This is the schedule and the list of topics will be covered in our upcoming GAAD 2021 event on May 20th, 2021.
| Speaker | Topic | Scheduled Time in IST (P.M) |
|---|---|---|
| Humberto Hernandez | How does the awareness of assistive technologies by professors impact students with disabilities’ success at the college level? | 5:30 – 6:10 |
| Joshua Muheim | How to create accessible JavaScript widgets with basic HTML components | 6:15 – 6:55 |
| Apoorv Kulkarni | Urban Accessibility Challenges for Persons with Disabilities | 7:00 – 7:40 |
| Sukriti Chadha Yatin Kaushal | Accessible charts using music and haptics | 7:45 – 8:25 |
| Shilpi Kapoor | Digital Accessibility – Building for Scale | 8:30 – 9:10 |
| Todd Libby | Start Your A11y Journey: How to Become an Accessibility Advocate | 9:15 – 9:55 |
Topics
How does the awareness of assistive technologies by professors impact students with disabilities’ success at the college level?
Humberto Hernandez
This research topic proposal was developed to investigate the impact of assistive technology in the students with disabilities’ success within the context of college academia. The principal argument of this writing suggests that the lack of awareness of assistive technology by professors creates barriers that violate the rights of the individual with a disability under U.S. law. Several theories were explored that were relevant to learning and human development. Research methodology for this paper presented a comprehensive survey from the National Survey of Student Engagement. This assessment tool measured quantitative outcomes in college students-with-disabilities engagement. Key findings revealed strong connections to theories within the literature review and evidence of the impact that the lack of knowledge and awareness of assistance technology have in students with disabilities’ success at the college level. Concluded remarks synthesized the overall findings linking assistive technology, class engagement theories, students with disabilities and instructors’ awareness. Recommendations collectively expressed further research on this topic, application of the findings for institutional effectiveness, and encouragement of diverse, supportive, egalitarian, and equitable college environments.
How to create accessible JavaScript widgets with basic HTML components
Joshua Muheim
The WAI-ARIA standard (https://www.w3.org/WAI/standards-guidelines/aria/) introduced concise requirements regarding accessible implementations of various interactive usage patterns. However, compatibility varies a lot between browsers and screen readers. As such, it’s still a pain to create accessible cross-browser/platform/device JavaScript widgets.
Instead of using WAI-ARIA, it’s possible to create most interactive usage patterns by dividing them into simple HTML form controls, connecting them with some JavaScript, styling them as wanted, and adding only a tiny bit of ARIA here and there for polishing. This results in widgets that rely on rock solid browser standard behaviour in most of their functionality. In my talk, I will show how to create sophisticated widgets (like autocompletes, tabs, date pickers, or accordions) using basic HTML, CSS, and JavaScript: they are compatible with each and every browser and assistive device (ie. screen reader). As such, they truly work for everyone – and are extremely cheap in terms of performance and maintenance.
Urban Accessibility Challenges for Persons with Disabilities
Apoorv Kulkarni
Persons with Disabilities (PwD) form the largest minority group in India with non-government estimates pegging the number over 100 million. PwDs need safe, accessible, reliable and affordable transportation for accessing a variety of socioeconomic opportunities. However, in India, accessibility considerations often get overlooked during the planning phase of urban transport systems – an observation further highlighted during the COVID-19 pandemic. This, in turn, perpetuates the exclusion of PwD from accessing various opportunities. An economy pays the cost of such exclusion in the form of reduced productivity of the Persons with Disabilities, as well as their carers, such as family members, who otherwise would have a higher economic output. According to the International Labour Organization, the cost of excluding Persons with Disabilities from the workforce could be as high as 7% of GDP representing a huge economic
loss. Thus, there is an urgent need to improve accessibility of urban transport systems and to make them more disability inclusive.
This session will include:
- The urban travel experience of Persons with Disabilities
- Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the travel experiences of PwD
- Select recommendations for improving the accessibility of urban transportation
Accessible charts using music and haptics
Sukriti Chadha and Yatin Kaushal
Finance charts quickly render hundreds of data points making it seamless to analyze a stock’s performance. Charts are great for people who can see well. Those who are visually impaired often use screen readers. For them, the readers announce the data points in a table format. Beyond a few data points, it becomes difficult for users to create a mental image of the chart’s trend. The audio charts project started with the goal of making Yahoo Finance charts accessible to users with visual impairment. With audio charts, data points are converted to tones with haptic feedback and are easily available through mobile devices where users can switch between tones and spoken feedback.
Click here to read more.
Digital Accessibility – Building for Scale
Shilpi Kapoor
The Why, How and What of building a large-scale digital accessibility team! Reflecting on the Accessibility eco-system and finding solutions to build for scale.
Start Your A11y Journey: How to Become an Accessibility Advocate
Todd Libby
Tips and suggestions for people that are starting out in their accessibility journey or learning about accessibility and how to better advocate accessibility in the workplace, to stakeholders and managers, and ways to bring accessibility to your workflow.
To know more about the speakers, click on this link.