Innovate 2011 is being billed as the “Premier Event for Software and Systems Innovation”. The agenda focuses on demonstrating how your organisation can maximise its investment in software and systems throughout the entire development lifecycle: from plann ing and prioritising projects through to best practices in deployment and testing. In terms of accessibility, this means one thing: automated accessibility testing software.
IBM purchased the Watchfire accessibility testing tool in 2007 and incorporated it into their automated scanning software, Policy Tester. As some of you know, Watchfire bought out Bobby in 2005. Bobby was the very first automated accessibility testing tool, released in 1995. Now there are many accessibility testing tools, but back then there was only one, and it was free (back when a large web site was a couple of hundred pages). It was so popular that accessibility specialists across the globe had trouble convincing clients that their site wasn’t necessarily accessible just because “it passed Bobby”!
I’m very happy to be involved with Policy Tester and the Innovate event. Join me in either Sydney on the 19th July or Melbourne on the 21st from 2:05 – 2:50pm to discuss the latest issues in accessibility.