Off and On

Left Glasgow Central just 5 mins late

A bit of a scramble getting on, though. Service was flagged as delayed on the board, then at 2pm a Virgin train arrived. Since it was the only Virgin train in sight, and the 14:05 to Plymouth the only Virgin service on the board, most of the people waiting for that service started off down the platform without waiting for it to be announced. The powers that be made a couple of announcements to say that the train wasn't yet ready for boarding, and asking passengers to return to the main concourse and wait for further announcements. Heh. Fat chance! Most either didn't hear or chose to ignore the announcements, and those of us who did hear it and paused, could see we were in a distinct minority and that no-one appeared to be being ejected from the train, and those without reservations could see they were going to miss out on whatever unreserved seats were available if they complied with the request. So after pausing for only a few seconds, the rest of us headed down the platform after the others. Luckily I did have a seat booked, so once I was on the train the only problem I had was finding somewhere for my suitcase to go. Had to rearrange one of the luggage storage areas, but eventually squeezed it in. So, on my way back down to london again. I've got a nagging suspicion that the train I'm booked on from Warrington Bank Quay has been cancelled, amended or merged with another service, but I'll worry about that when I get to that point. Meanwhile, next stop Carlisle.

Sunset over the Clyde Valley

A beautiful, peaceful end to the day...

Web Accessibility: is it just a "merry-go-round"?

This is a summary of the presentation I gave last week at the W4A International Cross-Disciplinary Workshop on Web Accessibility, one of the workshops preceding the WWW2006 conference in Edinburgh.

You can download the official PDF version of this summary from the W4A website, at:
http://www.w4a.info/2006/prog/13-smillie.pdf

And a slightly revised version of the slides I used (in HTML format so viewable in any browser, but best viewed in Opera to make use of the Opera Show presentation features) is available at:
http://www.penguinsegg.com/presentations/w4a2006.html

Web accessibility: is it just a merry-go-round?

The issues that are being raised in relation to making the mobile web accessible and easily usable for all users do tend to create a feeling of deja vu for those who have been involved in campaigning for and promoting accessible web design for some years.  There are many areas where "traditional" accessibility (designed to facilitate access to the web for those with a disability) and mobile web accessibility overlap.

However, I don't believe we're simply treading old ground here.  For one thing, the development of best practice recommendations and techniques for improving the user's experience of the Web via a mobile device is able to build on the extensive work already carried out over the past few years in developing principles for accessible and usable web design.  And the technologies available to implement these principles have improved hugely too, so the "starting point" options available to content designers are both more diverse and more powerful than was the case a few years ago.

It is also interesting to see that, while the best practice recommendations that are emerging for mobile web accessibility encompass many of the basic established web accessibility principles, they place a new focus and emphasis on issues which, because they sit in that slightly uneasy "grey area" between accessibility and usability or because they haven't been seen as having a significant impact on more than a very few users, have been overshadowed and somewhat ignored.  This bodes well for those users whose needs have, in general, been overlooked until now.  There is a very good likelihood that the explosive growth in the use of mobile devices, and the economic incentives that provides (particularly in the commercial sector which, with a few notable exceptions, has tended to drag its heels in this area) to encourage the implementation of more accessible and usable website design, will push accessibility forward faster than ever before.

One of the key areas where there is a risk of the mobile web rehashing old problems is that of consistency across different devices and user agents.  There was a period some years ago when the web was at serious risk of fragmenting because of the massive differences in how different browsers interpreted HTML, and one could argue that there is a risk of the same thing happening with regard to the mobile web, because of the even greater range and variety of devices and software agents in general use, with more being developed every year.  But the very fact that the web went through that period of risk means that these risks are known and are much more clearly understood.  That means that they can be minimised from a much earlier stage in the technological development of mobile devices and software for accessing the web than was the case first time round.

General awareness of the need for accessibility is another area where, although there might be some overlap in the work that needs to be done, it is less than would be required if so much work had not already gone into publicising and raising awareness of accessibility from a disability perspective.  Many web designers are already aware of accessibility and usability as important aspects of web design, and a growing number of designers are becoming skilled in implementing accessibility without compromising on visual interest or functionality.  Incorporating additional techniques to further enhance the accessibility of websites should not present the same steep learning curve that these designers faced when first trying to learn or develop the accessibility techniques they now use all the time.  That's an important difference, since the web design world very much progresses as a result of many learning from a few, and as those with the knowledge and skills to develop new design techniques increase in number, there will be more examples of good, innovative design for other designers to copy and adapt.

In short - I don't think we're on a merry-go-round at all.  Rather, it feels to me like a spiral staircase.  There are times when one has a feeling of "haven't we been here before?".  But each time that comes round, we're actually at a higher level than we were when we last tackled that particular issue.  And while, like revising for exams, we might go back over some of the fundamentals, we also add new insights and thoughts and techniques to what was there before.

Dealing with the aftermath of the death of my mother

There must have been a time when death was, relatively speaking, simple.  You arranged the funeral, and, as and when you felt ready, gave away or sold the dead person's belongings.  Then you got on with grieving, and with the rest of your life.

Given the stress and grief which results from the death of a much loved parent, it really ought to be as simple as possible, depending on the complexity of their affairs.

Since we've long known and agreed, in discussion with our mother, that whatever money and possessions she had when she died were simply to be divided equally amongst myself and my two sisters, none of us thought it was necessary for her to write a will.  Well, we were wrong.  Just the act of designating an executor to sort things out after her death would have been made a great deal easier if she had specified that in a will.  Instead, I have to inventory and value her estate and then pay a personal visit to the Sheriff Court in Lanark in order to apply for "confirmation to the estate".  I know I could get a solicitor to do some of the stuff for me, but I also feel that it shouldn't be necessary to spend several hundred pounds on solicitor's fees for a process that relates to something as inevitable as someone dying.

Then, today, I started clearing out my mother's clothes.  I found I could only do it a bit at a time - bundling up the things she wore, to keep, throw out, or take to a charity shop, becomes stifling after a short while.  Every item placed in a bag drives home the knowledge that she won't be coming back, that she has no further need for these things.  And that's difficult to cope with for more than a short period at a time, without taking a break.

However I'm lucky.  I've got my partner Chris, and my two sisters and their families.  Some people have to deal with this kind of thing on their own, with no-one else around them to help, or offer support.  That must be very difficult.  The fact that my sisters and I can give each other a hug (real or virtual) when we cry, and we know the other person really understands how we feel, helps.

Beth and I cried yesterday at the end of the Formula 1 Grand Prix, because we both remembered how much our mother enjoyed watching it.  She and Beth usually watched it together.  And again today, we talked about the issue of deleting our mother's contact details from our various electronic address books (IM, email, mobile phone, etc), and we found ourselves crying again.  But it was OK each time, because we didn't have to feel embarrassed, or that we had to suppress the tears.  We just hugged each other until the tears stopped, and then carried on with ordinary things.

WWW2006 ended and I'm off to Law again

The conference kept me really busy this past week, but now I'm off to Law again to spend a few days with Beth and David. Slipped away a bit before the formal end of the conference, and as a result managed to catch a train 1 hour earlier than I'd originally planned. Yayyy!

Reception at Edinburgh castle

A few are squished up inside but most are out here where, now that the sun is no longer shining directly into the courtyard, it's bloody freezing!

Oh dear - talk cancelled

Oh dear - the first talk in the session I'm planning to attend (on adaptivity and mobility) has had to be cancelled because the speaker had a heart attack as they were about to set off to get here. Haven't heard anything about their condition, but very much hope they are OK.

Tim Berners-Lee discussing ontologies

Start of today's plenary panel

Looking out onto St Mary's Street from hotel window (2)