‘Talk, think, learn’ on Global Accessibility Awareness Day

by Dave Jones
May 06, 2014

The Electronic Accessibility Committee invites everyone in the campus community to attend an afternoon program next week to learn about technologies and initiatives relevant to accessible instruction as well as electronic information at UC Davis.

The program, Thursday, May 15, has been planned in conjunction with Global Accessibility Awareness Day, which, according to its website, aims “to get people talking, thinking and learning about digital (Web, software, mobile, etc.) accessibility and users with different disabilities.”

The UC system has an e-accessibility policy, officially the UC Information Technology Accessibility Policy, and each campus has an e-accessibility committee.

The Davis committee has put together a series of half-hour informational presentations, 1 to 3:30 p.m., and breakout sessions all during this time on each presentation topic. So, for example, you could attend the video captioning presentation, then head off to the breakout session, where you can practice using online captioning tools.

The schedule is below and in this accessible PDF (available for download).

Informational presentations (all in 205 Shields Library)

Universal Design for Larning — Discover how to reach learners with diverse needs by creating flexible courses, activities and assessments. 1 p.m.
Video Captioning — Learn how to easily meet the UC requirement for accessibility, by using online tools that can help you do the task in 15 minutes or less. 1:30 p.m.
Assistive Technologies at UC Davis — Learn about technology that is available to students, with or without disabilities, and where you can find this technology. Learn more about site licensing and take-home capabilities available to students. 2 p.m.
JavaScript and Web Application Accessibility — Learn about JavaScript guidelines and resources. 2:30 p.m.
Center for Accessible Technologies (CAT) Lab — Discover accessibility resources (and try them), including ergonomic work stations, alternative keyboards and mice, and voice recognition software. 3 p.m.

Breakout sessions — 1-3:30 p.m.

Universal Design for Learning —- Practice strategies to increase accessibility in your classes; and a checklist for creating accessible technology-enhanced courses. 484 Shields Library.
Video Captioning —- Hands-on captioning demos using Cielo24, Amara and YouTube captioning; and resources (Student Disability Center and Academic Technology Services). 484 Shields Library.
Assistive Technologies at UC Davis — ClaroRead, a suite of tools that provide multisensory learning capabilities (PC, Mac and iOS); JAWS, screen reader for the visually impaired (PC); SensusAccess, Web-based, automated accessible document creator; Dragon Naturally Speaking VS Windows Speech Recognition; and the SSBBartGroup AMP tool, for automatic testing of Web accessibility. 484 Shields Library.
JavaScript and Web Application Accessibility — Resources and techniques to make JavaScript enhanced pages and applications accessible. 484 Shields Library.
CAT Lab — Demonstrations: Dragon Naturally Speaking and making accessible PDFs, and work station ergonomics. 163 Shields Library (CAT Lab).