1. What are the issues of accessibility in HTML 5?
2. What is the canvas element?
3. What is the difference between video built in natively in the browser or provided through a Flash plugin?
4. Why are people in the HTML 5 working group so nasty to each other?
5. Why is accessibility important in an emerging standard?
6. Can’t accessibility be added later?
7. What is the state of support of HTML 5 in browsers?
8. When can we start to use HTML 5?
9. What can geolocation do for accessibility?
10. Does assistive technology support HTML 5 features?

So please vote for it now, and while you’re at it, show your love to some other accessibility and web standards proposals as well. </thxkbay>

Other conferences

The next geek meeting held in Frankfurt will be the Webmontag (Web Monday) on September 1st where I will give my presentation about canvas a short test drive.

A few days later on September 4 I have the honor of the opening talk at the Web Congress at the University of Erlangen, again about canvas, only this time a full hour.

On September 25 there’s the Best of Accessibility Symposium in Düsseldorf where I hold a workshop about hands-on ARIA (you recognize the pattern?).

On October 10-11 an internal namics conference called T-Camp is held in Basel, with my colleague Alex Stirn and me speaking about Professional Frontend Engineering.

A conference I’m looking forward to because of the many experts attending and the fair prices is the A-Tag (Accessibility Day) in Vienna, Austria, on November 21. Again I will sing praises of ARIA. This innovative technique can’t be evangelized enough! There’s no website yet for the A-Tag, but I’d recommend to book your journey well in advance to catch the inexpensive flights to Vienna. The conference itself cost only € 35 last year is free because it is sponsored by the Austrian government.

If you happen to be around, don’t hesitate to speak to me.

A couple of years ago this would have put some distance between us, but who would have thought that information technology would one day close the humane gap, too? His death touched me, for several reasons. Just two weeks ago I had the chance to meet Sharron Rush and Glenda Sims, who worked with John, and what’s more, he was their friend. At an accessibility award ceremony of Knowbility I was able to get a fair impression how much the accessibility community means to the people in Austin and how much they cherish their friends. Being a friend of Sharron and Glenda he must have been a very special person.

Also in the social web death is no longer distant. I wasn’t aware that this is a direction I’m not only exposed to, but that my computer screen, the bringer of information, also brings emotions at unexpected moments. People around the world were blogging about John Slatin’s forthcoming death, and there is a very intimate portrayal of his last moments on his own blog. But it is the second time that this happens to me. In September 2006 the science fiction author John M. Ford died. Until then I only knew a few of his novels and one of the funniest role-playing adventures ever, the award-winning Yellow Clearance Black Box Blues. But then I learned what a person he was. Why people loved him. That he was always accessible, always funny, always kind. He made an impact. He touched people’s life.

In my former career as an Emergency Medical Technician I have seen various facets of death. I’ve seen the grim reaper, but I also know why before the discovery of antibiotics pneumonia was also known as “the friend of old men.” Death can be very peaceful, a welcome friend, and I’m not afraid of it. I don’t believe in an afterlife, but I love the response John M. Ford’s spouse gave to a question once asked at a convention: “how many angels can dance on the head of a pin?” She replied: “I’m pretty sure it’s too difficult to get an accurate count at the moment because they keep laughing at something Mike says, and then a bunch of them fall off.” I do believe that people live on through their deeds, by the impact they had, by the people whose life they touched. They live on as long as there’s someone who remembers them. John Slatin — and John “Mike” Ford — will be remembered, for a very long time.

Get involved

The John Slatin Fund Accessibility Project matches accessibility experts with companies that would like a brief review of their site for accessibility. In return, the site owner is asked to contribute a minimum of $500 to The John Slatin Fund. The John Slatin Fund was established to help John’s beloved Anna offset the medical expenses incurred during John’s long illness. The goal of this project is to raise $25,000 for that purpose. Furthermore there’s an option to donate directly to John’s family via Paypal.

South by Southwest (SXSW) is a huge conference for interactive media as well as a film and music festival in Austin, Texas, March 7-11, 2008. Every year it attracts the best designers and developers, and there is an immense number of panels to choose from. Exactly 128, out of which 80 are chosen from an open submission process.

Gez Lemon and I plan to run a panel called “Get Rich, Remain Accessible,” naturally about WAI ARIA (Accessible Rich Internet Applications). Gez wrote a great article about ARIA liveregions, and I wrote that article at A List Apart, so it’s the perfect team. Together we would like to present:

1. The accessibility problems introduced by the current trend of web applications,
2. new ways to add semantic meaning, communicate importance, define relationships, and give focus to elements using WAI-ARIA,
3. how to limit the impact of these problems whilst WAI-ARIA is gaining support by user-agents, and techniques that work right now.

It would be nice if you took the time to vote for us at the SXSW panel picker application. The voting process is open until 11:59 pm, September 21. If you push our presentation to the top 80 you will ensure Gez and I actually make every effort to attend the conference as we will get free tickets for ourselves. Spread the word …