Happy Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD)!
The purpose of the day is to get people talking, thinking and learning about digital (web, software, mobile, etc.) accessibility and users with different disabilities.
Take the #NoMouse Challenge!
How accessible is your website? Try to navigate through your site WITHOUT using a mouse! Taking the challenge is easy by following the steps on #NoMouse Challenge.
The #NoMouse Challenge is a global effort to raise awareness about accessible web design. NoMouse.org is a project of DO-IT Center at the University of Washington.
I’ve been fortunate to have access to the Access Technology Center at University of Washington. This fantastic group is passionate about creating a more accessible world for ALL users, disabled or not. Creating websites that are accessible makes a better web experience for EVERYONE.
Some resources to start creating more accessible websites:
Wordcamp Seattle 2015 Experienced
Last weekend’s Wordcamp was amazing and inspiring! This WordCamp was a bit different from the other ones held in the past. The intended audience for this particular WordCamp was the “Experienced” WordPress community — those who have been using WordPress for many years as professional developers, designers or publishers.
The highlights of this year’s presentations included:
Saturday’s keynote speaker John James Jacoby who started off the event sharing his insights into how WordPress has impacted his life as a developer.
Mark Root-Wiley’s “Coding for Accessible WordPress websites” emphasized the importance of creating accessible sites and included some preliminary steps that developers should be taking to make sites more accessible. Creating websites that are accessible to ALL users is something I find very interesting and important. Mark is a local web designer/developer who specializes in creating user-friendly WordPress sites for nonprofits and other mission-driven organizations. Mark’s blog is definitely worth following and he has posted slides and videos from his talk there.
Amanda Blum spoke about “Long Term Relationships: Creating Sustainability in WP Client Handoff” which focused on project management and client relationships. This was my first time hearing Amanda talk and I enjoyed hearing her about experiences, insights, and knowledge that she shared with us. Amanda is a project manager with Howling Zoe Productions.
Another of my favorite speakers was Morten Rand-Hendrickson who presented “Building Themes from Scratch Using Underscores (_s)”. Underscores is a starter theme which is the base that many premium themes are built off of. While I’ve never used Underscores, it’s definitely worth considering for my next project. I’ve heard Morton speak before and the way he presents topics in an informative, yet humorous manner makes him one of my favorite speakers. Morton posted slides from his talk on his blog at Mor10.com – another blog worth following.
While this covers only a few of the talks from this year’s WordCamp, you can learn more at the Seattle WordCamp 2015 website. In addition, Matt Eppelsheimer has written great summaries of many of the sessions on 2015 WordCamp Seattle Live Notes.
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