Taylor’s Tech Talks Will be going live talking about building a live Website from scratch starting at step 1. This will be done from a non-visual perspective and using assistive technology to show how blind people are able to make a website using WordPress.
The basics will be covered from getting a domain, hosting, important terms, and basic WordPress setup/install.
The stream will take place Monday, Aug 2 at 7:00 eastern. If you always wanted to see how a website is built, I think you will enjoy.
To join in, please follow this link. Also, subscribe for the latest content.
assistive technology
WordPress 101: Welcome The Queen Of WP, Taylor Arndt
I had the pleasure of being featured on the Blind Tech Guys podcast talking all things WordPress. If you would like to check it out, please visit this link.
https://www.blindtechguys.com/88
In addition, if you would like to check out Generate Press, the theme talked about in the show, you may follow this link.
Disclaimer: This link is an affiliate link and I may earn a small kickback that will go to help the comunity grow.
First Steps With WordPress Using Assistive Technology
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Introduction
You may have heard of WordPress before but you don’t know where to begin. Today, we will be taking your first steps diving into WordPress.
What is WordPress anyway?
WordPress is a content management system or CMS for short. In simple terms, it allows websites to be created without coding it yourself.
WordPress makes up 40% of all websites on the web today from governments, universities, and anything you could imagine. In addition, WordPress isn’t just used for blogs but you have all of the power to create your next idea.
How accessible is WordPress?
You may be sold on using WordPress for your next website idea, but you use assistive technology. WordPress is definitely usable with assistive technology like screen readers, screen magnifiers, and others. In fact, WordPress is the most accessible system to build a website if you are an assistive technology user.
Versions of WordPress
WordPress comes in a few different versions. It is important to understand the differences for your specific project.
wordpress.com is the version of WordPress that is made by automatic. It is a version of WordPress that you most likely have seen whenever you go to a blog or other site. This is a version of WordPress for those who may be not as technical but who need a basic blog site. However, you are very limited in what you can do. Finally, you do not have complete control of your content.
Next is wordpress.org. This is a free and open source version of WordPress that is able to be used on your own server. You have complete control over your content which is great and you can install anything. This results in building very powerful websites. For this reason, we will assume that you’re will use wordpress.org.
The State of WordPress Accessibility
We mentioned earlier that WordPress was the most accessible website creation platform. Let’s expand on that by talking about some tips. The first tip is Google Chrome or any other chromium based browser is going to be the best. If you’re looking for the best screen reader to use for WordPress, I would highly recommend nvda or Non-visual desktop access. NVDA tends to work better with the WordPress dashboard and editor. If you are using JAWS or Job Access with Speech,it is possible to use WordPress, but it is a little bit less accessible. If you are on the Mac, voiceover in Safari will work fine.
Conclusion
We started to build the building blocks of what WordPress was and what it can do for you. We determined that WordPress is a Content management system or CMS that allows you to build websites without coding them yourself. In addition, WordPress Powers over 40% of the web today. If you are an assistive technology user, NVDA on Windows and a chromium browser will work the best. Whereas on Mac, Voiceover and Safari will do the job. Finally, we talked about the different versions of WordPress and determined that WordPress.org will be what we use. Next, we will talk about how to get started by securing a domain and hosting.
Resources
If you enjoyed the content, and want to get in contact, you may using the following.
Taylors Accessibility Services
You may also visit Taylors Tech Talks to follow the community.
#iACast Special – Interview With American Printing House For The Blind
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Show Description
On this episode, Jason interviews Dave Wilkinson from the American Printing House For The Blind concerning the products on display at the 2019 National Federation of The Blind convention.
Providing Feedback
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First time Experience at CSUN AT Conference
Last week I had the chance to experience the CSUN Assistive Technology conference in San Diego California. CSUN is a yearly conference to show off some of the best technologies that have come out and that are to be released during the coming year, and this year there were many devices that were shown that will make an impact on the Assistive technology community. During this article, I will discuss my thoughts of this conference and talk about what I found to be the most interesting devices and sessions I saw.
The Hotel
The conference is held currently at the Manchester Grand Hyatt hotel in downtown San Diego. When I booked my tickets to go to the conference in January the hotel was already booked and did not have room available, so my boss from the Austin Lighthouse and I stayed at the Residence Inn in Mission Valley. Each day I would use Lyft to get from the hotel where I was staying to the conference hotel, and I also rode back and forth with my boss in a rental car. The trip was great to see the town, and both hotels were great. That Monday San Diego received so much rain that Monday which caused the power at the Residence Inn to go out for a day. San Diego received so much rain that much of the city had flooding beyond what they are used to which caused a lot of power issues.
On Sunday, I decided to go and explore the hotel for the convention since I was taking pre-conference classes. I learned very quickly that the hotel was very big and had a lot of space for sessions and class areas. I also learned that the restaurants at the hotel were expensive but great and serving staff was very helpful with helping customers find what they wanted to buy. I also noted that hotel staff would explain directions in terms of steps and turns which was very helpful.
The Pre-Conference
Monday saw the beginning of the Pre-conference with classes and learning opportunities from businesses in the assistive technology industry. I took a class on inclusive design from the folks at Deque Systems, and learned quite a bit about testing for accessibility and which tools can help determine website accessibility. We will have more on this here at iaccessibility.net soon. On Tuesday I took a class on Advanced Mobile App Accessibility testing and learned a lot about testing apps and their code for accessibility.
The Conference
Wednesday was the start of the actual conference, which was filled with many sessions and a wonderful exhibit hall. They also had several parties for people to attend to network and to meet others in the AT industry. I took the opportunity to look at several exhibits and went to several sessions, but here is the highlights from what I saw.
Exhibits
CSUN 2017’s exhibit hall was the size of the NFB National convention’s exhibit hall, but was made up of nothing but technology which was up my ally since I love tech. I saw several devices that I thought were nice like the ElBraille from VFO, The NeoBraille and the Braille Sense Polaris which is from HIMS.One of the things that we have been looking for at the Austin Lighthouse is accessible copiers, and Canon came to CSUN with exactly that. They showed us copiers that could be used by speaking the number of copies, and the device would also read the screen out loud. We will post more about exhibits and products that were at CSUN at iaccessibility.net soon, but you can also check out coverage from Blind Bargains for interviews on these products.
Sessions
CSUN had so many sessions that one could not possibly attend all of the topics that they would like, so you have to pick and choose which ones are the best for you and your industry. Several sessions I went to sounded great but were on different topics than I would have imagined, so I did not stay at these. Personally, I found Friday’s sessions on video game accessibility to be most interesting because they focused on entertainment for everyone which I personally think is interesting. There were speekers from AbleGamers, SSB BART and Twitch from Amazon. I think my favorite session that I attended was a session on a project called the Blind Arduino Project that promotes the concept that people that are blind can become Makers, and build projects with circuits and code. We will post more on this topic in a future article here at iaccessibility.net.
Conclusion
CSUN 2017 has been an amazing conference, and I really urge anyone to go if they have the chance. I would also suggest that everyone go and explore San Diego as it is a beautiful city in California. The town is wonderful, and so is the hotel downtown. If you do go next year, book your rooms early, and get to the hotel with plenty of time so that you can make sure to have a room for the conference.