Hello everybody, Hope the following information would of great help.
About the Centre for Internet and Society THE CENTRE FOR INTERNET AND SOCIETY was registered as a society in August 2008, and brings together a team of practitioners, theoreticians, researchers and artists to work on the newly emerging field of Internet and Society. Supported by the Kusuma Trust, The Centre for Internet and Society critically engages with concerns of digital pluralism, public accountability and pedagogic practices, in the field of Internet and Society, with particular emphasis on South-South dialogues and exchange. It seeks to explore, understand, and affect, through multidisciplinary research, intervention, and collaboration, the shape and form of the internet, and its relationship with the political, cultural, and social milieu of our times. Background While advancements in internet technologies have facilitated participation of disabled persons in the internet economy and society, the lack of awareness about the importance of having accessible interfaces has considerably minimized the efficacy of the internet as a tool for securing digital pluralism. It is critical that web developers are sensitized to the problems of persons who are print disabled and using assistive technologies and start paying more attention to the way in which they create their web sites. Accessible web sites make surfing the internet a most satisfying and effective experience for disabled persons and in no way diminishes the surfing experience of normal groups. It is easiest when web sites are created taking accessibility considerations into account right from the start. However, having once created a web site, it is not impossible to later incorporate accessibility features into it. The primary aim of this workshop is to demonstrate the importance of creating accessible web sites and to educate the developers of government web sites on how to incorporate accessibility features into new as well as existing web sites. Objectives In the light of this, this workshop seeks to achieve the following objectives: to create awareness about the importance of web accessibility for disabled persons to educate the trainees about barriers to access, assistive technologies and creating alternatives for inaccessible sites on the internet, by taking up some government sites for study and analyzing them from the perspective of accessibility to understand global initiatives for web accessibility- (a) the W3C and the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) guidelines and support; (b) to briefly dwell upon international conventions (the UNCRPD), US section 508, UK PAS 78 and laws of other countries to understand the principles of web accessibility (a) WCAG 2.0 (b) creation of accessible web sites (c) evaluation and retrofitting of inaccessible web sites (d) accessibility features in HTML, CSS, SMIL and SVG (e) accessibility with browsers and authoring tools (f) user agent accessibility guidelines Duration This workshop will span three days. The dates proposed are 16th February 2009 to18th February 2009. Methodology The training will comprise both theory-oriented and practical sessions. The trainers present are specialized in various aspects of web accessibility. The main focus will be on WCAG 2.0 guidelines. In the practical session the trainees will have to evaluate their own websites and try to incorporate some accessibility features into them. There will be about thirty participants at the workshop from different departments of the government, primarily the NIC, as well as persons from corporates and other interested organisations. They will be persons already involved in developing web sites with good knowledge of HTML, XML, CSS, etc. For some sessions we might split them into small groups so as to maximize the learning experience. Trainers: The Delhi team, comprising four trainers: (a) Mr. Dipendra Manocha (b) Mr. Prashant Verma (c) Mr. Pranav Lal and (d) Mr. Manish Aggarwal Mr. Krishnakanth Mane and Ms. Anusha from Mumbai Mr. Rahul Gonsalves from Bangalore Tentative curriculum Some topics the workshop hopes to cover are as follows- 1. Universal usability and universal design 2. Understanding disability and types of disabilities 3. What is web accessibility and why do we need it (problems faced by disabled persons) 4. Assistive technologies, barriers to access and alternative strategies 5. 5W3C and the WAI 6. International initiatives, UNCRPD, Sec 508, other endeavours 7. Basic principles of accessible design 8. Priority and conformance levels for web accessibility--WCAG 2.0 9. Detailed understanding of WAI guidelines, concentrating on WCAG 2.0 10. Accessibility features in HTML, CSS, SMIL and SVG 11. Authoring tool guidelines and user agent guidelines 12. Using audit and evaluation tools to identify accessibility related problems 13. Evaluating and retrofitting existing web sites 14. General tips for making accessible web sites 15. Overview of repair tools and filter and transform tools 16. SMIL 17. XML accessibility guidelines 18. Captioning technology > Outputs 1. The trainers will work out a standard module for conducting such workshops in the future. > 2. Some of the training sessions will be documented and brought out as lessons for accessibility, which will be put on line for developers interested in accessibility. 3. While trying to engage trainers for this workshop, we realized that there is a huge dearth of trainers for accessibility in India . Hence we decided to have a mixed group of experienced as well as young trainers, so that this also serves as a platform for capacity building. 4. Since a workshop like this is the first one of its kind in India for government officials, we have engaged seven trainers so as to ensure that enough attention is given to each participant. Furthermore, we plan to have at least two sessions running simultaneously--one lab session and one theoretical training, so that participants are either getting trained in the class or are working in the lab. 5. Video coverage of the entire workshop will be provided to the funding agency. 6. A mailing list will be set up to facilitate interaction between the participants and the trainers, so as to ensure continued support. 7. CIS will submit a report to NIXI at the end of the workshop. Nirmita Narasimhan Centre for Internet and Society No. D2, 3rd Floor, Sheriff Chambers 14, Cunningham Road, Bangalore - 560 052 P: +91 80 4092 6283 M: 098458 68078 Thanks and regards, Silpa. To unsubscribe send a message to [email protected] with the subject unsubscribe. 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