#a11yOLC: Making Accessibility a priority
Concurrent Session 3
Brief Abstract
It’s difficult to find someone who fundamentally disagrees with the concept of Universal Design; however, its principles can be difficult for us to make actionable. In this conversation, participants will discuss the barriers to institutionalizing web accessibility practices and will share out resources and potential solutions break these barriers down.
Presenters


Extended Abstract
Knowing where to start with accessibility initiatives can be a difficult task. There are resources to educate professionals about Universal Design, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), Section 508 compliance, and WCAG 2.0; however, it can be difficult to make the jump from looking at these standards and knowing how to make them actionable in our offices. Online communities of accessibility advocates (called #a11ies) have formed to address these issues, propose solutions, and even generate resources to assist interested others.
In this conversation, we aim to bridge this gap by inviting participants to name the barriers that prevent us from making accessibility actionable at our respective institutions. It's our hope that by naming and documenting these pain points, we will be able to collaboratively share out and outline resources needed to make accessibility central to our practices as online educators, designers, and administrators of these programs. This will allow for a relevant of conversation and a series of notes and directives that participants will be able to bring with them to their institutions, and can allow for future collaboration beyond OLC Innovate 2018.
The discussion will be framed and flow as follows:
Q1. What are the barriers that prevent us from institutionalizing accessibility? Which factors, if removed, would empower us to center accessibility in our practices?
Q2. What are resources that we know about that can help us address these barriers? These can be through institutional modeling, websites people know of, etc. (Participants will break into caucuses based on their experience or interest in certain Q1 responses. For example, someone may be interested in discussing the finances behind these practices, so they’d go into the “money” group (if that was proposed in Q1)).
Q3. What are the resources that we want developed to inform and support our practices? How can we form a more collaborative community around accessibility?