Live Webinar Series: ‘Access to Instruction’

All SU faculty and staff are invited to the AHEAD to You Spring Webinar Series, “Access to Instruction: #thegrowingimperative,” three interactive webinars focused on electronic and information technology (E&IT) accessibility at colleges and universities, produced by the Association on Higher Education and Disability (AHEAD). The webinars will occur on Thursday afternoons, May 8, 15, and 22 from 3-4:30 p.m., and will be hosted on the SU campus in rooms 1-218 or 0-213 in the Center for Science and Technology. Registration is free; please RSVP to accessibility@syr.edu by May 6 and indicate which session(s) you plan to attend.

About the webinars

The recent agreement between the University of Montana and the United States Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (http://www.ahead.org/presidents-post) highlights the continuing need for colleges and universities to develop comprehensive policies and practices ensuring the accessibility of all campus electronic and information technologies (E&IT).

Join the presenters in this timely series as they offer insight, guidance, and tools that address E&IT access on campus.

May 8—A Journey to Accessibility: How Temple University is Implementing an Accessible Information and Technology Initiative University Wide​
Paul Paire, Temple University, 1-218 CST

Temple University will share strategies used and lessons learned in implementing an Accessible Information and Technology initiative. They will review their university-wide policy, the organization of their teams, how they launched the initiative and the development and deployment of accessibility standards and guidelines for the university (including instructional materials, smart classrooms, and computer labs). This will be both a high-level talk from an associate vice president’s perspective as well as an “in the trenches” perspective from the project manager.

May 15—The Next Generation of Accessible Materials: Born Accessible
Cherie Miller, Benetech/Bookshare, 1-218 CST

There has been a fundamental shift in the way people with and without disabilities access information: eBooks, online courses, user-created materials, open educational resources and the widespread use of graphics to convey information have created a “new normal” for how we teach and learn. While these resources are readily available, too many of them are not accessible. For people with visual and/or physical impairments and severe learning disabilities, often they face barriers to printed text and images. To address the gaps in accessible educational content, however, more and more educators are becoming content creators themselves. With technology driving the way students access educational materials, now is the time to change the way this content is created. We will discuss Bookshare and the DIAGRAM Center and how they are exploring ways to use touch-screen technology, tactile graphics, and smart images to make images more interactive and dynamic.

May 22—Benchmarking and Planning your Institution’s Web Accessibility Efforts
Jonathan Whiting, WEBAIM, 0-213 CST

Since 1999, WebAIM (Web Accessibility In Mind) has worked to expand the potential of the web for people with disabilities by providing the knowledge, technical skills, tools, organizational leadership strategies and vision that empower organizations to make their own content accessible to people with disabilities.

During this hands-on webinar, participants will learn how they can evaluate the accessibility of their web content for users with disabilities. This session will utilize free resources and should be valuable for technical and less-technical individuals. A highlight of the workshop will be an introduction to the GOALS Project, a blueprint for institutional web accessibility

Presentation of this webinar series on the SU campus is jointly sponsored by the Office of Faculty Development, the Office of Disability Services, the Disability Cultural Center and Information Technology and Services.

“AHEAD to You” webinars are streamed live and include web-based, real-time captioning, along with associated reference materials.

For more information, contact Information Technology and Services at accessibility@syr.edu.