One thing that annoys me about this industry is the flagrant misuse of the term "Consultant". A consultant is generally somebody who provides professional advice to a client for a fee. So as an "accessibility and user experience consultancy":http://www.clearleft.com/, clients will come to us for our advise on improving the accessibility and user experience of their products, and we'll respond with some form of report or documentation, often backed up with a formal presentation.
A few months ago I had the pleasure of being invited to talk to a group of civil servants on the subject of "blogging in government":http://www.andybudd.com/archives/2005/09/blogging_in_government/. The talk was part of a larger event that also covered web accessibility, so myself and "Tom":http://www.plasticbag.org/ were only really able to scratch the surface. The day was really fun, and I was surprised how interested people were in the subject. So much so, I was invited back to give an expanded talk, which I gave yesterday.
I was listening to "Derek Featherstone's":http://www.boxofchocolates.ca/ "WE05 podcast":http://we05.com/podcast/ the other day and he mentioned how the "5 stages of grief":http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Five_stages_of_grief mirrored many peoples experience of web accessibility. You would start off with *denial*, claiming that accessibility wasn't an issue that you needed to be aware of. You would then move into *anger*, being annoyed that you were forced to do something you didn't want to do. You would then start *bargaining*; "how about if I only reach single-A conformance?". You would next hit *depression*, being frustrated about how difficult things were. And lastly, you would come to *acceptance* making accessibility part of your every day life.
It has been a long time coming, but today I'm pleased to announce the launch of my new company website, clearleft.com.
Today I had the pleasure of giving a talk to members of the governments e-communications network, part of the larger Government Communication Network. In the first of a series of events, the group invited a number of people from the web design community to discuss the subjects of accessibility and blogging. Along with Joe Clark, Alastair Campbell, Patrick Lauke and Tom Coates, I was given the honour of being asked to speak.
One of the great things about being a freelance web designer is the ability to turn down projects. I've come across a few projects recently that sounded interesting but made me feel nervous. It wasn't any one specific thing; rather a series of small little things that set my internal alarm bells ringing. As such I've written up a list of bad project warning signs. Individually none of these signs should be deal breakers. However put a few of them together and it may be worth thinking twice about taking on that project.