If you can’t make it to Ottawa, are interested in other workshops, or if you’d like us to bring the workshop to another location, let us know where and when you’d like us to make the workshop happen and we’ll be happy to investigate bringing it to your area or to your in-house team.

If you can’t wait until June 15th, you might also check out what we’re doing at other conferences in the next few months (please, check out the full list of events where I’m speaking)

Web App Summit, Newport Beach, CA, April 19-22

I spoke at the Web App Summit last year, and it was a fantastic experience; I’m really excited that the UIE team has asked me back for the 2009 Web App Summit. This event brings together an amazing pool of talent — the attendees, the conference organizers and the other speakers.

In addition to my main conference talk, I’m turning out a new full-day workshop for this conference that pulls together foundational concepts in Ajax technology and design with best practices for implementation and execution. The workshop — Designing Great Interactive Experiences for Everyone: Implementing Ajax and Accessibility — is for those that are looking for a kick start with Ajax, those that are looking for opportunities to use Ajax in their new or existing web apps, and those that need to ensure they follow best practices for developing with Ajax.

Use the promo code FEATHER to get your discount.

Access U, Austin, TX, May 11-14

Access U 2009 is full-on accessibility. I’ve been speaking at Access U since 2005 for Knowbility. If you’re looking for more accessibility than you can handle, this is the place to get it. From Accessibility 101, to CSS, JavaScript, Accessibility Policy, PDF, Flash, and a lot more. New to this conference is the UPA track.

I’m also debuting a new full-day workshop: Breaking New Ground: Designing for Accessibility with Emerging Technologies. The workshop takes a look at different technologies: PDF, Flash, Flex, Silverlight and others from a fresh perspective: how do we work with these technologies in a modern world where WCAG 2.0 is the standard and the days of WCAG 1.0′s “use HTML or it isn’t accessible” are gone.

An Event Apart, Boston, MA, June 21-22

No workshops for me this time, just a brand new presentation that explores “Accessibility – Experiments at the Edges of Experience.” In this talk we walk through a host of examples of accessibility at the edge, looking at solutions that solve problems and shine light in some of the murkiest, greyest areas of accessibility for web sites and apps.

Use the promo code AEAVIP for your discount off the registration fee for An Event Apart Boston 2009.

• I believe that accessibility helps us to innovate and create.
• I believe that accessibility is something that must be provided.
• I believe that accessibility is different than interoperability.
• I believe that accessibility is not a hindrance to progress.

There is much kerfuffle over Bespin, a <canvas> based tool that was put out by Mozilla Labs. (Incidentally, I’m really hoping it is Bespin as an homage to Star Wars’ Bespin and not BeSpin, as in the conjoining of the two words “be” and “spin”)

Many people are crying foul saying that <canvas> is inherently inaccessible at this point, and therefore the accessibility problem must be solved before the launch of the product/project. This fits perfectly well with the notion that technologies/projects/products need to be accessible from the get go. Generally, I support this sentiment.

Reading the emails, blog posts and twitter reactions has me questioning one particular aspect of this accessibility challenge. The question is not whether or not a technology should be made accessible, but when?

Accessibility Investment

Many individuals and organizations take accessibility very seriously and invest a lot of time and effort into making their work accessible. These efforts and investment are not to be taken lightly; they are precious and should be undertaken wisely.

As an example, when faced with issues of limited budget, time and prioritization, we’ll often suggest that organizations ensure that when JavaScript is on, their applications work properly with assistive technology rather than ensuring that their applications work with both JavaScript on and off. JavaScript on/off is an issue of interoperability — if your app doesn’t work with JavaScript off it sucks for people with or without a disability. Interoperability is best practice, but it doesn’t discriminate based on disability.

So, given that significant investment needs to be made in accessibility in terms of time, effort and money, when is the appropriate time to make that investment?

Consider a couple of scenarios:

1. in dealing with an experimental technology such as Bespin, we don’t know if anyone is going to use it, let alone people with disabilities. What if it sucks for everyone? is there any reason to make that suckiness accessible to everyone?
2. in addition to not knowing if anyone will use it, we don’t necessarily know how they will use it. Accessibility is part of user experience. Simply providing an alternative may provide a basic level of technical accessibility but may be unusable by people with disabilities. I would suggest that it is at least possible that until we know how people are going to use something, we have no idea with the most appropriate alternative will be.

Other emerging technologies such as AIR and Silverlight did not address accessibility in their 1.0 release of their product. Should they have? What if the technology was fundamentally unusable? What if, after 1.0, they looked at the product and said “this stinks, we have to start over.” Would it have been worth the investment in accessibility for a product/project/platform that died on the vine?

Accessibility in Mind and Implementation

Is it possible to include accessibility support “too early?” I’m not saying it should be an add-on at the end of the process/project/product development cycle, but I’m very seriously wondering what the optimal time for integrating an actual accessibility implementation is? Is it enough to keep accessibility architecture in mind from the beginning, but not implement right away? Should we get the basics right first, and then build in accessibility support based on that previously envisioned architecture after we know we have a viable product? We continue to say that accessibility should happen throughout rather than just at the end, but would it actually be better if we left it out,  just for a little while, at the beginning?

Is it a better “business decision” to say very early on “we are committed to making this accessible, but we know we’ll fall short of the mark on our first cut; we want to get this right for everyone, and will, but in order to make it accessible, we need to get this out into the real world to see how people will use it, what they want from it, and then build in accessibility appropriately.”

My feeling — at least right now — is that our job is to ensure that accessibility and accessibility architecture is kept in mind from the outset of a project/product/technological exploration, but not necessarily implemented at the outset.

I’m just throwing these thoughts out there for discussion — there is nothing definitive in here, other than the fact that I don’t think there is going to be one correct answer for this. What do you think?

It was this:

When this piece first arrived in the mail, I looked at the time (1:59:18), but didn’t think much of it. Then I read the text below it:

Derek,

This is not just any time. It is yours. A time that represents your goals, your determination, your journey. A time that represents a destination reached in May 2008.

Now the question is: What will your time be in 2009?

Oh! That’s my time! Brilliant. You got me. Count me in.

Why? I think it is because this piece speaks directly to me — not just that it is addressed to me, and personalized with my name and time. But it speaks directly to what motivates me as an athlete. They hit this on the head with their copy: “your goals, your determination, your journey” and then the call to action — the implied invitation to register — “What will your time be in 2009?” They really know how to push the right buttons!

This simple mailout really nails it as far as I’m concerned. If you can think of any other examples off hand, I’d love to know about them. It doesn’t need to be about direct marketing copy either, it could be anything.

I had misplaced them for what seems like months, and things just haven’t been the same. (Turns out that someone else in the house had been using them with their non-iPhone iPod).

What did I miss the most? Two things:

1. Hands-free phone calls in the car or while working.
2. Advancing to the next track on the iPod by double clicking the mic apparatus.

Seems inane, I know. But look a little deeper; the two things that make the iPhone what it is are just that much better with the headphones that cater specifically to those activities.

There are many headphones that claim to be iPhone compatible. I own a pair that sound incredible. The bottom line, though? I’m ecstatic to be reunited with the ones that were designed for the iPhone.

There were pieces of the site that I just hated using or working with. Why? Because I was doing things manually, and anytime you do something manually, it becomes tedious and a pain to do. What next? You just end up not doing those tedious things. Like posting. Keeping track of the events that I’m speaking at. Add to that the additional work of managing and responding to comments and that lead to inactivity.

So, with that, we unveil this new version — a new design with new functionality via some WordPress plugins. Jeff Smith, (the perfect hybrid designer/developer) who works with us over at Further Ahead created something that I just love — a beautiful design that inspires me to fill the screen with worthy writing. He also did the coding and WordPress integration, and some custom WP plugins (and mods to existing plugins) to help manage the speaking/training events listed over in the sidebar and the tumblelog that pulls in content from the pieces of me scattered across the internets. All in record time so that we could go live. The wonderful illustrated bench graphic was commissioned from the brilliant artist Anton Peck. Huge thanks both of them for such a wonderful job on this project!

The first version of the blog is archived for historical purposes, and with the magic of some rewrite rules (we hope) we haven’t broken any incoming links. I’m sure there are a few things that still need some tending to, but for the most part, here it is. Welcome!