SXSW 2008 Panel - Everything I Know About Accessibility I Learned From Star Wars

Everything I need to know about accessibility I learned from Star Wars by Derek Featherstone.

Small band of rebels versus the unfeeling evil empire :)

A good motivational, conceptual overview of Accessibility. Not much by way of example or technique, but still good. Check out my notes below.

“I don’t think the Empire had Wookies in mind when they build her, Chewie.”

People in the rebel alliance are all shapes and sizes, imperial storm troopers are all identical.
Uniformity vs. diversity.

Jar Jar Binks

Seemed like a good idea at the time. If we were going to do it again, we wouldn’t include Jar Jar
tabindex. seems like a good idea but you have to do it really really well or you will create more problems than you solve.

Luke and Leia

Seems to imply something at the time, but as son as we find out more information, doesn’t make as much sense.

Star Wars Holiday Special

What happens if Wookies work well? MORE WOOKIES! Right??

Early movie concepts

Early concepts, pretty weak, and odd.
Iterations are very important to make sure we are putting out a “right” product and won’t be putting out confusing products

Digital Enhancements

Technology was added over time so more could be done.
Some scenes (storm troopers in the desert) they enhanced the product, but did not change the content. Done well.
Cantina scene however, Greedo shoots first. BOOO. Didn’t just change the presentation, they changed the content.

Luke dressed as storm trooper

Luke doesn’t fit the uniform look of a storm trooper
No matter what something looks like, it’s what’s under the costume (HTML) that actually matters.

These aren’t the droids you’re looking for….

Luke’s first experience with the jedi mind trick, and it doesn’t make sense to him.
Power of suggestion used to make people who are looking for one thing think they are getting what they are looking for, but are given something else.

“Good against remotes is one thing, good against the living is another”

At the end of the day it’s about the people, not the screen readers!

The Death Star

Technical marvel! Unheard of in history
Wide open to a small scale attacks from a very small group of people.
Sites that are revolutionary and technical marvels are often fatally flawed for accessibility.

Yoda’s Last Words to Luke

Accessibility people often feel like the last Jedi.
We have to pass on what we learn.
We have to use what we’ve learned on a new project on the next one and to pass it on to other “Jedi”.

Try not, do or do not, there is no try

“Always with you it cannot be done.”
No difference between the stones and the x-wing
We can’t say that this is too big of a project, we just have to believe we can do it!

“I don’t believe it!” “That is why you fail.”

Never give up!
We need to help make believers out of other people.

This entry was posted on Sunday, March 9th, 2008 at 10:18 amand is filed under Web Design. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.