Join Our Accessibility Challenge!
With many aspects of our lives continuing to function in virtual environments, understanding digital accessibility is more critical than ever. Materials that are available online aren't immediately accessible. We use a wide variety of technologies to consume digital content from mobile phones to braille displays to audio interfaces and screen readers. Digital content is accessible only when it is machine-readable and follows accessibility principles.
Members of the SUNY Oswego campus are coming together to learn how to improve the accessibility of our collective digital materials. Our Accessibility Challenges are open to students, faculty, staff, and administrators. Whether you are an accessibility veteran who has participated in a previous challenge, or you are newly curious about what to do, we have something for you!
Virtual Sessions
Registration for the 5-day challenge is closed. However, our virtual Winter Breakout recordings are available. Each session provides information on basic accessibility aspects.
Challenge Goals and Structure
Our accessibility challenges are presented by the Workgroup on Accessibility Practices. The goals of each challenge include:
- Improve confidence and skills with foundational accessibility principles
- Create accessible documents, videos, and other digital content
- Connect with others around the idea of accessibility
- Involve all of the campus community
Each challenge is structured with flexibility and autonomy in mind. You can participate on your own schedule (between 30-60 minutes per day) or synchronously with our campus accessibility champions. You’ll receive step-by-step guidance via emails on how making minor changes to your presentations can have a big impact on accessibility. You'll also be provided with resources such as articles, websites, and tutorials that can be bookmarked for future reference.
Whether you’re new to learning about digital accessibility, or have more expertise, this effort will have pathways for you to participate.
Topics
We cover basic principles as well as more advanced topics. There is something for everyone and always something new to learn!
- Creating headings, subheadings, and lists
- Providing text equivalents for images
- Embedding descriptive links
- Providing captions and transcripts for multimedia
- Writing accessible emails
- Using color carefully
- Writing in plain language
- Making PDFs more accessible
- Using automated accessibility checkers
- Creating accessible tables, graphs, and mathematic notations
Want to Learn More?
If you have questions about the challenge, please email [email protected] or reach out to any member of the Workgroup on Accessibility Practices.
Fill out this Digital Accessibility Interest Form to be placed on the list for upcoming challenges. You'll be among the first to know when a new challenge is starting!