Accessibility consultation
Gian Wild has provided consultation on accessibility issues to various clients, whether that is an in-depth accessibility instruction guide, or assistance in developing accessibility policy. More information is available on the Accessibility Services page.
Some clients Gian Wild has provided accessibility consultation to are:
- Multimedia Victoria – eGovernment Resource Centre Accessibility Toolkit
- Office for Disability – Accessibility factsheets
- Department of Justice – PDFs and video documentation
- Department of Education and Early Childhood Development – Accessibility section of the Developer toolkit
- Microsoft – Accessibility advice
- Ticketmaster7 – Accessibility advice
- Brisbane City Council – Accessibility policy
Multimedia Victoria—eGovernment Resource Centre Accessibility toolkit
Gian Wild wrote an accessibility toolkit for use by the Victorian Government and their Departments; the task had been commissioned by Multimedia Victoria. Gian has updated the toolkit twice, since its release in 2001. The toolkit covers the basics of accessibility through to detailing how to make web sites accessible and how to test for accessibility compliance. The toolkit illustrates how people with disabilities access the web, with the focus being on adaptive technologies and browser requirements. The most recent release of the toolkit focused on social media and accessibility and included the following:
- Twitter and accessibility
- Facebook and accessibility
- Videos and accessibility
- Captioning downloadable videos
- Captioning YouTube videos
- Audio describing videos
- Captioning vodcasts
- Audio and podcasts
- Flash and accessibility
- Mashups and accessibility
- Blogging and accessibility
- Making maps and Google maps accessible
- Frames and iFrames
- Making SlideShare accessible
Office for Disability—Accessibility factsheets
www.officefordisability.vic.gov.au/research_and_resources.htm#websites
Gian Wild developed and wrote a series of factsheets for the Office for Disability. These covered:
- WCAG2
- What about Web 2.0 technologies?
- Flash
- JavaScript
- Video
- Web Manager’s Checklist
- Web Developer’s Checklist
- Resources
These factsheets were distributed to over a thousand Victorian Government web staff.
Department of Justice – PDFs and video documentation
Gian Wild developed documents on the accessibility of PDFs and videos and incorporated them into the current training materials. Step-by-step instructions were provided on creating tagged PDFs, captioning and audio describing video.
Department of Education and Early Childhood Development – Accessibility section of the Developer toolkit
www.education.vic.gov.au/devreskit/webdev
Gian Wild was contracted by the Department of Education and Early Childhood Development to review the Web Development Toolkit. The tasks included writing description guidelines and checklists for mobile phones, Java, JavaScript, and Flash, captioning, and audio. Gian worked closely with the Online Services Unit to update the toolkit and include references to accessibility, as well as other Whole of Victorian Government Web Standards. She was responsible for writing a Recommendations document on how the Online Services Unit could improve the uptake of accessibility and other requirements by areas of Department of Education and Early Childhood Development these included new procedures, raising awareness and providing specialised testing services.
Microsoft – Accessibility advice
Gian Wild developed and ran a one day accessible development training session for Microsoft developers and testers. The course covered why accessibility is important, as well as identifying detailed steps on how to comply with every Level A checkpoint of the W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines.
Ticketmaster7 – Accessibility advice
Gian Wild developed and ran a one day accessible development training session for Ticketmaster7 developers; this was followed by a second (half day) course on specific fixes to accessibility errors found in the Melbourne 2006 Commonwealth Games ticketing application. The initial course covered why accessibility is important, as well as detailed steps on how to comply with every Level A checkpoint for the W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines. The second course covered specific areas of non-compliance, including the labelling of fields, the indicating of mandatory fields, and the provision of detailed instructions. Specific fixes were developed in response to an audit of the ticketing application and testing by a vision impaired person.
Brisbane City Council (BCC) – Accessibility policy
Gian Wild worked with the Brisbane City Council to develop an appropriate training schedule for BCC staff. The schedule included three seminars developed for a range of Council staff. Seminar One: Accessibility Basics The seminar (attracting over 70 staff) was aimed at those with little or no understanding of accessibility. The intention of the seminar was to raise awareness of accessibility throughout the organisation. Seminar Two: Devising an Accessibility Policy The seminar was run for Council’s upper management to provide structure to the development of an Accessibility Policy for Brisbane City Council. Seminar Three: Accessible Development The one day training session was run twice for the developers of the Our Brisbane (www.ourbrisbane.com) and BCC (www.brisbane.qld.gov.au) web sites. It covered a range of accessibility issues, concentrating on W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines Level A checkpoints, and in detail, how to comply with these Guidelines. In addition to the training, Gian also helped to develop and form a Disability Reference Group within the Council. The Group consisted of people with disabilities who could review Council’s products and sites for accessibility compliance.
