Keynote presentation entitled "Accessibility in the real world, experiences from building a more accessible Yahoo! Network" given by Victor Tsaran, Senior Accessibility Program Manager at Yahoo!  Approximately 117 people registered, most if not all of whom attended this keynote.

• Accessibility is not just about making things work for people with disabilities.
• Yahoo! new hire orientation leaders didn't see how the accessibility group would fit into their orientation.  Passed the test and now accessibility is presented to new hires from day one.
• Common myths:
  • Myth #1: We should calculate the ROI of making our site accessible before we decide to
  • Myth #2: Solving accessibility challenges is all difficult work.
  • Myth #3: Accessibility is going to mess-up my beautiful website.
  • Myth #4: I have to comply with every single guideline.  Doesn't really matter if you adhere to all of the guidelines as long as users are happy.  It really comes down to people
• Only way to test the accessibility of a page is to involve real users.
• Advise: find the part of the development process that brings you joy and happiness and focus on that, not on doing accessibility because of the guidelines.
• Demonstration
  • Intending to show:
    • Complicated interactions can be made accessible
    • Even Web 2.0 interactions can be made accessible
    • How do we educate users to let them know how to use the accessibility features we build
  • Using NVDA - free, open source screen reader for Windows.  Most strict, least forgiving interpreter.
  • Demonstrated this search
  • Features
    • Notified user of search suggestions on each key press "Search suggestions are available.  Use up and down arrows to navigate."
    • Notifies user of which panel they are in, "Search suggestions. Use the escape key to return to the search box.  Use the right arrow to explore related concepts." and "Use control shift down arrow to jump to the search results listing."
    • Uses ARIA technology.
    • Sighted users can use screen tips to preview content, but for screen reader users, they had to introduce a preview link.
    • Moves focus to top of module each time a new module is opened (often forgotten step).  Then move focus back to navigation when closing module.
• Questions & Answers
  • Yahoo! does not provide preferences to minimize verbosity for advanced users.
  • Yahoo! homepage uses YUI 3 library.  Documentation:
    • YUIBlog.com
    • developer.yahoo.com
  • Shortcut key information conveyed to both sighted and screen reader users via help documentation.
  • Yahoo! Pipes is not accessible at the moment.  It is in "maintenance mode" and isn't being actively developed to add accessibility to it.
  • Currently, ads are not typically accessible because ad providers are often unable to provide the metadata necessary.
  • Tips to developers: watch videos of how screen reader users browse the web, try using NVDA, and just talk with someone who uses a screen reader.