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Hi there. My name is Sharron Rush. I'm the executive director of a non-profit based in Austin, Texas.
We're called Knowbility, and we work on the issue of access to technology for people with disabilities.
I'm really very excited to be coming to Atlanta for the UPA conference this year
because I think this is a great time for those of us in the accessibility community
to learn from and collaborate with people in the usability community.
In fact, I think the two are converging
in very exciting ways right now. Partly due to the legal aspects,
because there are some laws that are coming into effect.
But also because we're starting to understand how it is that accessibility--
When we start thinking about accessibility it actually provides benefits
that are unexpected and that extend to all users.
So I'm gonna be exploring a couple of topics with you guys while I'm there.
The first one is called "Design Meet Disability."
We're gonna look at
basic design principles and how to extend those to include people with disabilities.
I think a really good example of that is the iPad.
You know, who would have ever thought that a touchscreen could be used by blind users.
Yet the iPhone and the iPad are now some of the most favorite instruments
for people who are blind because the people at Apple put brilliant designers
on a problem like that,
and the results are technologies
that can be used by everyone including blind people with disabilities,
and we're gonna look at some of those and how those work.
The other thing I'd like to do while I'm there is give a talk called
"Building the Accessibility Case In Your Organization,"
and there I want to hear from you all. I want to know what are the problems that you're experiencing
in getting by and at your company.
Then I want to share with you some of the advocacy tips
tips that I've learned over the years and that other people have found
to be very effective,
things that help you convince your boss in your organization
that when you include accessibility
in your user testing
that you will in fact come up with
great insights that serve all of your users. I'm really glad that I.'m coming to Atlanta,
and I hope to see you there.