The Main Event – Part 2
A Sneak Peek at the Automation and the Changing Landscape of Section 508: Government Digital Accessibility Training.
In my last blog post, I gave readers our first sneak peek at the Automation and the Changing Landscape of Section 508: Government Digital Accessibility Training Event, an upcoming one-day invitation-only, free event, taking place on December 4, 2014 in Washington, DC. The theme of the event is “How Automation is Changing the Landscape of Digital Accessibility” and it will focus specifically on federal government accessibility and Section 508 compliance.
In my previous post dedicated to this event, though, I focused exclusively on the event’s morning sessions, focused on offering details on the panel we have planned, which will feature experts in the field of digital accessibility, especially as it relates to the U.S. federal government. Today, I’ll focus on the afternoon, when we’ll offer a series of breakout sessions focused on technology and automation and how both are changing the ways accessible content, especially documents, are being presented accessibly..
What to Expect
Since the theme of the event is digital accessibility’s changing landscape, Actuate wanted to offer a snapshot of not only how that landscape is changing thanks to automation, but also explore how different technologies are involved in that automation and transformation. With that in mind, speakers from a host of companies that specializing in this niche sector will present, diving deep into how technologies work together to meet the needs of the public sector looking to create, remediate and present accessible digital content today.
What companies will present? While I won’t name any names today, I’ll give you a few hints. For example, a speaker from a specific government cloud provider will come to discuss how accessible PDFs can be automatically, dynamically remediated in the cloud, to help support the U.S. government’s Cloud First initiative. A representative will also be there from a company that automates the development and maintenance of accessible websites – they’ll discuss how automation is changing how government can create and maintain accessible websites, eliminating the need for large on-staff web accessibility experts. A unique Braille organization that provides traditional documents like Braille, Large Print and Audio will present on how technology enabled a ground-breaking automation of these previously labor intensive formats. There will also be discussions on proper tagging for PDFs, including ad-hoc documents created on desktops and those high-volume documents created by enterprise IT applications. There will even be a government contractor specializing in Section 508 compliance testing for PDF documents, who will do a live screen-reader demonstration on the usability of properly tagged PDFs.
It promises to be an informative afternoon for anyone interested in how technology can help them better stay accessible. And of course – because we want our guests to get as much out of the day as possible – all of the 20-minute sessions will be followed by Q&A periods that will allow the audience to follow up with any questions of their own.
Finally, for anyone who’s interested, we’ll finish the afternoon with a demo of Actuate’s own Document Accessibility Appliance. That will be followed by a networking event that will allow delegates the opportunity to mingle with presenters and expert panelists, asking any remaining questions they might have. Our goal, after all, is that our guests will leave feeling they know more about accessible digital content and the issues around it than they did coming in – and that they’ll have all of their questions answered along the way.
If you’re interested in finding out more on Automation and the Changing Landscape of Section 508: Government Digital Accessibility Training, or receiving an invitation, please contact me via LinkedIn or email to skelly@actuate.com.
PDF Accessibility 