UKeiG Training: Making Websites Accessible

Venue: Department of Information Studies, University of Sheffield
Date: Wednesday, 24th May 2006, 9.45 - 16.30.
Course presenters: Nigel Ford, Peter Holdridge
Course fees: UKeiG members £150 + VAT (£176.25); others £180 + VAT (£211.50)
Further information and booking form: http://www.ukeig.org.uk/training/2006_05_24_accessiblesites.html

Course Outline

It is now a legal requirement to ensure that Websites are designed in such a way as to make them accessible to people with a range of disabilities. In the UK, the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA), stipulates that websites must be accessible to blind and disabled users. The Webcredible organisation, www.webcredible.co.uk notes that:

"Section III of the DDA, which refers to accessible websites came into force on 1st October 1999 and the Code of Practice for this section of the DDA was published on 27th May 2002. This means that the majority of websites have been in breach of the law for over five years."

Current high level Web authoring tools (such as FrontPage, DreamWeaver, etc.), although they may provide prompts and advice, do not automatically generate "accessible" Web pages, and some knowledge of accessibility and what is entailed is required of the Web page and Website creator.

This is a one-day "hands on" practical course designed to teach you how to create Web pages and Websites that are accessible to people with a range of disabilities. You will learn how to validate pages that you create in relation to acknowledged international standards, and how to kite mark your Web pages according to A, AA or AAA international accessibility standards. You will become familiar with techniques and software that provides automatic checking of your Web pages for accessibility, and will learn how to keep up to date with future accessibility developments.

Pre-requisite knowledge: You should have some familiarity with HTML and the basics of Web page creation.

Course Presenters

Nigel Ford teaches Web design at Masters and undergraduate level on the course Designing Usable Websites at Sheffield University's Department of Information Studies.

Peter Holdridge has wide experience of Web design, and is responsible for the Web presence and development of Sheffield University's Department of Information Studies. He also teaches on the Designing Usable Websites course.