Policy Update
- Backgrounder : COVID-19 Disability Advisory Group - As we know in times of crisis, people with disabilities face unique and often heightened challenges. In response to this, the Feds roll out new disability advisory panel to see that people with disabilities are represented. This panel is chaired by Al Etmanski who wrote this piece about the role of this panel If Terror Was Temperature.
- What Federally-Regulated Employers Need to Know About The Accessible Canada Act - Federally-regulated entities need to prepare and publish accessibility plans, develop a feedback plan, publish progress reports, evaluate $250,000 risk for for non-compliance and obligation to pay monetary compensation to complainants.
- Accessible Transportation for Persons with Disabilities Regulations – an overview - Most of the ATPDR will come into effect on 25 June 2020. The According to the act, "A transportation service provider must ensure that every website that it owns, operates or controls and that is made available to the public — including any mobile site that contains other platforms, such as applications —meets the requirements for a Level AA conformance that are set out in the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines."
- Accessibility Plans — Regulations Under This Act - As part of the Accessible Canada Act the government is committed to publish it's first accessibility plan by June 21, 2020.
- National AccessAbility Week – May 31 to June 6, 2020 - See the Upcoming Events section below.
- Accessibility Plans — Regulations Under This Act - As part of the Accessible Canada Act the government is committed to publish it's first accessibility plan by June 21, 2020.
- A Future Date: Digital Accessibility Legal Summit Update - Pina D'Intino and Jennifer Chadwick speak about the Accessible Canada Act.
Resources
Surveys
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Upcoming Events
- National & International Days - May is Healthy Vision Month and Blind Awareness Month.
- Introduction to Web Accessibility - The W3C is organizing an edX MOOC and this course runs until the end of May. Sign up at any time, this is a course you can complete at your own pace. It is designed around about 20 hours of material.
- Ryerson University's CKCS 126 - Web Accessibility for Developers (4 May to 4 July) - This is a good time to get your web developer team signed up for the next course that Ryerson offers.
- John Slatin Virtual AccessU 2020, May 13/14 & 19/20 - AccessU is going virtual this year, with four packed days of accessibility goodness in May. Register now to get lots of valuable content organized by the good folks at Knowbility.
- Accessible Images When It Matters Most, May 14th from 2:00 ET - Carie Fisher leads a great webinar on how to create accessible images.
- Global Accessibility Awareness Day, May 21 - What will you be doing to celebrate GAAD this year? The GAAD site is being updated but will be having a listing of virtual events up soon, so check back here prior to the date.
- Microsoft's 10th Annual Accessibility Summit, May 27-28 - Microsoft's hosting another summit packed with content encouraging us to imagine, build, include and empower people to create a more inclusive world.
- A11y Talks, 2pm ET May 28th - Join Mike talking about Accessibility Axioms - Explore the basic truths about digital accessibility. We may not be able to get agreement on these, but it is worth trying. Join live and discuss an #a11yaxiom on Twitter.
- National AccessAbility Week – May 31 to June 6, 2020 - One of the outcomes of the Accessible Canada Act, is this great week to celebrate accessibility in Canada.
- Enable Ottawa, June 2-4 - Join OpenConcept at the first virtual Enable Ottawa conference. The focus will be on a celebrate the contributions of persons with disabilities, the tools and technologies that remove barriers to participation for persons with disabilities and building community to sustain it all. Mike will be speaking on June 4th.
- HighEdWeb online conference, June 25 - Higher Education Web Professionals Association.
- 2020 Disability:IN VIRTUAL Conference, July 13th – 16th - Disability:IN moved their annual conference back to the middle of July. Disability:IN has produced information on stock photos & procurement that has already been featured here.
- DrupalCon Global, July 14-17 - DrupalCon always has great resources on accessibility for the web. Yes, there's a lot of Drupal specific stuff, because this community is helping to shape the web, but it is much bigger than Drupal.
- Drupal GovCon 2020, July 29-31 - DrupalGovCon is so much more than just another amazing Drupal community event. This is an opportunity for governments and non-profits to highlight some of the best practices on the web. Register now and consider submitting a session today!
- A11yCourses - This list of accessibility courses and events is being maintained for those who want to learn more. If there are others that you think should be added, please let us know. Supported by OpenConcept.
- Funka Accessibility Days, September 2-3 - This is the conference to go to if you want to understand how the EU is implementing EN 301 549 under the Web Accessibility Directive and European Accessibility Act.
- Inclusive Design 24, All Day September 17, 2020 - This is an amazing free virtual event about inclusive design and accessibility.
COVID-19
- Accessibility Business Hub - OpenConcept was part of this great team behind this site which is focused on pulling together resources for Canadians, especially during the pandemic. Supported by OpenConcept.
- Miscellany № 87: a coronavirus conundrum - Both #COVIDー19 and #COVID—19 look pretty much alike, and many wouldn't recognize it as being any different from #COVID-19 but to screen readers they are actually quite different. This post highlights how the choice of UTF8 characters can have an unintended impact on screen reader users.
- Virtual Townhall on Disability Issues During COVID - David Lepofsky and Thea Kurdi were both part of this great virtual panel talking about inclusion in this pandemic. Sneh Duggal wrote a nice summary of the event too.
- Accessibility ideas for distance learning during COVID-19 - Google's KR Liu does a great job listing tools that can help educators manage the transition to digital courses.
- The web is getting less accessible to people with disabilities - Sheri Byrne-Haber once again does a stellar job highlight the importance of accessibility. Her article builds on the The WebAIM Million, but brings that into context of the coronavirus.
- Pandemic Is A Disability For All - Peter Slatin has written an interesting exploration of this pandemic as a type of disability, and what society should learn from it.
- Vital Coronavirus Information Is Failing the Blind and Visually Impaired - Melanie Ehrenkranz writes in Vice about challenges in communicating crucial updates around the pandemic to blind readers.
- ARCH Bulletin on COVID-19: Accessible Communication - ARCH Disability Law Centre calls on all levels of government to ensure that all official communications about COVID-19 must be made accessible to everyone. It was great to see the focus on plain language in their recommendations.
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) ASL Videos - The CDC in the USA has published a rich series of videos on COVID-19 for the deaf community.
- Sign language interpreters, fixtures of coronavirus briefings, gain new audience - So good to see sign language at these important events. Also, nice to hear the call for this to be normalized. This is critical information after all, so efforts should be made for everyone to understand it.
- DisabilityIn: COVID-19 Response: Digital Accessibility and Other Best Practices for Remote Work - This is another great resource compiled by Lainey Feingold for the DisabilityIN community. This is part of a series they have put together on COVID-19.
- It’s Time to Drop “Darwinism” and Listen to Darwin and His Successors on Human Evolution** - Jutta Treviranus challenges us to appreciate the real message of Darwin beyond the "survival of the fittest" which society has popularized. "Our survival is dependent on supporting and including difference and variation."
- Accessible Remote Attendance - How should you run remote events? Points on technology choices as well as best practices for managing meeting participants, moderating sessions and presenting.
- Ensuring Accessibility as Institutions Shift Instruction and Operations Online - It's written for an American context, but there is lots of useful information about how educational institutions can better serve their students by thinking about accessibility as everything moves digital.
- PEAT Works: Telework and Accessibility - With digital devices, platforms, and documents becoming the primary methods used by individuals to execute work and engage in daily life, it's more important than ever to prioritize digital accessibility.
Updates from OpenConcept
- I am presenting at A11y Talks, 2pm ET May 28th. See more in the events listing above.
- I will also be presenting at Enable Ottawa on June 2nd. See more in the events listing above.
- I will be featured in an upcoming episode of Stories from the Open Gov an amazing podcast by Richard Pietro with stellar line-up of people pushing for open government. Subscribe now to hear interviews with Melanie Robert, Rob Davidson, Michael Geist, Ryan Androsoff, Jesse Hirsh and Tracey Lauriault.
- COVID-19, Digital Transformation & Accessibility - This pandemic is forcing more people to live and work from home, which means that it is more important than ever to get digital accessibility right. Was great to have this featured in A11y Weekly newsletter and Laura Carlson's Web Design Update.
- What Can Organizations Do To Reduce CO2 During The Pandemic? I authored this article on climate change and in particular the role that technology plays in our growing GHG emissions.
- I am one of the facilitators in the Institute on Governance's Digital Executive Leadership Program. If you are already a digital leader, or want to become one, it is worth signing up for more information. There is no better program to deliver virtually, and the team is looking at ways of implementing that. We will be doing the first virtual session on June 1-5 and you can register up to May 18th.
- We have posted some interim results of the Color Contrast Survey but it isn't too late to participate if you haven't already.
Mike Gifford's Bio
For almost 20 years Mike has worked to shape open source software and the communities around them. In 2008, Mike began building a community of global experts in accessibility to help shape the Drupal community. He spearheaded the advancements made by the community, working to make it accessibility by default. In 2012, Mike was officially made a Drupal 8 Core Accessibility Maintainer.
Mike has a long association with people with disabilities. Mike founded the first Ottawa Accessibility Unconference Dec 2, 2011. Since then A11yYOW.ca has been organizing events to build a community of practice in Ottawa. He has presented at several accessibility conferences including A11yTO, CSUN & M-Enabling.
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