It’s taken me a while to get around to posting this here, but only because I wanted to make sure that I had everything in place. If you are already a subscriber to the Boagworld podcast, you’ll probably already have heard this, but a couple of shows ago they included a 14-minute audio clip of me using a screen reader demonstrating some common problems. But it wasn’t just audio, there was also a video to go with it (the audio was simply lifted off the screencast).

I didn’t post anything here just yet as I was missing one essential ingredient – a transcript. Finally I’ve got around to typing that out, so if you’re interested, here are all the links you’ll need:

• Boagworld Podcast (subscribe link)
• Boagworld Podcast Show 87 (which features the audio)
• Download the video/screencast (Quicktime format only - 44.6mb)
• Read the transcript

I may be reading too much into this, and admittedly the source is one who’s quoting rumours, so it’s hardly a basis of a solid claim, but it still piqued my interest:

Rumors are starting to form about the upcoming JAWS 9.0 release. So far, Blind Confidential has only heard that it will do “revolutionary things on the Internet" … FS [Freedom Scientific] had included language about support for AJAX in JAWS in some of its 8.0.xxxx release notes but this was later removed so, perhaps, they have found a way to provide really cool access to some of the new dynamic web pages in a manner that would be meaningful to a screen reader user.

Like I said, only a snippet, taken from an after word of a post on Blind Confidential about how screen readers perform on Vista, but it’s the first time I’ve read something halfway encouraging on that front.

The audio from Joe Clark’s thought provoking session, delivered at @media2007 Europe, is now available — When web accessibility is not your problem (MP3, 28MB). Make sure to also grab his extensive notes for the session over on his site.

Everyone at this conference will have a working knowledge of Web accessibility. At this point, it would be hard to surprise you with the facts. But that’s just what this session sets out to do. We’ll explore the question of what the Web designer or developer definitely does not have to worry about in making sites accessible - and what the designer or developer should not have to worry about in an ideal world. Get ready for an entertainingly scathing indictment of browsers, screen readers, and so-called authoring tools. In a working environment where we always seem to be given one more thing to worry about, this session will give you a whole set of things to stop worrying about.

Controversial? Perhaps, but Joe’s thoughts certainly resonate with my own view on who’s responsible for web accessibility … it’s not good enough simply to dump all responsibility to web designers/developers. The onus has to also be on user agents, and end users themselves.

As an aside: skip forward to 43:48 of the audio file to listen to Joe calling me up on stage…

Andrew Kirkpatrick will be delivering a free online seminar on Flash captioning on Tuesday, 10 July 2007, 11:00 PDT (19:00 GMT).

Adding captions to video in Flash is essential to ensure that users who are deaf or hard of hearing can access Flash video content. Adobe Flash CS3 includes a new component to make captioning easy and effective, and a variety of captioning tools are available to help developers define a process that fits into their existing workflow. This session will share best practices for Flash 9 swfs, Flex applications, and older Flash 8 swfs and will show you how to get captions in your video step by step.

Sign up for the event over at the Adobe website.

Following a very successful event in Birmingham a little while back (despite Bruce’s vivid imagination), the people behind Public Sector Forums have recalled the same team to put on another show in London . That team includes Bruce Lawson, Ann McMeekin, Patrick Lauke, Grant Broome, Dan Champion and myself. We’ll be speaking at the Barbican on the 8th of August and would love to see you there.

Don’t be mistaken by the ‘Public Sector’ part of Public Sector Forums – this time around the organisers are opening the event up to anyone – you don’t need to be working in some dingy council office to apply for this one, anyone’s welcome!

I will be doing a general show and tell, finishing up the day’s events with plenty of real world examples of people getting things wrong-diddly-wrong, including many web sites you know and possibly love.

Interested? Find out more on the PSF site and you can book your place here (and please mention Accessify in the booking form when asked how you heard about it - thanks!).