AccessU at CSUN 2012: Policy and Testing -- Sustaining Accessibility Throughout the Organization

As AccessU at CSUN starts in less than a week, we have been profiling the speakers who will share their experience and knowledge, and themselves learn in the process.  I thought I'd close the series by telling you a bit about what I'll be doing at the conference. I'll also leave with a few tips and reminders for attendees that I hope will make your learning experience with us as meaningful and valuable as possible.

Developing Accessibility Policy and Procedures

On Monday afternoon, February 27, at 1:30, I'll talk with attendees about the nuts and bolts of establishing policies and procedures in support of Web and application accessibility. It's one thing for you to understand and believe in the importance of accessible development practices, but establishing such practice throughout the enterprise and creating systems to track progress and success is another thing entirely.  How do you create measurable, sustainable, consistent standards?  And when you want to out-source Web development projects, how do you hold vendors accountable to your accessibility standards?   What language should you use in RFPs, how do you verify responses, and how do you find prospective vendors who share your commitment to accessibility?

I'll cover these questions and more, and you'll leave with concrete examples and templates to enable you to begin implementing policy and procedures that support accessibility integration.

We're looking forward to distributing complementary copies of Jeff Kline's new book Strategic IT Accessibility to our attendees.  Jeff draws on more than 20 years with IBM's Accessibility Center, most of them as manager of accessibility integration and transformation across IBM worldwide.

Testing for Accessibility

On Tuesday, February 28 at 10:30, I'll share my techniques for manually testing the accessibility of web sites and software applications.  This will be appropriate for those who have QA responsibility but who are not necessarily programmers.  We'll look at free browser plug-ins and compare results. These are techniques that Knowbility uses every day in our work for business and government agencies seeking to understand their current position in terms of meeting accessibility standards.

A few last thoughts and reminders

If you are attending AccessU at CSUN, we encourage you to come prepared with your laptop, headphones, and mobile phone. As you may have noticed, some of our presenters are going to be talking about the mobile web, and we want you to have hands-on experience.

Producing the AccessU trainings is a key part of Knowbility's mission. Whenever we hold the classes, whether that's in California, Texas, or hopefully in some new locations in the future, I always leave feeling exhilarated by the enthusiasm of attendees. I think of John Slatin and how after a few years of producing community AIR programs, John encouraged us to formalize the trainings and share the practical knowledge we had acquired.  In spring of 2003, Glenda Sims, Kay Lewis, John and I sat in John's lab at the University of Texas, creating tracks and moving classes around on sticky notes plastered on a white board to envision what would become AccessU.  I know he would be pleased that we ended up at the CSUN conference.

CSUN continues to accept registrations so, especially if you know of people in the area who would be interested, please do tell them about AccessU at CSUN.

If you've been reading our posts about speakers, wishing you could be there, I'll close by letting you know that AccessU is coming again in May and that registration for John Slatin AccessU, is now open.  It is produced annually at St. Edward's University in Austin, so head on over and sign up! We look forward to meeting and learning with you in San Diego, Austin, or wherever our travels take us.