Accessibility Hackdays - A11y hackspace

A two day workshop bringing developers, accessibility (a11y) users and experts together to hack on ideas, prototypes and mashups, while exploring the challenges in providing usable accessibility.

This is a free two day workshop focussing on Accessibility. It is aimed at developers, web developers and systems administrators, who are interested in developing applications and content that are accessible to as many users as is possible. It will provide an opportunity to explore and work on accessibility using open development techniques. The workshop provides an introduction to the requirements, technologies, challenges and opportunities presented when providing inclusive access, whether it is to support diverse user requirements or to access in diverse physical situations. Accessibility challenges will provide an opportunity to work on challenging and innovative solutions to real problems in mixed teams of users and developers.

Benefits of attending

• have fun solving real a11y challenges
• become familiar with accessibility and assistive tech from users perspective
• learn about the technologies and the challenges and how to use them
• explore how open development and open innovation apply to accessibility
• meet other developers and users to discuss real world accessibility issues

Key Topic Areas

• Accessibility for disabled, elderly and everyone
• Technology challenges and solutions - platforms and the a11y stack - espec. mobile and web
• Open development and open innovation in software
• Commercial and public sector landscapes

Types of activity

This is very much a doing event, containing the following elements:

• Presentations
• Lightning talks (incl Pech Kucha / Takahashi)
• Hacking challenges - mixed groups
• Barcamp-like free spaces to chat and network
• 24/7 access - you can work when the mood takes you