[LINK] Accessibility, education and web standards, Canberra, 2pm 8 June 2011

[Tom Worthington]

Roger Hudson will speak on "Web accessibility and the elderly" at the 
Canberra Web Standards Group meeting, 2pm at Geoscience Lecture Theatre, 
Sir Harold Raggatt Drive, Symonston. This was to be followed by a talk 
by Pia Waugh, but as Pia is unwell, I am speaking on "Online Education 
With Web Standards, Tablets, eBooks and Smart phones".

Event details are at: 
<http://webstandardsgroup.org/meetings/index.cfm?event_id=184>.

My talk notes are at: 
<http://www.tomw.net.au/technology/it/web_standards_for_education/>.

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Meetings
June 2011 Canberra WSG meeting

Please log in to RSVP for this event: 
<http://webstandardsgroup.org/meetings/index.cfm?event_id=184>.

73 people have registered

Date: Wednesday 08 June, 2011
Event Details
Meeting details

*** NOTE: Presenter change. Pia Waugh is unwell and will not be able to 
present. Tom Worthington will be presenting instead, on the topic of 
accessibility and webstandards for online education ***

Time: 2:00pm - 4:00pm

Where: Geoscience Lecture Theatre, Sir Harold Raggatt Drive, Symonston. 
Parking is available in the front (visitor parking) or at the back 
(staff car park).

View Google map of location

Cost: Free

There's a cafe onsite at Geoscience which will be open for coffee 
purchases, until 3.30pm. We recommend giving yourself enough time to get 
through the coffee queue.

Note: Seating capacity is 110.

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NOTE: If you have trouble RSVPing for this talk, please get in touch 
with Ruth (via @wsgcanberra twitter or email me [AT] ruthellison.com) 
who will update the RSVP on your behalf.
Topic 1: Web accessibility and the elderly

The web is being increasingly used to provide essential services, but 
more could be done to make this material accessible to older web users. 
There is no precise definition of what comprises the "elderly" and a 
variety of labels are used to describe older people who use the web. 
This paper outlines recent research into the use of the web by people 
over the age of 60: What proportion uses the web, how much they use it 
and why they use it.

The move to online service delivery offers some clear benefits in terms 
of cost and improved efficiency. Also, the use of social networking 
tools could potentially enhance openness and greater community 
participation in the process of government. However as more and more 
essential services go online, there is a real danger that a significant 
number of older people may be unable or unwilling to access them.

This paper was originally presented by Roger Hudson at the CSUN 2011 
conference in the US. It outlines some common issues older web users 
encounter and their general lack of awareness about how they can control 
the presentation of web content. The paper concludes by looking at 
several options for helping older users of the web overcome some of the 
problems raised.
About the presenter

Roger Hudson established Web Usability in 2000. Since then, he has 
assessed the usability and/or accessibility of over 100 sites for a 
range of government, corporate and not-for-profit organisations. He has 
a detailed understanding of the W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 
and has presented many seminars and workshops about WCAG 2.0 in 
Australia and overseas.

In 2010, Roger started researching the use of the web by people over the 
age of 60. The initial findings of this on-going research project were 
presented at the CSUN 2011 conference.

More information about Roger Hudson and articles he has written can be 
found on the Web Usability website and his personal blog, Dingoaccess.
Topic 2: Online Education With Web Standards, Tablets, eBooks and Smart 
phones

Tom will talk about how to use open source software and web standards to 
deliver online postgraduate education around the world. He shows how 
this han deliver educational content to tablet computers, smart phones 
and e-book devices, while also meeting accessibility standards.

About the presenter

Tom Worthington is an independent ICT consultant, an Adjunct Senior 
Lecturer in the Research School of Computer Science at the ANU and a 
Visiting Scientist at CSIRO. He is an award winning online education 
designer. Previously he advised on IT policy at the Department of Defence.

In 1999 Tom was elected a Fellow of the ACS for his contribution to the 
development of public Internet policy in Australia. He is a past 
president, Fellow and Honorary Life Member of the ACS, a voting member 
of the Association for Computing Machinery and a member of the Institute 
of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.

Please log in to RSVP for this event: 
<http://webstandardsgroup.org/meetings/index.cfm?event_id=184>.

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-- 
Tom Worthington FACS CP HLM, TomW Communications Pty Ltd. t: 0419496150
PO Box 13, Belconnen ACT 2617, Australia  http://www.tomw.net.au
Adjunct Senior Lecturer, School of Computer Science, The
Australian National University http://cs.anu.edu.au/courses/COMP7310/
Visiting Scientist, CSIRO ICT Centre: http://bit.ly/csiro_ict_canberra