Newsletter 9

17 January, 2012

In this issue

  1. Web Accessibility Essentials Training Course
  2. Philosophy alumnus commended by Vision Australia
  3. Stat of the week

Web Accessibility Essentials Training Course


The University of Melbourne has over 1000 students and 1000 staff with a disability.

This 2 hour course examines the various ways people with disabilities use the University of Melbourne web site, the problems they face, and what we can do to help.

The latest standards and techniques for improving web accessibility will be discussed, together with tools that can be used to evaluate websites.

Course Dates

  • Thursday, 2 February 2012, 9:30 am, Parkville Campus.
  • Wednesday, 8 February 2012, 2:00 pm, Parkville Campus.
  • Friday, 17 February 2012, 9:30 am, Parkville Campus.
  • Thursday, 23 February 2012, 9:30 am, Parkville Campus.

Enrolment

This course is offered free of charge to University of Melbourne Staff. Bookings can be made in Themis by clicking on 'UOM Staff Self Service' > 'Training and Development' and searching for 'accessibility'.

Further information is available here

Philosophy alumnus commended by Vision Australia

Alumnus Jason White (Ph.D 2011) was recently acknowledged by Vision Australia for his contribution to web accessibility.

The commendation read as follows:

"Jason was the co-chair of the Web content Accessibility Guidelines standard in the World Wide Web Consortium. This standard is the definitive standard in Web Accessibility across the globe. Due to this standard, people with a vision impairment today have a much greater degree of access to the world wide web. This standard is heavily used by our own Web Accessibility team in their consulting work. Jason needs to be recognised for his very significant contribution to make the world wide web a more comfortable place for people with a vision impairment."

Jason is currently employed on a casual basis by ITS as a Web Accessibility Reviewer. He offers invaluable insights into the barriers to access on the UoM web site, as well as providing input into the University's accessibility strategy.

Stat of the week

  • 14% of employed Australians have a disability.
  • 8.7% of people with a disability work in education.
  • 7.1% of non-disabled people work in education.

Previous Issues

Previous issues of the Web Accessibility Newsletter are available here.

Contact Andrew Normand, Web Accessibility Program Leader
Email: anormand@unimelb.edu.au
Phone: +61 3 9035 4867