Happy New Year from the Technology Accessibility Team

Happy New Year from the Technology Accessibility Team

• January 3rd, 2019
• in Training, UA11y News

Happy New Year! We’re excited to share some news with you as we start a new year and a new semester.

Faculty Resource Center Spring 2019 Workshop Registration is now open! This semester, the Technology Accessibility team will offer workshops and webinars on web accessibility; best practices for creating accessible documents, presentations, spreadsheets, emails, and social media content; and Universal Design for Learning, a set of curriculum development principles that give all individuals equal opportunities to learn. New this semester are Accessibility Testing with NVDA (2/27) and Accessibility Testing with VoiceOver (3/21), workshops in which participants will learn how to use free screen reader programs to test the accessibility of digital content.

We are especially looking forward to our Texthelp expert trainer visit on Wednesday, February 13. Texthelper Kimberly Nix will provide comprehensive introductions to Read&Write for Google Chrome and Read&Write for Windows, literacy support solutions with tools for reading, writing, research, and studying. Read&Write is freely available to all UA students, faculty, and staff on campus and personal machines, as are two additional Texthelp tools: EquatIO, an application you can use to type, handwrite, or speak to create equations, formulas, and other math and chemistry expressions; and Snapverter, an easy to use add-on for Read&Write for Google Chrome and iOS app that transforms papers and files into readable PDF documents. Register online for these and other technology accessibility workshops and other workshops offered by the Faculty Resource Center.

A couple of additional learning opportunities in which you may be interested:

• Microsoft is offering a new series of free Accessibility Learning Webinars, the goal of which is to share the latest technology and accessibility features across Microsoft products and help answer common accessibility questions. Upcoming webinars include Narrator 101 (1/16), Magnifier and Low Vision Features in Windows 10 (2/20), and Navigating the New Office Ribbon (3/20).
• Also from Microsoft, the newly-created Empower every student with an inclusive classroom course enables educators of all subject areas to learn about Microsoft Learning Tools and practice creating accessible learning environments Windows 10 and Office 365. The course is free and is part of Microsoft’s Inclusive Classroom Learning Path.

Keep up with us throughout the semester by following our UA11y News blog, the Technology Accessibility Facebook page, and the UATechAccess Twitter account.

As always, thanks for your efforts in making UA a more inclusive and accessible campus! Best wishes for a great semester, and please contact us if we can help with your technology accessibility needs.