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The Idea Place Posts

Indian Wedding Barat Music

Published April 26, 2009 by Kelly Ford

A few years ago Aimee and I travelled to India for the wedding of one of my coworkers. We had the privilege of taking part in one of the wedding traditions known as a Barat.

 

Dictionaries will tell you that a barat is a procession lead by the groom with his relatives and friends to the place of the wedding ceremony. It involves musicians, dancing and general celebration as the wedding party makes their way through the streets.

 

What I will tell you is that listening to this recording of some of the procession even today reminds me what a delightful experience we had at the wedding and taking part in the barat. Enjoy nine minutes of what was more than an hour long experience. The musicians mingled with the people in an ever-changing flowing arrangement of people. One minute you were near the front of the group, the next the back. One second a drum is beating just inches from your head, the next a horn. I’ve long wondered what it was like to be part of a marching band. Now I know.

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An Accessibility Thanks to Goodreads

Published April 15, 2009 by Kelly Ford

I use a social networking site for book enthusiasts known as Goodreads. The basic concept behind the site is that you share what you are reading with friends and they share with you and you all get to discover more good reads.

 

Maybe 18 months ago I mentioned an issue around missing alt text on book titles on the site. Goodreads fixed the issue in about a day. Recently a change broke the issue and the site developers fixed things in a day. It is nice to see web developers take accessibility seriously and be so responsive when issues do come up.

 

If you enjoy books, give Goodreads a try. I’ve found it quite handy to keep track of what I’ve read and have discovered several new authors and books to read.

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W3C’s WAI Has Two Opportunities to Help Shape the Future of Accessible Web Browsing

Published March 27, 2009 by Kelly Ford

For those who haven’t heard about this in other arenas, I wanted to let readers know that the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) has some key opportunities to help shape the future of an accessible web browsing experience. There are two documents that have been released recently that offer opportunities to comment.

 

WAI-ARIA Last Call

 

WAI-ARIA defines a way to enhance the accessibility of web applications and user interfaces that are commonplace on the web today. It makes it possible as an example to create a tree view control in HTML and related script and have a screen reader and web browser treat that control like a tree view you may have experienced in a desktop application. Obviously the specification is only part of the story as you need both the web browser and screen reader or other assistive technology to support ARIA as well. Firefox has supported ARIA for a while and the recently released IE8 has added support for ARIA to IE.

 

You can learn more about the last call ARIA document and some companion documents that talk about adding support to ARIA in a browser and best practices for using the technology starting at http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/w3c-wai-ig/2009JanMar/0037.html. The announcement may indicate that comments were due by 3/24 on the last call document but I know comments are still being accepted beyond that date.

 

User Agent 2.0 Working Draft Available for Review

 

The User Agent Accessibility Guidelines Working Group is in the process of updating guidelines on what it means to be an accessible user agent. User agent really means web browser and the guidelines talk about everything from what keyboard access in a web browser should do to how web content should be made available to applications such as screen readers. I’m personally a member of this working group and when I think about the number of web browsing applications that exist today and that will exist five years from now, I think a UAAG 2.0 document is an excellent opportunity for us all to help ensure we can browse the web on all the different devices where it is available. This goes far beyond just the browsers we use on our notebooks, desktops and maybe cell phones today. UAAG 2.0 is still in a development stage and the group has some tough challenges we are tackling. I’d encourage those with an interest in the space to review the current working draft and share feedback. You can learn more starting at http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/w3c-wai-ig/2009JanMar/0057.html.

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Getting into Podiobooks

Published February 6, 2009 by Kelly Ford

I’m sure I’m definitely a Johnny-come-lately to the table when it comes to podiobooks. I know a friend of mine has been after me to experience the world for more time than I care to remember. I dabbled a bit a few months ago and then the computer I was using to gather books crashed and well, I wouldn’t be a Johnny-come-lately if I jumped right back in now would I?

 

The basic premise as I understand it behind the podiobooks world is this: There are loads of authors who have stories to tell that today’s mainstream publishing world just won’t publish. Based on my own experience it has little to do with the quality of the writing or nature of the books. I’m sure it is more a reflection of the homerun or nothing mentality of the publishing industry as anything else.

 

Some of these authors have decided to use technology to solve the problem of getting their stories out and one of the leading web sites for this is Podiobooks.com. There you can download for whatever donation you choose to make, hundreds of books in audio form, mostly read by the authors.

 

I won’t claim to be any sort of expert in the area. My understanding is that several of the authors have garnered book deals with publishing houses as a result of their success in this new arena. What I will say is that I’ve found another good source of reading material. My sleep might not like the result, but the reader in me has been enjoying the new discoveries I’m making in the podiobooks world. And a big thanks to the friend who persisted in telling me I’d enjoy this source of listening material.

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Freedom Scientific Talks About ARIA

Published January 18, 2009 by Kelly Ford

The current episode of Freedom Scientific’s podcast called FSCast has an extensive discussion of ARIA (accessible rich internet applications). At a high level, ARIA is a way to ensure that the complexity of desktop applications being reproduced on the web remains accessible.

 

The podcast is worth a listen for anyone interested in web accessibility. Although JAWS is used in some of the demonstrations, the discussion of ARIA hits at the benefits and challenges of ARIA for any screen reading user. Take a listen to the podcast directly at http://podcast.freedomscientific.com/FSCast/episodes/fscast026-january2009.mp3.

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Windows 7 Beta Available

Published January 11, 2009 by Kelly Ford

For anyone who likes to try the latest and greatest in software, a beta of Windows 7 is now available.  full details with instructions on how to download and more are at http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows7.

 

Whether you try the beta or not, there are at least two excellent resources for learning what’s happening with Windows 7 from people at Microsoft.  The Engineering Windows 7 blog and The Windows Blog are resources where extensive info about how Windows7 is evolving is posted.

 

I’ve used the Windows 7 beta successfully with several screen readers including JAWS, Window-Eyes, System Access, and NVDA.  Your mileage may very but I would suggest you run the newest versions of these programs if you do try the beta.

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Query on Cable/Satellite set-top box accessibility

Published December 28, 2008 by Kelly Ford

I have loads of info and experience in most aspects of technology accessibility. This, however, is an area where I’m seeking to learn from others.
An impending change by Comcast to eliminate most analog signals means that my current solution for video recording of a Media Center PC with an analog TV tuner card will no longer work. In researching my options, I thought I’d see what anyone knew related to the state of the art, if any, there was in terms of direct access to the functionality of the set-top box?
I seem to recall some prototype software once that showed how the interface for accessibility on a set-top box might work. Did that go anyplace ever? In short is their anyone doing something good in terms of accessibility in this space I can share with Comcast and the manufacturers of the boxes?
For what it is worth, this change has nothing to do with the impending switch to digital TV for broadcasters. Instead Comcast is replacing most analog signals in their cable lineup to make room for more HD signals. My current proposed solution is looking like replacing my media center PC with a newer computer with a digital tuner card capable of handling a cable card required for decoding of digital cable signals. But at $1200 or so, it isn’t the most immediate solution I’d like to use.

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Aimee’s Elephant Ride

Published December 27, 2008 by Kelly Ford

Aimee posted several travel dispatches while trekking throughout Southeast Asia. One little interesting detail she left out was the fact that she took a couple of elephant rides. A snowy day in Seattle provided a good opportunity to share those memories. Enjoy her description of what it is like to ride an elephant.

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Humorous Packer Song

Published December 25, 2008 by Kelly Ford

To fully appreciate the humor here, being a reader of the Packers blog on the JS Online web site helps but I found this little tune kind of funny. The lyrics are filled with references to excuses for the poor Packer play this year taken from press conferences after most of the losses. Listen after the song ends for “Osseo”, a Wisconsinized version of the Beach Boys’ tune “Kokomo”.

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