Session: Tertiary Education Accessibility Roadmap

Date: Thursday, August 1, 2024
Time: 3:00 - 3:45 pm (EDT) (UTC-04:00)
Location: Room 2 (Leonard)
Format: General Lecture Session
Subjects: Accessibility, Management

Who is this session for?

Accessibility professional, Content, Designer, Developer, Management, Project Management, UX

Session description

Higher education institutions have unique web accessibility requirements. These institutions consist of every different type of research, along with teaching, marketing and e-commerce requirements, like promoting courses, collecting fees and providing course materials. They also have very specific accessibility requirements, often with teeny-tiny budgets! However, as different as these institutions are from other organizations, the more similar they are to one another. In over two decades of working with tertiary institutions, Gian Wild has developed a roadmap that is applicable to all these types of organizations, and that can take them from knowing nothing about accessibility to incorporating accessibility into every aspect of operations.
This roadmap consists of five phases:

  • Quick wins, incorporating issues such as building an accessibility committee, developing a Disability Reference Group and Accessibility Champion, funding Disability Services, developing accessibility resources and capturing accessibility complaints.
  • Develop an Accessibility Plan, consisting of writing an Accessibility Statement, developing an Action Plan, updating Policies and Procedures and communicating with staff
  • Ensure web sites and applications meet accessibility requirements, including ensuring all future client web sites are accessible, creating an inventory of ICT, identifying applicable web sites, conducting testing, contacting vendors and undertaking fixes
  • Develop accessibility knowledge within the institution, such as providing training for web staff, faculty and Disability Services
  • Promote accessibility compliance, by conducting accessibility sessions, developing accessibility case studies and providing incentives and publicity for staff

Presenter

Gian Wild

Headshot of Gian Wild

Gian Wild is the CEO of AccessibilityOz, with offices in the United States, Europe and Australia. She has worked in the accessibility industry since 1998, when she worked on the very first accessible Australian web site. Her major achievements include: six years’ active membership in the W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines Working Group contributing to WCAG2; her speech on the importance of web accessibility at the United Nations Conference of State Parties in 2015; and the release of the ICT Mobile Site and Native App Accessibility Testing Guidelines as the Mobile Sub-Committee Chair of the ICT Accessibility Testing Symposium. In 2019, Gian won the inaugural Accessibility Person of the Year in Australia. Gian speaks at conferences in Australia, the US, Canada, South America and Europe.

Sessions

  • General Lecture Session: Tertiary Education Accessibility Roadmap

Session video