CIS Colloquium, Jan 25, 2010, 11:00AM – 12:00PM, Wachman 447
Virtually Inclusive: Trends in Digital Accessibility
Kel Smith, Anikto, Inc.
A 2007 class-action lawsuit against Target Corp opened up legal and technical discussions around web accessibility. For technologists, this brings to light issues surrounding Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act and its applicability to multiple design platforms. In this presentation, Kel Smith of Anikto LLC will speak about the business value of providing barrier-free user experiences from both a technical and a legal perspective. He’ll provide guidance on Web accessibility fundamentals while covering emerging trends in accessible technology such as virtual environments, haptic interfaces and mobile development.
Kel Smith is a nationally recognized authority on Web accessibility, with publications cited by the Pentagon Library, Kent State’s Knowledge Management Program and the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law. In February 2008 he founded Anikto (ah-NEEK-toh) as a research and training consultancy to support the creation of barrier-free digital experiences. Kel is a frequent speaker who presented at the CSUN 2009 Los Angeles Conference for Persons with Disabilities, the TechShare RNIB Conference in London, and St. Joseph’s University Center for Consumer Research. He is a confirmed 2010 speaker for the IxDA conference in Savannah and CSUN10 in San Diego, where he will present on the topic of universally designed virtual worlds. Kel is a member of the Interaction Design Association (IxDA) and the Usability Professionals’ Association (UPA), and he currently serves as Vice Chair of the Philadelphia chapter of ACM/SIG-CHI for computer-human interaction. Kel earned his BFA in photography from the Maryland Institute College of Art and studied cognitive science as part of the MS program at Philadelphia University. He lives in the Philadelphia suburbs with his wife, Chris.