It. Is now 12:30. And we'll begin this will begin today's session I will now turn it over to our session moderator, Caleb, burka miner, next. Manner welcome. Everyone to, today's webinar on, new approaches, and resources. For embracing accessibility. In the whole organization, the. Webinar brought to you by the, mid-atlantic 88 Center project. To transcend, Inc, I'm. Pleased to introduce today's. Speaker. Dr. Chris law is the president, and owner of, accessibility. Tract, consulting. His. Goal is to help lead developments. In the field of organization. Wide approaches. To accessibility. Prisons, the manager, lead, author and community. Of practice, chair for, the National, Federation of, the blind. Accessibility. Switchboard. Project, which. Aims to provide starting-point. Resources. For the diverse, audiences, on, how to incorporate, accessibility. Across. An organization's. Activities. He. Is also the, chair of the annual ICT. Accessibility. Testing. Symposium. And event. Bringing, peer-reviewed. Conference. Presentations, to, the East Coast. So. I'm pleased to introduce Chris. So now I will turn it over to. Thank. You very much I run. This is Chris I'm. Going to advance to the next, slide I think it's 11. So. Here here we start with the you. Start right in with a slide that has. Four. Quadrants, and then it's just there's some text labels employees, customers human, resources and technology, and. What. We find in real life is that it's. It's easy to focus on one or two of these things in an organization, and, it's. It's quite possible. And easy to overlook other. Aspects. So. For example, we've had companies. That have had marketing. Campaigns, that have touted their employment, of disabilities. And they they, make a big, investment in mark to. Show what a great job they're doing and, then, as soon as somebody who's blind cut contacts. Their customer, support. The. Customer, support people are untrained, in how blind people use the web, we've. Had we, have, organizations. That sponsor. Disability. Organizations. Like Human Resources. Disability. Organizations. And, then if you actually go look at their websites you'll find that their websites feature, all manner of technical. Problems, with accessibility. I've. Had a lot of personal experiences lately. With. Hotel. Booking systems where. The. Companies. Are.
Full-on. On their Human Resources side but the technical, side is a little bit lacking. So. And. Then you might have say. A Human, Resources campaign. In. A company where they are trying. To focus on training and hiring of people with, disabilities, and maybe. On the technology, side they have, say. That they've made their customer-facing website, accessible. But. They haven't given any regard to say that the phone system that the employees, uses the, employees use or the. The intranet, you. Know the employee, facing, web, as, where the. Time and attendance system, human and. Or even the security, to get through the door at the beginning of each day and if you can't use those systems if you're if you're blind, or. Has some sort of physical disability, that but. You preclude, you. Using, their their preferred system so. We. See. Periodically. We see these, studies. Being, published, where. Government. Websites, in particular are, picked on where. They, the. Researchers. Say. Look we've had a long time to. Work out the technology sides, of accessibility. With websites, our government, department is doing and you, can easily google, for. Recent. Studies but. They come out every six months or so from different sectors around the world and they always find that the people coming up short. If, you, if you, went to a list. Of all the organizations, that say sponsor, the human resource side of. Disability. Access and. Then you actually did that same sort of study on the. Technology, behind those websites, of those companies you, might end up with about the same results, and so. In, the, accessibility, field we've always been asking why we've. Always been asking what is it that we can do to change this situation. Typically. Everything, that the every, new technology that comes. Is, a new introduction. To the marketplace, is not, accessible, on day, one so. ATMs, will like this all through the 90s. Vending. Machines are, still you. Know the that are in the employee lunch rooms those, are mostly inaccessible. The, other day I was walking, through an airport and many of you may have encountered. These same things there's, this huge. Explosion of tablet, systems. In. Place, of waitstaff, in. Restaurants, in airports. And I. Can. Pretty, much bet you that those systems are not accessible right out of the box so. As a field. The, accessibility, field we've always been looking for answers, to why this sort of thing happens what can we do to change it and now. What, we're really trying to focus on is the. People that are involved, in the, businesses, what can we do to help those people who are. Asking their questions of. What they can do to get started. The. Next slide is number, 12, in. The. In. The early days of, the. Federal government. What. Typically, used to happen was that you started up an accessibility, team as a result of legislation. Like section 508 and. What. I have here is a slide with a. Typical. Organizational, chart with all the different departments that you might have and, one item. Is. Is a, circle, which is the accessibility, team so we've got the security team the usability team, the. And. Then there's the accessibility, team and they're circled, and there's, somebody with a. Making. A presentation saying let's focus our changes here and so. When you start up, in, there with the idea of the, let's tackle accessibility. Typically, you start by creating a, team and. That team does its work and. They. Have really, little, influence, over the rest of the organization, they're. Focused on their their own setups and. The next slide. Is. Numbers. 13. The. Here. I've got the same chart, and the person instead saying let's focus on the whole organization. So Guerreros across the entire organization, not. Just the accessibility, team and, this is a change that's really happened, over the last five. Five. Years six, years the. People, in the accessibility, field have been thinking about this and saying wait.
A Second, it's not just the accessibility, team it's not just the website it's not just the HR, its. Procurement its IT support, its marketing, its customer, service and, if, you really want to have a, an. Organization. Where. Accessibility. Is brace embraced, across. The organization, your. Focus has to be across, the organization. So, it. Kind. Of sounds obvious, now. That, you should be doing this but. Again. If we think back to five to ten years ago, people. Were focused. Squarely, on, the technology. Side or, they're focused squarely if, they're, in the HR side they focused on the HR, issues so, that they're thinking HR. Is training, staff. But. They don't, have a regard, necessarily. Or they and they're not forward-thinking, to, say well what is the technology, implications. Of this because they. You. Know they don't have that background okay. So. The. Next slide. Is 14 and. So. Any. Time. That, you start introducing a concept. Like. Organizational. Change. You're. Going to find a lot of people will tell you that it can't or it won't happen, so. You may be in, these situations, yourself where you're you're really thinking. About it and you're having these discussions, about change with your peers and and. They say well it's a great idea but you know it's not my responsibilities, I'm not accountable for this that's, everything so, this, sort of this, sort of. Fear. Of change happens. But research. Tells, us that people actually don't fear, change, what, they really fear is, ambiguity. So. I have a. Diagram. Here from a book called, process, consulting by Alan Weis and. It has a. It. Starts with the. Current state and it's. Very easy for, for. People to describe, their current state and and. Do an analysis, do some sort of measurements. Of where are we on on things across the board in our organization, and it's. Very easy as, well to. Get people to agree that, the, situation should be better it's, very easy to agree on a desired, state and, have, people draw, up plans and say this is where we're going to get to in six months one, year to two years. What. Is difficult is actually then doing the work and, it's going through what Alan. White's calls the ambiguous, zone and so, these are represented, by squiggly, lines that are a bit chaotic going, from the current state to the desired, state. The. Reason, we've, had these sorts of problems is, if you, think of say somebody who's in the, HR department thinking. Of their current state of their desired state they're. Looking at it as a customers, as a, human. Resources, issue, and if, you have somebody who works in customer, service and they look at the current state in their desired state they're. Looking at within that bubble and rarely. If ever does, somebody come along and say wait a minute. Tooley the whole organization. So. How do you know JH people. Towards, them and. So. Typically. We. Can, think of the, people that are faced, with this. Situation as, I want, to make some sort of change and I really think that this should be organization-wide. What. Is it that I should do. You. In. Addition to your past experience, with the experience you've had your. Own schooling and the. Experience, you've had with the company so, far that you work for and the companies you have worked for in the past, the. The first thing you, might do if you if, you're new to this area is you might get google for the answers and so. It really depends on how good you are googling, and it depends on how good the, information, is out there as. To whether you find the right answers on them. You. Might find a book again. If you're good at searching for the right book how, do you know what's the right book you. Know you look, for look on Amazon for like how do I change my organization, regarding disability you, might find some references, that are 15 20 years old and you, might find a few that are more recent than that but, it's kind of a bit, of luck involved. Now. You might ask a, colleague. You know you might do it's. A sort, of Who, Wants to Be a Millionaire you, know, fashion. You might phone a friend and, it. Depends on whether they actually know the answers. You. Might ask the world you might ask ask. The audience you, know you send out social media things. Looking for help looking for. Participations. Or you might ask your superior, you might ask a consultant, but which, one do, you go to and talk to and if you if you talk to three different consultants, you get three different answers what do you do. So. It's really hard for newcomers to figure out what. It is that they should be doing and, we. Found that people go down rabbit holes they. Go down dead ends they or they rely on sort of blind luck, to. Define, something and so. What. We did with this project. Of the switchboard, was just to. Think of ourselves as like well what.
Can We do to help those people. Trying to figure out the answers so. I've got a representation. Here on slide 15. It. The. The. Slide shows. A. Small, number of accessibility. Consultants. And other subject, matter experts, and and. Then a representation. Of business and industry of, all different sizes represented. By lots and lots of different circles, have. All different sizes and some. Of the consultants, are in. Dialogue with, some, of the industries, but, they're certainly not involved with all of them there's far too many companies out there for, the number of accessibility, consultants, that exist and then. I've, also highlighted. One. Red. Circle, which, is a representation. Of a small business, that. Small business may not. Be. Able to actually afford a consultant, so. In. In this scenario. They. May be they've just gotten the demand letter that's been sent to them because they're their restaurants. Website. Is inaccessible, and they. Just don't know what to do, and they. Think of calling up a consultant, that first consultant, they call it they say well that's actually way, out of my price range, so. The. Difficulty. For people is to try to figure out, well. How do we get that information from, all the accessibility, experts, and and put. It out in a way that would. Help a, larger. Number of people, specifically. On this issue of how do you change. Your organization. Okay. So. On to the next slide number 16. So. This is precisely what we did with the switchboard. What. I have here, I've modified. The previous slide I've got the. Accessibility. Subject. Matter expert we formed them into a community, of practice. We. Currently have 30 of them so. Just, have some thumbnail images, of organizations. That. Are. Half. Of them are accessible. With the consultants, and half are other subject matter experts, like universities. And. Nonprofits, and that sort of thing and, the. Idea, of the accessibility, switchboard. Is to take that knowledge, from. All of those consultants, and subject matter experts of, how. Do you make the first steps, and. Form, it into guidance, and articles, that can, help the newcomers, when. We first started this project a, lot, of the. People that I talked. To when when, we're forming, the community practice said well I've, got a lot of proprietary information that, don't necessarily want to share and I, said. We're not really, trying to do the share, that proprietary information we're, just trying to share the basics, on how people to get started, because our problem. As a field is one of scale there's, far too many companies, out there who are not doing accessibility. And we. Need some other way in other, than to just hope that one day they. Will call, you with. A question. About how to make their organization, accessible, so. What. We've done is try to. Take. The. Information from experts and put it in the format that's usable. On a wider field and and. Yes this does follow the same model as many other similar attempts, that. It has the same sorts of challenges of keeping it going and keeping, the. Information up to date so this is seen. Very much as an ongoing project, of. Right. Now we've created a lot of content, and now. We're in the process of. Disseminating. That content, to people. Moving. On to the next slide so let me just give. You a quick introduction, to what the accessibility, switchboard is I. Can't, give you a full. Overview. In, the time we have today but, certainly. Go look at the website afterwards. And at the end of the session. Here we have the links, to all the the. Websites so. The. Accessibility, switchboards. Homepage. Is. It's. A little bit stretched out on this this. Graphic but but. The. The. Main, focus. When you arrive on the the homepage, is the, selection, tool which we call the sort selection, gizmo. We're, on the left hand side we. Were. Using a switchboard motif, I. First. Identify, what area, you're in you're in business and industry or, you're a consumer, or you're in, higher, education. Or. You're in government and then. On the right hand side you, select do, I need guidance or. I may looking for resources, I'm looking for support and I'm looking for answers a lot. Of times. Guidance. And resources, and support, could, mean the same thing so, we end up with for, the for. Whatever individual, is going into this so, we do have multiple ways to find and, access the information that's there so.
In. When. You connect, those two so we've connected as an example educational. Institutions, and guidance and we, get a list of. Guides. That have been created specifically. For that for. That group okay. And then, so in if, I click on the the first one which is we're. Now onto slide 18. This. Is just one example of, many. So. A guide. Starting. An organizational. Wide accessibility. Program a guide for higher education, institutions, so. Each guide has a similar. Structure. And it, has a very short introduction and background there, they're all about 8 to 10 pages long so, quite. Quite, short. Some. Would say long but we're, sure. Each, has a multi-step, process, so, for example in. This. Guide for starting, a program we say look, step one is you, need to systematically appraise. Your current situation then, you need to step, to consider, your alternatives, for. Technology, compliance, and organizational, culture that. That, being said that this. Vism, this, is the way you have things now this, may be not working and. The. Way that you could have things set. Up in the future there are lots of different options, then. Gained. Executive. Support now. In, the. Again, a new thing in the last five years, the. People in the, accessibility. Field are in, universal, agreement right, now nothing. Changes in organizations, without getting the executive support you can be the accessibility. Evangelist, all you like and you, can run around and talk to as many people as you like but unless the executives, give, you their support and give, you their backing nothing, is going to change in your organization you. Have to have that and. Then, step. Four establishes stakeholders, and goals step 5 design, and plan and implement a new system and, step, six periodic, updates. Each. Of the each. Of the guides, includes. Links. To other switch board articles, so, we can't cover cover, everything, in, one. Eight page, guide then you can't go into details on procurement, for example you can't go into details on testing, or usability, and things like this so we link to other switchboard guides that are relevant and we, link to public published, resources. One. Public, resource, so if somebody googling, for a, resource. Or an organizational. Change you. Know they might find. Ten, different resources, or actually twenty, thousand resources. We. Get the community of practice to agree on one and point, people to one and say go read this is the, best thing and then we also have links to published case studies so. We. Try to balance the length of the articles. With. The, need of. Newcomers. Who. Who, are looking for a quick answer, but. We figure, you can't give them the answer on this one page you, know. Eight eight to ten pages to. Really introduce into the topics and, get them thinking and so. All of the guides that are in here and if I go into the next page. Again. This shows you why we can't cover this all in one quick webinar. Right. Now we have 13 guides and, 15, articles. What. We call Q&A articles, and other resources or. Thumbnail, pictures of. The different. Guides here and it. Will still grow in the future, so this is the result of lots of research. Lots. Of practice. The expertise. Of a large. Community of practice, a lot, of collaboration. Went into creating this content, okay. So. That's the switchboard. Again. Take, a look at the switchboard in your own time and. Please. Provide us with feedback, and. Do share the information as well all the information, on the switchboard is completely free all of it is. Is. A, Creative, Commons as. A birthday so. You can. Take. That content and reuse as much as you want, the. The. Next slide is slide number 20, so. I. In. Business, is what I ended up deciding, to do, so. Right. Now what, I do as a company, my company's called accessibility, track I take, I am now taking, the expertise, of consultants, and other subject matter experts and putting it at a forum to.
Help People in business and industry and government. Figure. Out what how to get started so I'll mention two projects, that I've. Worked on, just slide 21, the first being as. Mentioned, in the introduction the accessibility, testing symposium, and. In. The accessibility, testing symposium, we're now in. Our third year it's. In the fall and it has, taken place in the DC area, although. Next year is going further afield, to. Other states, and. It will jump, around other states but but, the. If. If we look back at our list of, our consult, of our subject, matter experts and consultancies. A lot of those consultancies, create test processes. And. Up. To three years ago there was no forum, for everybody to get together and discuss those things so so, this is a the. Target audience for this symposium is. Experts. Who. Create, test, tools and test processes, it's, not so much the end users, of trespasses. As although there are some of them and. But. It's really focused, on getting those subject matter experts, together, and. And. So. Those that are involved in creation, and use of ah turns as, well as. People. That. Manage. Test, teams and, implement, testings across, their organizations. And. So. The. And. We've we, end up creating they're sort of am. Proceedings. Everything. Is peer reviewed. This. Is there's no exhibitors, at this event it's, not a sales pitch it's not product demos. It, is is really discussion. With the scientific issues, to. Then further. The, accessibility. Testing business we can I have a thumbnail of. Some. Of the text from the website again. We'll put the link on the last page and a. Few images from from last year's event. There's. A bottom. Images poll, trader at our lunch with the keynote event at. Last, last. Year. On. To the next slide like. 20. To the. The. Last this, is the last thing I'll talk about this is actually brand new again. The. Idea of create, getting the best minds together and. Creating. Something new so we've. We. Have. I'm. Sure most. Of you on, who. Tuned, in today you will know that, web. Accessibility. Lawsuits, are on the rise. There. Has been an explosion of, them over the last three, or four years it all started, with a, lawsuit. Against, target, around. About eight years ago and. And. Now, there are, thousands. And thousands of lawsuits being brought, up. To this point we didn't really have a forum, for discussion for, this so we. Created a forum and so. I have a thumbnail image here. Of the. Speakers at the summit we had 20 speakers we have an East and the West summit. That's coming up one is the. East one is on. October 1st and 2nd, in, Washington. DC and, then, there will be a West event, in, March. In Anaheim. And the. The. The. Goal, is to bring together both, the plaintiffs, and the defendants. Experts. In their fields, on the plaintiff and the defendants, side as well. As the, accessibility people, the, accessibility, experts, and people. That are helping. Organizations. Make, their change and helping. The legal teams in their, analyses, for. Example of measuring they're. Measuring. The accessibility, of a website in that type of thing so. This. Is again it's a brand new event and at. The end of both the, east and the west event will have a publication. Which will be. Serve. As a sort of annual update, of what, is happening in the accessibility. Field, regarding. Legal. Issues, in the digital, space. So. Again. Taking taking, that information from the experts, and putting it in a format that we can then share much. More widely okay. So.
That's. The. Slide 14, slide. 23, sorry, is the the. Contact in the URLs, I can, be contacted, my. Website is accessibility, track calm, the. Accessibility, switchboard, is quite easy at. WWE. Switchboard, org and. The. Testing, symposium, is. That's. Coming up in November in. Arlington. Virginia it's, wwws. ET, 2018. Org. And the. New event the disability. The. Digital accessibility legal. Summit is w. WX. S ability, legal. I know. In this short. Webinar. We. Haven't had time to work in a, lot, of questions and answers over, any really so. Do. Contact me directly my contact, details are up on the website if, you've got questions about the switch or the testing symposium. The. Legal summit or, any, other, issue to do with implementation. Of, accessibility, across an organization. Thank. You very much. Thank. You Chris for sharing your work with us today, I encourage. Everyone to go to the. Website it's really a great resource. Session. Evaluations, will, be sent out to everyone who has participated, today. Let us know what you think of today's webinar and what, you might like to hear. About in the future, on. Slide, 24, you'll, find our of contact, information for the mid-atlantic adh center for. Questions about the a da you can call us toll free at. 899. Four two three two and locally. At three. Zero one two. One seven zero one, two four. Visit. Us online at, eighty eight info, org, or you. Can send us an e-mail at a, DEA info at transcen. Org. Thank. You everyone for joining us today and have a great day, thank. You so much Cheers. You. You.
2018-10-25