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Workshops

The workshops will take place early in 2008, between January and May, at the University of East London’s Docklands campus. There will be seven workshop days; day 1 and day 7 will be optional, but we would like participants to commit to days 2-6 as far as possible. The workshops assume some knowledge of web accessibility and experience of web design and development.

The workshops aim to:

  • Increase awareness of the accessibility needs of people with intellectual disabilities
  • Inspire designers and developers to build websites accessible to people with intellectual disabilities
  • Equip participants with practical tools to build websites which are accessible to this group
  • Problem-solve
  • Provide designers and developers with a unique opportunity to test their sites with intellectually disabled users

Timetable

The timetable is as follows:

 

Day 1: Monday 14 January, 10am – 5pm

Key issues in mainstream accessibility
Overview and discussion of WCAG 1.0 > WCAG2.0 transition & related issues.

(optional, as some participants may already be familiar with the content of this session)

 

Day 2: Tuesday 15 January, 10am – 5pm

Going beyond WAI WCAG: accessibility for intellectually disabled web users
Similarities & differences with mainstream accessibility.

 

Day 3: Friday 15 February, 12pm – 7pm

Designing and developing websites for people with intellectual disability
Including, at the end of the day, a dialogue with the Rix Centre production team, led by Rix Centre director Andy Minnion

 

Day 4: Saturday 16 February, 10am – 5pm

On user testing
Issues in user testing with intellectually disabled users & planning for user testing workshops.

Including, over lunch, a dialogue with  Kevin Carey, director of ‘humanITy: inclusion in the information age’, vice-chair of RNIB and consultant to Ofcom, BBC, DRC & NESTA

 

Day 5: Monday 17 March, 10am – 5pm

Workshop with intellectually disabled web testers
An opportunity to examine and discuss your own sites with testers with intellectual disabilities

 

Day 6: Tuesday 18 March, 10am – 5pm

Integrating  intellectual disability accessibility into workflow
Debrief; key learning; changing work practices; action plans

 

Day 7: Monday 19 May, 10am – 6pm (+ dinner …)

Iteration / more user-testing
More user-testing with intellectually disabled users, debriefing & planning of integration of intellectual disability accessibility into workflow

(optional for participants who want to iterate user-testing & discuss further)

Top

Some accessibility sites are downright ugly, but the problem lies with those sites’ designers and not with accessibility, which carries no visual penalty.

Jeffrey Zeldman, Designing with Web Standards, 2003



Although serving the needs of people with disabilities should of course be a concern, the far wider issue – that accessibility is a matter of usability – has rarely been discussed. As designer professionals, we should be designing our content so it is globally accessible and meets the needs of as many people as is possible and practical given our specific circumstances, regardless of their abilities or the type of device they choose to access the Web

Andy Clarke, Transcending CSS: the fine art of web design, 2006