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Plenty of accessibility webinars to go around
11/16/2021 3:35:21 PM
By Lea Dooley, MNIT Partnering with Human Services and MNsure
Some of our coordinators created this list of accessibility webinars to share with you. Just getting started in your accessibility journey? Maybe you don’t have a budget? Looking for topics? You will find there are plenty of opportunities to select from or enjoy them all.
No matter what your role is, designer, developer, project manager, accessibility, there is something for everyone in this year’s Inclusive Design 24 (ID24). This event is a free 24-hour virtual event celebrating inclusive design, accessibility, user experience (UX) design and more. You can find more details in the full schedule.
The recordings are available with closed captioning. Here are a few of my favorites:
From Lea Dooley, digital accessibility coordinator with Shared Services and Enterprise Architecture, Minnesota IT Services Partnering with Human Services and MNsure
I would highly recommend New approaches to web accessibility requirements under WCAG3 that the Great Lakes ADA Center hosted on July 27, 2021. I found this webinar to be very clear about what to expect under WCAG3, as well as the thinking and process behind developing WCAG3. The webinar also includes information and history for other versions of WCAG, as well information on how to participate in the process.
From Anna Moorjani, Minnesota Senate Information Technology Office
I find the user experience angle helps me to explain why accessibility is so important when developing digital content. In the Top 10 Web-Design Mistakes of 2021 video, Jakob Nielsen condemns 10 awful design flaws that plague today's websites, as voted by the audience at his Virtual UX Conference keynote.
From a digital accessibility coordinator
Here are two organizations with webinars that might not yet be listed. I have attended several events from both organizations.
From Anne Sittner Anderson, Minnesota Commission of the Deaf, DeafBlind & Hard of Hearing
This webinar is from about 2 years ago, but it’s one I recently watched. MSFTEnable – Accessibility Learning Webinar Series: Present More Inclusively with PowerPoint (Video).
The last time I made a PowerPoint, the “design ideas panel” popped up. I didn’t want to pick any of those designs because I didn’t want to have to remediate them. I found it interesting that the webinar stated that the design suggestions in the “design ideas panel” should already be accessible.
I also appreciated that they walked us through many different examples in the accessibility checker. The ability to add a hidden title to a slide straight from the accessibility checker was very useful.
I would have liked to hear more about the difference between content placeholders and text boxes for accessibility. A lot of previous documentation about PowerPoint insists on the use of content placeholders. This is because some assistive technologies may overlook text boxes. They didn’t address this in the webinar so now I wonder if that’s still the case.
I’m hoping to try out the Accessibility Insights software, Presenter Coach, or live captions & subtitles features someday soon!
From Elaine Settergren, Reference Librarian and Digital Accessibility Coordinator at the Minnesota Legislative Reference Library
In this season of Thanksgiving, I’d like to express gratitude and thanks to:
Wishing you a happy and healthy holiday season.
Would you like to learn more about the accessibility work being done by Minnesota IT Services and the State of Minnesota? Once a month we will bring you more tips, articles, and ways to learn more about digital accessibility.
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