EASI ONLINE COURSES
PEOPLE NOT TECHNOLOGY
EASI is a non-profit organization, commited to the belief that students and professionals with disabilities have the same right to access information technology as everyone else.
The information technology revolution combined with adaptive applications for people with disabilities provides us with the opportunity to give students and professionals the most level learning and working space in history.
EASI delivers month-long, online courses about designing information systems that will facilitate institutions in achieving this exciting dream.
EASI in conjunction with the University of Southern Maine provides the Certificate of Accessible Information Technology for people who have completed 5 of these EASI online courses. USM will also provide 15 Continuing Education Units. The CEUs are available for the entire Certificate but not for individual courses.
EASI takes pride in taking the jargon and mystery out of making information technology accessible without sacrificing the look and feel of the content. The courses are designed to be accessible, and the instructors are either users of adaptive technologies or are professionals who support IT accessibility.
EASI Annual Webinar Membership Program
Besides providing free access to the fee-based Webinars, the members receive a discount on EASI courses. With budgets being slashed, membership can help compensate for the loss of training support.
Read about the EASI Annual Webinar Individual or Institutional Membership program
Dick Banks Memorial Scholarship
Dick Banks was passionate about supporting institutions designing information technology systems that are accessible to people with disabilities. This scholarship is to memorialize him and his passion. If you are unable to procure support for an EASI course, use the link below to read about the scholarship opportunities. (Please do not apply for a scholarship more than twice in a single year.)
Read about and apply for the Dick Banks scholarship
How do I register?
The courses listed below can be taken individually or anyone completing 5 courses will earn the Certificate in Accessible Information Technology provided by EASI and the University of Southern Maine worth 15 CEU's. (CEU's are only available for the 5 course certificate completion and not for individual courses). All courses are entirely online and asynchronous. Content is online using Blackboard. Courses are usually month-long and instructor-led.
Currently, course registration is $350. Students, overseas participants and EASI annual Webinar members receive a 20% discount on courses. Registration information is available on each course syllabus page listed below.)
EASI COURSES STARTING February 9
Syllabus for Barrier-free Web Design
Jump to look at Our Courses Listed by Month
Courses listed by course
Syllabus for Barrier-free Information Technology
Schedule September 6 (Tuesday) 2012: January 9, May 7, September 4 (Tuesday)
Information technology can provide the most accessible learning and working conditions in history for people with disabilities. This course will enable institutions to design both onsite and online electronic devices and electronic information to include and empower people with disabilities while using universal design to provide user-friendly tools for everyone. When designed from the bottom up, costs will not be prohibitive and both computer and information systems will meet the standards of disability-related legislation.
Syllabus for Barrier-free E-learning
Schedule 2012: March 5, July 2, November 5
The course is based on the realization that faculty are placing content inside a courseware management system which is responsible for achieving most Web Accessibility meaning faculty normally only need to know a limited set of accessibility features. The course demonstrates how faculty can achieve accessibility while using authoring applications they already know. Creating accessible course content can be easier than many believe.
Syllabus for Accessible Internet Multimedia
Schedule 2012: Unless notified otherwise, contact EASI to take this as independent study at your convenience!
Educational and other information providers on the Internet are increasingly using multimedia as a means to disseminate information. Multimedia poses special problems but also unique opportunities for reaching people with disabilities. Providing transcriptions, captions and descriptive video synchronized with the media is a real challenge. This course will give step-by-step instruction in how and when to provide transcriptions and synchronized captions.
Syllabus for Train the Trainer
Schedule 2011: Dec. 5 2012: April 2, August 6 and Dec. 3
Syllabus Creating and Repurposing More Accessible Content
Schedule 2012: January 9, May 7, September 4 (Tuesday)
This course is designed to support alternative media specialists in creating new documents that are more accessible, and converting existing documents into alternate formats such as Word, PDF, DAISY and NIMAS. Documents need to be well constructed which in turn facilitates accessibility. Documents also need to be repurposed to other formats based on an organizational need.
Syllabus for Special topics
Special topics will be an independent study course designed between the student and EASI staff given almost any time on request. It will be designed to meet the specific interests and needs of each registrant.
Syllabus for Barrier-free Web Design
Schedule 2012 February 6, June 4, Oct. 1
The course is based both on the Federal Access Board’s Section 508 Web standards and on the World Wide Web Consortium’s Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2 which were released in Dec. 2008.
Do you have trouble reading computer and software manuals? EASI will take the jargon out of Web design and out of the technical requirements for Web design. The course will not require an extensive knowledge of HTML as it assumes that designers are working in some Web authoring sofware that does the actual Web coding for the designer. Web pages can be created using Universal Design principles permitting Their use by people with different browsers, different connection speeds, palm pilots, PDA's and by people with disabilities using Adaptive computer technology.
Courses Listed by Month
January
Syllabus for Barrier-free Information Technology
Syllabus Creating and Repurposing More Accessible Content
February
Syllabus for Barrier-free Web Design
March
Syllabus for Barrier-free E-learning
April
Syllabus for Train the Trainer
May
Syllabus for Barrier-free Information Technology
Syllabus Creating and Repurposing More Accessible Content
June
Syllabus for Barrier-free Web Design
July
Syllabus for Barrier-free E-learning
August
Syllabus for Train the Trainer
September
Syllabus for Barrier-free Information Technology
Syllabus Creating and Repurposing More Accessible Content
October
Syllabus for Barrier-free Web Design
November
Syllabus for Barrier-free E-learning
December
Syllabus for Train the Trainer
Syllabus for Accessible Internet Multimedia: Podcasts, Vodcasts and Streaming
©2011 EASI: Equal Access to Software and Information .
