Of the many handouts we had, the most popular were the HTML5 stickers and the information on ADA guidelines. People I spoke with were generally interested in technologies like the JAWS screen reader and in ways to make their sites more accessible, especially after I explained that search engines examine their sites the same way a blind person would, and that making the site more accessible increases SEO ranking.

Thank you for the hilarious comparison of the cultural divides of these two groups. The article Andy Carvin’s argument for “relevance and literacy” rather than “access” as the key to bridging the digital divide. Health IT is certainly necessary to the business operations of the HIMSS crowd, but the soul of SXSW comes from the social connections enabled by social media such as Caring Bridge. Soul is required, I think, for improved outcomes, but that comes with exposure and risk.

The question I would have is whether the professional, senior HIT crowd are willing to accept the controversy, risk, failure and humility so common among the SXSW crowd’s innovations? Will we allow them the room to try?