Re: Fwd: possible accessibility track at FOSDEM

["Bryen M. Yunashko" <suserocks bryen com>]

On Tue, 2010-09-21 at 19:00 -0400, Penelope Stowe wrote:
> I think this may be inoteworthy for this list as well :-)
> 
> ~Penelope
> 
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> From: Jan Claeys <lists janc be>
> Date: Tue, Sep 21, 2010 at 6:42 PM
> Subject: possible accessibility track at FOSDEM
> To: ubuntu <ubuntu-accessibility lists ubuntu com>
> 
> 
> I just had the following short conversation in #fosdem on Freenode:
> 
>        <yaloki> sejo: how about an accessibility track ?
>        <yaloki> sejo: I could find speakers on the topic
>        <JanC> I might be able to find some speakers on that too
>        <yaloki> JanC: someone who's with me on the opensuse board is
>        deeply involved in those projects and goes to an a11y summit in
>        madrid next week, he'll poke some speakers
>        <JanC> yaloki: nice, I'll make sure the ubuntu-accessibility
>        people know about a possible accessibility track too
> 
> I think some people on this list might be interested in this.
> 
> Note that FOSDEM is a developer conference, so the target audience for
> talks is developers, and the topics are supposed to be mainly technical
> (although a talk about implementing accessibility awareness for
> developers & UI designers inside a project might apply too, I suppose).
> 
> 
> More info about the conference and contact info about where to send
> applications can be found at: http://fosdem.org/2011/ and more
> specifically http://fosdem.org/2011/call_for_mainspeakers_devrooms
> 
> FOSDEM is taking place in Brussels, Belgium on Saturday 5 and Sunday 6
> February 2011.
> 
> BTW: an "accessibility track" means that those talks would be part of
> the main tracks, but of course an "accessibility devroom" could be an
> alternative or addition, so maybe talk about this to accessibility
> people in other projects too.
> 
> 
> I hope I will see some of you at next year's FOSDEM !
> 
> 
> --
> Jan Claeys (Ubuntu-be LoCo Contact & Ubuntu booth organizer at FOSDEM)
> 


Good catch.  :-)   Yaloki and I have been discussing this subject for
about a week now as I'm pushing for this and planned to bring it up at
the hackfest which is now just around the corner.

So now that the cat's outta the bag  ....  Yes, in a nutshell, CFP for
FOSDEM is open, a formal track for a11y doesn't exist but yaloki and I
believe one *should* exist.   But the caveat here is that this is an
extremely technical-oriented conference.  It is not designed for
marketing.  Therefore, folks like m ain't gonna give the talk.  But
those of you with intrinsic knowledge of all the underlying
inner-workings of a11y... you're ideal for this.

And you'll get free travel/4-star hotel in Brussels as the bonus.  

I would highly encourage you all to consider submitting a talk because
this is an excellent opportunity to raise the conscious of a11y out
there amongst devs and further promote the "a11y should be baked in, not
bolted on" as Willie Walker always said.

Bryen M Yunashko
GNOME-A11y Outreach