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.
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
This scholarship provides people who are unable to procure other financing, with registrations to either the fee-based Webinar series or to the 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
Free and Fee-based Webinars Listed by Month
Future Webinars Being Finalized for Delivery
May Webinars
Free EASI Webinar: Better Communication With Plain English
Tuesday May 22 at 11 AM Pacific, Noon Mountain, 1 PM Central and 2 PM Eastern (all US daylight times)
Presenter: Angela Hooker
one of the hazards of academia is that people often believe they must provide lectures, papers and even Web pages using pedantic language with long compound, complex sentences and with, not 4-letter words, but 4-5 syllable words and sound like a doctor or lawyer trying to impress the client with their learning. We sometimes try to dazzle the audience rather than communicating.
Government and some businesses have joined the 'plain English' movement. The first goal of a Web page should be to communicate rather than to dazzle or entertain. Angela is an avid proponent of this cause.
register for the May 22 Plain English Webinar
June Webinars
EASI Free Webinar: The Cutting Edge of E-book Accessibility
Friday June 15: 11 PM Pacific, Noon Mountain, 1 PM Central and 2 PM Eastern daylight
Presenter: Norm Coombs, Ph.D. CEO EASI, Professor Emeritus RIT
The explosion of e-books is changing the face of book publishing and changing the role of book stores. Different vendors of e-books created their unique, proprietary document formats which required their being read in e-readers designed specifically for that format. Imagine having to use different glasses to read print books depending on who was its publisher! Of course, the document format and the specialized e-readers were inaccessible to many people with what used to be called "print disabilities". The DAISY document format opened up a wider and richer reading experience for people with disabilities, but DAISY books were incompatible with commercial e-readers like the Kindle or Nook, and commercial e-book formats were incompatible with DAISY.
All this is changing while we ponder these problems. Some software and hardware DAISY players have added the ability to read some books in the epub format, and the next version of that standard will include even more features that will support accessibility for users with disabilities. This promises to open up a new and larger collection of e-books for this population.
What will happen to the divergent proprietary e-book document formats? Either all publishers will adopt a common e-document standard or, as is happening already, tools to convert different formats will become common. This Webinar will explore this complicated picture and try to simplify it for the audience.
Webinar participants will learn which formats are already accessible to them, and they will be introduced to some tools for document format conversion.
Register here for this June 15 Webinar
Two-part Webinar Series: Upgrading to Office 2010 Made Easy!
Wednesday June 20 and Thursday June 21
8:30 Pacific, 9:30 Mountain, 10:30 Central and 11:30 Eastern
(Each Webinar will be an hour long)
Presenter: Karen McCall, M.Ed.[Karen] , Microsoft MVP for Word, Canadian delegate to the ISO/TC 171 committee[Karen] , Member of PDF/UA Universal Access working group
Webinar 1: Overview of Word 2010
This webinar guides you through the changes in Word since Word 2003 and 2007. Although the Ribbons have remained the same, the File/Backstage area has been changed to reflect more global access to document tools. With the overview of changes in the application, there are new tools for document authors that let you create more accessible Word documents.
These include an accessibility checker and the ability to import and export styles from one document to another. If you're moving to Office 2010 you'll want to attend this webinar!
Webinar 2: Overview of PowerPoint 2010
As with Word, PowerPoint 2010 continues the use of Ribbons and Sub-Ribbons to facilitate easy access to tools that may have been hidden in Word 2003. The File/Backstage area has streamlined access to tools used for the document such as Print, Info, list of Recent Documents and Send/Publish. PowerPoint includes an accessibility checker and a Selection Pane. The Selection Pane lets document authors arrange slide content in a logical reading order. If you're moving to Office 2010 you'll want to attend this webinar!
EASI Annual Members register here at the passworded member-only page
Register for this 2-part Series ($95)
July Webinars
EASI 4-part, fee-based Webinar Series: Streaming More Accessible Multimedia
Tuesdays July 10,17,24 and 31 at 11 AM Pacific, Noon Mountain, 1 PM Central, 2 PM Eastern
(these dates are probable. but will be finalized by June at the latest Registration will not be available till dates are finalized.)
Presenters: Marisol Miranda, Beth Coombs and Norm Coombs All From EASI
These Webinars will focus on the accessibility issues related to streaming multimedia. Different content and multimedia choices pose various problems for those with:
- vision impairments;
- hearing impairments;
- learning disabilities;
- cognitive disabilities.
Besides focusing on the accessibility problems and solutions, these Webinars will have to provide an introduction to the creation of multimedia with common authoring tools.
Week 1: Making audio presentations more accessible
This will have the participants downloading the free, open-source software, Audacity and learn basic editing. It will focus on designing the content to be recorded to keep in mind the needs of users with disabilities.
Week 2: making multimedia with Powerpoint
First participants will make a narrated Powerpoint presentation using the features included in Powerpoint itself. Second, they will take a basic PowerPoint presentation and use the Lecshare.com wizard to creat both a Web version of the slides and include audio with each slide. Then take the same presentation and create a QuickTime movie.
Week 3: Making accessible videos using Camtasia
Participants who do not have Camtasia can download a 30-day demo. First participants will experience editing existing movies either taken by a smart phone or personal camera. (The course will also provide a short sample video if students need that instead.) Second, it will demonstrate using Camtasia to provide streaming captions for that video.
Week 4: Posting accessible video to Youtube.
Participants will experience uploading a video to Youtube. They will also learned editing a Youtube video and how to provide captions for it.
The series is free to EASI Annual Members, but members need to register to save a room in the Webinar..
Members register free here using the member username and password
Registration for non-members is $225.
Non members use the link below and select the web conference series starting July 10
Non-members register using Credit card, check or PO
A limited number of scholarships are available.
Future Webinars Being Finalized for Delivery
Free Webinar: Creating Accessible Math Made Easy
This presentation will demonstrate how math faculty can provide students with math that is fully accessible regardless of whether or not the student has a disability. It will also demonstrate the special math reader that will permit the student to readily access the content provided by his or her faculty.
Free Webinar: Plain English Makes Plain Sense
(Presenter and Date to be announced)
Professionals, whether lawyers, doctors or academics often talk in the jargon of their profession helping them to sound like the guardians of special knowledge beyond the intellect of their audience. Usually, their pronouncements can be expressed in simple, direct language accessible to most people. The goal of teachers is to communicate and clarify rather than to overwhelm their audience. Communicating in simple, plain English does not have to mean simplifying the actual content.
When we teachers use professional jargon, we impress the listener with our intelligence. However, when we avoid the jargon of our trade, we can impress the student with their intelligence. This will give them the self-confidence and courage to plunge into even deeper subjects. They will become better students because we have become better communicators.
EASI future 4-part Webinar Series being planned:
Accessibility of Learning Management Systems
This series will both be a repeat of a series provided a couple years ago and include an update on improvements to the systems. It will cover
Blackboard,
Saki,
Moodle,
Angel
Desire2learn
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 fall. 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
Poet, a Program to Assist in Making Diagrams Accessible
The Diagram Center has created Poet, a tool to assist designers of Web content and e-books in including accessible diagrams
Mac computer Accessibility
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.
Drop e-mail to me with your help at Norm Coombs with your ideas
©2011 EASI: Equal Access to Software and Information .
