[Athen] Looking for Info on Web 2.0

[Terry Thompson]

One note of clarification: Attending the WWW conference is optional. One
could choose to attend only the W4A conference if one were so inclined.
That's not obvious from the registration form - I had to ask, and that's
what they told me. 

As for integration of accessibility into the larger community of Web 2.0
ideas, I think W4A is a positive step. It's part of the larger conference
and occurs prior to the main conference so attendees will be fully emmersed
in accessibility for two full days plus a banquet, then can take that
accessibility-focused mindset into the main conference and contribute
informed accessibility-related ideas to the larger discussions. That's what
I expect to happen anyway. I'll be there, and will let you know if I'm still
feeling good about it afterwards. 

Terry

Terry Thompson
Technology Specialist, DO-IT
University of Washington
tft at u.washington.edu
206/221-4168 
http://www.washington.edu/doit




> -----Original Message-----

> From: athen-bounces at athenpro.org 

> [mailto:athen-bounces at athenpro.org] On Behalf Of John Foliot 

> - Stanford Online Accessibility Program

> Sent: Thursday, April 19, 2007 3:18 PM

> To: 'Access Technologists in Higher Education Network'

> Subject: Re: [Athen] Looking for Info on Web 2.0

> 

> Jennison Asuncion wrote:

> > Hello,

> > 

> > It may be too late for most from a planning perspective, but there 

> > will be a two day conference on web 2.0 and accessibility in Banff 

> > Canada May 7 and 8. The site is www.w4a.info

> > 

> > Jennison

> > 

> 

> FWIW, I saw this a while ago.  While it certainly looks 

> interesting, note that it is but part of a larger conference. 

> The financial barrier attendance presents is quite steep: 400 

> Canadian Dollars for the w4a sessions (BUT!!

> that is on top of the W3C conference: $395/one day to 

> $1695.00/5day + hotel and travel)... You are looking at a 

> fair chunk of change here.

> 

> I recently attended the Web 2.0 Expo in San Francisco, and 

> after crawling the expo floor for about 5 hours, my overall 

> impression of the numerous "Web 2.0 solutions" out there is that:

> 

>   A) AJAX is their savior...(sic), and that eventually 

> everything will be one big mash-up.

> 

>   B) "Accessibility? Oh, that's Section 508, right?" (and 

> that was the positive responses: I got equal quantities of 

> blank stares).  One booth told me that they were almost 

> completely "Section 508" (as if it were a state of being - 

> curiously as well, they were "almost"...)

> 

>   C)"I don't think we're there yet" and/or "We plan on 

> addressing that in the next release".  

> 

> In short, most of these folks didn't get online accessibility 

> in Web 1.0, what makes you think they will get it in 2.0?  I 

> was hugely disappointed.

> 

> While I can commend the organizers of this conference (The 

> International World Wide Web Conferences Steering Committee 

> (IW3C2) [www.iw3c2.org]) for adding this "a la carte" module 

> to the conference, it also saddens me that once again, Web 

> Accessibility has been marginalize in this manner: why was 

> this W4A module treated as a bolt-on and not part of the 

> mainstream conference?  If this is how the such a preeminent 

> international body addresses Web 2.0/Accessibility, is it any 

> wonder that those poor folks on the expo floor in San 

> Francisco were so clued out?

> 

> Sign me cynical and frustrated...

> 

> JF

> 

> 

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