficulties.

Widgit Software have announced a new browser aimed at users with learning difficulties such as dyslexia and dyscalculia.

The developers say that it can process most web pages, and automatically turn text into symbols that help. The software is expected to cost around £70. However, one drawback is that it will not be able to process embedded Java and Flash applications.

Further references

• The full story at the BBC technology news site.
• Peepo (a heavily symbolized website).
• Perspective on eContent accessibility.

Happy New Year

It may be a few days late, but never mind about that. I just wanted to express my gratitude towards anyone who has ever taken the time to read the site, link to the site, email me with suggestions (some of which I get round to taking up or fixing!) and so on.

it's been a little slim on news recently, and it's been even more difficult for me to keep tabs on things on account of being away from things somewhat of late. However, I hope to keep an ear to the ground, and I know that others are contributing to the home page anyway. Let's keep those home fires burning.

Happy New Year to all visitors to this site!