UPA Event - Thursday 18th October 2007
Accessibility & the challenges of Web 2.0, user generated content and the social networking revolution. Speaker: Kath Moonan, AbilityNet
Web 2.0 is the name commonly given to the latest generation of web sites where users themselves generate the content. For example MySpace, FaceBook, Flickr and YouTube allow users to upload material and create networks.
While there are technical challenges associated with the use of these websites, there are also enormous opportunities for disabled people to engage in social networking where otherwise they might have been excluded.
Web 2.0 presents many accessibility challenges such as how to encourage users to generate accessible content. How can website owners and developers to build accessible web applications rather than taking the easy option of not considering disabled users?
We’re going to look at what Web 2.0 is, how the web is evolving and what impact it is going to have on the lives of disabled users. We’ll look at examples of the good, the bad and the ugly and make suggestions on what website owners can do to help steer the web in an accessible direction.
Please note that Kath will also be giving a version of this presentation at the RNIB's Techshare event
Date: Thursday 18th October 2007
Time: 6.30pm for 6.45pm.
Venue: LBi, 1 Naoroji Street, London WC1X 0JD
Cost: FREE for UPA members; £10 for non-members; £5 for student non-members
To register for the UPA event, please email: Claudia Foster (c.m.foster@lboro.ac.uk) and myself, Martin Maguire (m.c.maguire@lboro.ac.uk). Give your name, affiliation and state whether you are a UPA member or not. If you are intending to bring a group of students with you, please give their names and the course they are studying.
Directions to LBi:
From Angel tube station (about 15 minutes on foot). On emerging from Angel station, turn immediately left, and walk to the crossroads. Take a right turn at the crossroads down Pentonville Road. Continue along Pentonville Road, and take the second turn on the left into Claremont Square (be careful, the first and second turns on the left are called Claremont Square - you should take the second one.) Continue straight on as the road becomes Amwell Street, and continue down the hill, past three right turns, until you reach a fourth right turn called Margery Street. (If you come to a t-junction with Rosebery Avenue, you've gone too far.) Turn right, and Naoroji Street is immediately on your right. The building is the large cream one on the left.
From Kings Cross tube and rail stations (about 15 minutes on foot). Follow the signs to the Thameslink station on Pentonville Road. With the Thameslink station behind you, turn right along Pentonville Road, and follow the right hand fork in the road (Kings Cross Road). Keep going along Kings Cross Road, until you reach the Thistle Hotel on your left. Cross the road to the left hand side and keep following Kings Cross road. Soon you will reach Margery Street which has a brown cafe on the corner and a Holiday Inn on the opposite side of Kings Cross road. Continue up Margery Street and Naoroji Street is the second left. The building is the large cream one on the left.
From Farringdon tube and rail stations (about 20 minutes on foot). On leaving the station, turn right along Cowcross Street and then right again onto Farringdon Road. Continue along Farringdon Road, crossing over Clerkenwell Road at the first set of traffic lights (Yo Sushi is on the corner of this set), until you reach a crossroads with Rosebery Avenue. Mount Pleasant Post Office is on this crossroads. Turn right onto Rosebery Avenue, continue past the traffic lights, and take a left turn into Amwell Street. The second left off Amwell Street is Margery Street, and from there Naoroji Street is the first turning on the right. The building is the large cream one on the left.