The AccessAbility SIG and the STC Summit May 2-5

It’s that time of year again. The 2010 STC Summit begins early Saturday morning in Dallas, Texas, with the pre-conference courses, followed by more courses on Sunday along with Leadership Day. Before it closes on Wednesday at lunch-time, attendees will have chalked up many hours exchanging ideas, questions, solutions, and business cards.

Our SIG networking breakfast is scheduled for Monday morning, as is the Usability and User Experience SIG. Our two SIGs have been kissing cousins, if you like, so sharing tables at breakfast is a great networking idea! We always encourage mingling with STC UUX! We hope you’ll have quality conversations to kick off your Monday.

Conference Program and Highlights

There is an online version of the conference program; don’t forget to check the topics with a usability and accessibility focus. A printed version will be available at the conference for attendees.

Let me highlight three sessions:

• Using Stories for More Effective Usability, May 03, 3:15 PM to 4:30 PM in Reunion B with Whitney Quesenbery, Whitney Interactive Design
• Writing and Testing for Universal Usability, May 4, 2:15 PM to 3:30 PM in Reunion A with Janice (Ginny) Redish, Redish & Associates, Inc., Randolph Bias, Associate Professor, The University of Texas at Austin, and Sheng-Cheng Huang, The University of Texas at Austin
• Web 2.0 and Accessibility, May 04, 4:00 PM to 5:15 PM in Reunion A with
  Linda Roberts, SAS Institute

They will be valuable sessions for all who attend. (Note: Be sure to check the schedule at the conference for any last minute changes.

Most Influential Women in Technology 2010

Those who attend the opening session on Sunday night are in for a treat. Actually, that is an understatement. Molly Holzschlag is the Sunday evening speaker. She was just named Most Influential Woman in Technology 2010 by Fastcompany in the Evangelist category. Molly gave an informal talk at the CSUN2010 tweetup where she gave a call to action: let’s stop talking about disabled access and start talking about universal access. In other words, our own “let’s take the ‘dis’ out of ‘disability’”.

General Comments

For those attending the conference, have fun! And wherever you go, remind people of some accessibility basics:

• Speak clearly and repeat all questions if you are the speaker!
• Speak up about your hearing issues if you are the attendee with hearing issues!
• Eschew obfuscation! Push for plain language!

No accessibility conference guide was produced by the SIG this year. I apologize profusely for that. I didn’t give a shout and delegate those tasks in time. My prioritizing went haywire with personal issues. (However, look for something soon that will make up for this oversight.)