Re: Section 508 Training

I can tab past the Flash nonsense in IE Mac and Windows. But once you 
get past the login you hit a library of downloadable materials in 
(what else?) MS Word and PowerPoint format.

The online lessons themselves are, for the most part, high-level 
overviews, aimed more at managers than at hands-on developers (with 
some notable exceptions such as the Java and captioning discussions). 
Lessons advise against the use of pop-ups but utilize pop-ups 
throughout.

As an introduction to 508, the online material is actually pretty 
decent; I particularly like the inclusion of legal/historical context 
and the acknowledgement of disabilities other than blindness.

When they announced the course back in May and described it as 
"pretty slick" 
(http://www.fcw.com/fcw/articles/2001/0521/web-help-05-23-01.asp), I 
expected the worst. I must say I am pleasantly surprised by the 
quality of the course materials. Download the RTF version of the 
"briefing" if you have Word (don't ask me why this document is not 
posted in HTML of PDF format), and see what you think. The first part 
of the course seems to be a serious effort to educate participants 
about principles and goals of accessibility; it brings in relevant 
stats for support, debunks common myths, discusses disabilities in 
detail, and emphasizes the benefits of accessible design. These are 
all good strategies for getting participants on board.


At 13:42 -0400 7/11/01, Lubow Scott wrote:
>There is training on the Section508.gov web page at
>http://www.section508.gov/classes.html
>My problem with this training is that the home page is flash and you
>can't navigate to the skip flash with a keyboard.  Maybe it's just me
>but I would not create an inaccessible home page for 508 training.  Any
>comments?
>Scott


Jo Miller
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Received on Wednesday, 11 July 2001 15:11:52 UTC