Melbourne forum, Monday 26 March

Audience at the Melbourne forum

Over 90 people from Victorian Universities attended the forum. It was officially opened by Jenny Shaw, the Manager of the Disability Liaison Unit at RMIT.

The forum was chaired by Jonathan O'Donnell (RMIT University) and organised by Jonathan O'Donnell (RMIT University), Iza Bartosiewicz (RMIT University) and Dey Alexander (Dey Alexander Consulting).

This event was kindly sponsored by the Library and the Educational Media Group at RMIT University.

Presentations

How organisations implement accessibility

Chris delivering his presentation.

Chris Law, PhD Candidate, School of Business Information Technology, RMIT University

Chris talked about how people in organizations tackle accessibility problems. Understanding the factors and elements at play in the process will help in providing appropriate support, guidance and resources to those who are practicing accessibility in the filed. Recent research results will be presented, including such elements as typical and atypical reactions to accessibility issues by organizations, the types of print and electronic resources people consult and what problems they have with those resources, and the range of people and skill-sets involved in the process.

Accessibility and teaching

Noel presenting on teaching accessibility.

Noel McEwan, Lecturer, Computer Science and Computer Engineering, LaTrobe University - Bendigo Campus

Web accessibility forms part of the syllabus for the undergraduate subject - INT2WD Web Development - taught at the Bendigo Campus of La Trobe University. Accessibility principles are an underlying theme and an assessable component of Web Development. In his talk, Noel described how 'Web Accessibility' was introduced into the subject syllabus, student acceptance, successes (and not so successfuls) and Department support.

Non-HTML material on your website

Andrew presenting on accessible non-html material

Andrew Arch, Manager, Online Accessibility, Vision Australia

Universities are all addressing the issue of web accessibility for staff and students, but most are concentrating on the HTML pages that comprise the information and navigation. Most Universities also place large amounts of non-HTML material on their sites and Andrew talked about approaches to maximise the availability of Word, PowerPoint and PDF documents to all.

Please note that this presentation is copyright claimed by Vision Australia and that unauthorised use is not permitted.

Australian University Website Accessibility Revisited

Dey presents the results of her evaluation

Dey Alexander, Dey Alexander Consulting

In 2003, 45 Australian higher education websites were audited to see how well they complied with standards for accessible design. The results were disappointing - 98 percent of sites failed to meet even the most basic standards. In this presentation, Dey revisited the same sites and evaluated their design.

Program summary