Web Event: Access to Online Learning

Live Web conference: Design for More Usable Online Learning Systems
December 2 and December 16, both at 4 PM Eastern Standard Time

(At the bottom of the description is a link for registration. Sign up
for this Equal Access to Software and Information/EASI event soon in
advance as space is limited. Even if you cannot attend, registering
will get you a link later to the recordings.)

Increase Access to Learning Tools and Content
Make your course content and learning tools available to more users.
Technical accessibility specifications show the way.

Who will benefit from this information:
software designers,
online learning institutions,
online learning instruction designers,
online faculty,
online students,
administrators,
ADA compliance officers
and more!

Hosted by Madeleine Rothberg, Director of Research and Development for
WGBH's National Center for Accessible Media/NCAM with presentations
from other members of IMS Accessiblity Working Group.

December 2 Event, 4PM EST:  This session will provide an overview of
the benefits of the Access for All approach and include demonstrations
of software that uses it.
Presenters: Madeleine Rothberg and co-presenters from University of
Toronto and Sheffield Hallam University UK.

December 16 Event, 4PM EST:  This session will provide a detailed look
at the technical specifications that allow learning software to adjust
to each user's needs. We will discuss the kinds of preferences and
content features included, unique opportunities to add value to your
online learning collections, and how to get a return on using meta-data
for accessibility when your materials are not 100% accessible.
Presenters: Madeleine Rothberg and co-presenters from University of
Toronto, Sheffield Hallam
University UK, and the Internet Scout Project.

------------------------
Project Description:

Who needs better access to e-learning content and tools?
-Students, faculty, and staff with disabilities
-Workers in noisy environments
-Students in quiet public places
-Users of portable devices with small screens

What are some examples of accessibility functions?
-Larger fonts for improved visibility
-Adjustable color contrast for outdoor reading
-Captions for video and audio
-Text-to-speech functionality

IMS Accessibility specifications and guidelines have been developed
with participants from the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), the Dublin
Core Metadata Initiative, and IMS contributing members representing
government agencies, higher education, content providers, and
application vendors worldwide.

This project is sponsored in part by a grant to the WGBH National
Center for Accessible Media from the Fund for the Improvement of
Postsecondary Education, U.S. Department of Education.

Register for all or part of this two-part event at:
http://easi.cc/clinic.htm
scroll down to the link for registration.  After submitting the form,
you will receive an e-mail confirmation.

EASI (Equal Access to Software and Information) is a non-profit
organization with a mission is to make information technologies more
accessible to users with disabilities. Since 1993, EASI's series of
online training Webcasts promoting access to technology for people with
disabilities have served people in more than three dozen countries.

NCAM and its fellow access departments at WGBH (The Caption Center
  and Descriptive Video ServiceŽ) make up the Media Access Group at WGBH.
WGBH, Boston's public broadcaster, pioneered captioning and video 
description on
television, the Web and in movie theaters. NCAM is a founding member of 
the Web
Accessibility Initiative (WAI) of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). 
NCAM
works with standards bodies, industry, consumer organizations and 
educators
to develop and implement non-proprietary technical standards for 
multimedia,
advanced television, and convergent media that ease implementation, 
foster
growth and lay common groundwork for equal access to new technologies.
Visit http://access.wgbh.org for more information about NCAM.

Received on Wednesday, 24 November 2004 00:59:38 UTC