Refresh Austin

Access U, Knowbility’s annual IT accessibility training institute kicks off this coming Tuesday May 6th. St. Edward’s University hosts two days of classes, many of them hands-on, offered by world-renowned accessibility experts. From the basics to the bleeding edge, Access U will provide the resources you need.

Among this year’s highlights:

• Step by step guide through new WCAG 2.0 guidelines and emerging 508 standards
• Acsessibility
• Multi media accessibility
• and dozens more accessibility classes for technologists, content providers, and policy makers

Plus, there’s an optional post-conference session in AJAX Accessibility by Derek Featherstone.

Networking events include the opening dedication to Dr. John Slatin, presentation to Jim Thatcher of the annual “Making A Difference Award” from ACM, the leading international association of computer science professionals, and an audio described movie and dinner at the Alamo Drafthouse.

Registration is online at www.knowbility.org/conference
For more information, contact Teenya Franklin
Office: 512 305-0310 or teenya [at] knowbility.org

Tags: accessibility, event, web development

This week’s Refresh Roundup is a little late because I was in the Houston area over the weekend enjoying time with the family, especially my ridiculously cute niece.

• It’s been a while since we had a good text editor thread. Feel free to chime in if you feel a worthy editor was left out.
• Pat Ramsey asks if you’re going to SXSW Interactive and interested in video on the Web?. He’s leading one of the Core Conversation series and will be covering captioning web video. It should be a great session, so plan on being there Sunday, March 9, at 3:30!
• You may remember that Sam Foster needed to restore his SVN repo after vacating his previous laptop. Well, he was finally able to do so after getting an answer from the evolt list and was kind enough to share his newfound knowledge. Learn how to restore SVN from disk.
• Paul Menard reminds any of us that freelance or accept client work on the side that your money and therefore your living can be at risk if you accept payment from clients via PayPal. Clients may ‘reverse charge’ your account. Like Paul says, “The fact that no questions were ask by the client’s credit card company nor PayPal is quite disturbing.”
• That’s right. Justin Perkins has come out of the wild and renewed his commitment to the blogosphere. Editor’s note: Yeah, I know. I hate that word too.
• Boone Putney helps out if you’ve got a runaway Drupal installation that has been FUBARed by a bad module. You can disabling the Drupal modules directly in your database! This should at least get you to the point where you can get to your admin login again.
• Whurley announced that BarCamp Austin III will be held at GSD&M Idea City. Be sure to follow both Whurley and BarCampAustin for the latest.
• Christian Watson compiles 40+ carousel designs in his Home Page Carousel Showcase post. Check ‘em out.
• Our friends at LaunchPad Coworking released some really neat 3D renderings of the Austin floating room in their atrium. You read that right. Floating. Room.

That’s it for this week.

Tags: accessibility, barcamp, business, coworking, design, tips

What tools do accessibility experts use to test sites? Glenda Sims will show you her techniques for reviewing accessibility including the Web Accessibility Toolbar, WebXact, Screenreader and LIFT.

Tags: accessibility, event, meeting