{"id":702,"date":"2013-11-28T21:49:29","date_gmt":"2013-11-29T05:49:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/galencharlton.com\/blog\/?p=702"},"modified":"2013-11-28T21:49:29","modified_gmt":"2013-11-29T05:49:29","slug":"notes-from-code4lib-bc-accessibility","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/galencharlton.com\/blog\/2013\/11\/notes-from-code4lib-bc-accessibility\/","title":{"rendered":"Notes from Code4Lib BC: Accessibility"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Peach
Peach Arch. Photo by Daniel Means. Licensed under CC-BY-SA and available at Flickr<\/a>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

There is nothing quite like the sense of sheer glee you get when you’re waiting at the border… and have been waiting at the border for a while… and then a new customs inspection lane is opened up. Zoom!<\/p>\n

Marlene and I left Seattle this morning to go to the Code4Lib BC<\/a> conference in Vancouver. Leaving in the morning meant that we missed the lightning talks, and arrived after the breakout sessions had started. Fortunately, folks were quick to welcome us, and I soon fell into the accessibility session.<\/p>\n

Accessibility has been on my mind lately, but it’s an area that I’m starting mostly from ground zero with. I knew that designing accessible systems is a Good Idea, I knew about the existence some of the jargon and standards, and I knew that I didn’t know much else — certainly none of the specifics.<\/p>\n

Cynthia Ng<\/a> very kindly shared some pointers with me. For example, it is helpful to know that the Section 508 guidelines is essentially a subset of WCAG 1.0. This is exactly the sort of shortcut (through an apparently intimidating forest) that an expert can effortlessly give to a newbie — and having opportunities to learn from the experts is one of the reasons why I like going to conferences.<\/p>\n

The accessibility breakout session charged itself with putting together a list of resources and best practices for accessibility and universal design. As I mentioned above, we arrived in the middle of the breakout session time, but a couple hours was more than enough time to get initial exposure to a lot of ideas and resources. It was exhilarating.<\/p>\n

In no particular order, here is a list of various things that I’ll be following up on:<\/p>\n