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Boston-IA holds events and occasional meetings to hear speakers, share information of mutual interest, and network with each other regarding Web accessibility.

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June 5, 2008: Fidelity Investments on Universal Usability of Dynamic Content

On Thursday, June 5, 2008, Boston-IA presented Marguerite Bergel and Ann Chadwick-Dias of Fidelity Investments, speaking about making dynamic content usable and accessible for the broadest range of people.

The meeting was held at the Fidelity Investments offices at 245 Summer Street in downtown Boston, Massachusetts. Meeting participants were treated to a tour of Fidelity's state-of-the-art usability lab.

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Topic

On Thursday, June 5, 2008, Boston-IA presented Marguerite Bergel and Ann Chadwick-Dias of the Web Technology Group at Fidelity Investments on "Universal Usability of Dynamic Content: Making Flash, AJAX, and DHTML Usable for Everyone".

As the Web transforms into a dynamic, richly interactive experience, universal access issues are being driven to the forefront. While new technologies like Flash, Flex, DHTML, and AJAX increase the interactivity of the online experience, many believe that they also reduce universal usability.

The talk examined case studies from the Fidelity business that demonstrated how to approach the universal usability of dynamic content.

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Speakers

Marguerite Bergel is a Senior Usability/Accessibility Analyst on the User Insight team in the Web Technology Group at Fidelity Investments. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Studio Art.

Ann Chadwick-Dias is a Principal Human Factors Engineer on the User Insight team in the Web Technology Group at Fidelity Investments. She holds a Master of Arts in Technical Communication and Bachelor of Science in Psychobiology. She has more than 10 years of research experience, with journal publications in several fields, including psychobiology and psycholinguistics.

Margy and Ann co-lead Fidelity's accessibility initiative. Both women joined Fidelity Investments more than seven years ago and have been conducting research in the area of Web accessibility for the past four years.

Together and individually, they have presented research on issues related to universal usability, accessibility, and Web design for older users at various events and conferences— including AARP's Older Wiser Wired initiative, Aging by Design at Bentley College, and California State University at Northridge's International Technology & Persons with Disabilities— as well as for groups such as the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) Computer Human-Interaction, Human-Computer Interaction International, and the Usability Professionals Association.

Margy and Ann have published numerous publications and are proud members of the Visually Impaired and Blind User Group (VIBUG).

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