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Accessible Web Design Training

Feedback from courses run by Jim Byrne,

"I found the course content extremely well structured and presented. The course also highlighted the need to incorporate 'accessible web design' as good practice." Liam, One Plus

"Demystified HTML but better still gave me a solid foundation from which to go on and develop further knowledge and skills - very empowering! Taught you all you needed to know about how to produce a basic accessible site and put it online. " Linda, Enable Scotland

3 Example Training Courses

Below are examples of three training courses I have delivered recently. Training courses can be tailored to your specific needs.

1 Checking Website accessibility with free tools and resources

This course was delivered via The Scottish Accessible Information Forum recently (June 18th 2008). This is a half-day course.

• What is accessible website design; finding a working definition.
• Introducing standard markup and Cascading Style Sheets (CSS)?
• How can we make the presentation of content more flexible?
• Introducing the Internet Explorer website accessibility tool.
• Introducing the World Wide Web Consortium Web Content Accessibility Guidelines.

Research exercise: designing a website for people with dyslexia

Short break for tea and coffee.

Website accessibility checking: using the Internet Explorer website accessibility tool and online resources to check the accessibility of a website of your choice.

Hands-on exercises

• Check page code for errors based on workbook.
• Find the standard used to code the page (i.e. the DOCTYPE).
• Looking at page structure.
• Exploring screen size issues.
• Colour contrast and colour blindness check.
• Fonts and text size issues.
• Checking labels for non-text elements.
• Looking at the link text.
• Checking for scripting issues.
• Using online website accessibility checkers.

Feedback from the course was very positive. The course was administered by Joanne Martin of The Scottish Accessible Information Forum. Contact Joanne to ask about the feedback from the course and the skills of the trainer. Contact details can be found at http://www.saifscotland.org.uk

2 Accessible Web Design in practice

A 1 or 2 day course that delivers both the required background understanding and the practical techniques required to create an accessible website. About the course

The training is aimed at helping publishers manage their web content in a more efficient and flexible manner; accessible web design is about more than learning individual HTML techniques (although you learn the techniques as well). Accessible web design is about understanding how to manage and publish web content in the most flexible way - cutting down the work web publishers have to do to reach their widest possible audience.

The practical hands-on aspects of the course are more 'topic' based, for example,

• How do you make PDFs
• Accessible web typography
• How to make forms accessible
• Making pages accessible for people with particular impairments
• Accessible Web Scripting and issues with 'Web 2' applications
• Accessible multimedia
• Accessible data tables
• Accessible page links
• Colour and contrast issues

The topics covered will depend on your requirements and the time available on the day.

The course is taught in a very 'interactive' manner - questions and discussion are the basis of the learning - with frequent reviews of what has been learned to facilitate understanding and recall.

Resources to take away with you

In addition to the training itself, all course participants will take away extensive notes and a resource list for further study. A 96 page training manual is provided which contains detailed information relating to all of the topics covered on the course and also topics that are not included due to time constraints.

A copy of my book '60 hot to touch Accessible Web Design tips' will also be provided.

3 Live on-site web accessibility audit with training

This is a unique service provided that provides training and a 'live' technical audit of your website with your web development team.

• Half-day training in relation to the ideas and techniques of accessible web design.
• A 'live' audit carried out on-site with your web development team and web editors.
• The process involves assessing the website against each of the W3C WCAG checkpoints - in an informal group environment. This allows discussion, instant clarification of points made, and means questions can be asked related to access issues as they arise.
• You will receive a detailed report and a checkpoint table with a summary of whether your site passed or failed on each checkpoint.
• Website developers will be armed with an understanding of the importance of accessible web design and be motivated to make the required changes to the website.

Licence our content for your own training courses and for in-house use

• Install our WCAG AA course on your in-house server and make it available to all your your Web Developers and Web Content Creators.

• Use the material as the basis to create your own customised courses

Contact us now for details of licencing this material:

Off-line training course links.