EASI: EQUAL ACCESS TO SOFTWARE & INFORMATION

PEOPLE NOT TECHNOLOGY
EASI is a non-profit organization, committed to the belief that students and professionals with disabilities have the same right to access information technology as everyone else.

Note to EASI Annual Webinar members: we have changed how you register for Webinars. You will read about Webinars and register from a member-only Webinar page.

EASI Annual Webinar Members take this link for the Passworded Member Webinar Page

EASI is producing 2 series of Interactive Webinars on specific accessibility-related topics. One consists of single, free Webinars which are open to the public. While the fee-based Webinars consist of 3-4 Webinars providing more in-depth information.

Registration for the fee-based Webinar series is currently $225.00. EASI is pleased to host Webinar presenters from across the US as well as several other countries. As usual, some presenters are, themselves, adaptive technology users, and others are professionals supporting adaptive technology. Webinars use conference systems that facilitate hosting an accessible event.

Join the EASI E-mail Announcement Listserv to Keep UP on What's Next!

What equipment do I need to participate?

You will need working speakers so you can hear the presenter. The room has both text and voice chat. (A microphone is optional). A PC running Windows is the best operating system, but a Mac can access the system. Internet Explorer is the best browser, but others should also work.

We strongly urge you, if this is your first EASI Webinar, to come early to the presentation to iron out unforeseen problems. (The conference room is normally locked, and it is usually opened 45-60 minutes before the event.

Dick Banks Memorial Scholarship for EASI Webinars and Courses

Dick Banks

This scholarship provides people who are unable to procure other financing, with registrations to either the fee-based Webinar series or to EASI online courses. While EASI relies on fees to support our work, nevertheless, we want to share these resources as broadly as possible.

Read about and apply for the Dick Banks Memorial Scholarship

EASI Annual Webinar Membership Program

EASI has 2 membership programs: one for individuals and another for institutions. These annual memberships provide free access to all the fee-based Webinars for a full year, free access to an archive of selected Webinar recordings from 3 previous years and a discount to all the EASI courses At a time when budgets are being cut for training and for travel to conferences, these memberships can fill the void.

Read about and register online for the annual membership program

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Free and Fee-based Webinars Listed by Month

June/July Webinars

Future Webinars Being Finalized for Delivery

Webinars for June and July

Testing & Evaluating Learning Management Systems

Monday June 17 at 11 Pacific, noon Mountain, 1 Central and 2 PM Eastern

Presenters:

Presenter 1: Hadi Rangin Information Technology Accessibility & Collaboration Coordinator Disability Resources & Educational Services University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

hadi@illinois.edu

Presenter 2: Marc Thompson, Ph.D. Instructional Designer Online & Continuing Education University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

thompso1@illinois.edu

Presenter 3: Ken Petri Director, Web Accessibility Center The Ohio State University

Petri.1@osu.edu

Webinar Description

Thanks to the hard work of various LMS accessibility working groups and their vendor and open-source developer partners, many LMS vendors have begun to understand the need for universal usability of their tools. Although vendors have started to provide accessibility features that allow users with disabilities access, we are still far from achieving full accessibility of learning management systems.

Since 2010, our team has been testing and evaluating four major LMS--Blackboard, Desire2Learn, Moodle, and SAKAI. With each successive testing iteration, we have noted an increasing number of LMS-wide accessibility improvements. Guided by a set of accessibility/usability criteria developed by our team, our testing and evaluation are based on functional accessibility considerations of features common to learning management systems.

In this interactive webinar we share our accessibility/usability criteria and the rationale behind them, our testing and evaluation methodology, and our scoring system. Additionally, we will share the results of our most recent (though not completely up-to-date) evaluation.Reading our evaluation criteria prior to the webinar is not required, though it would be very helpful, as we would ultimately like to use part of this webinar as an opportunity to dialogue with attendees about our evaluation criteria, identify potential shortcomings, and gather ideas for expanding our testing purview to include other major tools we may be missing.

EASI Free Webinar: Web and IT Accessibility Policies in Higher Education

Thursday, June 13 at 11 Pacific, noon Mountain, 1 Central and 2 PM Eastern Daylight

Presenters: Sheryl Burgstahler Director of UW Accessible Technology & DO-IT University of Washington

Terrill Thompson Technology Accessibility Specialist University of Washington

How many higher education institutions in the United States have web or technology accessibility policies?

What do these policies look like?

Are they effective?

What constitutes a good accessibility policy?

Presenters in this session will be exploring these questions with results from their recent research project on this topic, and by sharing their own experiences with policy development and accessibility-related planning.

Webinar 4-part Free Series: Accessible STEM Made Easier

NOTE THE DATES FOR THE SERIES HAVE BEEN REVISED.
REGISTRATION HAS BEEN OPENED SO PEOPLE CAN CONTINUE TO REGISTER FOR THE REMAINING WEBINARS!

NEW Dates: Tuesday June 4, 11, and July 9, 16

18, and July 9

Times: 11 Pacific Noon Mountain, 1 Central and 2 PM Eastern

This series is extremely important if students wit h disabilities are to have an opportunity to succeed in today's skilled professions all of which require familiarity with one or more of the science, Technology, engineering and technology disciplines.

We want to make this widely accessible. Instead of charging a fee for the series, we are providing it free to everyone.

In this series, you have the opportunity to hear from nationally recognized professionals who are pioneers in making STEM disciplines accessible to people with disciplines. Even if you are not interested in Stem topics, you need to be familiar with what is happening so you can enlighten faculty and encourage students. I am not a scientist although as an adult I have a growing interest in it. My reason for organizing this series is that STEM content provides some of the toughest accessibility hurddles. I have watched dedicated leaders struggle to transcend the problems. Now, real progress is happening, and at the same time authors can provide accessible content with better and easier tools than ever.

Archive for Week 1: June 4. Access to complex graphics using IVEO

Presenters: John Gardner and John Taylor

the link below will provide access to the recorded audio and the Webinar's transcription

Listen to the audio and read the transcript from the archive resources page

John Gardner and John Taylor demonstrated conversion of graphical information to accessible SVG (Scalable vector Graphics) using IVEO authoring software. The resulting SVG file is then easily accessible by blind users using the IVEO audio-tactile access method.

Week 2: June 18. LEAN Math

Presenter: John Gardner

John Gardner will demonstrate the new LEAN Math editor interface to MS Word/MathType. LEAN provides both compact audio and Braille access to MathType equations in Word. MathType equations can be edited, and new equations created in the LEAN editor. In addition to reading and composing math, the editor includes a number of powerful efficient navigation and processing features such as ability to copy a fraction with a single keystroke and then invert it when pasting with another keystroke; cutting out the denominator of a fraction and pasting it into the opposite side of the equation, etc.

Week 3 (July 9): Empowering the Blind in Science Laboratory Classrooms

Presenter: Carey Supalo U. Ill.

Week 4: Progress towards accessible analytics and data visualization

Presenter: Ed Summers, Sr Manager, Accessibility and Applied Assistive Technology, SAS Institute, Inc.

Numeracy and fluency with data are skills that are required for success in the 21st century knowledge economy. Join Ed Summers, Senior Manager of Accessibility at SAS Institute, for a review of recent advances towards accessible analytics and data visualization at SAS.

Everyone can STILL register free for the remainder of this STEM 4-part Series

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Future Webinars Being Planned

Validating and Repairing Web Accessibility Using Toolbars

There are several toolbars to assist users to validate their HTML and evaluate their accessibility. While there are large, commercial applications to function on an entire site, these tools are handy for individuals needing to check a small number of pages at any one time.

Accessible Science and Math: 4-part STEM Series

This series will probably take place in the late fall or mid winter. It will be aimed not at technical experts but at faculty and instructional design staff who focus more on course content than on the technology behind accessibility. It will strive to make creating accessible science and math content easier and less time-consuming for faculty and staaff. It will cover:

Accessible Math, reading and writing

Accessible tactile graphics, reading and writing

Accessible science labs

HTML5 and Progress Towards Accessibility

This will be a single, free Webinar

The TC Conference system has an improved client for the Mac. This will enable us to finally provide Webinars on the Mac computer and on its accessibility features

IPhones, IPads and other Mobile Products

We will do at least one Webinar on the vast array of Apple products that are revolutionizing our lives

What do you know that you'd like to tell us about?

Getting ideas and finding someone knowledgeable who will share what they know is the hardest part of bringing you these Webinars.

EASI Annual Members take this link to go to the passworded Webinar page for members

Drop e-mail to me with your help at Norm Coombs with your ideas