CSUN 2020: Done and dusted
Written by Allison Ravenhall on 19 March 2020
Tags: accessibility Allison conference CSUN Julie
Let’s get this out of the way: CSUN 2020 was weird.
As news of the COVID-19 pandemic flew around the world, CSUN attendee cancellations rolled in. Sponsors, companies, individuals, the rollcall was long and illustrious.
As other large gatherings were postponed, cancelled, or put online, everyone waited for the inevitable cancellation notice. It didn’t happen; CSUN limped on. An attendant I spoke to said they were still expecting 1200 attendees, which seemed a vast overstimate. The session list continued to shrink until they finally pulled the pin at lunchtime on Friday.
Intopia was affected. We had planned to have six people deliver seven CSUN presentations but in the end, only Julie and I made it.
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It’s #CSUNATC20 time! We’re in “2019 Accessibility Trends” remote session by Preety Kumar of @dequesystems. I’ve already received branded hand sanitiser from Vispero.
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The vast empty spaces were very noticeable.
The piles of unclaimed boxed lunches were wasteful.
The half-empty exhibit hall was sad.
The on-the-spot “this talk has been cancelled” notifications were super-annoying.
The decision to hold a buffet dinner on the Thursday night was mind-boggling.
Everyone’s hands after lots of washing and sanitising were rough and scratchy.
Yet, I made the best of it and had a good time. I filled my dance card with interesting presentations; choosing from 6 sessions at a time is much easier than 20! I caught up with people I already knew and bumped elbows with new folks. I shared Intopia buttons and stickers (responsibly).
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Checked in to #CSUNATC20. @stringy and I have fun @Intopia stickers and pins to share, just ask us. We’re both speaking on Thursday, I hope to see you at 8am and Julie’s on at 4:20pm . (I also have a laptop in need of more #a11y stickers, please donate!)
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Here’s what I went to
2019 Accessibility Trends
Preety Kumar, Deque
A rundown of the big news in accessibility over the past 12 months. While I caught mentions of Dominoes and Hooters, I kept getting distracted by the fact that Preety wasn’t in the room with us. All of Deque’s and Vispero’s sessions were lived-streamed into their respective rooms according to the previously advertised schedule.
2019 Accessibility Trends - YouTube
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2019 Accessibility Trends Deque Systems
Deque Systems6.01K subscribers
2019 Accessibility Trends session video on YouTube
Creating an Accessible Escape Room
Rachael Bradley Montgomery, W3C & Accessible Community
This was a fun session. Rachael took us through many ways that escape rooms can discriminate, and the inclusive alternatives that enable more people to play. The Accessible Escape Room was on site and available for CSUN attendees to experience too!
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“I just paid $30 to take a nap”. How one person’s frustration at not being able to join in an escape room activity led to the development of a new way! Remote session by Rachael Bradley Montgomery in the Vispero room at #CSUNATC20@paciellogroup
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Wednesday March 11 10:00am: "Creating an Accessible Escape Room" by Rachael Bradley - YouTube
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Wednesday March 11 10:00am: "Creating an Accessible Escape Room" by Rachael Bradley TPGi, a Vispero Company
TPGi, a Vispero Company2.55K subscribers
Creating an Accessible Escape Room session video on YouTube
Techniques for More Efficient WCAG Website Testing
Bill Tyler, Optum
Bill took us through the growing pains his accessibility team experienced as they rapidly tripled in size and attempted to assess and support over 200 products. At the heart of the process is a bespoke Excel testing checklist that streamlines testing compared to assessing each WCAG success criterion in turn.
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The missing URL for the slides is https://bit.ly/2TT02vK Apologies for not doing that before the prezo.
Bill Tyler
@billtyler
The slide deck for my live #CSUNATC20 presentation tomorrow “Techniques for more efficient WCAG website testing” @ 1PM is available now #bespokewcagchecklists
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Accessible Visualizations: Maps, Annotations, and Sparklines
Ted Gies, Elsevier
Øystein Moseng, Highcharts
While Bill Tyler was talking testing checklists with me, Julie was getting into maps and charts. She particularly appreciated that this wasn’t a product sell, they talked about their usability testing. Her highlights (from Twitter):
- As always when changing information from one format to another, you have to find the right balance between accuracy, detail and verbosity
- I like the use of sonification (spelling?) for a sparkline chart. One sounded like Close Encounters of the Third Kind.
- Testing showed that people who are blind still think of maps spatially and in 2 dimensions. Putting 2 dimensions into a 1 dimensional format is limiting. People want directional navigation, or ideally a tactile version.
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I love it when people share the results of their usability testing! @ElsevierConnect and @Highcharts have been trying data display prototypes out on a bunch of people. #CSUNATC20
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CSS Display Properties Versus HTML Semantics
As a tech person, this session was a standout for me. When you’re testing a site, do you ever come across an element where its semantics aren’t presenting as you expected? It might have something to do with how the CSS display property is applied.
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[Adrian Roselli (no blue check)
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Slides for my talk “CSS Display Properties versus HTML Semantics”: https://adrianroselli.com/2020/03/csun-2020-css-display-properties-versus-html-semantics.html…
Includes the tables and videos from within the slides.
#CSUNATC20#CSUN#CSUNATC#Whatever
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Wednesday, March 11 at 2:20pm: "CSS Display Properties versus HTML Semantics" by Adrian Roselli - YouTube
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Wednesday, March 11 at 2:20pm: "CSS Display Properties versus HTML Semantics" by Adrian Roselli TPGi, a Vispero Company
TPGi, a Vispero Company2.55K subscribers
CSS Display Properties Versus HTML Semantics session video on YouTube
Expand Your Outreach with an Accessibility Champions Program
Ted Drake, Intuit
Ted and his team at Intuit have built a world-class, scalable accessibility champions program. Using a 3-level structure, recognition, and rewards, champions are encouraged to continue learning, sharing, and climbing the accessibility champion ladder. Who wouldn’t covet Ted’s “Accessibility Champion” level 3 denim jacket?!
This session was a highlight for both me and Julie; we both see the potential in creating similar programs for some of Intopia’s clients.
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Explore #a11y champion programs during my presentation today at #CSUNATC20 at 4:20 in Grand A-D. Here are the slides: https://t.co/HOVBAnpXdn and more information: https://t.co/13QQxYuiCq #intuitLife pic.twitter.com/NCkqcCGc05
— ted_drake (@ted_drake) March 11, 2020
Personalised Technical Accessibility Training: A Case Study
It me! Allison Ravenhall, Intopia
I discussed the limitations of full-day classroom-based technical accessibility training, and told attendees about an alternative training program I created for Coles: a series of 2-hour sessions delivered to one or two participants at a time over the course of a month, accompanied by extensive reference materials.
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Thanks to the early birds who joined me at 8am for “Personalised accessibility training: a case study” at #CSUNATC20 Slides and notes: http://bit.ly/csun20-training
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The Social Model of Disability and Accessibility Training
Michael Mathews, BBC
The social model of disability focusses on systemic barriers, social exclusion and negative attitudes that prevent disabled people from participating in society. This human-centric approach is used by the BBC, as demonstrated in their short film “ BBC for Everyone“.
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We're watching the excellent "@BBC for Everyone film" in @micmath's #CSUNATC20 session "The Social Model of Disability and Accessibility Training". Check it out (13 minutes): https://bbc.co.uk/gel/articles/bbc-for-everyone…
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Guidelines and Done? Adding an Accessibility Authoring Guide
Michael Mathews, BBC
Michael went back-to-back, switching from the social model of disability to discussing how the BBC’s GEL Technical Authoring Guide joins the dots between what to build, how to build it, and why it’s built that way.
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A very excellent point by @IanPouncey via @micmath at #CSUNATC20: “For users of assistive technology, the markup is the user experience.”
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There isn't an accessibility section in the GEL Technical Authoring Guide, because the whole thing addresses accessibility. @micmath#CSUNATC20 Example Promos component: https://bbc.github.io/gel/components/promos/…
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Respecting User Preferences on the Web
Eric Eggert, Knowbility
I spent most of this session writing up my own slide notes, so I only had one ear open (sorry Eric). He discussed techniques developers can use to check and respect users’ preferences rather than dictating “one way”. He also pointed out the importance of checking the compatibility of a variety of input modalities, particularly voice. “Accessibility is not only screen readers”. Amen to that.
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The slides from my “Respecting User Preferences on the Web” talk today at #CSUNATC20 https://t.co/vxBf7mO1Vf
— Eric Eggert (@yatil) March 13, 2020
Overcoming Obstacles to Manual Accessibility Testing
Larry Lewis, The Paciello Group
Larry reminded us of the importance of manual accessibility testing, along with one of its drawbacks – inconsistent reporting from users with different technology settings. Enter JAWS Inspect – a product designed to provide JAWS output breakdowns and transcripts for higher quality reporting.
Thursday March 12 at 1:20pm: "Overcoming Obstacles to Manual Accessibility Testing" by Larry Lewis - YouTube
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Thursday March 12 at 1:20pm: "Overcoming Obstacles to Manual Accessibility Testing" by Larry Lewis TPGi, a Vispero Company
TPGi, a Vispero Company2.55K subscribers
Overcoming Obstacles to Manual Accessibility Testing session video on YouTube
The Power and Perils of Empathy / Accessibility Labs
Glenda Sims, Deque
Crystal Baker, AT&T
John Foliot, Deque
Joel Moffatt, Comcast
Claudio Luis Vera, Royal Caribbean
While I heard about JAWS Inspect, Julie was in this session about empathy labs. Important messages:
- Don’t evoke pity or sympathy for other people’s lives
- Aim for awareness (and fun!) so attendees know *why* you’re asking them to take action
- Counterpoint: it’s not enough to share some fun things in an empathy lab, you need to facilitate understanding of how the experience relates to the real world
- Compensate people for their time
Andrew was also watching the session from Australia.
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Seeing my colleague @amja in Australia asking questions in the online chat of a talk I’m attending in the USA feels very 21st century. #CSUNATC20
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The Power and Perils of Empathy/Accessibility Labs - YouTube
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The Power and Perils of Empathy/Accessibility Labs Deque Systems
Deque Systems6.01K subscribers
The Power and Perils of Empathy / Accessibility Labs session video on YouTube
Responsible Responsive Tables: Where Are We Now?
Hans Hillen, The Paciello Group
Hans discussed the accessibility pros and cons of a series of techniques for displaying tabular data in a responsive way. Spoiler alert: There is no one perfect way. It’ll scroll in two dimensions, or it’ll have semantic issues, or it uses redundant code, or the data gets truncated… so many issues. The ultimate “it depends” talk!
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Responsive tables: Hans Hillen recommends choosing a method based on the situation (it depends!), giving authors a choice of options, and letting users revert to a standard table if they like. #CSUNATC20
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Thursday March 12 2:20pm: "Responsible Responsive Tables: Where Are We Now?" by Hans Hillen - YouTube
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Thursday March 12 2:20pm: "Responsible Responsive Tables: Where Are We Now?" by Hans Hillen TPGi, a Vispero Company
TPGi, a Vispero Company2.55K subscribers
Responsible Responsive Tables: Where Are We Now? session video on YouTube
Accessible Voice and Conversational Interactions
Emma Pratt Richens, BBC
Emma delivered an excellent “how do voice interfaces work?” talk for those who don’t know what’s going on under the hood. She discussed the benefits and drawbacks of voice interfaces, particularly difficulties with accents and irregular speech patterns.
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First 2 of 3 #CSUNATC20 presentations done. For those who came along to this one on Accessible Voice and Conversational Interfaces, the slides are at https://slides.com/emmajpr/accessible-voice-ui…
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Making Accessible Web Animations
Julie Grundy, Intopia
The most important point Julie made about accessible web animation? “You can animate. Sometimes you should animate. I’m not the fun police, just do it responsibly.” She then went on to describe several techniques to respect user preferences and use animation to enhance the user experience rather than treating it as a gimmick.
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I've fixed up the problem with the link to my slides! http://bit.ly/mawa3 should now get you all the slides about Making Accessible Web Animations that you could need or want. #CSUNATC20 While you're at it, have a bunch of web animation articles too: https://pinboard.in/u:stringy/t:animation/…
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Be the Helvetica of Ergonomics
Ashley Bischoff, The Paciello Group
Ashley has A. Real. Thing. against the Arial typeface and after she pointed out its flaws, I had to agree. She then explained how good desk ergonomics was more like Helvetica – lots of parallels and perpendiculars, not bending our bodies into unnatural angles. (I still use a traditional keyboard and mouse, so I’m doomed).
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Thanks to everyone who checked out my #CSUNATC20 talk, “Be the Helvetica of Ergonomics”! For anyone interested, my slides are also online: http://handcoding.com/presentations/behelvetica/…
If you might have any questions about this sort of thing, feel free to tweet me—I’m happy to chime in! #BeHelvetica
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Friday March 13, 8:00am: "Be the Helvetica of Ergonomics" by Ashley Bischoff - YouTube
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Friday March 13, 8:00am: "Be the Helvetica of Ergonomics" by Ashley Bischoff TPGi, a Vispero Company
TPGi, a Vispero Company2.55K subscribers
Be the Helvetica of Ergonomics session video on YouTube
VPATs: For Business or Measure?
Ted Gies and Jay Nemchik, Elsevier
Big takeaways from this one:
- ITIC has just published a new VPAT version (2.4, 7 March 2020).
- It’s OK to adjust VPAT layout and add branding provided you retain the essential content
- It’s fun to substitute Star Wars characters for product names because it would’ve been too much work to get permission from product owners
- Extracting the conformance statistics from the VPATs and creating leaderboards can encourage friendly cross-product pressure to improve
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Here’s @tedgies1 from @ElsevierConnect discussing VPATs with Jay Nemchik (remote) at #CSUNATC20
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Screen Readers and CSS: Going Out of Style and Into Content
John Northup, WebAIM
This was a hilarious way to round out CSUN. John invited his audience to ask questions and add comments in his discussion of how CSS affects accessibility, and the audience obliged. A lot. “You said this doesn’t work, so how do we do it properly?” was a big theme. Fortunately, his slide pack is in HTML so we can review and experience all of the elements we didn’t reach during the session.
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Text things: Screen readers ignore: font-weight font-size (except VO + Safari) ... annnnnd we’re waylaid by a lot of questions and comments from the audience. Fun! Good luck getting this train back on track John! #CSUNATC20
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While the questions and comments continue, here’s the link to John’s #CSUNATC20 CSS presentation (in HTML, so all the code examples are interactive): https://webaim.org/presentations/2020/accessible-css…
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In the end
At lunchtime on Friday, I walked out of the mostly deserted complex. CSUN ended with a whimper. No enthusiastic hugs or handshakes, no loud chatting over crowds of people. Just… not much.
CSUN are already advertising next year’s event. I sincerely hope that by then, the world has COVID-19 under control and everyone feels confident enough to gather together again.
While I thought my CSUN experience would be hit hard by the withdrawal of most major technology companies, I still managed to find sessions that entertained and educated me. It was good for me to go beyond the usual suspects and discover more excellent work happening all over the place.
My original plan after CSUN was to go to Hawaii for a break on the way home to Australia. I skipped Hawaii and came straight home, where I am serving 2 weeks mandatory self-isolation at home.
On the other hand
Lots of folks that withdrew from CSUN are investigating other ways to come together and share knowledge. Volunteers are hastily assembling A Future Date, a remote conference scheduled for late March or April. Others are pointing out the excellent archive of Inclusive Design 24 accessibility talks already available online.
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