Mando Group Ltd - joanne_finch

Accessibility 2.0: a million flowers bloom

Last Friday, 25th April, Adam and I attended the Accessibility 2.0: a million flowers bloom conference in City University, London. The event was organised by AbilityNets Senior Accessibility and Usability Consultant Kath Moonan, and hosted by Robin Christopherson one of their founding members. The event advertised an impressive range of speakers including Jonathon Hassell, Head of Audience Experience and Usability for BBC, Julie Howell who is Director of Accessibility at digital design agency Fortune Cookie, and Antonia Hyde from United Response a company who works with people who have learning disabilities and mental health needs.

I went to the event because the digital industry is moving forward so fast and in my role it's of the upmost important to keep my accessibility knowledge up-to-date, especially with the onset of sites that rely on user generated content such as, FaceBook, YouTube, Flickr etc. So I thought what better way to keep me in the know that to attend a “the first ever conference focusing on web accessibility in a Web 2.0 world”, the day promised to be a very practical day, offering realistic solutions and cutting edge techniques.

Jeremy Keith from Clearleft was first up and spoke about how the key to accessibility was to keep data open, by allowing other users to take your data and do with it what they will, we will have a far more accessible web. The transcript of his keynote is here
After tea and biscuits Steve Faulkner from Paciello Group was up, he took Twitter as his case study examining the problems encountered by using AJAX. Steve’s talk, along with Antonia’s, was more practical than most of the other speakers, and was probably more of what I expected from the event.

Christian Heilmann was next with an entertaining talk on “Fencing in the habitat”, how with the likes of text resize, text only & high contrast options we are placing users with disabilities in their own habitats, rather than encouraging them to learn how to use their browsers in order to tailor content to suit their needs. I was kind of agreeing with everything Chris was saying about text re-size options etc as it was what I was preaching to clients myself as far back as four, five years ago, but then Antonia Hyde from United Response gave her speech on designing for users with learning disabilities.

I found Antonias talk one of the most engaging and was quite disappointed in that she was rushed for time and cut short by the organizers. Designing for users with learning disabilities is not something I’ve really looked into before and I know it’s not something that is taken into account in the W3C WCAG guidelines. Antonia showed videos of users trying to use various sites encountering issues with changing content and content overload, lack of easy options to tailor content such as changing contrast or text size (in contrast to what Christian Heilmann has been saying previously) and lack of good iconage for easy recognition.

Jonathan Hassel talked about user generated content and the issues with making it accessible. He showed a couple of projects that the BBC have developed, BBC Jam have designed an e-learning tool that translates English into British Sign Language (BSL) with the help of some nicely illustrated characters. Then there was also an e-learning tool for blind kids which made clever use of stereo sound to give instant feedback to on screen actions. One fact that did take me by surprise is that “No blind child under the age of 11 years is using any type of e-learning software”.

Next up was Stephen Eisden of Leonard Cheshire Disability talking about "Building a social network for disabled users". Disability Information portal DIP uses WordPress as it’s underlying technology and tries to take into account a range of requirements from a wide variety of disabilities. DIP online is currently in a pilot scheme you can join in here dip-online.org.

Finally Ian Forrester of BBC backstage was on, unfortunately another speaker who was pushed for time and got cut short. Ian talked briefly about the “Tools and Technologies to watch and avoid” mentioning Flash and Adobe Air among other culprits to be aware of. He discussed how we are in the middle of a “User Control Revolution” and that users with disabilities need to be part of the revolution too that means allowing them to contribute rather than just to observe.

The day ended with a discussion panel, which consisted of: Mike Davies of Yahoo! UK, Kath Moonan from AbilityNet, Bim Egan from the RNIB, Jonathan Hassell from the BBC, Antonia Hyde from United Response and Panayiotis Zaphiris from the City University, all moderated by Julie Howell.

The over riding message I took from the day was that we’re in a world that has gone beyond the WCAG guidelines and ticking all the right boxes, we should be making content, and the ability to create content, truly accessible to users. That we are all unique, and have our own requirements it’s not just for those we class has disabled. We need to design for everyone and get everyone involved.

‘March Madness’ Creative Workshop

Can you create a structure that will support an egg for a minute using just newspaper and string?

That was the task set for participants of the March Madness Creative Workshop this afternoon. The idea behind the workshop was to promote creative thinking in a safe, non-judgemental environment, to test out our new and developing STAR System game, oh, and to have a bit of fun.

It was great to get a range of people involved not just the usual designers; we had people from IT, Marketing and Sales, although I must say there was a serious lack of developers.

Before the session started I explained how our new STAR System game worked and how we were going to use it in the workshop.

Basically the STAR System game consists of different stimuli to assist in quick and creative brainstorming. STAR stands for Subject Trend Action and Random, the game contains three types of cards, Trend, Action and Random cards and on each card a relevant description. At the beginning of a brainstorming meeting you must define and write down your subject or goal for that session, then select three cards each, two from each category. This instantly gives you a range of eclectic stimuli to start brainstorming with.

Each team received a sketchbook and pens, and took three cards each from the game. They then got as many ideas as possible down on paper in twenty minutes, and then spent a further five minutes developing the one they thought stood the best chance of supporting an egg successfully.

After designs had been tweaked and sketches amended the teams had twenty minutes left to actually build their designs. Each team was given a pile of newspapers, a ball of string and a pair of scissors. Before long the creations were taking shape, and looking rather promising I might add, it was time for each team to choose a spokesperson to present their idea and put it to the test.

With splash mat at the ready and timer set to 00:00 the testing began, fortunately all three designs passed with flying colours and not a drop of yolk was spilt.

What can you do with a newspaper, ball of string and an egg?

Mando Marauders

Sunday 15th July 2007, Liverpool held the 14^th Liverpool to Chester to Liverpool bike ride, and Mando, very bravely, decided to enter two teams.

Ian Snailham did most of the encouragement, motivating myself, Dan Prior, Adam Burcher, Simone Peter and Andrew Wishart to take part. I then persuaded my husband Reg to join us, and Ian did the same with his wife Beryl. So with two teams of four we were ready to go, we decided that we’d raise money for Barnardo’s the chosen charity for the event, Ian set up a Just Giving site http://www.justgiving.co.uk/mando and set our target at £500. Emails and texts were sent out to all family, friends and colleagues asking for support in the way of sponsorship and donations.

With a week to go the excuses started rolling in; Simone had booked a last minute holiday, a bargain she couldn’t refuse, so wouldn’t be able to ride. Andrew was snowed under with work and would have to work all day Saturday and Sunday to catch up, and then last but not least on the morning of the ride Dan pulled out with a knee infection.

So with only three hardcore Mando cyclists left plus spouses Ian pulled in the troops in way of his friend Terry. We all met in the Mando car park at 7.45 Sunday morning, with Ian, Beryl and Terry looking like true professionals in tight t-shirts and shorts, while Adam, Reg and I looked like we were just popping out to the shops. We donned our official Mando t-shirts even though they were a little on the large side and took the officially team photograph. We then set out to meet the other 2000 cyclists that were gathering at the mouth of the Birkenhead Tunnel. It was here that we split into our teams; Ian, Terry and Adam planning to do the full 54 miles to Chester and back again, and Beryl, Reg and I hoping our legs would last the 30 miles to Chester so we could catch the train back again.

We set off from the start line in batches, with Radio Merseyside’s Roger Phillips (I think) helping us on our way, to be one of a privileged few to ride through the Birkenhead tunnel while it was closed to traffic. Within seconds we’d lost sight of Ian, Adam and Terry. Reg and I decided we’d make it through the tunnel at our own pace and wait for each other on the far side. I managed to make it though first and it wasn’t long before we were both racing through the streets of Birkenhead heading for the county lanes of Thornton Hough and Willaston.

To our surprise and delight the route was fairly flat, which allowed us to pick up quite a pace. We went from sharing main roads with traffic, to quiet country lanes and even ended up on a dirt path at one point. The ride was exhilarating especially when getting caught up in the numerous herds of professional racers that sped past.

Before we knew it there was the sign saying we had made it to Chester, we pulled up outside the Countess of Chester Hospital in a field where we checked in, Reg and I collapsed on the grass along with our bikes and sat rejoicing in the fact that we had made it without any chaffing or cramps. In fact we were pleased to say it was easier then we had imagined.

After a quick rest and time to pick up our DIY (please insert participants name here) certificates we got back onto our bikes and rode to the station where we caught the next train home to Liverpool. We were so busy chatting about the highs and lows of the ride and how our legs were really going to feel it the next day, that we completely forgot about the monstrous hill that lay between the station and a nice warm bath. Brownlow Hill and Edge lane are pretty steep roads and by the time we got near home our legs were burning worse than at any other moment that day. We wobbled into the house and collapsed, needless to say we’d had a really enjoyable day.

P.S Adam, Ian and Terry all made it round the full 54-mile route so well done to them too.