A Call for Participation: Accessibility Testing Weekend Testing

On Saturday, January 12th, 2013, I will be hosting another Weekend Testing session from 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. Many of you familiar with this type of thing already know the drill. We pick an application, we structure a theme around it, and we go to town for two hours. It's usually fun, engaging, and a chance to share testing knowledge and skills. I enjoy being the facilitator for these events.

This time, I would like to do something a little different, and yes, I'm asking for help. Specifically, I would like to look at the challenges, approaches, and ideas around testing accessibility software. In the past few weeks, I have become more aware of this market and the needs of understanding the challenges that people face. I'm currently using two tools that are part of our testing (JAWS, which is a screen reader, and Dragon Naturally Speaking, which is a dictation/voice recognition package). These tools have one distinct drawback... they are expensive. They are also large downloads, and may be difficult to get for some participants.

Thus, I want to do something different this time. Rather than do a bug bash, I'd like to see if participants would be willing to share their experiences, their frustrations, and their successes working with accessibility software, share tools and tips, and be willing to talk about and share those experiences with their fellow testers. Oh, and quite possibly, the most rapt and attentive attendee will very likely be me! In short, I have a need, and a desire, to better understand this market and the issues that people face when using accessibility software. If you would like to help me learn more (and I'm willing to bet others out there would be as well), then please come and join us next Saturday.

This meeting will be held through Concert-Oh. Meeting links is:
http://www.concert-oh.com/web/meetingDetail/xbPOfvifO0AF9YBCTyUJ3A%3D%3D