OZeWAI Newsletter - 1 December 2021

OZeWAI newsletter

 

OZeWAI Annual General Meeting

Financial members should by now have received notification of our upcoming Annual General Meeting. It will be held online from 4pm AEDT on Monday 13 December. If you are an OZeWAI member and have not received an email with AGM details, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

You can also join OZeWAI before the 12 December and we will send you an invite to the AGM.

OZeWAI Membership

We are offering the current $20 OZeWAI membership to all OZeWAI subscribers so all members can access the discount options provided by OZeWAI conference partners and as we build sponsorship partnerships.

The membership period is from January 2022-December 2022 and there are three options for payment:

  1. Pledge your $20 using Patreon by paying $2 a month
  2. Pay $20 to the OZeWAI PayPal account using PayPal.Me/ozewai
  1. Pay $20 to the OZeWAI Bank account. Account Name: OZeWAI (Bank Australia) BSB: 313-140 Account Number: 12109065

If you have any enquiries about the OZeWAI membership renewal or the payment options, please email us at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

OZeWAI Committee

Please consider joining the OZeWAI committee or a supporting sub-committee at the upcoming AGM or attend to share your vote. Organisations such as OZeWAI do not exist without the commitment of advocates.

Visit the website to see who are the current committee members and the agenda for the AGM.

OZeWAI Website

Please email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. to be added to the people we can turn to for usability testing of our new website. We will especially be looking for people who use different types of assistive technologies to test our new site.

Industry news

Australian Access Awards

On Friday 19 November, the second Australian Access Awards, hosted by the Centre for Accessibility Australia, was held at the Western Australian Maritime Museum as a hybrid event. OZeWAI congratulates all the worthy winners of this year’s awards.

Zero Project Awards

The Zero Project is a global disability network that aims to recognise and provide an international platform for innovative policies and practices. Award winners get to profile their projects to the Zero Project Conference in Vienna on 23-25 February 2022.

Australia’s Digital Gap Initiative (DGI), an all-volunteer organisation dedicated to forging systemic pathways towards an inclusive digital age, nominated South Australia’s Online Accessibility and Policy Toolkit for a 2022 Zero Project award. Out of 381 nominations from 86 countries, the toolkit made it to a shortlist of 160 projects and has now been deemed one of 75 finalist Awardees to present at the conference.

Congratulations to Cliff Edwards and his team at the South Australian Government for this well-deserved recognition.

Industry events

There are plenty of great accessibility focused events coming up of interest to professionals and enthusiasts.

Vision Australia

Vision Australia is running a Web Accessibility Techniques and Testing course during November and December, you can register online using Humanitix.

"You’ll learn how to test for accessibility issues within a website or web application and practical techniques to resolve them. We’ll demonstrate design and code solutions you can implement to achieve WCAG 2.1 Level AA conformance, as well as usability and accessibility best practices gathered through our own research and user testing across various disability groups."

International Day of People With Disability Webinar

To celebrate IDPWD, Intopia is holding the first in a new series of free webinars. With this year's theme focusing on leadership and participation of people with disabilities, panel members will be talking about their experiences navigating different working environments. Each panel member also happens to be a part of Intopia’s team, and will be sharing about their own disabilities and lived experience. The webinar will be at 1pm AEDT on Friday 3 December, and it's free to attend. Full details are on the Intopia website.

Accessible & Inclusive Tourism Conference in the Asia-Pacific (AITCAP)

AITCAP returns in May 2022 and is currently reviewing proposals from speakers. In the meantime, organisers are running a series of webinars on related topics. The next is at 4pm AEDT on Thursday 2 December to celebrate International Day of People With Disability and get the latest updates on what’s happening with accessible and inclusive tourism.

Register now for the webinar or visit the GetAboutAble website for more information, including dates, proposed themes for each day.

Local meetups

December meetup events

Check the group meetup pages in your area for upcoming events:

Industry jobs

There seem to be a lot of jobs available currently for people with skills and experience related to accessibility. That can only be a good thing! Here are some that caught our attention.

 

Get involved

 

OZeWAI Newsletter - 20 October 2021

OZeWAI newsletter

 

OZeWAI membership

As we work through the new membership structure, we are offering the current $20 OZeWAI membership to all OZeWAI subscribers so all members can access the discount options provided by OZeWAI conference partners and as we build sponsorship partnerships.

If you join before 28 October, you will be eligible to claim the 75% discount on Web Directions Access All Areas conference registration. Pledge your $20 using Patreon. This is a temporary arrangement until we have our membership structure set up in our new website.

Outreach

OZeWAI gets involved in external events to raise our profile and get our message out to more people. Coming up, we have:

Get Online Week

This year, OZeWAI presents "Working with people with disability", an introductory session for accessibility specialists who want to engage people with disability in user experience and research. Join Eloise Cleary, Product and Experience Designer at Centre for Inclusive Design, online from 11am-11.45am on Friday 22 October. Register now.

Australian Access Awards

The awards are held every 2 years and celebrate organisations that have implemented accessibility in their digital campaigns or resources. Several OZeWAI members were winners in 2019, including Gian Wild from AccessibilityOz, who was named Accessibility Person of the Year. This year’s finalists will be announced on 25 October, with the awards ceremony to be held on 19 November.

Industry events

There are plenty of great accessibility focused events coming up of interest to professionals and enthusiasts. Here’s two locally organised online conferences we recommend.

Web Directions Access All Areas

An online, global conference on accessibility engineering for front end developers, this features a spectacular line-up of international speakers on key topics. It takes place over two consecutive Fridays, 29 October and 5 November, with the four-hour sessions run three times to cover world time zones. Special offer: OZeWAI members will be sent a special link to register for $99 (50% off early bird pricing!), so check your inboxes.

A11y Camp 2021

Australia’s premier conference on accessibility and inclusion features three days full of conference presentations from 9-11 November. This year’s line-up will be announced soon, is sure to be compelling and will be free to attend. You can watch highlights of the 2019 event on YouTube.

Accessible & Inclusive Tourism Conference in the Asia-Pacific (AITCAP)

AITCAP returns in May 2022 and has opened submissions for speakers, presentations and panel topics. AITCAP is seeking experienced industry practitioners, acknowledged experts and thought leaders for a mix of presentations, interviews, panel discussions and masterclasses. AITCAP aims to show how catering to the valuable accessible and inclusive tourism market promotes sustainable growth and faster tourism recovery. Visit the GetAboutAble website for more information, including dates, proposed themes for each day or submit the form to register to be a speaker.

Local meetups

October meetup events

Check the group meetup pages in your area for upcoming events:

Industry jobs

There seem to be a lot of jobs available currently for people with skills and experience related to accessibility. That can only be a good thing! Here are some that caught our attention.

Recommended reading

International Day of Older Persons 2021: Digital Equity for All Ages

Andrew Arch, Intopia, 1 Oct 2021

"October 1 is the International Day of Older Persons, and in 2021 the United Nations has declared the theme Digital Equity for All Ages. Worldwide, the number of people aged 60 years and over already outnumbers children younger than 5 years old. Over the next three decades, the number of older persons worldwide is projected to more than double, reaching more than 1.5 billion persons in 2050, with 80% of them living in low or middle-income countries."

Read the whole article.

Send us links to articles you’ve written or found that you’d like to share in this newsletter: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

OZeWAI Committee

Thank you Gian!

The committee would like to acknowledge not only the vast contribution of Gian Wild but also to thank her for her many years of support and dedication following her recent stepping down as Honorary Secretary of OZeWAI. Organisations such as OZeWAI do not exist without the commitment of advocates. Gian, for your expertise, passion and time, thank you!

Welcome to our new new committee members:

  • Andrew Downie
  • Sean Murphy

Website

Our new website is currently in staging as we fine-tune it ready for a launch before the end of this year. We’re looking forward to a fresh look and new levels of activity. We will be reaching out to you for help in testing of the site.

In the meantime, please email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. to be added to the list of people we can turn to for usability testing. We will especially be looking for people who use different types of assistive technologies to test our new site.

Get involved

 

InfoExchange News about new Hub

InfoExchange's new Digital Transformation Hub

"We're excited to let you know that our Digital Transformation Hub is now live. The Hub will help Australian not-for-profits build capability and resilience by providing practical guides, access to technology solutions, web-based resources and tailored advice to better support communities in need, staff and volunteers. The Infoxchange Group is leading a cross-sector partnership to deliver the Hub, which was established with seed funding from the Lord Mayor's Charitable Foundation and Gandel Philanthropy."


FIND OUT HOW THE HUB CAN HELP YOU

Accessibility Basics

Accessibility Basics

AccessibilityOz has worked for years, like their colleagues, to make accessibility more accessible. The latest contribution to the community is a two-part article that takes their popular webinar and presentation “Accessibility Basics” and present it in an easy-to-understand article format. Part 1 begins by explaining what web accessibility is and why it’s needed.

"What is online accessibility?

Online accessibility is the ability for a person with a disability to understand and use a website, application, intranet, mobile app or program. The rules and regulations for web accessibility are governed by the Australian Human Rights Commission Disability Discrimination Act: Web Advisory Notes (in Australia), and, in the United States, by the Department of Justice, the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR), Section 508, Section 504, the 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act (CVAA) and others. Online accessibility is achieved by following the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) published by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C).

Web accessibility allows people with disabilities to access information like anyone else, interact with others without being categorized as “disabled” and undertake activities which they are not otherwise able to do."

You can see more at https://www.accessibilityoz.com/2021/07/accessibility-basics-part-1-overview-of-accessibility/

ADIA Newsletter

Catch up with the latest from the Australian Dugital Inclusion Alliance - July 2021 Newsletter

Featured is the Digital Transformation Expert Panel's recently released report - The Learning Country  - which endorses the ADIA’s calls for a National Digital Capabilities Framework. From page 11 of the report: Develop a population inclusive, sector neutral Digital Capability Framework to establish a common language between the range of stakeholders, to inform training product design and support a systematic approach to skills supply and demand.

Visit their website at https://www.digitalinclusion.org.au/

Read more ...

Additional information