Information Technology and Services (ITS) is pleased to announce that registrations are being accepted for ten more sessions of the award-winning workshop “Accessibility Fundamentals for Microsoft Office 2013 and Adobe Acrobat XI (Windows).”

This workshop will help build faculty and staff awareness of, sensitivity to and proficiency in ensuring the accessibility of course materials, presentations, events, documents, web sites and online resources. The goal is that anyone and everyone in the SU community who uses electronic and information technology does so in ways that are accessible. This training will not only help you understand accessibility and put it into practice on the job, it’s also your opportunity to be an early adopter and innovator as you support your organization’s moves to ensure accessibility of its documents, systems, and communications.

Register here

About the workshop

ITS developed this workshop in partnership with New Horizons Computer Learning Centers of Syracuse in response to demand from across campus for face-to-face training to build faculty and staff awareness of and proficiency with using technology to ensure the accessibility of SU’s electronic and information technology. More than 200 staff and faculty from SU’s schools, colleges and departments have taken this training, and find it useful. The Central New York Chapter of the American Society for Training and Development recognized this program with a CNY Best Learning and Performance award. See the course overview, below.

The workshop will be conducted twice on each day below, from 8:30 a.m. to noon, and again from 1-4:30 p.m. Each class has space for 12 participants and be held in the ECM Training Center at 621 Skytop Road (parking is available).

Workshop Dates:

• Wednesday, July 9
• Thursday, July 24
• Tuesday, Aug. 5
• Thursday, Aug. 14

Seating is limited, so register early! There is high demand for this training, so registration is on a first submitted, first enrolled basis.

If none of these new sessions fit your schedule, be patient. Registration will be opened later this summer for additional classes in August, September and October.

Are you a Mac user? While you’ll find this training very useful since the fundamentals of accessibility are the same regardless of platform, this workshop focuses on Microsoft Office 2013 in Windows. We will offer a similar workshop for the Mac soon after the new version of Office for the Mac is released. We don’t know when that will occur, but will let you know when we find out.

If you have any questions, please send them in an email to accessibility@syr.edu.

Register here

Accessibility Fundamentals for Microsoft Office 2013 and Adobe Acrobat XI

Course Overview

This 3-hour workshop is designed to provide a fundamental overview of creating accessible documents in Microsoft Office 2013 and Adobe Acrobat XI in Windows. At successful course completion students will be able to:

• Explain and demonstrate the importance of creating accessible documents
• Understand basic concepts for creating accessible documents including:

o    Reading order

o    Alternative text

o    Styles

o    Heading structure

o    Titles

o    Tags

• Understand best practices for creating accessible Office and Acrobat documents
• Remediate legacy Office and Acrobat documents to make them accessible
• Utilize the Office accessibility checker
• Specify common accessibility errors
• Utilize Adobe Acrobat XI’s accessibility checker