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Subject: Winners Announced for Web Accessibility Contest

Author: Judy

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ] Date Posted: 09/11/05 Sun Winners for the Second Annual Web Accessibility Contest announced! The Mid-Atlantic Consortium on Accessible Electronic and Information Technology in Education has announced the winners of its second annual Web Accessibility contest. Calvary Christian Academy ( Maryland) is the first place winner, Fairfax County Public Schools ( Virginia) took second place, and Goochland County Public Schools ( Virginia) as third place. This contest, open to all public and private schools grades kindergarten - 12 in Delaware, Washington, DC, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia and West Virginia, is an opportunity for students to learn about and implement accessible web design. Web accessibility means design that allows information on a Web site to be "read" by all people, including individuals with disabilities. Individuals with disabilities, such as people who are deaf, blind or who have mobility impairments, may need to use special technologies for access. Web sites need to be designed in a way that can accommodate these technologies. According to Amy Goldman, Associate Director of the Institute on Disabilities at Temple University and Coordinator of the Consortium, "If web sites are not designed properly, even people with common problems like far-sightedness or color-blindness, may find them hard to see and use." Some of these design considerations include using the ‘alt’ attribute to describe the function of each visual graphic (images and animations). Likewise, provision of captioning and transcripts of audio files, and descriptions of video for all Multimedia present can be helpful in making websites more usable by all “visitors”. The use of Cascading Style Sheets or ‘ CSS’ for layout and style can help aspiring webmasters create a more accessible site. Fifteen schools from the Mid-Atlantic region participated in this year's contest. Sites were evaluated on the basis of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) Priority 1 Checkpoints and the web standards of a federal law known as Section 508. For each submission, the home page and three links were judged. In their submission, contestants reported what they had learned about web accessibility and the importance of designing web sites for all. Daniel Thompson from Calvary Christian Academy in Maryland reported “ We learned how to use Alt tags to display information that will help those with disabilities.” John Hendron from the Goochland County Public Schools (VA) advised “The Web isn’t visual for everyone…Using web-standards can help create usable pages for the entire population.” The team from Fairfax County Public Schools (VA) “ Ensured that all information conveyed with color is also available without color, for example from context or markup” said web assistant Serena Tsai. Vincent Chili, faculty member from Polytech High School (DE), mentioned “ My teenage students are always interested in using the most varied fonts, colors and layouts. These activities (such as the Web Contest) force them to think in terms of people with perceptual difficulties and to accommodate everyone’s needs.” For more information on web accessibility, visit Web Accessibility Resources . For more information on this contest, please contact your State Consortium partner. To review the K-12 Accessibility checklist, go to the AccessIT site at Washington University. *Join the Consortium's Listserv by going to the Consortium's/DBTAC's self Subcribers page. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Pennsylvania Pennsylvania’s Initiative on Assistive Technology (PIAT) Institute on Disabilities at Temple University -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Delaware Delaware Assistive Technology Initiative (DATI) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- District of Columbia University Legal Services Assistive Technology Program (ULS/ATP) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Maryland Maryland Technology Assistance Program (MD TAP) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Virginia Virginia Assistive Technology System (VATS) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- West Virginia West Virginia Assistive Technology System (WVATS) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Mid-Atlantic Accessible Education-Based Information Technology Consortium is coordinated by the Institute on Disabilities at Temple University, administered by TransCen, Inc., as part of the Mid-Atlantic ADA and IT Information Center and funded by the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research of the U.S. Department of Education. [ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]