IDEAS 2009

The networking part was okay as I had a chance to talk to some vendors and came out with at least one new idea. I attended 2 presentations both on October 5th. The first one was by Adobe - it was interesting but the speaker clearly needed more than 1 hour for his talk. The second session was a panel on 508: it was too dry and too general. I used to attending user experience conferences, and I would always return with a few actionable items that can be immediately applied to my work. In both cases at the IDEAS conference, speakers did not seem to connect to their audiences, the quality of talks were mediocre. The lunch was not sponsored, and I have seen a number of folks heading out to the Metro after the morning session. It could be more practical to have only 1 full-day conference with lunch included. This way people can actually meet and network.

My main purpose in attending was to meet as many people in the disabled community as I could. I wanted to find out how others are dealing with their personal challenges and hopefully utilize that information in my own life. I met my primary goal. I met and communicated with a large number of individuals and while our disabilities were different, I felt a "group" emerged.

My secondary purposes were to secure a job, locate possible employment sources and learn what the government and private industry were thinking and doing in the disabled community. I heard coments, stories and reports. It seemed as if some powerful changes are taking place. I believe there are. I did not hear anything about possible employment and I did overheard others say that "everybody is saying the same things again".

The conference was an interesting way to learn alot about a subject in a compressed time format.

I will go again.

I attended on 10/6/09, and wish that my co. had also sent me on 10/5, because I feel the conference was very helpful in understanding the issues/challenges surrounding the frustration in creating a 508-compliant PDF. I think this conference should only be attended by those who specifically do work geared towards Section 508-compliance.

Had tried to attend in 2008, but the conference was 1 day only and had filled up. So, I was glad they scheduled it for 2 days.

I attended sessions on the future of 508-compliance--the Access Board is trying to get regulations up to speed with changing technology (and they DID consult with software companies such as Adobe and Microsoft, which I think is on the right track). Plus, hearing them acknowledge that they know 508-compliance has been run as a "catch-up" was good to hear (it wasn't just our co. feeling this frustration). although the session was pretty dry, there was useful info on papers coming out in Dec. (on different 508-compliance aspects) that they want public feedback on.

next session was a web session where they were using JAWS to show how the information was read to an accessible user. web isn't really my thing, but I use JAWS to check 508-compliant PDFs so I found it interesting to hear how the info translated. plus, I learned a few JAWS shortcuts for navigation.

I attended a session that was a Microsoft preview of Office 2010, which was a REALLY GREAT session--we were able to give lots of feedback on some features that seemed to be designed well, and some features that were not logical. Plus, we gave feedback on their new Accessibility Checker, which can really help how we create docs for 508-compliance. It also helped me to see that the other participants had the same experience (frustration) with creating and problem-solving PDFs!

the exhibitors section was hit or miss--I was chatting with the person (from USDA) who initially trained us, and it was nice to catch up with him about PDFing challenges. and, meeting the contact with another vendor who we have 508-compliance software from was another good conversation. however, I wanted to talk to the Adobe vendors and they were NOT approachable--they were either busy talking to each other, working with their equipment, or not there. I found that disappointing.

after lunch, I went to a 508-compliant Word session that had VERY outdated information--some of the audience was even telling the trainer that, and the trainer clearly wasn't qualified to do anything more than read off her prepared information. I found it more entertaining than anything else.

I didn't really network with other users much, but I feel that I learned enough from the sessions to warrant attending again.