A Dream, An Agency, An Understanding

At the very beginning of my career, heck as I was studying to start it, in web design and development I took a course on the laws surrounding web design. It was a short course and really only covered how Section 508 applies to building software for the government and their contractors. But during that course something happened. I took what it had to say to heart and tried to incorporate it in all my work as best as possible.

This was definitely a smart move as I landed my next three jobs because I knew about Section 508. Then something more happened. As I began working on sites to make them accessible to all, I began meeting and interviewing people with different needs and asking them how they use the web and what they’d like to see improved. This led to epiphany number 1: These people were just like me.
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Google Music and iOs: A Marriage Not Made in Heaven

Yesterday Google held a press conference to let us know that their Music storage, store and player were no longer in beta. I have been using it on and off since it was in beta (I had an android phone at that time) and really liked it. Anything I had at home was now in the cloud, there was free music and I could listen on any computer or my Droid 2.

However, when the iPhone 4S came out, I migrated back to the iOs world. So when they made the announcement yesterday, I of course checked it out again. Overall rating: C.
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Posted in Accessibility, Android, Computers, eCommerce, iPhone, Mobile, Music, Web Design, Web Development | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

With great transitions, comes great responsibility

Websites that have lots of movement have always bugged me a bit, but lately they are bugging me a lot more. I don’t know if this is because something in me is different or because or because I have become sympathetic to those that have disorders where motion affects them (Like Marissa).

Lately there has been a lot of talk on the web about the awesomely cool things that we as designers and developers can do with CSS3, namely transitions, easing, animation and rotations. But just because we can do these things, should we? Isn’t it our responsibility to make a eb that everyone can use? I find myself recoiling as these things advance because not only are they difficult for some people to use, but I find them irritating as well. The more we can do, the simpler I want my sites to be.

Posted in Accessibility, Computers, Enlightenment, Flash, Graphic Design, Mobile, Mobile Development, Standards, Web Design, Web Development | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

NaNoWriMo – National Novel Writing Month

The goal as outlined by http://www.nanowrimo.org/ is to write 50,000 words in 30 days. It also says “novel” which is a story, many times fictional.

I’m not that ambitious, but I am going to use it to kick off a project (and hopefully complete the first draft) I have been wanting to do for close to a year. I am going to write a book on building the web for everyone. The internet, and technology in general, is a great equalizer in our society. Anyone can log on and order food, gadgets, clothes. You can create a blog and become the next investigative journalist. You can meet people around the world and communicate with them without being judged on your appearance or the way ou talk. But not all of it can be used by everyone because if was built with weaknesses. The weaknesses don’t need to exist, we can build it better, faster, stronger.

If you have ever felt that something about the web was difficult to use because of any personal hurdles, I want to talk to you. I want to hear your stories of obstacles, and hopefully how you overcame them. And if you didn’t overcome them, I want to know how you think they might be overcome. If reasonable, we (I mean you, me and anyone else I need help from) will try to build a prototype before the book gets published to see if we can make the web more accessible to you.

So, jump over to my contact page and call me, Skype me, email me (which ever is easiest for you), and we will set up a time to interview you. I’d like to do Skype or in person as I want to record the video possibly for future use and transcribing. Oh, anyone know how to record a Skype video call?

Posted in Accessibility, Computers, Enlightenment, Mobile Development, Philosophy, Politics, Standards, Web Design, Web Development | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Goodbye Steve

Steve JobsI grew up on Apple computers. They encouraged me to drawn, animate, write prose and code. they were easy to use and were the thing that I always came back to. Now, I use the beautiful tools he has designed (well lead the design of) every day. He has given me a career that makes life for my family comfortable.

I never knew the man. I never visited the campus he worked at, but I feel a kinship to him and find myself choked up over the loss. I wish his family the best and I while he will be missed in geekdom and beyond, he finally doesn’t have to live with what I am sure was a painful disease. Rest in peace Steve Jobs.

Posted in Accessibility, Buddhism, Computers, Enlightenment, iPhone, Mobile, Philosophy, Uncategorized | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Secret Project Taking Shape

This evening I finally got the code working on my new secret project. You can take a gander over at http://www.verbosehaiku.com/new-haiku/. This is a little haiku generator that will eventually become a service. Right now there is a small API in that if you add ?x= and a number, your haiku will go from 5/7/5 to be multiplied by the number you send (example: sending 2 gets you 10/14/10).

Also, help me out a bit on this if you would be so kind. Link back to me, retweet this, and most importantly help the word database by taking a moment and telling me how many syllables a few words have at http://tarnoff.info/syllables. Thanks!

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Vestibular Disorders and the Internet

5by5.tv hosts Jeffrey Zeldman’s “The Big Web Show”.  Episode #55 from September 1st had on budding web designer Marissa Christina of abledis.com to talk about living with and trying to become a web designer with a vestibular disorder. The program went back on forth on what it is like, becoming a designer and what we as a community can do to make this hidden disability easier to live with while on the internet. I have extracted a few of the important things on building a better web for this group.
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Mike: an Interview, a Study in Accessibility, and a Lesson in Humanism

I needed new tires on my car. Instead of waiting inside the stale waiting room of the auto repair shop with the greasy chairs and burnt coffee, I decided to head across the lot to the mall for some food, tea, and free wifi to get some work done. While eating my lunch, I noticed a gentleman with severe motor control issues using an eReader to enjoy a book. Being a developer focused on user experience and accessibility, I thought this was a prime opportunity to conduct a short user interview. Looking back, this was pretty selfish of me. The next 10 minutes were an awakening for me.

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Lightning Talks at Madison Ruby

I was lucky enough to get to attend Madison Ruby this week, which is like jumping into a pool with a bunch of really smart people and realizing you left your clothes on. I’ve never done Ruby programming before, but have it on my bucket list. I learned a lot.

The end of day one had lightning talks. They were so successful there was talk about doing more on day two. I don’t know if we will get to them, but I decided I needed to update my accessibility talk try to give what is normally covered in 45 minutes down to 5. I have added it to the navigation so you can see it here as well. Take a moment and check out my Accessibility 101 Lightning Talk. I will be adding it to Github later.

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Google Attempting to Buy Motorola

Techcrunch has more details, but let me ask you this:

Is this good for Android? Will Google be sacrificing search revenues for hardware revenues? Will hardware makers become more reluctant to use Android now?

With Mozilla working on a mobile OS “more open than Android” and Google competing in the hardware market, I think we will see some manufacturers (HTC, Samsung, LG) start to work with other OSes. HP has been slammed on the hardware, I think this creates an opportunity to license WebOs.

I do think this will be good for Motorola. The injection of Google cash, mindset and push can revitalize the company. I also look forward to being able to upgrade phones on Google’s schedule and not the carriers. I am still waiting to upgrade my Droid 2 to Gingerbread (really I have given up and look forward to a new iPhone this fall).

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