You’re invited! And if you’ve already participated, send your colleagues. But act fast; only a few seats remain.

Information Technology and Services (ITS) is pleased to announce that registrations are being accepted for four 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 help you understand accessibility, put it into practice on the job and 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. Almost 350 faculty and staff from the University’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 at the dates and times below. Each class has space for 12 participants and be held in the ECM Training Center at 621 Skytop Road (parking is available). Note that the March 5 sessions may be held in a different location on main campus. If this is the case, registrants for those sessions will be notified of any location change well in advance.

Workshop Dates & Times:

• Wednesday, Feb. 18: 8:30 a.m.-noon
• Wednesday, Feb. 18: 1-4:30 p.m.
• Thursday March 5: 8:30 a.m. -noon
• Thursday March 5: 1-4:30 p.m.

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

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 . In the meantime, if you are interested in the Mac version, please send your request to accessibility@syr.edu and ask to be added to the Mac training waitlist.

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

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:
  • Reading order
  • Alternative text
  • Styles
  • Heading structure
  • Titles
  • 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