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Usability and Accessibility

If you were at the Usability Professionals Association Conference in Portland June 8-12, I wonder if you noticed what I noticed: Even though usability is the first step toward accessibility, usability professionals in general seem to know less than you might think they should about making content accessible. Many will admit that.

Some even came away from this year’s conference wishing that they could have learned more. As one participant mentioned, “What I overwhelmingly heard was that people were wanting more accessibility info and were disappointed in what they got.”

In looking into what it would take to obtain better presentations, workshops, and tutorials on accessibility for this conference, I learned one obstacle to getting more and better presentations on accessibility is a lack of reviewers who are well-versed in the topic. In other words, even if many excellent proposals for sessions dealing with accessibility come in, the conference organizers wouldn’t have a team of reviewers available to assess them.

If you are also a member of the UPA, this is where you come in. Complete this survey to volunteer to review proposals for UPA 2010 in Munich. The survey gives you an idea of the time requirement and time frame involved. On the question that asks about your background and interests, be sure to include “accessibility” in your answer.