News Release: W3C's Web Accessibility Initiative Holds Best Practices Training in Spain

W3C's Web Accessibility Initiative Holds Best Practices Training in Spain

Webmasters, Designers Meet in Madrid to learn about Accessible Design

Web resources

This press release
   In English: http://www.w3.org/2004/02/waitraining-pressrelease.html.en
   In French:
http://www.w3.org/2004/02/waitraining-pressrelease.html.fr
   In Spanish:
http://www.w3.org/2004/02/waitraining-pressrelease.html.es

Full program for Best Practices Session:
http://www.w3.org/WAI/EO/2004/02/exchange.html

WAI resources
http://www.w3.org/WAI/Resources/



http://www.w3.org/ -- 11 February 2004 -- The Web Accessibility
Initiative (WAI), part of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), held a
Web Accessibility Best Practices Exchange Training in Madrid, Spain, as
part of the WAI-TIES Project. The goal of this two day session was to
provide the Web community with information that makes the case for Web
Accessibility, and with the tools and techniques to achieve it. The
session, scheduled for 9-10 February 2004, was hosted by Fundosa
Teleservicios, a company of Fundación ONCE.

The two-day Web accessibility training covered:

     * An introduction to Web accessibility and how to evaluate Web
sites for accessibility, including demonstrations and case study examples
     * An overview of W3C/WAI resources that are available to help
managers, developers, policy makers, and others working on Web accessibility
     * Panels and multimedia presentations covering Web accessibility
issues, including legal and policy issues
     * Detailed directions on developing accessible tables, on-line
forms, images, applications, and scripts
     * A showcase of accessible Web pages and a discussion of using
style sheets (CSS) to create accessible, visually-appealing Web sites

"We are witnessing a tremendous growth in the use of both the Internet
and the Web in Spain," explained Enrique Varela Couceiro, Manager of
Accessible Technologies and R&D of Fundación ONCE. "As accessibility is
quickly becoming a requirement for many kinds of Web sites here, it's
important to provide Web content producers and designers with the
information they need to ensure that their work does not prevent people
with disabilities from having access to information and resources."

Included in the full program were speakers from Braillenet of France;
Bunnyfoot Universality of the UK; Fundación ONCE of Spain; Seminario
Iberoamericano sobre Discapacidad y Accesibilidad en la Red (SIDAR) of
Spain; Videncenter for Synshandicap (Visual Impairment Information
Centre) of Denmark; and the W3C Web Accessibility Initiative. The
presenters highlighted specific techniques that make accessible design
easier for Web content producers.

"We are pleased at the enormous interest in this event from the Web
community in Spain," remarked Shawn Lawton Henry, WAI Outreach
Coordinator. "It gave us an opportunity to provide training on
implementing the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, which are
regarded as the international standard for Web accessibility, and on the
W3C/WAI tools and resources that help make the Web accessible for people
with disabilities."

About the Web Accessibility Initiative [WAI]

W3C's Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI), in partnership with
organizations around the world, pursues accessibility of the Web through
five activities:

    1. ensuring that core technologies of the Web support accessibility;
    2. developing guidelines for Web content, user agents, and authoring
tools;
    3. facilitating development of evaluation and repair tools for
accessibility;
    4. conducting education and outreach;
    5. coordinating with research and development that can affect future
accessibility of the Web.

WAI is supported in part by the U.S. Department of Education's National
Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research; European
Commission's Information Society Technologies Programme; Canada's
Assistive Devices Industry Office; Fundación ONCE; IBM; Microsoft
Corporation; SAP; Verizon Foundation; and Wells Fargo. The WAI-TIES
Project (Web Accessibility Initiative: Training, Implementation,
Education, Support) is funded by the European Commission Information
Society Technologies IST Programme.

About the World Wide Web Consortium [W3C]

The W3C was created to lead the Web to its full potential by developing
common protocols that promote its evolution and ensure its
interoperability. It is an international industry consortium jointly run
by MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (MIT
CSAIL) in the USA, the European Research Consortium for Informatics and
Mathematics (ERCIM) headquartered in France and Keio University in
Japan. Services provided by the Consortium include: a repository of
information about the World Wide Web for developers and users, and
various prototype and sample applications to demonstrate use of new
technology. To date, nearly 400 organizations are Members of the
Consortium. For more information see http://www.w3.org/

Contact for Americas, Australia--
     Janet Daly, <janet@w3.org>, +1.617.253.5884 or +1.617.253.2613
Contact for Europe (except Spain), Africa, and the Middle East --
     Marie-Claire Forgue, <mcf@w3.org>, +33.492.38.75.94
Contact Spain
     Francisco Sánchez <fsanchez@w3.org>, +34.985.09.93.14

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Received on Wednesday, 11 February 2004 00:05:14 UTC