ARCHIVE OF WAC WORKSHOPS

Have you attended a workshop that the WAC offered? If so, we would appreciate you taking a few minutes to tell us what you thought of the workshop. Please fill out a WAC Workshop Evaluation.

Past Events

See descriptions and link to materials and handouts from previous offerings in our WAC 2004-2005 workshop series:

1. Untangling the Web: Making Online Teaching and Learning Accessible.
2. Web Accessibility -- What Not to Do!
3. Intelligent STEPs to Redesign and Retrofit.
4. Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) - If You Use It, It Will Transform.
5. Walkthrough the Standards.
6. Accessible Design with Dreamweaver MX 2004.
7. Accessible Dreamweaver -- Hands-on.
8. Accessible Flash.
9. Accessible PDF: Introduction and Hands-on.
10. Accessible Course Management Tools (postponed).
11. Special Event: Testing with JAWS.
12. Publishing Office Documents to the Web.
13. Accessible Forms.
14. Accessible CSS -- Introduction.
15. Accessible Forms -- Hands-on in FrontPage.
16. CSS in Dreamweaver and FrontPage.
17. MWAS Reporting.
18. Accessible PDF #1: PDF from MS Word Documents.
19. Accessible PDF #2: PDF from the Web.
20. CSS in FrontPage (rescheduled).
21. Accessible PDF #3: PDF from Scanned Documents.
22. Accessible PDF #4: PDF Forms.

Accessible PDF #4: Forms.

Date: Friday, March 18.
Time: 2:30 p.m. - 4:00 p.m.
Location: Derby Hall, Room 29.
Newark: Founders Hall, Room 169.

Use the advanced features in Adobe Acrobat 6.0 Professional to create forms that can be filled-out electronically and saved or printed by your users. We'll create a simple contact form using an existing form document to which we add fields.

For more help with accessible PDF, visit our PDF Tutorials section.

Accessible PDF #3: Scanned and "Print PDF" documents

Date: Friday, March 04.
Time: 2:30 p.m. - 4:00 p.m.
Location: Derby Hall, Room 29.
Newark: Founders Hall, Room 169.

Focuses on modifying documents scanned as image files or printed via the "Print to PDF" technique to edit content, add tags, and test for accessibility. We will focus on simple documents scanned or quickly printed to a non-tagged PDF.

For more help with accessible PDF, visit our PDF Tutorials section.

CSS in FrontPage (rescheduled)

Date: Friday, February 25th.
Time: 2:30 p.m. - 4:00 p.m.
Location: Derby Hall, Room 29.
Newark: Founders Hall, Room 169

Learn how to use FrontPage CSS wizard to create and apply a style sheet to your site. In this hands-on workshop, we will begin with a simple site that uses those deprecated FONT tags for formatting and will replace them with user-friendly CSS. Learn to create both internal and external style sheets, apply styles to elements and text, and manage styles across pages.

Recommended Prerequisite: Accessible CSS -- Introduction or familiarity with basic CSS terminology: internal v external styles, relative v. absolute sizing. Basic familiarity with web page design in Dreamweaver or other web development tool also required

Accessible PDF #2: HTML and Web Documents

Date: Friday, February 18.
Time: 2:30 p.m. - 4:00 p.m.
Location: Derby Hall, Room 29.
Newark: Founders Hall, Room 169.

Focuses on preparing HTML documents for accessible conversion to PDF, testing for accessibility, and repairing conversion errors. We will convert from HTML documents and from within browsers.

For more help with accessible PDF, visit our PDF Tutorials section.

Accessible PDF #1: MS Word Documents

Date: Friday, February 4.
Time: 2:30 p.m. - 4:00 p.m.
Location: Derby Hall, Room 29.
Newark: Founders Hall, Room 169.

Focuses on preparing Word documents for accessible conversion to PDF, testing for accessibility, and repairing conversion errors. We will use Microsoft Word 2003 and Acrobat 6.0 Professional to convert simple documents such as syllabi and handouts.

For more help with accessible PDF, visit our PDF Tutorials section.

MWAS Reporting Requirements

Date: Friday, January 28.
Time: 2:30 p.m. - 4:00 p.m.
Location: Derby Hall, Room 29.
Newark: Founders Hall, Room 169.

The OSU Minimum Web Accessibility Policy includes a reporting requirement:

"A status report summarizing the progress towards fully accessible web space (as defined by the 6/30/04 standard) over the past year and targets for the upcoming year shall be included in the annual reports to the Provost submitted by the Colleges and Vice Presidential areas."

Join the ADA Coordinator, L. Scott Lissner, and the WAC staff and get the details for how reporting works including: what is required; who will be responsible; and how to structure the report.

Several versions of the MWAS Reporting Template are available online.

CSS in Dreamweaver and FrontPage

Date: Friday, January 14th. (Dreamweaver)
Time: 10:30 a .m. -- 12:30 p.m.
Location: SEL 390 (Science & Engineering Library) -- detailed directions.

Date: Friday, January 14th. (FrontPage) [Cancelled due to scheduling conflict. We will reschedule soon!]
Time: 1:00 p.m. -- 3:00 p.m.
Location: Derby Hall, Room 29.
Newark: Founders Hall, Room 169

Learn how to use Dreamweaver's CSS wizard to create and apply a style sheet to your site. In this hands-on workshop, we will begin with a simple site that uses those deprecated FONT tags for formatting and will replace them with user-friendly CSS. Learn to create both internal and external style sheets, apply styles to elements and text, and manage styles across pages.

Recommended Prerequisite: Accessible CSS -- Introduction or familiarity with basic CSS terminology: internal v external styles, relative v. absolute sizing. Basic familiarity with web page design in Dreamweaver or other web development tool also required.

Workshop Materials: Available online at the Cascading Style Sheets - If you use it, it will Transform section, along with some useful css tips.

Accessible Forms -- Hands-on in FrontPage.

Date: Friday, December 10th.
Time: 1:00 p.m. -- 3:00 p.m.
Location: Derby Hall, Room 29.
Newark: Founders Hall, Room 169.

HTML forms require some special considerations when designing to meet the OSU Standards. In this workshop, we'll walk you through each form element (e.g. text boxes, lists/menus, radio and checkboxes) and show you how to insure they are accessible. Learn which form elements you can't use and some handy workarounds for those tough situations.

For more help with accessible Forms, visit our Forms Tutorials section.

Accessible CSS -- Introduction

Date: Friday, December 3rd.
Time: 10:30 a .m. -- 12:30 p.m. (AM Session)
Location: SEL 390 (Science & Engineering Library).

Date: Friday, December 3rd.
Time: 1:00 p.m. -- 3:00 p.m. (PM Session)
Location: Derby Hall, Room 29.

Find out how to eliminate deprecated and inaccessible design and formatting elements from your pages using style sheets. Designers who haven't used a style sheet in the past will get a quick introduction to redefining HTML elements, using relative sizing, and creating on-the-fly styles for all your formatting needs.

This workshop meets in a computer lab and will include a hands-on coding introduction to creating and using stylesheets. Participants will leave with a basic style sheet which they can further customize and apply to their own site.

Thanks! -- Meeting space and technology made available through the generous support of the OSU Digital Union.

Workshop Materials: Available online at the Cascading Style Sheets - If you use it, it will Transform section, along with some useful css tips.

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Accessible Forms

Date: Friday, November 19th.
Time: 10:30 a.m. -- 12:30 p.m.
Location: Derby Hall , Room 80.

HTML forms require some special considerations when designing to meet the OSU Standards. In this workshop, we'll walk you through each form element (e.g. text boxes, lists/menus, radio and checkboxes) and show you how to insure they are accessible. Learn which form elements you can't use and some handy workarounds for those tough situations.

Note: repeats information presented in our Dreamweaver Level II workshop.

Workshop materials: Available online in our Forms tutorials section.

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Publishing Office Documents to the Web

Date: Friday, November 5th.
Time: 10:30 a .m. -- 12:30 p.m. (AM Session)
Location: SEL 390 (Science & Engineering Library)

Date: Friday, November 5th.
Time: 1:00 p.m. -- 3:00 p.m. (PM Session)
Location: SEL 390 (Science & Engineering Library)

Date: Friday, November 12th.
Time: 9:00 a.m. -- 11:00 a.m.
Location: Digital Union (3rd Floor, Science & Engineering Library)

Want to publish your Word, Excel, and PowerPoint files to the web, but concerned about accessibility? Don't like how Microsoft Office converts your files? In this hands-on workshop, we'll work with all three major types of documents -- .doc, .xls, and .ppt -- Get tips for how to format your documents for the best conversion. Find out simple save techniques that strip out those overabundant Office formatting tags. And use the latest conversion tool: iCITA's Accessible Web Publishing Wizard to create fully accessible versions of your documents in minutes.

Workshop Materials: Available online in our Publishing Office Documents to the Web section.

Thanks! -- Meeting space and technology made available through the generous support of the OSU Digital Union.

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Special Event: Testing for Accessibility with Screen Readers

Date: Friday, October 22nd.
Time: 1:00 p.m. -- 2:00 p.m. [note time change!]
Location: Derby Hall , Room 80.

The WAC will setup several testing machines with JAWS and Home Page Reader. Bring your web site/pages on CD and hear how they sound to users of assistive technology. Want to sit back and listen? Lori Bailey will be demonstrating how JAWS interprets several different kinds of web elements -- JavaScript menus, Flash movies, PDF documents, complex tables and more. Bring your suggestions for which pages we should look at or just drop-in and catch our favorites. Experience how JAWS users might navigate a page and get some tips for making your sight more screen-reader friendly.

Open House event -- stay for the whole hour or drop-in when you can.

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Accessible Course Management Tools

Postponed: We will re-schedule this
workshop at a future date.

Are you using WebCT, Blackboard, Desire2Learn or other course management tool to host your course web site? Do you know how to create an accessible course site using these tools? Do you know which elements are not acessible and which, when done correctly, can be created accessibiy? Join us as we review the top course management tools and discuss choices you can make to insure your site is more accessible.

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Accessible PDF: Introduction & Hands-on.

The WAC is offering two different PDF workshops in October. The PDF Overview (Oct. 1) will be informational only and is aimed at those who would like to know more about the requirements when using PDF, but are not necessarily interested in gaining the technical skills to manipulate PDFs.

The hands-on workshops that follow (Oct. 7 & 8) will provide participants the opportunity to practice techniques for creating and retrofitting accessible PDF documents (including forms) in a computer lab. It will include review of some of the concepts discussed in the overview, plus plenty of step-by-step guidance through actual PDF documents.

Participants may choose to attend one or both workshops. The overview is not a pre-requisite for the hands-on workshops. However, for those attending the hands-on workshops, some familiarity with Acrobat and/or PDF creation (using Microsoft Office plug-ins, for example) is required.

Workshop materials: Available online in our PDF tutorials section.

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Accessible Flash -- Presentation.

Date: Wednesday, August 18th
Time: 2:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m.
Location: Baker Engineering, Room 120.

Does your web site use Flash elements? Are you thinking about adding Flash to your site? Do you know how to make Flash that meets the OSU Minimum Web Accessibility Standards?

Join WAC guest speaker, Rick Fellers, Associate Professor of Interactive Multimedia Production Technology at Columbus State Community College and Macromedia Education Technology Network Representative, as he illustrates the capabilities and impossibilities of designing accessible documents with Macromedia Flash MX 2004. The presentation will include a short overview of Section 508 guidelines and assistive technologies that will help set the stage for a Flash-Accessible movie demonstration. The presentation will conclude with developer guidelines and accessibility validation techniques.

Presenter Background

Rick Fellers graduated from The Ohio State University in Industrial Design and later earned a Masters in Education from Ohio University. He has taught at Columbus State Community College in both Graphic Communications and Interactive Multimedia Production technologies for nearly thirty years. His teaching career at Columbus State Community College has enabled an active freelance, consulting and writing career as well. He has internationally published two books on QuarkXPress desktop publishing software in eight languages and maintained an active consultant presence in computer based training for private industry. Freelance clients include such companies as Heidelberg Press, Bordens, Bank One, Domino’s Pizza, Scotts and the Ohio State University Medical Center.

While at Columbus State Community College, Fellers authored and taught the first online course and helped steer the direction of web based instruction through various committee memberships. He was the elected regional representative for Goal Systems PHOENIX CBT system and the CSCC resident PHOENIX Administrator. Fellers was instrumental in initiating a new technology at CSCC called the Multimedia Production Technology, authoring the complete curriculum and teaching many of the early courses. He is listed with Macromedia as the Education Training Network representative for CSCC and has worked with Macromedia Flash since the first version release.

Workshop materials: Available online in our Flash tutorials section.

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Accessible Dreamweaver -- Hands-on workshops.

This month, the Web Accessibility Center is offering two different Dreamweaver workshops with hands-on training in the computer lab. Get practice using the accessibility features of Dreamweaver to build your pages, manage your site, and review for accessibility issues.

Introduction to Accessible Design with Dreamweaver MX 2004

Date: Thursday, July 15th.
Time: 1:30 p.m. - 3:30 p.m.
Location: Digital Union (3rd floor Science & Engineering Library)

Date: Friday, July 16th. [Repeat]
Time: 1:30 p.m. - 3:30 p.m.
Location: Digital Union (3rd floor Science & Engineering Library)

Designed for new or beginner-level users of Dreamweaver MX 2004. Covers: setting up Dreamweaver for accessible design, creating a site, creating new pages using recognized HTML grammars, and using accessibility features to: insert images with ALT tags, create accessible tables, find and use accessible layouts, set embedded and in-line styles, and check the page for accessibility errors.

Workshop Materials: Available online in our Macromedia tutorials section.

Intermediate Accessible Design with Dreamweaver MX 2004

Date: Thursday, July 29th.
Time: 1:30 p.m. - 3:30 p.m.
Location: SEL 390.

Date: Friday, July 30th. [Repeat]
Time: 1:30 p.m. - 3:30 p.m.
Location: SEL 390.

For users with intermediate to advanced experience with Dreamweaver. Covers: advanced accessible tables, creating accessible forms, using CSS to manage formatting, and accessible CSS alternatives for menus and pop-up windows.

Thanks! -- Meeting space and technology made available through the generous support of the OSU Digital Union.

Workshop Materials: Available online in our Macromedia tutorials section.

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Accessible Design with Dreamweaver MX 2004. -- WAC Presentation.

Date: Wednesday, June 23rd.
Time: 1:30 p.m. - 2:30 p.m.
Location: Baker Systems , Room 120.

Are you using Dreamweaver to design your web site? Do you know how to make the most of this technology to insure accessible design? Come to this workshop and find out how to: set up Dreamweaver to include default accessibility tags, insure Dreamweaver is coding in a recognized HTML grammar, create and manage CSS for more transformable pages, and use Dreamweaver validators to check your work. Also features an introduction to LIFT -- the accessibility tool designed to work with Dreamweaver.

Note: We will focus primarily on the latest version of Dreamweaver: MX 2004, but will also include some discussion of differences in Dreamweaver 4 and Dreamweaver MX.

Workshop Materials: Available online in our Macromedia tutorials section.

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Walkthrough the Standards. -- WAC and ADA Coordinator's Office Event.

Date: Wednesday, June 9th.
Time: 1:30 p.m. - 3:30 p.m.
Location: Longaberger Alumni House, Mount Leadership Suites.
Light refreshments will be served.

The Ohio State University Web Accessibility Policy is set for implementation starting June 30, 2004. Are you ready for this change? Do you know what the policy entails? Are you aware of the new reporting requirements? Would you like to learn more about web site accessiblity at Ohio State?

Join Scott Lissner, the ADA Coordinator, and Lori Bailey from the Web Accessibility Center as they walk you through the policy and standards and answer your questions about accessible design.

See It Again. If you are interested in viewing a VHS or digital copy of this event, contact the WAC at webaccess@osu.edu or phone (614) 292-1760. The WAC can also arrange for small group viewings of the workshop recording at our offices.

Workshop Materials: Available online in our MWAS -- A Walkthrough the Standards section.

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Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) - If You Use It, It Will Transform. -- A WAC Hands-on Workshop.

Date: Wednesday, May 26th.
Time: 2:30 p.m. - 3:30 p.m.
Location: Ramseyer, Room 009.

Find out how to eliminate deprecated and inaccessible design and formatting elements from your pages using style sheets. Designers who haven't used a style sheet in the past will get a quick introduction to redefining HTML elements, using relative sizing, and creating on-the-fly styles for all your formatting needs.

This workshop meets in a computer lab and will include a hands-on coding introduction to creating and using stylesheets. Participants will leave with a basic style sheet which they can further customize and apply to their own site.

Workshop Materials: Available online at the Cascading Style Sheets - If you use it, it will Transform section, along with some useful css tips.

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Intelligent STEPs to Redesign and Retrofit. A WAC Presentation

Date: Wednesday, May 12th.
Time: 4:30 p.m. - 5:30 p.m.
Location: Parks Hall , Room 111.

Improving web access does not always mean starting from scratch! This session will help you make a quick evaluation of your web site and identify the most efficient and effective ways to improve access. Learn which accessibility issues matter most and should be top priority for your web site. Also features an introduction to STEP - Simple Tool for Error Prioritization - a new tool to help you evaluate and prioritize based on the severity and reparability of the accessibility errors in your site.

A CD with of materials accompanying this workshop may still be available. Contact the WAC to request a copy: webaccess@osu.edu.

Workshop Materials: Available online in the Intelligent STEPs to Redesign and Retrofit section.

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Web Accessibility -- What Not to Do!
A WAC Presentation

Date: Tuesday, April 27th.
Time: 3:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m.
Location: Central Classrooms, Room 245.

Does your web site pass all automated checks on your accessibility validator? Are you sure this means your site is accessible? Good accessible design requires designers not only know accessible design standards, but also understand the reason behind the standards and how accessible design affects users of assistive technology.

Come to this WAC presentation, as we explore web pages that "pass" accessibility checkers, but don't pass usability. Learn about good accessible design through bad examples. See what to avoid when retrofitting pages for accessibility. Find out if your site is implementing some bad solutions to accessible design problems.

Workshop Materials: Available online in the Web Accessibility -- What Not to Do section.

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Untangling the Web: Making Online Teaching and Learning Accessible.
A LIVE Satellite Event.

Date: Thursday, April 22nd.
Time: 2:30 p.m. - 4:30 p.m.
Location: Digital Union -- 3rd floor of the Science and Engineering Library.

Ensuring that online education is fully accessible presents a major challenge for faculty and staff in higher education. Faculty members teaching online often find themselves unsure about the best way to help students who have identified accessibility problems in their courses. Many disability support providers are ill-equipped to resolve these problems, and may pass them on to academic computing staff, who struggle to integrate them into their regular work. Faculty and staff need to work together successfully to address accessibility problems in the online environment. Colleges and universities must begin to think about accessibility plans for online courses and services that will serve the needs of all students.

Join us for this moderated panel discussion, as we consider the implications of accessibility for online education and suggests ways that faculty and staff can work together to address major challenges. Participate in live discussion with colleagues across the country.

Workshop Materials: Available by request. E-mail webaccess@osu.edu.

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