Web Accessibility for On-line Education Workshop

The Australian National VET E-learning Strategy is running a free workshop on "Web Accessibility" in Canberra, 13 November 2012. This will be of use for educators wanting to communicate online to the widest range of students. I became involved with web accessibility in 1999, when asked to be an expert witness in the case of Maguire V Sydney Organizing Committee for the 2000 Olympic Games.

What web accessibility and implementing WCAG 2.0 mean for you

(face-to-face one day workshop)

When:

Tuesday 13 November 2012
Time:
10:00am - 12:30pm: Overview
1:30pm - 4:30pm: Streams
Location: CIT Reid, room location will be emailed to registrants closer to date
Presenters:
Kristena Gladman
Bronwyn Lapham
Felicity Hanrahan
Axel Bocciarelli

Registration: to register for this FREE workshop go to http://www.trumba.com/calendars/NVELS select the ACT session on 13 November and fill and submit the ‘SIGN UP’ form.

In late 2009 the Online and Communications Council, a subcommittee of COAG, endorsed the implementation of Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 2.0). These are a set of standards that make web content accessible to a wide range of users. WCAG 2.0 requires all federal, state and territory websites to conform to the guidelines.
Many people assume 'accessibility' only applies to online content, but it's not just about websites. Web accessibility also applies to all web content formats – that is all file formats and information that can be delivered on the web.

This one day workshop is intended to help participants understand what WCAG 2.0 means for them and will be delivered as a series of sessions, beginning with a session that provides an overview of:

10:00am - 12:30pm: Overview

• the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.0 (WCAG 2.0)
• the legal status of WCAG 2.0
• the government’s Web Accessibility National Transition Strategy (NTS)
• the application of the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA)
• how people with disabilities access the web

(the overview will be followed by sessions split into streams based on the roles and responsibilities of the participants)

Stream 1: policy, management and project management:
This session will be focused on ensuring that policy makers, managers and project managers are in a position to manage risk and maximise the benefits of addressing accessibility through giving the participants a better understanding of the requirements for WCAG 2.0 conformance. The session will help them to determine what level of accessibility understanding they need in order to scope and resource projects, and identify what questions they should ask of the design and development team before publishing.
Stream 2: design and content:
This session will be focused on design solutions with the intention of giving participants a better understanding of how the WCAG 2 Success Criteria impact upon the design, creation and editing of content, what they need to provide to the technical implementers and how to avoid common pitfalls and reworking designs.
Stream 3: technical:
This session will be focused on development approaches and coding with the intention of giving participants a better understanding of how the WCAG 2 Success Criteria impact upon development and what they need to get from the designers and content suppliers. They will be shown how to avoid common accessibility problems, and the overhead of “retrofitting” to address accessibility issues.
All Participants will see examples of good and bad practice, hear how the issues could have been avoided and how they can be rectified, and get an insight into some testing techniques.
For further information visit: https://actnationalvetelearning.wikispaces.com