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Tips on Web Accessibility Training

This page lists some tips, from Web accessibility trainers, which might be useful in planning a training session. Inclusion of perspectives from individual trainers or organizations does not represent endorsement by W3C or WAI.

Tips

Helle Bjarnø, Videncenter for Synshandicap (Visual Impairment Information Centre)
Sometimes I start by giving people the Quick Tips card, because I want to emphasize that it's very simple to make accessible Web sites.
Henk Snetselaar, Bartimeus Educational Institute for the Blind and Partially Sighted
At our last presentation, we started by asking five questions about accessibility, and asked participants whether they thought these were myths or facts.
Libby Cohen, University of Southern Maine
I start by demonstrating a page with JAWS (a screen reader). I usually choose a page that works, not a page with problems.
David Clark:
I like to open a page in Lynx (a text browser), or to run it through Lynx-me (a text-browser emulator); it shows the tangible result of what someone using a screen-reader might encounter on a Web page.
Sheela Sethuraman, Center for Applied Special Technology
I find it's really helpful to take one of the participant's Web sites, run it through an accessibility checker, and then discuss some of the problems that come up.
Julie Howell, Royal National Institute for the Blind:
I always start with a scenario -- a real one, something really hard-hitting, that shows unnecessary discrimination -- for example, how is it that a blind person living in one town can find any info he needs from the Web (how to take his kids to the park, etc.) and someone living close by in another town can't find any of this information because the second town's Web site is inaccessible?
Chuck Letourneau, Starling Access Services
I always look at the local framework within which Web accessibility is being addressed. So, for instance, I'd start by telling them what the policy requirements are that apply to Web sites in their area.
Julie Howell, Royal National Institute for the Blind
I like to make the presentation topical by refering to something going on in the news at the time. For instance, when the news in the UK was covering the "dot-com bubble burst," after Boo.com failed, we turned this into a usability story, emphasizing "consult your users."
Helle Bjarnø, Videncenter for Synshandicap (Visual Impairment Information Centre)
(? check ?) I emphasize that there is a global trend of rising expectations of accessibility of electronic information.
Geoff Freed, WGBH National Center for Accessible Media
It's good to show people a couple of different multimedia clips in different formats, for instance something in QuickTime and something in SMIL. I discuss the differences between the formats, and the similarities achieved by captioning and description. Then I show them how to do it -- I actually open up a captioning tool, such as MAGpie, and show them how to build the captions, and then finally show them the result. But it's always easier to show them the goal first, and then teach them how to achieve it.
[more to be added]


Last updated October 12, 2000 by Judy Brewer (jbrewer@w3.org). This WAI Resource is produced by the Education and Outreach Working Group. Please send comments and updates to w3c-wai-eo@w3.org.

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