I am writing this today to ask everyone who cares about web accessibility to consider making a contribution of any size to our campaign to create Online Training to Make Sites and Apps Accessible and then to help spread the word. Here's why: Each year at John Slatin AccessU, Knowbility provides live, in-person accessibility training with contributions from experts from W3C, Deque, Simply Accessible, Paciello Group, Adobe, and more. Here are links to a couple of videos that might help you get the sense of joyful teaching and learning that occurs at AccessU:
St Ed's Proud to Host AccessU video on YouTube
For more than 10 years, Knowbility has provided this training with support from St Edward's University and the folks mentioned above. For more than 15 years, we have created web accessibility training as part of the Accessibility Internet Rally (AIR) community program. But we share the concerns expressed in our community that isolated, in-person training can't meet the scale of the critical need for accessibility skills in the current technology landscape. So we are inspired to try to build a collaborative online venue, an accessible medium for all to share their knowledge just as we do in Austin each May. Knowbility will curate, just as we do the live AccessU. If instructors wish to charge for the courses they deliver through this platform, Knowbility will facilitate for a small management fee. The idea is to build a collaborative go-to place for just-in-time, modular online training that will help grow web accessibility skills and expertise to the scale needed to effect real change.
Volunteers Bill Corrigan and Brain Sullivan launched an Indie-Go-Go campaign and we apologize in advance for the lack of accessibility of THAT platform. Just as with LMS, we found no crowdfunding application that meets WCAG Level AA conformance - and we can't imagine any of them have even heard of ATAG. The irony does not escape me and just goes to show, as Jim Thatcher commented on the campaign site, that developers everywhere need to learn practical skills and understand how and why to make online information and interaction accessible to all.
If we can demonstrate support within our community, your donations will be matched 3 to 1. We tried to provide some useful perks but hope that you are also motivated to help by the shared vision. We seek to create an accessible, interactive online space where people across the spectrum of roles and responsibilities that touch web accessibility can teach and learn from one another. Please help! Donate now to the campaign for online accessibility teaching and learning.
Thanks very much!