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Accessible Design in the Digital World

where theory and reality collide; where ideas and practice merge

23-25 August 2005

Dundee, Scotland


Meeting the diversity of needs and preferences – a look at the IMS AccessForAll specifications' role in meeting the accessibility agenda efficiently

Organisors:

  • Martyn Cooper, Institute of Educational Technology, The Open University, UK.
  • Wendy Porch, Resource Centre for Academic Technology, Robarts Library, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada.
  • Andy Heath, Communications and Computing Research Centre, Faculty of Arts, Computing, Engineering and Sciences, Sheffield Hallam University, Sheffield, UK.

Time: Tuesday 23rd August - Afternoon

Delegates are invited to participate in a practical workshop exploring a new approach to managing accessibility in computer based systems based on the IMS AccessForAll specifications. The workshop will focus on the philosophy of the approach and enable the delegates to experience it in a practical eLearning application. A learning from each other approach will be fostered throughout.

The workshop will begin with a series of introductory presentations from the workshop leaders looking at the challenges the approach seeks to address and the philosophy behind it. The delegates then will work online in pairs or small groups to create resources and user profiles for a system TILE(See: http://barrierfree.ca/tile/) that implements this approach. Delegates will be able to experience directly both the educators and students experience of using the system. They will be able to review how this approach promotes accessibility.

The lessons learned from these practical sessions will be shared in a final discussion session.

The goals of the workshop are:

  • To enable delegates to understand the rationale and principles of the AccessForAll approach
  • To gain practical experience with this approach to accessibility
  • To understand what benefits the approach offers their organisation

Ahead of the workshop delegates will be referred to useful background reading and web resources. They will be asked to provide examples of eLearning content, particularly those that are multi-modal, to work on in the workshop.

Contributions and enquiries should be submitted via email to Martyn Cooper: m.cooper@open.ac.uk