Outsourcing is now a dirty word even though it is 11 letters! Tech support
for students with disabilities cannot be outsourced as it normally requires
a live, face-to-face human interaction. But as staff are reduced and
students increase, the tech support people are pushed and stressed. We at
EASI believe our annual institutional membership is a rich resource to
enable those staff support folk to keep current with technology changes and
enable them to devote their full time to providing person-to-person
assistance.
Below is a description of the EASI annual institutional membership program
including a description of the special bonus CD being offered presently to
new members. Please e-mail me or phone me for any further information:
Norman Coombs
[log in to unmask]
(949) 855-4852
*** I am pasting the document into e-mail as many listservs reject
attachments. This may mess with the document format.
. . . . . . . .
EASI Annual Membership Subscription
EASI is the Premiere Provider of Online Training
on Accessible Information Technology for Persons with Disabilities
reaching more than 5,000 people in over 3 dozen countries since 1993
** See the limited bonus CD offer listed further down this announcement!
How can you stay current with the fields of accessible information and
computer technologies? First, the technologies are changing rapidly making
keeping up arduous and time-consuming. Second, the person assigned to such
tasks frequently is advanced to another position or leaves for another job.
EASI can save you time and expense by providing the support you need.
EASI has created a set of three separate but interconnected programs
specifically designed to assist organizations in their creation of computer
and information technology systems that are fully accessible to their
members with disabilities. The EASI annual membership subscription program
integrates these activities into a comprehensive "one-stop" support package:
Live, hour-long, Monthly Accessibility Clinics providing up-to-date,
practical, accessibility support
20% discount on all EASI courses leading the Certificate in accessible
information technology
20% discount on EASI on-line consulting, on-site visits and assessment of
on-site and on-line IT Accessibility
(EASI Annual Membership Subscription is $900 for an institution and $300
for an individual.
Online registration is available at: http://easi.cc/forms/clinreg.htm
Live, hour-long, Monthly Accessibility Clinics
EASI produces 2 live, monthly Web conferences providing state-of-the-art
information on making information technology fully accessible to users with
disabilities. one series is free to the public and the other is
tuition-based. Individual and institutional EASI members have access to
all the free and also to all the tuition-based clinics. (Institutional
members can have as many people as it wishes attend these live events.)
Annual members also have access to the archives of all previous clinics
plus a special selection of other relevant multimedia Web materials
produced by EASI and other accessibility content providers. (Registration
to the tuition-based clinics is $39 per person per event for non-members.)
EASI Online Courses in Accessible Information Technology
Annual subscribers receive a 20% discount on all EASI courses leading to
the Certificate in accessible information technology. Courses can be taken
individually or 5 courses earn the Certificate in Accessible Information
Technology offered jointly by EASI and the University of Southern Maine.
(Course registration for non-members is $350, members $280 with the 5th
course being $175.)
The courses are:
Barrier-free Information Technology http://easi.cc/workshops/adaptit.htm
Beginner Barrier-free Web Design http://easi.cc/workshops/easiweb.htm
Advanced Barrier-free Web Design http://easi.cc/workshops/advwbsyl.htm
Barrier-free E-learning http://easi.cc/workshops/bfel.htm
Designing Accessible Course Content http://easi.cc/workshops/dacc.htm
Accessible Internet Multimedia http://easi.cc/workshops/mmedia.htm
Learning Disabilities and Accessible IT http://easi.cc/workshops/ld.htm
Train the Trainer http://easi.cc/workshops/trainer.htm
Business Benefits of Accessible IT http://easi.cc/workshops/bbaitsyl.htm
(Completing 5 courses will earn the Certificate in Accessible Information
Technology from the University of Southern Maine., an EASI IT accessibility
partner.)
EASI On-line Consulting, On-site Visits and Assessment of On-site and
On-line IT Accessibility
On-line consulting: EASI wants to provide as much support to its annual
members as possible, and EASI welcomes all kinds of requests for its help.
This can be delivered by phone or be delivered using our live, voice chat
system. Normally, there will be no charge as it will be included in the
membership. However, when the request requires setting aside a significant
bloc of time for a detailed discussion of accessibility issues, EASI would
view this as a formal consultation for it and EASI would have to charge a
fee. Consultations with 1-2 EASI staff would be $100 per hour for
non-members, ($80 for members.) If the consultation required inviting in
outside consultants, the fee would be negotiated in advance. (EASI does
have a nation-wide network of consultants at its disposal.)
On-site visits: EASI frequently visits campuses and similar organizations
providing both large-audience presentations and small-group workshops on
various aspects of accessible information technology. Annual members
receive a 20% discount on these visits. Pricing and other details are
arranged on an individual basis and tailored to each situation. For
details, contact Norman Coombs directly. (E-mail: [log in to unmask] or phone
(949) 855-4852.)
assessment of on-site and on-line IT accessibility: EASI is developing
procedures to enable it to help an institution assess its performance
measured against current accessibility guidelines and standards. While
there are several Web accessibility checkers, they require knowledge of Web
accessibility in order to understand their reports. EASI will provide
written, analytical reports provided by a knowledgeable consultant created
for administrators and others not conversant in Web accessibility
terminology. On request, EASI will provide a brief, sample report based on
a selected single home page. EASI will provide an extensive report
covering 4 levels of a site with recommendations for $1,000 (non-member
price, $800 for members.) This fee includes 50% registration fee for 3 of
EASI's courses. (EASI believes it is important that an institution develop
its own in-house skills on accessible Web design to guarantee that
accessibility is maintained beyond an initial accessibility repair. Course
registration is normally $350 and the 50% discount is worth $175.)
--------------------------------
At present, new members will recieve a bonus CD which contains all the
clinics from 2003-04. We anticipate it will be priced at $150 for a single
copy or $250 for a site license. This will be a valuable resource in a
library or lab dedicated to helping faculty with course design.
Below is a list of 27 EASI clinics which were webcast during the academic
year 2003-2004
1 Web Repair of Inaccessible Web Pages
This presentation by Dick Banks is based on the free software application,
A-Prompt created by the University of Toronto which walks a user,
step-by-step through repairing a Web page to make it accessible.
2 Comparison of 3 Web-based Accessibility checkers
This presentation by Banks and Coombs compares Bobby, Cynthia Says and WAVE
all of which provide limited automatic checking of Web pages for
accessibility.
3 E-learning: Accessibility and Usability
This presentation is by EASI with representatives of Blackboard, eCollege,
Horizonlive and WebCT demonstrating the accessibility of each system. It
also highlights that systems can be accessible and still be complex and
difficult to use.
4 James Bailey Discusses Turning AT Policy Into Actual Practice.
Bailey has long worked at the University of Oregon and is concerned that
many institutions have accessibility policies but frequently do not take
concrete steps to see that the policy actually becomes implemented.
5 Designing Accessible Web Pages with WYSIWYG editors
Web designers increasingly use "what you see is what you get" authoring
tools and seldom do manual HTML coding. This presentation by Dick Banks
focuses mainly on Dreamweaver which is one of the applications which have
features, when turned on, will facilitate creating accessible Web pages.
6 John Slatin Discusses his book on Web accessibility:
"Maximum Accessibility: Making Your Web Site More Usable for Everyone"
John is an English professor, and, as a result, his book is written clearly
in a language understandable by everyone
7 Sean Keegan Presentation on Making PDF Accessible
Recently Adobe has invested considerable time and effort in making the PDF
format accessible to users with disabilities. This presentation by Keegan
from the California Community Colleges' High Tech Accessibility Center
explains that it is necessary that PDF files be designed so they are both
structured and tagged. PDF controls the layout on the screen and provides
the look and feel an author wishes. However, if it is not structured, the
software will not understand the relations between parts of the document
which adaptive software requires to render it properly. Also, if images
and similar features are not tagged, the special software cannot identify
those.
8 Designing Accessible Course Content Using Familiar Software
This presentation by Banks and Coombs starts with the assumption that
learning management systems have made giant strides to provide an
accessible interface for online learning. However, those systems also
permit faculty to post content to the Web without understanding HTML
coding. This means they do not know about accessibility requirements.
Accessibility needs to be simplified for these faculty who will not learn
accessible Web design. It focuses on the common software faculty use in
designing content and points out how to use applications like Word and
PowerPoint to output content that is reasonably accessible for students
with disabilities.
9 Accessible PowerPoint Presented by Banks, Coombs and Shaw
PowerPoint presentations uploaded to the Web are not accessible for many
users with disabilities. The PowerPoint to save for the Web does not
permit designing the output for accessibility. Besides discussing basic
slide design to promote clarity and readability, the special Office
Accessibility Wizard available free from the University of Illinois is
demonstrated.
10 George Kerscher Presents Update on the New DAISY E-book Format
For many years, people in several countries have been developing standards
for structuring electronic books to promote the ability to navigate a book
and have abilities similar to those of people using a print book. E-books
have required scrolling from the beginning to the end. The structure now
permits moving between chapters, paragraphs etc. This kind of ability to
navigate a book is important for everyone but especially for students. The
standards are becoming integrated into international standards that are
important for people without disabilities as well as for the disability
community.
11 Maximizing Accessibility in Audio and Video Distance Learning
Cyndi Rowland and Jared Smith from the webaim project dialogue with Norm
Coombs from EASI about ways to make various kinds of audio and video
conferencing fully accessible to users with disabilities. As more people
have access to broad band Internet connections, these synchronous
conference systems will become more important.
12 Accessible uses of Word by Alan Cantor
Cantor is an assistive technology consultant from Toronto, Canada. He
focuses on how to take common but complex software applications like Word
and focus on the features which enhance the accessibility of documents it
produces.
13 Design and Implantation of Web-enabled Teaching Tools
Three of the authors of this recent book, Mary Hricko, Sheryl Burgstahler
and Laurie Harrison, discuss the advantages and disadvantages of online
learning systems for users with various disabilities.
14 "Adaptive Technologies for Learning and Work Environments"
Joseph Lazzaro, the author of this book, discusses the basics of special
hardware and software that enable users with a wide range of disabilities
to effectively use computers and to become productive both in school and
work environments.
15 Peter Korn from Sun Microsystems discusses Unix and accessibility.
Sun Microsystems's Gnome operating system has been designed to enhance
accessibility for users with disabilities using UNIX. Sun accessibility
includes a screen reader, screen magnification and an onscreen keyboard
system.
16 The Other Side of Section 508
Doug Wakefield, one of the authors of the Access Board's Section 508
accessibility standards explains that Section 508 is about more than Web
accessibility. It covers standards for everything from cell phones to
office copiers. Section 508 includes standards for both online and onsite
accessibility.
17 eCollege accessibility
Sarah Bradford from eCollege and Peter Cassidy from Westwood College Online
discuss the accessibility of the eCollege system. Bradford describes the
accessibility features and staff support for accessibility provided by
eCollege. Cassidy describes Westwood's efforts to provide course content
that is itself fully accessible.
18 My Twenty Years of Distance Teaching.
Coombs describes his distance teaching experience starting with command
line interfaces, and the change to the GUI or Windows format. He won
several awards for leadership in using distance learning to mainstream
students with disabilities.
19-21 Low tech accessibility: a Three--part Series.
Dick Banks presented 3 hour-long presentations on low tech accessibility
applications:
19 The Operating System and Accessibility
Both the Windows operating system and the Mac operating system have built
in accessibility features which can help people with disabilities use the
computer.
There are applications to assist users with low vision, learning
disabilities, motor impairments, those who are hard-of-hearing and to a
lesser degree, those who are blind.
20 Applications for Learners with Low Vision and Learning Disabilities.
Many of the low technology applications that are helpful for low vision
users are also quite helpful for those who have learning disabilities.
Enlarging text and having it simultaneously read out loud to them can make
learning less of a challenge.
21 Applications for Learners with Mobility Impairments
Using a computer for most people requires using both the keyboard and the
mouse. But what if you can't use either the keyboard or the mouse? There
are a host of low tech applications that enable people with motor
impairments to use the computer.
22-27 Day-long Broadcast of Presentations from the CSUN 2004 Conference
22 Practical Tips To Support Faculty In Providing Accessible Content
Brian Hardy, Norman Coombs and Dick Banks compare programs in both
Australia and in the United States to help faculty with limited technology
skill to produce online course content that will be accessible to students
with disabilities.
23 Electronic Textbooks: US Accessibility Laws and Issues.
Cynthia Waddell is an internationally-known lawyer with expertise in
accessibility legislation and information technology. Besides discussing
US legislation, Cynthia reports on current work being done in the United
Nations to forward international accessibility.
24 A Four Year Report Card on AB 422: California's Postsecondary Accessible
Textbook Legislation.
Jeffrey Singe from California State University Fullerton reports on
California's experience in actually implementing the accessible textbook
legislation.
25 Creating Accessible Adobe PDF Documents
Sam Game from the High Tech Center Training Unit of the California
Community Colleges explained the accessibility problems which had been
inherent in the PDF file format and outlined, step by step, the
accessibility features now available in the Adobe PDF creation software.
26 Digital Textbooks Come of Age.
This presentation by Steve Noble of Kentucky Assistive Technology Service
Network and Beth Coombs from EASI is an update on the development of
digital textbooks. It focuses mainly on the work at Recording for the
Blind and Dyslexic.
27 An Approach to the Electronic Book Delivery Using Macromedia Flash.
Scott Traylor, president of 360KID and Bob Regan, Senior Product Manager
for Macromedia present the results of using Flash to create a highly
interactive electronic book that is fully accessible to people with
disabilities. Scott explains the steps his team took in order to produce a
fully accessible Flash book.
------------------------------
EASI's August, month-long online courses:
Beginner Barrier-free Web Design: http://easi.cc/workshops/easiweb.htm
Advanced Barrier-free Web Design http://easi.cc/workshops/advwbsyl.htm
(a package of five courses will earn the Certificate in Accessible
Information Technology)
http://easi.cc/workshop.htm
Norman Coombs, Ph.D.
CEO EASI (Equal Access to Software and Information)
22196 Caminito Tasquillo
Laguna Hills CA 92653
home: (949) 855-4852
Cell: (949) 922-5992
E-mail: [log in to unmask]
http://www.rit.edu/~nrcgsh
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