Herding Code 86: Saqib Shaikh on Accessibility and Developing with Limited Sight

Episode 86

While at Web Camps London, Jon talks to Saqib Shaikh about how he's able to develop with limited sight and what developers can do to make our applications more accessible.

• Saqib talks about his role on the Bing Team, data mining and deep links.
• Jon and Saqib talk about solving problems with a little help from Twitter.
• Saqib explains the function of a screen reader and how some people can listen to computers really fast.
• Jon asks about common frustrations around accessibly when web browsing. Jon considers the tie-in between SEO and accessibility.  The guys dive a little deeper into structuring information, images vs text and learning the few basics.
• Jon asks if there's a way to do accessibility analysis? Saqib points to the "Check Accessibility." option which is available when right-clicking on the web project in VS 2010.  (It's there. I checked.)
• Jon and Saqib talk about coding with limited sight. Saqib shares his general techniques.
• The conversation continues with talk about Microsoft product development and the importance placed on accessibility.
• The show wraps with Saqib introducing the term "Universal Design" of all things.  As a developer, you want to make your applications for the largest number of people to use. Just keep in mind that "there's a lot of people in this world, and they're all a little bit different." "It's about making cool stuff for a lot of people."

Show Links:

• Saqib Shaikh
• Bing
• JAWS (an acronym for Job Access With Speech) Screen Reader
• SEO Toolkit
• ARIA
• HTML5
• Clint Nelson from Startup Weekend

Show notes compiled by Ben Griswold. Thanks!

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Herding Code 86: Saqib Shaikh on Accessibility and Developing with Limited Sight