April Meetup: Digital Accessibility

Join the live stream at https://www.youtube.com/javascriptmn

Ongoing agenda:

6:00 - Food and merriment

6:30 - Introduction and announcements

7:00 - Main presentation

"Digital Accessibility, A Pragmatic Developer’s Approach" (Aaron Cannon (@cannona) and Amy Turany, both from Accessible360 (@accessible_360))

Aaron and Amy will give an overview of what digital accessibility really is and how developers can better understand how to approach it. They will discuss the current “standard”, the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), what they are and how they apply to web development. They will discuss different types of web accessibility to be knowledgeable about including keyboard-only access, low vision, closed captioning and screen reader access. They will demonstrate usage of a screen reader on a website and how typical issues affect a screen reader. In addition, they will go through some of the most frequent issues they find and how to best solve them.

Aaron Cannon is Lead Accessibility Engineer and Co-founder of Accessible360. Aaron is a senior web developer, specifically with a passion for React.js. He has worked at The Nerdery and Instructure Inc., where he lead the accessibility efforts on Canvas, a leading learning management system. Aaron has been blind since birth and using Assistive Technology since 1988. Working in Website Accessibility professionally since 2007, Aaron became a full-time Accessibility Engineer in 2011 and leads the Audit Services for Accessible360. He especially enjoys Accessibility Training, which he’s done for 9 years via webinars, small client groups, and large corporate web development staffs.

Amy Turany is an Accessibility Engineer with Accessible 360. She completed Prime Digital Academy's Full Stack Development program in June of 2016 and worked as a contractor and freelancer until joining A360 in August of 2017. Her pre-A360 best accessibility intentions led her to put alt attribute descriptions on every image she could find (note: don't do that, discernment is your friend) and she is very pleased to be part of a company making the web accessible for all.

7:45/8:00 - Free time to discuss, network, hack, etc.

8:30 - Disperse!

Location Notes:
Guest parking lot alongside the building on 5th Street and 5th Avenue. If you choose to park here, sign in and out with the security guard at the main entrance. There is also ample street parking around the building.

You will want to enter the building on the north side (opposite of the rail tracks). Signs will direct you to the elevators and the 9th floor. The building will lock up at 8pm and at that time it will be an exit only situation.

It's always a great event, hope to see you there!