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Current Announcements

Next Boston A11y Roundtable, January 11!
Boston Interactions Winter Party, January 24!

Current News

Boston A11y Roundtable
Boston Interactions Winter Party 2012 (January 24, 2012)
New Directions for Boston-IA
Boston-IA Membership
Volunteer for Boston-IA
Planning Future Programs
Join the Boston-IA Mailing List
Boston Interactions Calendar

2011 Events

2010 Events

Past Meeting Summary

Membership Benefits

Current News

Boston A11y Roundtable

Come to tne next meeting of the Boston A11y Roundtable!

The "Boston A11y Roundtable" is a Web Accessibility networking group that meets on a monthly basis at the Microsoft NERD Center in Cambridge.

Each month, members and friends of Boston-IA join other Boston area developers, media specialists, designers, usability professionals, and accessibility experts for the latest open discussion about accessibility. Join us to share knowledge and learn at the A11y roundtable. Everyone is welcome to attend!

The gatherings are dedicated to keeping internet professionals and other information technology and services professionals up-to-date about accessibility news and challenges, while providing networking opportunities in a fun and informal way. The format of the meetings ranges from speaker presentations, to group case studies, to impromptu discussions, and more.

For information about attending future Boston A11y Roundtable events:

Upcoming Meeting Schedule
Join A11yBos on Meetup (Meetup signup required).
Join A11y Boston on LinkedIn (LinkedIn membership required).

Hint: If you don't know what A11y stands for in A11yBos or Boston A11y, it means that there are eleven letters between the letter A and the letter Y, hence "Accessibility"! "A11yBos" simply means "Accessibility Boston"— Now you know!

Upcoming Boston A11y Roundtables

The Boston A11y Roundtable meets every month at the Microsoft NERD Center, from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Upcoming meetings include:

Wednesday, January 11, 2012
Thursday, February 2, 2012
Tuesday, March 14, 2012

All first quarter meetings for 2012 will take place in the Deborah Sampson room (on the first floor)

Pizza and beverages will be provided. We request contributions at the meeting to defray the cost.

Event registration is requested on Meetup.com (membership required). Or contact Boston-IA for more information.

The Microsoft NERD Center is located close to the Kendall/MIT Square stop on the MBTA subway system.

Get directions to the Microsoft NERD Center.

Fifth Annual Boston Interactions Winter Party (January 24, 2012)

Join Boston-IA and Boston Interactions, a consortium of the premier Boston-area Usability and User Experience groups, at the Fifth Annual Boston Interactions Winter Party on Tuesday, January 24, 2014, for an evening of networking, food, and fun.

Boston-IA and the other Boston-area user design organizations will participate in the 2012 Boston Interactions Winter Party, from 6:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. on Wednesday, January 24, 2012 at The Asgard Irish Pub & Restaurant, in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The Asgard is located between Central Square & MIT.

The party is being hosted by BostonCHI and UPA Boston. All Boston area human-computer interactions organizations are invited.

Boston Interactions is a collaboration among interaction and design groups in the Boston area. Each year, Boston Interactions brings together members of Boston's premier user experience and user interaction organizations to network and socialize with members of the other groups.

Boston Interactions consists of many groups, including:

Boston-IA has been a member of Boston Interactions and has participated in the annual party since 2008.

Read about previous Boston Interactions parties that Boston-IA has participated in:

January 18, 2011: Boston Interactions Holiday Party 2011
January 20, 2010: Boston Interactions Holiday Party 2010
January 14, 2009: Boston Interactions Holiday Party 2009
July 22, 2008: Boston Interactions Summer Pot Luck Picnic 2008
January 8, 2008: First Annual Boston Usability Groups Networking Party

New Directions for Boston-IA

In 2003, when Boston-IA was founded, many individuals and organizations were building fairly static websites without much concern for Internet Accessibility. Boston-IA and its members focused most of our attention on advocating for online accessibility for people with disabilities and raising awareness about the need for accessible and universal web design.

A lot has changed since then. The World Wide Web has become more interactive, browsers now host a wide variety of web applications, and social networking and multimedia are incorporated everywhere. Almost everyone has at least heard of the concept of Web Accessibility, and internet professionals and organizations have been struggling with the best way to achieve accessibility compliance for the websites and applications they are developing. The bar has been raised for incorporating accessibility into the delivery of electronic information.

Even the standards and guidelines are changing. The U.S. government is working on a refresh of the Section 508 accessibility standards originally published in 1998, and the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) issued its second revision of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) in December 2008.

Boston-IA continues to be committed to "Making Internet Accessibility Mainstream". But we see our mission shifting from the job of raising consciousness and advocating for accessibility to providing more education about how to achieve accessibility of electronic information. Not only is our focus changing, but we also see our audience expanding.

Over the years, Boston-IA has hosted or cosponsored dozens of exceptional talks and presentations on a wide variety of accessibility topics and has participated in many networking programs with fellow Boston Interactions organizations. Our current goal is to expand our on-line presence as well and offer more information electronically. We hope to address the needs of a wider range of internet professionals in a wider geographic area, and we see more of our efforts going online.

More information will be available soon as we develop our future plans!

Boston-IA Membership

Boston-IA is pleased to announce that, starting 2011, all individual Boston-IA memberships are open-ended until further notice. All current Boston-IA memberships have been extended automatically, and if you join Boston-IA now, you remain a member until you opt out. We will be developing more ways that you can participate with Boston-IA than ever before.

Please note that Boston-IA Institutional memberships continue to be renewable annually on their anniversary dates.

Join Boston-IA! Now is the perfect time to become a member of Boston-IA.

In recognition of difficult economic times, Boston-IA has reduced its membership dues to $15, a substantial savings over previous years, and we have made our memberships open-ended until further notice.

Support our goals of universal access by becoming a member now!

Note: All current Boston-IA memberships will be automatically extended throughout 2011.

Volunteer for Boston-IA

We are looking for volunteers to help with our online efforts. If you are interested learning or contributing your expertise with any aspect of social networking or electronic information delivery, now is a great time to become a Boston-IA volunteer.

Recently, a couple of Boston-IA's key board members have decided to retire after many years of dedicated service. We thank them with heartfelt gratitude. Without them, Boston-IA wouldn't have been able to present so many high quality programs. We now have openings on our board as we move into the next phase of our work. If you would like to help guide Boston-IA into the future, please consider joining our board of directors.

Planning Future Programs

Boston-IA continues to focus on our mission of making Internet Accessibility mainstream.

We define Internet Accessibility as providing universal access, regardless of physical, cognitive, or technological barriers. We define Information Accessibility, in the broadest sense, as ensuring the clarity and organization of content and the information that people need.

Boston-IA board members are actively planning programs for Boston-IA members and visitors for the coming year, many of them joint programs with our partner organizations. Additional details about our programs will be announced as they are scheduled.

Don't miss out on the chance to learn how universal access to electronic information benefits everyone. Join Boston-IA in 2011 for more great programs.

As always, we welcome speakers and topic suggestions for future meetings and workshops:

Join the Boston-IA Mailing List

Don't miss out on future Boston-IA activities!

Boston-IA members automatically receive notice by e-mail about Boston-IA meetings and events, and attend all meetings for free. If you are not a member, you can join Boston-IA now by mail.

Even if you do not become a member, you can subscribe to the Boston-IA mailing list to be notified about future Boston-IA happenings.

Ask about the Boston-IA Mailing list.

Boston Interactions Calendar

Boston-IA is a member of Boston Interactions, a collaboration of the premier of user experience, interaction, design, and usability organizations the Greater Boston area.

The Boston Interactions organizations maintain a collaborative calendar to help members coordinate participation in local professional usability groups.

Note: We value your privacy. Boston-IA does not rent, trade, or sell your personal or organizational information to other parties without your express permission.