CIT 2007 - WORKSHOP DESCRIPTION

TUESDAY, MAY 29, 2007

Web Accessibility On Your Campus: A Toolkit For Moving Forward

Instructor: Sharon Trerise
Coordinator of Accessible IT
Cornell School of Industrial and Labor Relations

Time: 9:00 am - 12:00 pm
Location: Feinberg Library 103F
Rating: Introductory
Platform: PC
Cost: $40

Description:

Are you the only one on your campus who designs web pages with accessibility in mind? Are
you one of the few content providers who follow web accessibility guidelines on a campus where
overall compliance is spotty? If so, you are not alone. Prior research by the Employment and
Disability Institute at Cornell University found that although more than 50% of community
colleges across the nation reported having a web accessibility policy or statement of
commitment, less than 1% of web pages evaluated met web accessibility standards. There are
many reasons for this discrepancy, including:

• a lack of knowledge about how to design accessibly;
• a lack of commitment to accessibility and usability on the part of web developers and
administrators, and/or
• a lack of communication about the policy or statement to the wider campus and
• a lack of a coordinated effort campus-wide to address web accessibility.

Funded by a grant from the U.S. Department of Education's National Institute on Disability
Rehabilitation and Research, the Employment and Disability Institute has created a toolkit for
addressing these shortcomings in the process of implementing web accessibility on college
campuses. The toolkit is a web-based and interactive and is intended to accomplish several
objectives:

1. provide a process for documenting activities related to improving web accessibility and
progress toward compliance with ADA requirements for effective communication;
2. provide a framework for evaluating your current level of compliance; provide a system
for developing a policy and an implementation plan for campus-wide web accessibility
and for prioritizing the elements of the implementation plan;
3. provide a mechanism for interacting with other colleges who are addressing these same
issues; and
4. provide a comprehensive set of resources for increasing awareness of web accessibility
issues and knowledge of techniques for accessible web design.

This workshop will give participants a hands-on opportunity to learn how the toolkit works and,
through group activities, explore how the toolkit can be used to best advantage on their particular
campuses.