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Presenter(s)
Dagmar Amtman, Ph.D.
Sharron Rush
Knowbility.org
3925 W. Braker lane
Austin, Texas 78759
Email: srush@knowbility.org
Wendy Wilkenson
Disability Law Resource Project Street Address:
Houston, Texas
Email: wendy@ilru.org
The Internet provides unprecedented opportunity for people with disabilities to participate as producers and consumers in the information marketplace. The key is access. Often, those most critical to producing accessible information technology are ignorant of the need for accessibility. Technology professionals who develop and design websites, online learning platforms, and other web-based applications are often unaware of how and why to design with accessibility in mind. Knowbility's Accessibility Internet Rally - or AIR - program has been shown to be an effective way to raise community awareness of the need for access to information technology for everyone - including children and adults with disabilities.
The AIR Program: Since 1998, the AIR program has been successful both in raising community awareness of the need for access and in improving accessible design skills by directly engaging web professionals. AIR challenges web pros to learn accessible web and software design skills in the context of a fun, friendly web competition. Participating programmers, graphic designers, and program managers attend accessibility training delivered by world-renowned accessibility experts. Once they master the techniques, AIR participants are invited to form teams to apply their new skills by creating an accessible web site for a nonprofit organization. Participating NPOs receive separate training in creating and maintaining an accessible web site. The community gathers for one high- energy web-raising day as teams create fully functional and accessible web sites for organizations that serve the arts, human services and environmental needs of the community. Completed sites are judged by experts and awards presented in a high-profile ceremony.
AIR has been produced annually in Austin, Texas since 1998 and replicated in Dallas, Houston, Denver Colorado, and San Francisco California. The program is nationally recognized for excellence and innovation by the Peter Drucker Foundation, the White House, the Isoph Institute, the Department of Labor and many others.
Knowbility has completed a step-by-step replication kit to help communities produce an AIR program locally. In addition, Knowbility has responded to local needs by modifying the basic model to the requirements of individual communities. Here are some examples:
AIR-Interactive: The city of Austin is home to a media festival that draws participants from all over the world - the SXSW Interactive Media Conference. Rather than maintain the practice of teaching accessibility as an adjunct to basic web design, Knowbility approached the organizers of SXSW with ideas for panel discussions and demonstrations that would culminate in an AIR competition for arts organizations that emphasized accessible multimedia. The success of this approach put accessibility issues right into the center of the discussion of emerging media considerations.
AIR-University: The issues of accessibility are nowhere more critical than they are for higher education. Although many community colleges, private and state colleges, and universities understand the need for accessible design, they are often short of training resources or do not know where to turn for definitive answers to accessibility challenges. AIR-U provides accessibility training and accessibility testing tools to teams that enroll participants from any higher education institution. Once trained, participants return to their college department and work for a number of months to improve the accessibility of their site. Registered participants are given access to LIFT online and other tools and access to the judge's listserv to guide them as they work. Entries are submitted by the proscribed date, and awards presented at a high-profile ceremony.
AIR-Texas: Knowbility developed a model similar to AIR-U for state agencies and state-affiliated organizations. The results of the first state AIR will be available in January 2005
AIR-Houston was co-produced by the Southwest DBTAC at the Disability Law Resource Project (DLRP). It was fundamentally important to the DLRP to find ways to include K-12 and community colleges in the awareness and skills improvement of AIR. We developed outreach programs and classroom curriculum support to encourage teachers to incorporate accessible design principles into their work and to recruit "AIR Apprentices" with good basic computer skills to work with design teams. Results of this effort will be available in November of 2004.
AIR has proven to be a replicable, adaptable and engaging way to spread the word about accessible web and software design. Knowbility would be pleased to share our success and ongoing challenges at CSUN in 2005 with a panel discussion of past AIR advisors, judges, and co-producers. Among those invited are Wendy Chisholm, Dr. John Slatin, Pat Pound, Jim Allan, Jim Thatcher, and Wendy Wilkenson. Sharron Rush will act as moderator.
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