A website is only as accessible as the quality of content powering it.
Web accessibility is often thought of in the context of the technology supporting a website, but it is actually the content techniques employed by content authors that ‘make or break’ a website’s accessibility. If one of your websites Key Performance Indicators is to engage the audience then you must focus on the accessibility of your content.
Content creation is increasingly moving to distributed models where many authors update content on a website. Educating all staff involved with content creation ensures that accessibility principles are embedded as part of an organisation’s standard operating practice. This requires a company culture that upholds accessibility as part of standard procedures, and provides support for processes and policies from an executive level.
Media Access Australia training courses are hands-on practical sessions designed to teach what you need to know for compliance as well as achieve best practice in the workplace. Accessible content creation is best practice and the principles learnt in courses can be applied to all internal and external communications for the organisation.
Workshops - Creating Accessible Content
Standard course modules
- Introduction to accessibility and content writing
- Creating accessible Word documents
- Checking accessibility and creating accessible PDFs
Our customisable workshops teach content authors to create web content and Word documents that are accessible and meet international web guidelines. Further, it includes material on converting these documents to accessible PDFs using both simple and advanced (using Adobe Professional) techniques.
Our training courses are hands-on practical sessions designed to teach what you need to know for compliance as well as achieve best practice in the workplace. The principles learnt in our workshops can be applied to all internal and external communications for the organisation.
Through the course of the workshops, broader web accessibility is also explained in practical terms and content authors will be able to ensure content is created to comply with the mandated standard, WCAG 2.0 Level AA.
Course extensions
Accessible InDesign and PDF
This workshop is best combined with the base course for accessible content creation, and is aimed at graphic designers wishing to create accessible and visually engaging PDFs using InDesign CS6 (Creative Suite 6) or CC (Creative Cloud).
Web accessibility and social media
A workshop for content managers, marketing managers and social media coordinators covering why digital accessibility is important for your audiences, automated access checking tools, and accessibility tips and strategy across a range of social media platforms.
Improving accessibility of Excel spreadsheets
This workshop is best combined with the base course for accessible content creation before focusing on Excel as a platform for presenting complex data in as accessible manner as possible. Finance, HR and administrative personnel would be well suited to this workshop.
Improving accessibility of PowerPoint presentations
This workshop is best combined with the base course for accessible content creation before focusing on PowerPoint as a platform for presentations. Perfectly suited for anyone who regularly presents or puts together presentations.
Accessible forms and maps
Forms are an integral part of some companies’ processes, making accessible functionality fundamental for successful submission. This workshop will provide hands-on practice in creating accessible forms for Word and PDF formats. The add-on of accessible map considerations rounds out the workshop to ensure geographic directions and positions relayed in digital formats are accessible to all.
Workshop objectives
As a result of this training, participants will be able to:
- Understand how inaccessible content affects people with disabilities, why it is important to create accessible content, what web accessibility is and what support there is in existing document creation software.
- Understand how to apply WCAG 2.0 guidelines to web content.
- Understand how the guidelines for accessible web content translate into the creation of Microsoft Word documents and the functions that must be used to create accessible documents.
- Explore current work practices and work samples and understand how to repair documents for accessibility.
- Check the accessibility of the work they create.
- Understand how to supply content to those responsible for content upload with appropriate mark up for accessibility.
- Understand the basics of web accessibility and the need for compliance with WCAG 2.0 requirements.
Read the full course overview.
Contact us by mail or on +61 (2) 9212 6242 for your training and education requirements. Courses can be customised with specific examples from your organisation, held on site or in external training facilities.