[wac-announce] News from the WAC: Workshop Reminder, Us at World Usability Day, New Email and Web Address

[Ken Petri]

NEWS from the OSU Web Accessibility Center (WAC)
- October 28, 2005 -

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In This Email:
   * Workshop Reminder: Accessible MS Office (Today!)
   * ADA and the WAC at World Usability Day (November 3)
   * New Email and Web Address
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WORKSHOP REMINDER: ACCESSIBLE MS OFFICE

There is lots of room left for our workshop today on publishing MS
Office documents to the web.

As a door prize (and incentive to come), we'll be giving away a
license key for a full version of the Illinois Accessible Web
Publishing Wizard, a program we will be looking at as part of the
workshop. The Wizard converts Office documents into web pages that
meet (for the most part) Federal 508 and WCAG requirements.

Today's workshop presentation will be given using a browser-based
alternative to PowerPoint and we'll be discussing this technology as
well. (Those "in the know" might have already guessed the technology
we are talking about. But if you don't know, come and learn!  Or wait
for the presentation to be archived on our web site....)

Workshop details:

"Publishing MS Office (Word, PowerPoint, Excel) to the Web"
- Date: Friday, October 28
- Time: 2:00-4:30 PM
- Location: Science and Engineering Library (SEL) 390
--> Overview: http://wac.osu.edu/workshops/index.cfm#102805a_desc


ADA AND THE WAC AT WORLD USABILITY DAY

Web accessibility and web usability are closely related. Ken from the
WAC and Scott Lissner, the OSU ADA Coordinator, will be giving an
informal talk on accessibility and its impact on usable web design at
the World Usability Day at OSU event.

We will address both the laws mandating accessibility compliance and
the enhanced usability that comes from thoughtful implementation of
accessible design. We'll also be opening up for discussion about
accessibility and usability in light of new initiatives in web
design--what happens to accessibility in "Web 2.0?" in the "Semantic
Web?" in "Rich Internet Applications?"

The World Usability Day at OSU is hosted at the Digital Union and
organized by the Office of the Chief Information Officer, The
Department of Industrial, Interior, and Visual Communication Design,
and the Digital Union. Our talk begins at 5 PM and is followed by a
reception and a panel discussion from 6:30 to 8:00 PM by
representatives from Nationwide, IBM, Lexant, JPMorgan Chase, and
Resource Interactive.

World Usability Day is an international "happening," involving
organizations and individuals invested in making stuff easier to use.
There will be local events going on in 70 cities in 30 countries and
28 hours of webcast presentations by internationally known usability
experts covering a vast range of topics.

Here are links to follow for the Columbus event:
--> http://worldusabilityday.org/taxonomy/term/168
--> http://accad.osu.edu/~rstone/wud.html
--> http://digitalunion.osu.edu/NewsAndEvents/20051012WorldUsabilityDay/

And you can visit the World Usability Day web site here:
--> http://worldusabilityday.org

We hope to see you there!


NEW EMAIL AND WEB ADDRESS

The old email address (webaccess at osu.edu) is still in service, as is
the old web site address (www.wac.ohio-state.edu). But we also have
some shorter, easier to remember addresses:

* http://wac.osu.edu
* mailto:wac at osu.edu


Until next time, with kind regards,
Your WAC Staff
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  OSU Web Accessibility Center
  102 Pomerene Hall
  1760 Neil Ave.
  Columbus, OH 43210
  Phone: (614) 292-1760
  mailto:wac at osu.edu
  http://wac.osu.edu
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    http://wac.osu.edu/listserv.htm
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