Mark Meeker
UI Architect at Orbitz Worldwide
Previously, Mark was Technology Director for Critical Mass where he led site development and architecture for numerous clients. He got his start on the web at Encyclopaedia Britannica by helping to launch Britannica.com. He has an undergraduate degree from St. Norbert College and earned a Masters in Software Engineering from the Illinois Institute of Technology.
Presentations
Merging Ajax and Accessibility
Can't we all just get along? Introducing Ajax and making a site accessible each present their own unique challenges to development teams. Most see these as being in direct competition with each other. But, by embracing some new development approaches they can end up being complementary. We will look at how best to tackle making Ajax-based features accessible and point out some of the added benefits that come with taking such approaches.
Come Learn how to build rich interactive sites that still remain accessible. This session will start by debunking some common Ajax related accessibility myths, then look at how to make common Ajax patterns accessible and finally cover what's the future holds in this area.
Microformats: The What, Where, Why, and How
Microformats may be small, but they are starting to appear everywhere. You likely visit sites daily that are enabled with microformats. They are used to make contact details, events, reviews, and other everyday data more available to you as both a user and as a developer.
Learn what sites are already using of microformats and how you can take advantage of them. Also learn how easy it is to enable your site with microformats for others to use by making each page of your site an API with only minor markup changes.
In this session you will learn: what exactly microformats are, where they can found on the web, why they are a useful addition to a site and (most importantly) how to add them to yours.
