Net2 called it a "huge experiment," and we took it in that spirit when we posted our ATSTAR program as a candidate - thanks for the opportunity to jump in with you! I am sharing results so far and would love to hear from others who posted projects.

Disabled computer users often regard their browsers as a lifeline to the world.  But during last year's natural disasters, it became very clear that the lifeline was tenuous - perhaps broken entirely - as so many relief sites were not accessible to those who need them most.  To help people with disabilities find what they need more easily, Google Labs released a new product yesterday.  Called Accessible Search, it optimizes pages based on some key accessibility features, including alt text, keyboard navigation, simple language and so forth.  The idea is to save blind users the wasted time and frustration of trying to get information from inaccessible sites. To see how your standard search stacks up against the accessible searc, try out this comparison tool

We saw a bunch of cool new tools at the conference.  It seemed like blogging was a very big deal for attendees thinking in new ways about communicating their mission-based work.  I was inspired to become hyper-alert to identifying accessible, equivalent tools and communication methods.  In that spirit, I offer EasyJournal as a tool that meets accessibility standards, but more importantly that opens up the blogging experience for millions.  The most well-known blogging tools may create accessible pages - usually mostly text, after all. The problem comes when someone - the student at the school for the blind, perhaps or the personnel administrator with quadriplegia - who can't use a mouse tries to post a blog.  It doesn’t work well.  It is difficult, perhaps impossible for the person with a disability to have the blogging experience using well-known tools because thecontent creation interface is not accessible.  The interface for EasyJournal was designed with accessibility in mind, however and you might consider trying it.  It’s free, it’s accessible, and it requires no additional software.

This is an invitation I received from the Center for International Media Action (CIMA).  Can't think of a better group to share this with, especially as CIMA is seeking input from media activists all over the world.  Please check it out! Dear Friends and Allies-
For several years media activists have been discussing the need for ongoing opportunities for skill-building, collective learning, and long-range visioning and reflection. One strategy to meet these needs is a new Communication Rights and Media Justice Organizing Institute. The Organizing Institute is envisioned as an initiative to build political organizing and advocacy skills and strategies to transform media and communications systems to serve democracy, human rights and social justice.
Development of the Organizing Institute is being guided by a planning committee (click here for list) and coordinated by CIMA: Center for International Media Action and the Community Media & Technology Program at the College of Public and Community Service at the University of Massachusetts (Boston)
The Organizing Institute will be shaped by and for media activists and advocates. With this in mind, we invite you to take an on-line survey designed for members of the planning committee and any activists, organizers, advocates working on media and communications issues who might be interested in the Organizing Institute. The purpose of the survey is to gather input on the kinds of resources and training offered through the Institute and to develop program components that are uniquely tailored to different groups working on these issues. Please send the survey to anyone you think might be interested.
The survey will take about 30-40 minutes to complete, and you can save it on any page and return to it as long as you are accessing the survey from the same computer. To exit and return to the survey at a later time, be sure to first save your responses by clicking "Next" at the bottom of the page, and then click “Exit” at the top right hand corner of the screen. To read more about the survey or take the survey, please click here or paste this link into your browser - surveymonkey.com/s.asp?u=53312241171

We promised to post the resources that we explored together on Day 2 of the NetSquared conference.  Thanks to all of you who stopped by to share your questions and thoughts about disability access to new tools!  Sorry that it has taken so long, but here is the overview with more detail available as needed.  And please keep in mind as you work through these issues what Angela Glover Blackwell said on Day 1:  As we provide access and solve problems for the most vulnerable among us we will solve unanaticipated problems for all.

Here are general resources about the issues and challenges:

If you are trying to solve accessibility barriers for your software and / or Web 2.0 site, we will host a round table during the 3:15 sessions.  Anyone having accessibility interest, expertise or phobia...come join me and Glenda the Goodwitch for a lively problem solving session. 

I have made it to sunny California the night before the conference - very exciting!  Two things are on my mind.  The first is to find my dear friend Jayne Cravens who I don't get to see much of since she moved to Germany...but she will be here at the conference - yay! 

 And the other very exciting thing is that I have had some great exchanges with people in anticipation of the sessions - and specifically the idea of getting some input and brainstorming around the issue of disability access to these new technologies.

OK, I know, I should have been paying attention earlier.  If I wanted accessibility sessions I had my chance to suggest themes, questions and topics...right?  But as I look through the sessions for the latest in accessible blogging tools, content management systems, fundraising software, do I really find....nothing?! absolutely nothing about accessibility?

Nothing on accessibility at the coolest nonprofit tech conference ever? 

How could that be?  I admit that I am a bit cocooned.  I spend 90% of my time with people who know tons about accessibility...people like John Slatin, Jim Thatcher, Molly Holzschlag, Kelsey Ruger, Glenda Sims... or with people who want to know more about accessibility, like the participants in AIR programs, Access-U and CalWAC. But am I really so sheltered? so deluded?  Does the rest of the world really care about access to the web for 55 million Americans and 750 million people worldwide...not at all?!

The NetTuesday group in Houston met on Monday, actually. Our local NetSquared MeetUp  heard from Knowbility's Kelsey Ruger, an extraordinary thinker about the power of technology to bring about social change. Katie Laird blogged it. 

Many in the Houston Net Tuesday Meetup have noticed that Kelsey serves as a kind of human bridge between innovative groups of social activists, including the NetSquared group; Refresh Houston - a collection of accessibility and standards experts; and AIR-Houston - the annual accessible web design contest that benefits dozens of nonprofits from the greater Houston area.

Howdy from Austin Texas, where the nonprofit Knowbility pursues its mission.  We support the independence of kids and adults with disabilities by promoting the use and increasing the occurance of accessible information technology. 

I am pretty excited about attending the NetSquared conference with my good friend and key volunteer Glenda Sims - also known as the Good Witch of the Web.  In early April Glenda and I and several of the accessiblity experts that Knowbility has the good fortune to work with spent a week in San Francisco to teach the California Web Accessibility Conference (CalWAC).