June 2, 2017 — Mik is TV Presenter, Journalist and Access Expert.
With over 30 years in the media he was one of the first well-known disabled people to appear on TV in the UK, working on shows such as Beat That, From The Edge, The Travel Show, BBC News and C5 News. Alongside his media career, He is one of the UK’s leading access and inclusion experts. His advise major companies and government bodies on how to create and maintain systems that ensure disabled people, and all other protected characteristics as described by the Equality Act 2010, are fully included in society. He is specialise in the retail, leisure and transport industries.
His talk is on #A11Y and How to Sell it to a Client.
In his talk he explained the reason why it is so vital for all working it the field of WordPress to ensure their output is accessible. But more importantly, he explained how to sell this to potential clients, and why it is so vital for them to invest in #A11Y.

March 30, 2017 — 1 in 5 people in the US, report having some kind of disability. For some, these disabilities make it difficult to access the internet. That’s where web accessibility comes in. According to the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), web accessibility means that “people with disabilities can perceive, understand, navigate, and interact with the Web, and that they can contribute to the Web.” Not only does web accessibility help people with disabilities, it helps others experience the Web, including individuals whose abilities have changed as they’ve gotten older.

Web accessibility is so much more than standards and checking off items on a list. It’s about having empathy for someone else. To be frank, web accessibility makes it possible for everyone to google the burning question that we all have at 2a.m.: Where can I get pizza at this hour?

This talk will cover:

The basics of web accessibility
“People First” language
The importance of empathy
Inclusive design and content creation best practices
Helpful tools and resources

January 16, 2017 — Amanda Rush designs websites and web applications using various content management systems including WordPress, as well as testing websites for accessibility according to the W3C standards and for Section 508 compliance. She checks for usability with Jaws for Windows, Non-Visual Desktop Access, (NVDA), Window Eyes, System Access, and VoiceOver at Customer Servant Consultancy.

For the full description of the interview, go to: https://blog.wordpress.tv

November 15, 2016 — This episode I cover updates from the CoreTeam concerning WordPress 4.7 Beta and the upcoming Release Candidate.

The recent Global WordPress Translation Day event and petty Tweeted the stats.

The Accessibility Team explains that there are 112 a11y ready themes in the repository and 80 still needing to be updated.

Finally I discuss a solution for my issues with timezones.

September 29, 2016 — WordPress is secretly running so many sites we use today. WordPress is amazing, heavily distributed, and loved by many. Heather Migliorisi explains how they can be made even better when accessibility is added into the mix.

Topics include:
-Quick and easy fixes you can do right now (contrast, colors, and :focus)
-Common mistakes we make (images, icons, placeholder text vs. label, semantic faux pas, and roles)
-Choosing accessible themes and plugins
-Where to go for help
-Giving back to the community

Presentation Slides »

July 4, 2016 — While speaking about accessibility I’ve realised that for some people the key to understanding why accessibility is so important comes from experiencing how people with disabilities actually use the websites we build. So I’ll be demoing two pieces of assistive technology (AT): Dragon – voice recognition software and NVDA – a screen reader.

June 21, 2016 — Accessibility (a11y for short) on the web has become law in Ontario, and yet there are still so many easily-overlooked details developers often miss. Discover some of the legal responsibilities developers have for today (and tomorrow), how improving the User Experience for all people will also improve your site’s search engine ranking, and practical steps and tools to help you upgrade your theme’s accessibility score.

Presentation Slides »

January 7, 2016 — An American turns 50 every 7 seconds. The senior age group is now, for the first time, the largest in terms of size and percent of the population in the U.S. Those aged 50 and older represent 45% of the U.S. population. One-third of the internet users in the U.S., are adults aged 50+ representing the Web’s largest constituency.

WordPress sites must be designed with this in mind. You will learn how to meet seniors’ needs from one of their own.

Presentation Slides »

December 13, 2015 — LeeAnn will give you a brief overview on the principles of accessible front-end design and show you how easy it is to start building a better web experience for everyone. We will cover what accessibility means in WordPress design and development and go over a few simple steps to audit a website for accessibility. You will be provided with tools and tips on how to easily add accessibility into your workflow and will walk away with a better understanding of how you may be excluding certain users from your sites and immediate actions to prevent it from happening.

December 12, 2015 — Integrating Accessibility (a11y) into the project process can be downright scary. In this session, I’ll cover basic web accessibility principles for web designers, developers, and site owners, then show how to turn seemingly daunting and confusing accessibility requirements into understandable, actionable tasks and techniques. The talk will cover some of the accessibility-specific WordPress plugins and themes available, as well as some quick, easy tests to integrate into design and development workflows.