5 Accessibility Panels I Hope Make it to SXSW 2010

As Andrew Kirkpatrick noted on the Adobe Accessibility blog, there are quite a few proposed Accessibility panels for SXSW 2010. I was really hoping for some sessions that were a bit beyond alt text and tabindices, and happy with what I found. Here’s my Top 5 list of Accessibility sessions I really hope make the cut for next March!

Web Application Accessibility Showdown: Flash/Flex, HTML5 & Silverlight – For anyone who knows me, this is a no-brainer. My Masters capstone was on Accessibility for RIAs, but I never even got into Silverlight. This is progressive stuff. The course description mentions Accessibility APIs, which I rarely see mentioned in talks. While listed as a beginner course, this stands to have more detailed information than you’ll see most anywhere else! My only concern? The presenter is from Adobe.
Your *#@^!in’ Website Is Not Accessible! – Getting Results – Shawn Henry brings together a panel to debate different approaches to getting the Web more accessible. Beyond the tactics of a developer, this session seeks to answer questions like “What are pros and cons of different collective approaches (e.g., laws, lawsuits, community pressure)? What are some cautions and tips for the different approaches?” and “Where are resources to back me up when approaching organizations with inaccessible websites, e.g., business benefits of web accessibility, web accessibility laws, etc”
Web Accessibility Gone Wild – Jared Smith of WebAIM presents “a wide variety of mistakes, blunders, misconceptions, over-indulgences, intricacies, and generally silly aspects of modern web accessibility.” Sometimes we know just enough to be dangerous!
Cross Device Accessibility: Is This For Real? – We haven’t even figured out desktop-based web accessibility yet, and Chris Mills from Opera is pushing the question of cross-device accessibility. There’s always more to consider, isn’t there?
HTML5: Tales from the Development Trenches – It was tough to pick a last panel, but learning about the implications of HTML5 from Bruce Lawson, Remy Sharp and Steve Faulkner is probably the best way to really understand them.

I’m sure many of the other accessibility sessions have some great information, but these are the ones I’d love to sit in on. Obviously there is so much information at SXSW it’s hard to devote too much time to a single topic – these are the sessions that rose to the top of the list for me!

(While you’re reviewing these panel submissions, please check out my own as well!