Web Accessibility 2.0: A Holistic Approach
The following masterclass was accepted, but has been cancelled due to lack of bookings. The masterclass was due to be given at the Internet Librarian International 2006 Conference at the Copthorne Tara Hotel, London, on Sunday 15th October 2006.
Please note that two other contributions were made at the conference.
Masterclass On 'Web Accessibility 2.0: A Holistic Approach
- Title
- Masterclass: Web Accessibility 2.0: A Holistic Approach
- Facilitator
- Brian Kelly
- Abstract
- The importance of Web accessibility is widely accepted, especially in public
sector organisations. However, although the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI)
has been tremendously successful in raising awareness of the importance of
accessibility to Web resources, organisations are beginning to question whether
the guidelines are still relevant in a Web 2.0 environment.
Do the low level of conformance with the guidelines reflect limitations in the
guidelines rather than a lack of willingness to seek to widen access to Web resources.
When designing web sites for accessibility, you should not ignore the guidelines,
but place them in a wider context with a user focus. Resource implications need
to be addressed, as does the accessibility of the web service, not just the
resources themselves. Blended accessibility is the desired outcome, just as
blended learning is gaining currency within the educational sector.
The importance of Web accessibility is widely accepted, especially in public sector organisations. However, although the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) has been tremendously successful in raising awareness of the importance of accessibility to Web resources, organisations are beginning to question whether the guidelines are still relevant today, in an environment in which use of the Web is pervasive in a wide range of areas and technological developments including, but not limited to, the web 2.0 environment, may provide alternative approaches to accessibility - and, indeed, whether the low level of conformance with the guidelines reflects limitations in the guidelines rather than a lack of willingess to seek to widen access to Web resources.
This workshop session will review some of the limitations of the approach developed by WAI and argue, that, rather than ignoring the guidelines, there is a need to place them in a wider context with a user focus, which recognises the contextual aspects to accessibility, that resource implications need to be addressed, and of the importance of the accessibility of the purpose of the Web service, rather than the accessibility of the Web resources themselves. This approach leads to the notion of 'blended accessibility' - a notion which relates to a 'blended learning' approach which is gaining currency within the educational sector. - Date And Time
- This Masterclass session will take place from 14:00-17:00 on Sunday 15 October, 2006.
Timetable
The draft timetable is given below:
| Time | Topic | Summary |
|---|---|---|
| 14:00-14:30 | Introduction | This talk gives an introduction to the masterclass Slides: [MS PowerPoint format] - [HTML format] (4 slides) |
| 14:30-15:00 | Tools And Processes That Can Help | This talk will describe tools which can help identify problem areas Slides: [MS PowerPoint format] - [HTML format] (17 slides) |
| 15:00-15:15 | Accessibility And Usability | This talk provides a context to usability and accessibility Slides: [MS PowerPoint format] - [HTML format] (6 slides) |
| 15:15-15:35 | TEA | |
| 15:35-15:50 | What About Interoperability? | This talk addresses the importance of interoperability Slides: [MS PowerPoint format] - [HTML format] (11 slides) |
| 15:50-16:05 | Accessibility 2.0: A Holistic Framework | This talk introduces a holistic approach to Web accessibility,
usability and interoperability. Slides: [MS PowerPoint format] - [HTML format] (20 slides) |
| 16:05-16:40 | Applying The Holistic Framework | Participants will discuss how the holistic approach can be applied within their own context. |
| 16:40-17:00 | Conclusions | Workshop conclusions and general discussion |