Bookings are now open for the ARIA and HTML 5 workshops in Sydney, Canberra, Melbourne and Brisbane. Perth bookings will be available in the near future.
You can make bookings on the WIPA site.
Seeing as it’s only $60 for WIPA and AWIA members ($90 non-members) for three and a half hours with Steve Faulkner and Bruce Lawson, a couple of deadset international experts in their fields who also happen to be entertaining speakers, I reckon tickets will go pretty quickly.
Here’s the lowdown:
WAI-ARIA: Making the interactive web more accessible
Presenter: Steve Faulkner
I will make a serious attempt to demystify ARIA. Outlining its major aspects and how it works under the hood to improve the user experience. I’ll talk about what it is and what it is not, when and where it should be used, explaining the advantages and the pitfalls. I’ll also go into how it fits into the emerging HTML5 UI ecosystem. Don’t expect any live screen reader demonstrations (but maybe a video or 2).
There will be slides, code and developer tool demonstrations and expect some lively debate on the topics of HTML5, ARIA and accessibility with my co-presenter Bruce.
Steve Faulkner
Steve is the Technical Director at The Paciello Group (TPG). He leads the development of the Web Accessibility Toolbar, Color Contrast Analyser and AViewer accessibility testing tools. He is an active member of the W3C HTML Working Group and W3C Protocols and Formats Working Group. His work in these groups is focused on HTML5 canvas accessibility, use of WAI-ARIA in HTML5 and he is editor of the W3C Draft Specification HTML5: Techniques for providing useful text alternatives. Steve regularly publishes articles and research on accessibility issues on the TPG blog.
HTML5: The good, the bad and the quite interesting
Presenter: Bruce Lawson
I’ll introduce the new features of HTML5 and show why it can help you make more robust and accessible web apps using open standards. I’ll look deeply at the new semantic elements, adding intelligent forms that can remove the need for JavaScript validation, and adding native video to a page that doesn’t use plugins (although degrades to Flash in older browsers). We’ll look at the new APIs for canvas, Geolocation, etc – what they can do and how simple the syntax is.
The workshop will be a mixture of slideware, live coding and in-browser demos. It’s intended for those who write mark-up, and doesn’t expect deep JavaScript knowledge (we look at the potential of the APIs but not the intricacies of coding).
We emphasise simplicity of authoring and accessibility of the user experience.
Bruce Lawson
Bruce evangelises Open Web Standards for Opera. He’s been active in Web Standards since 2002, working with the Web Standards Project, the British Standards Institution’s guidance on commissioning accessible web sites. He’s currently on the W3C Mobile Best Practices Working Group and co-authored “Introducing HTML5″ (<a href=”http://www.introducinghtml5.com”>www.introducinghtml5.com</a>), the first full-length book on the subject. He once had a girlfriend named Sheila, although neither were Australian.
Workshop Timetable
Sydney: Tuesday 23 November. 9.00am – 12.30pm
SMC Conference & Function Centre,
66 Goulburn Street, Sydney 2000
Canberra: Wednesday 24November. 12.30pm – 4.00pm
Conference Room, National Library of Australia,
Parkes Place, Parkes, ACT
Melbourne: Thursday 25November. 1.30pm – 5.00pm
Ether Conference Centre (between the Swanston Hotel and Grand Mercure)
265-281 Little Bourke St, Melbourne 3000
Perth: Monday 29November.
(Venue and time still to be finalised)
Brisbane: Wednesday 1December. 1.30pm – 5.00pm
Cliftons Conference and Seminar rooms
288 Edward Street, Brisbane 4000
Cost
WIPA and AWIA members $60.00
Non-members $90
Morning/afternoon teas will be provided
The workshops are being presented by the Web Industry Professionals Association (WIPA) and the Australian Web Industry Association (AWIA).