We are happy to announce we are running two sessions with BrowseAloud in Melbourne next week.

RSVP

Please confirm your attendance to Shauna McCollum s.mccollum@browsealoud.com, outlining which session you would like to attend and any special dietary requirements, to ensure that we have plenty of food to go around on the day. Please note there is no cost for either session. Breakfast and lunch are complementary.

Session 1

08:00 – 08:30: Registration and Refreshments (Tea/Coffee/Pastry)

08:30 – 09:30: Welcome and Introductions

Presentation: Mobile & Accessibility
Gian Wild, Director, Accessibility Oz

Presentation: Removing Mobile Barriers
David Robinson, General Manager, BrowseAloud
Kelly McCoy, Business Development Manager, BrowseAloud

09:30 – 10:30: Complimentary Round Table Breakfast

Session 2

Please note that Session 2 is a repeat of Session 1.

11:00 – 11:30: Registration and Refreshments (Tea/Coffee)

11:30 – 12:30: Welcome and Introductions

Presentation: Mobile & Accessibility
Gian Wild, Director, Accessibility Oz

Presentation: Removing Mobile Barriers
David Robinson, General Manager, BrowseAloud
Kelly McCoy, Business Development Manager, BrowseAloud

12:30 – 13:30: Complimentary Round Table Lunch

About the presentations

Mobile & Accessibility

We’ve been making web sites accessible for many years now, but how do you make sure that your mobile web site is responsive and accessible? Gian Wild will cover the important accessibility issues raised when viewing a site on a mobile device – and not all of them are covered in WCAG2.

Removing Mobile Barriers

BrowseAloud provides worldwide leadership in online reading support for websites. More than 7,000 websites are using BrowseAloud products to reach a much wider audience than ever before, comply with legal obligations and gain a return on investment. During his presentation, David Robinson will highlight the challenges to digital inclusion, what barriers exist on the mobile web and how they can be broken down. He will explore how this cutting edge solution can offer help for Society’s most vulnerable groups by empowering them to both communicate with greater freedom and access online services independently.

AccessibilityOz, in partnership with Reading Room and BrowseAloud are pleased to bring you our free Digital Conversations breakfast. Australian Government legislation requires websites to meet a set of WCAG 2.0 standards on delivering accessible website by the end of 2013. Most of you are aware of the requirements, but how does this actually translate to quantifiable actions that you can take? Through our informative speakers, let us guide you as to your obligations under WCAG 2.0, what makes a site AA or AAA, and learn about the actions you can take to ensure the work you do from today is structured in a way to meet these broad requirements. A full buffet breakfast will be served before the presentations.

This session is tailored for both attendees who are new to accessibility and for those who have already taken the path to delivering fully accessible websites.

We will explore:

• The obligations and responsibilities you have under WCAG 2.0
• Gain real world examples of what needs to be done and how to prepare from the outset
• Hear from TextHelp about how their latest solution BrowseAloud Plus can alleviate the pressure

Location and dates

When: Thursday, 18th April
Time: 7:30am – 9:30am
Where: The North Courtyard, Hotel Realm, 18 National Circuit, Barton ACT 2600

RSVP

If you would like to join us, please RSVP at:
http://www.readingroom.com.au/news/canberra-accessibility-breakfast-briefing.aspx

About the presentations

David Pickstone

Digital Strategist, Reading Room

David Pickstone will be guiding you through the foundations of what WCAG 2.0 AA and AAA requirements mean for practical website development. While looking at the fundamentals of delivering an accessible website, you will learn about your team’s responsibilities and help you create a shift in your thinking to consider the importance of accessibility from the outset of all projects from content creation, design and functionality.

Gian Wild

Director, AccessibilityOz

Gian Wild will be speaking about how to make your mobile sites accessible. WCAG 2.0 was written before mobile devices were ubiquitous, and there are some accessibility issues unique to the mobile format, such as lack of keyboard, lack of mouse hover and reduced screen size. Gian will be talking about the most common problems and how you can avoid them.

David Robinson

General Manager, BrowseAloud – Removing Mobile Barriers

During his presentation, David Robinson will highlight the challenges to digital inclusion, what barriers exist on the mobile web and how they can be broken down. He will explore how BrowseAloud, this cutting edge solution, can offer help for Society’s most vulnerable groups by empowering them to both communicate with greater freedom and access online services independently. David’s presentation will be followed by a brief demonstration of this unique tool by Kelly McCoy, BrowseAloud BDM for Australia.

Accessibility Week 2013 locations and dates are:

• Melbourne – Monday 22^nd to Friday 26^th July (location to be advised)
• Canberra – Monday 12^th to Friday 16^th August at the National Library

The week consists of a one day conference followed by three streams of training for managers, content authors and developers over 4 days.

Registration is available for:

• A stream (e.g. manager, content author, developer)
• Individual days
• The entire week, all three streams. (different people can attend different days).

Conference day (1 day)

Conference day topics include:

• the differences between WCAG1 and WCAG2 standards
• PDFs in the context of accessibility
• updates to the DDA: Web Advisory Notes.

Hear from a panel of Government representatives who have undertaken the process to become WCAG2 compliant and how their organisations addressed the issues surrounding accessibility.

Training days (over 4 days)

Training days are suited to specific roles and their web site responsibilities, including:

• Accessibility in the web development lifecycle
• Creating accessible Word documents
• WCAG2 for content authors and managers
• WCAG2 for developers
• Creating and tagging PDFs for accessibility
• HTML5
• Video transcripts, captions and audio descriptions
• JavaScript and accessibility.

How long have you been working at AccessibilityOz?

Almost 12 months – I started in April 2012.

Where were you before joining AccessibilityOz?

I was a web-developer for the Queensland Government for 11 years.

What started you in the accessibility industry?

When I started working for the Queensland Government they were just starting to implement WCAG1, this was my first exposure to accessibility. I fell in love with it– the opportunity to make the online environment ‘a better place for all’ really inspired me. I saw so much value in it. Not long after, Gian Wild did a web site accessibility audit for the department I worked for, and I was hooked.

What kind of things do you do at AccessibilityOz?

I perform website accessibility audits, prepare Disability Action Plans, conduct training and work with clients to maximise accessibility at various stages of the web development lifecycle.

What’s been your favourite accessibility project so far?

I recently prepared a disability action plan for a client. The plan outlined their accessibility commitment and goals for all their websites. I find this task really rewarding as it provides clarity and targets to work towards.

How do you think Government is handling the December 2012 deadline?

Even though WCAG2 Single A conformance is required by December 2012, I think many government agencies are struggling to meet this. With so much content being published online it’s a huge task, and finding resources is the biggest challenge. For these agencies, I would recommend they follow the advice of the Australian Human Rights Commission and consult with an accessibility specialist to prepare a web site disability action plan. This plan outlines their commitment to eliminating discrimination online, and their implementation strategies and timeframes.

What’s the most common accessibility error you see over and over again?

Untagged or incorrectly tagged PDFs are the most common. I also regularly see layout tables coded as data tables, which is very confusing to users of screen readers. Lastly, the majority of videos I see do not have captions, audio descriptions or transcripts.

You recently ran a PDF tagging training session at Canberra Accessibility Week. The Australian Government is set to review the status of PDFs and their accessibility next year. Do you think they should make PDFs an accessibility-supported technology?

No, I think it’s still too soon. Even though ISO have recently released the ‘Electronic document file format enhancement for accessibility’ standard for the development of PDF authoring tools and PDF viewers, more time is needed for these products to be consistency used in the marketplace.

What’s one thing you would say to managers to convince them of the importance of accessibility?

Your users have varied needs – try to understand the perspective of people with disabilities. Accessibility is not an inconvenience and it’s not just the law, it’s your moral and social responsibility. I find it disappointing that people still need so much convincing, or have to work so hard to get support. There is no good reason for a website to be inaccessible. Website accessibility does not cost more if it’s planned within the web development lifecycle.

What do you do when you’re not trying to make the world a more accessible place?

Play with my kids, visit family, catch up with friends, and go to the beach.

Read more about Open Government and the use of PDFs.

Sharon Litchfield will be heading up the Brisbane office, and Gian Wild will be moving to Canberra to run the Canberra office.

If you’d like to visit us – or for us to visit you! – give us a call on one of the numbers below:

• Canberra: (02) 6108 3689
• Brisbane: (07) 3041 4011
• Melbourne: (03) 8677 0828

Are you aware that the Victorian and federal Government has set a December 2012 deadline for all Government websites to be Level A WCAG2 compliant?

Register now for Melbourne Accessibility Week! If you would like to see Accessibility Week at another location, register your interest.

Melbourne Dates

6- 10 February, 2012

Day 1: Full Day Seminar

Melbourne: Monday 6th February, Victoria University, City Convention Centre

AccessibilityOz founder Gian Wild presents the steps your organisation should consider undertaking to meet next year’s Government mandate and draws on 13 years of experience in accessibility to address topics including the differences between WCAG1 and WCAG2 standards, PDFs in the context of accessibility and updates to the DDA: Web Advisory Notes.

Attendees will get both an overview of the direction of accessibility and how it impacts their organisation as well as specific trends observed in sites undertaking compliance audits.

Hear from a panel of Government representatives who have undertaken the process to become WCAG2 compliant and how their organisations addressed the issues surrounding accessibility.

See the Melbourne program.

Training

Melbourne: 7 – 10th February, Ong Training, 11/461 Bourke St, Melbourne

Day 2: Microsoft Word Training (1/2 day)

This session will provide participants with tools to produce accessible Microsoft Word documents.

Day 3: Writing Accessible Content (1 day)

This session is geared towards content authors and provides participants with specific guidelines to write accessible content that is WCAG 2.0 compliant.

Day 4: Developer Training (1 day)

This session is geared towards website developers and provides participants with specific instructions and code to produce an accessible website that is WCAG 2.0 compliant.

Day 5: Adobe PDF Training (1 day)

This session will provide participants with tools to tag Adobe PDF documents. The training covers PDFs developed from Microsoft Word as well as from a scanned document.

Costs

The Full Day Seminar is $350 excluding GST.

Each training day is $500 excluding GST. The 1/2 day training is $250 excluding GST.

Early Bird pricing

Early bird registrations receive a 10% discount:

• $315 excluding GST for the Full Day Seminar, and
• $450 excluding GST per training day. The 1/2 day training would be $225 excluding GST

Full week discount

To register one pass for the full week (you can send different people to different days) is $1,800 excluding GST.

Early bird discount: $1,500 excluding GST

Register now for Melbourne Accessibility Week!

The AccessibilityOz team

Last Tuesday we had an official launch party at Feddish in Federation Square. It was great to socialise with staff and clients in a relaxed setting. We had over forty clients attend the three hour launch.

Katherine, our Events Director, put in an enormous amount of effort to have the place looking wonderful. We had orange gerberas to match our corporate logo, as well as party bags for all the guests. Each person received a bag with an AccessibilityOz mug, an AccessibilityOz stress ball (we believe in reducing stress here at AccessibilityOz!) and an AccessibilityOz pen. In reference to my recent trip to the United States, everyone also received a Jelly Belly jelly beans bag (I visited the factory in San Francisco a couple of weeks ago).