Home > News > February 2004 > 13-Feb-2004

W3C's Web Accessibility Initiative holds best practices training in Spain

The Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI), part of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), held a Web Accessibility Best Practices Exchange Training on 9-10 February in Madrid as part of the WAI-TIES Project.

The goal of the two day session, hosted by Fundosa Teleservicios, was to provide the Web community with information that makes the case for Web Accessibility, and with the tools and techniques to achieve it. The training covered:

• An introduction to Web accessibility and how to evaluate Web sites for accessibility, including demonstrations and case study examples
• An overview of W3C/WAI resources that are available to help managers, developers, policy makers, and others working on Web accessibility
• Panels and multimedia presentations covering Web accessibility issues, including legal and policy issues
• Detailed directions on developing accessible tables, on-line forms, images, applications, and scripts
• A showcase of accessible Web pages and a discussion of using style sheets (CSS) to create accessible, visually-appealing Web sites

"We are witnessing a tremendous growth in the use of both the Internet and the Web in Spain," explained Enrique Varela Couceiro, Manager of Accessible Technologies and R&D of Fundacion ONCE. "As accessibility is quickly becoming a requirement for many kinds of Web sites here, it's important to provide Web content producers and designers with the information they need to ensure that their work does not prevent people with disabilities from having access to information and resources."

Included in the full program were speakers from Braillenet of France; Bunnyfoot Universality of the UK; Fundacion ONCE of Spain; Seminario Iberoamericano sobre Discapacidad y Accesibilidad en la Red (SIDAR) of Spain; Videncenter for Synshandicap (Visual Impairment Information Centre) of Denmark; and the W3C Web Accessibility Initiative. The presenters highlighted specific techniques that make accessible design easier for Web content producers.

"We are pleased at the enormous interest in this event from the Web community in Spain," remarked Shawn Lawton Henry, WAI Outreach Coordinator. "It gave us an opportunity to provide training on implementing the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, which are regarded as the international standard for Web accessibility, and on the W3C/WAI tools and resources that help make the Web accessible for people with disabilities."

WAI is supported in part by the U.S. Department of Education's National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research; European Commission's Information Society Technologies Programme; Canada's Assistive Devices Industry Office; Fundacion ONCE; IBM; Microsoft Corporation; SAP; Verizon Foundation; and Wells Fargo. The WAI-TIES Project (Web Accessibility Initiative: Training, Implementation, Education, Support) is funded by the European Commission Information Society Technologies IST Programme.

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Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI)

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