FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE September 5, 2002 CONTACTS Brien McDaniel, RISD, 401-454-6342 Valerie Fletcher, Adaptive Environments, 617-695-1225 (ext. 26) INFLUENTIAL LEADERS IN GRAPHIC DESIGN, WEB ACCESSIBILITY AND INDUSTRY COME TOGETHER TO DISCUSS CURRENT ISSUES IN WEB DESIGN AT CONFERENCE ON THE CAMPUS OF RHODE ISLAND SCHOOL OF DESIGN PROVIDENCE, RHODE ISLAND - The scientific and medical advances of the 20th century created a fundamental shift in demographics. Humans live longer and survive illness and injury at rates previously unimaginable in human history. We have on average 30 years more to live than just a hundred years ago. Variation in human ability is ordinary now, not special, and will likely affect each of us for some portion of our lives. At least as significantly, our attitudes have changed. We have high expectations of choices about what we do and where we go without regard to our age or ability. A worldwide movement, called universal design, has evolved in response to this new social reality by advocating that if good design works well for people with functional limitations, then it works better for everyone. There has been considerable attention internationally to universal design across the design disciplines as a framework for creating solutions that work seamlessly for a wider spectrum of users. Graphic design has begun to tackle the challenges of designing information that everyone can use. An important element of that international dialogue on universal design will take place on October 18 and 19, 2002, when influential leaders in graphic design, web accessibility and industry, from the United States and abroad, will gather in Providence, RI for a conference - Web Design that Works for Everyone - to discuss current issues of usability and accessibility in web design. On Friday, October 18, the conference will include a variety of expert panel discussions along with presentations and information sessions. On Saturday, October 19, the conference takes on a more hands-on approach as the day includes laboratory and workshop formats demonstrating techniques and tools for accessible design. Hosted by Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), Providence, RI and Adaptive Environments, Boston, MA, the conference will deliver useful information about universal design practice and policy, and will bring together those leaders who share a vision of an inclusive digital world where good design matters. Corporate sponsors include Information Technology Technical Assistance and Training Center (ITTATC), Macromedia, National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research (NIDRR) and Verizon Foundation. Scheduled featured presenters include Ric Grefe, Executive Director, AIGA; Hans van Dijk, Professor, Graphic Design, RISD; Valerie Fletcher, Executive Director, Adaptive Environments; Judy Brewer, Director, World Wide Web Consortium Web Accessibility Initiative; Larry Goldberg, National Center for Accessible Media; Terry Swack, Board of Directors, AIGA; Eric Velleman, ICT Foundation, The Netherlands; Bill Seaman, Professor & Head of the Graduate Department of Digital Media, RISD; Julia Whitney, Director of Interactive Design, WGBH, Boston; Shelley Evenson, Co-Founder and Chief Experience Strategist, seeSpace; and John Rheinfrank, Co-Founder, seeSpace; among others. "Universal Design is the design of products, environments, and communication to be usable by all people, to the greatest extent possible, without adaptation or specialized design," stated Valerie Fletcher, Executive Director, Adaptive Environments. "It is my hope that the conference will serve as a catalyst for future innovative collaborations between designers, and will present new ideas in order to make accessible web design seamless." "The World Wide Web has changed everything about information design and communication, not only for users, but designers as well," commented Roger Mandle, President, Rhode Island School of Design. "As an educational institution, it's our strong belief that when there are shifts in our culture, such as an increasing aging population of individuals who are living longer and better, designers must react to these changes and develop creative solutions for the widest possible audience. I anticipate information learned from this conference will lead designers to creating a more universal Web environment for all users." CONFERENCE OVERVIEW Registration, conference fees, and biographies of the presenters can be found on the conference's web site www.AdaptiveEnvironments.org/webconference. Friday, October 18, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. All sessions take place in the RISD Auditorium, 15 Canal Walk, Providence * Welcome, Statement of Goals for the Day & International Perspective 9:00 - 10:00 am Roger Mandle (President, RISD); Hans van Dijk (RISD); Valerie Fletcher (Adaptive Environments) & Judy Brewer (Director, World Wide Web Consortium Web Accessibility Initiative) * Motivation/Rationale for User-Centered Design 10:00 am John Rheinfrank & Shelley Evenson (SeeSpace) * Industry Presentations 11:00 am Bob Regan (Macromedia) & Greg Pisocky (Adobe) * Information Design and Accessibility 11:30 am Krzysztof Lenk (RISD) (Lunch: Noon - 2:00 pm) * Accessible Design & Recruiting Business Commitment 2:00 pm Eric Velleman & Drempels Weg (ICT Foundation, The Netherlands) * American Institute of Graphic Artists (AIGA) Commitment 2:45 pm Ric Grefe (AIGA) (Tea break) * User-Based Design Methods & Examples 3:30 pm Terry Swack (AIGA) & Julia Whitney (WGBH) * Bringing Design and Access Together: The WGBH Story 4:00 pm Larry Goldberg (National Center for Accessible Media, WGBH w/Julia Whitney) * Industry Presentations 4:20 pm * Closing Panel - Next Steps 5:00 - 6:00 pm Moderator: Hans van Dijk (RISD, Professor of Graphic Design) Panelists: Terry Swack (Board of Directors, AIGA); Dawn Barrett (Dean of Architecture and Design, RISD); Bill Seaman (Director, Digital Media Program, RISD); Jan Kubasiewicz (Professor of Graphic Design, Massachusetts College of Art) & Eric Velleman (ICT Foundation, The Netherlands) Saturday, October 19 Laboratory and workshops demonstrating techniques and tools for accessible design All workshops will take place on RISD's campus. Locations of the workshops will be announced after October 1, on the conference's web site www.AdaptiveEnvironments.org/webconference. Accessible Streaming Multimedia and Rich Media Geoff Freed (Project Manager CPB/WGBH National Center for Accessible Media [NCAM]) Streaming media is everywhere on the web, but most of it is inaccessible to blind, visually impaired, deaf and hard-of-hearing users. QuickTime, Real, Windows Media and Flash presentations can all be made accessible with the inclusion of captions and audio descriptions. This session will include demonstrations of accessible multimedia in many different formats, including accessibility enhancements using NCAM's free utility, the Media Access Generator (MAGpie). Achieving Accessibility With Adobe Graphics and Desktop Publishing Products Greg Pisocky (Adobe) The issue of accessibility of information technology for people with disabilities has been in the forefront due to the federal government's enactment of Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act. The need to produce accessible electronic content extends beyond the needs of government users and represents a major initiative on the part of the private sector as well. Adobe Systems is a major supplier of software used by graphics professionals to create content in a variety of popular formats such as HTML and PDF. This seminar will illustrate techniques graphics designers can use when working with such popular Adobe publishing and web products such as Adobe InDesign, Adobe PageMaker, and Adobe GoLive to generate content that is accessible to users of assistive technology such as screen readers for the blind. Automated Evaluation and Its Pitfalls Michael Cooper (CAST) Web accessibility depends on the interaction of a number of factors - the semantic structure of the page, the visual design of the page, the coding used to represent the structure and design, the browser begin used, and any assistive technologies. Accessibility guidelines help page authors to understand and negotiate these issues. Guideline violations often appear on sites as a result of mistakes and design compromises. To maintain accessibility it is important to fix these problems quickly. Automated evaluation significantly speeds up the process of finding guideline violations and is now heavily used. At the same time, automated agents lack the capabilities of humans and can only find a portion of the problems on the site. This presentation describes the benefits and concerns of automated evaluation and presents strategies for incorporating automated evaluation into the design cycle. Design for On-Line Learning with Flash MX Bob Regan (Macromedia) As online learning becomes an increasingly important practice within community and technical colleges, course developers must ensure that learning objects and course web sites are accessible to individuals with disabilities. Many community college systems, such as the California Community College system, have adopted policies on web accessibility. This session looks at the guidelines and techniques related to the development of accessible learning objects using Flash MX. Reviewing examples from practice, this session will look at how to ensure content is accessible to people with visual impairments, people with mobility impairments and people with hearing impairments. The session will review several example-learning objects using common assistive technologies used by individuals with disabilities to access the web. Techniques for optimizing the accessibility of eLearning content will be presented related to the delivery of navigation, animation and interactive elements. A Dialogue on the No Thresholds Campaign in the Netherlands Eric Velleman (Accessibility Foundation, The Netherlands) Eric Velleman will speak about the strategy and methods of Drempels Weg (No Thresholds). He and a team of Ambassadors (four people with different kinds of disabilities) recently completed an innovative, yearlong campaign with industry to secure commitments to make their web sites accessible. The Department of Health, Welfare and Sports sponsored the campaign to get companies to sign agreements of commitment in public to make their sites accessible. Over 100 companies signed on in a highly successful campaign characterized by extraordinary national visibility. Information Structure, Navigation and Accessibility This workshop is open to 15 participants and will utilize a Mac computer lab. Krzyztof Lenk (RISD) This 5-hour workshop will explore the following three processes using participant's personal data as a base. Three design processes are critical in building accessible web sites: mapping the information structure; building the navigation reflecting this structure; and rapid prototyping of screen presentation of the structure and navigation. 'The People Have a Right': Building an Intentions-Based Portal Sarah Bourne (Commonwealth of Massachusetts) Massachusetts has taken to heart the quote from the state constitution 'the people have a right' and made it the core value of their intentions-based portal web site going well beyond the minimum requirements of legal obligations. Their commitment was not only to align with the most comprehensive standards for web accessibility for people with disabilities but also to address access issues for people using different technologies, including both older technologies (e.g., slower modem connections) and newer technologies (e.g., hand-held devices), as well as issues of computer literacy. Bourne will review Massachusetts' policy on layout and design, navigation, graphics and sound, content that requires additional software, and file size. With insight earned in the experience of building and managing a highly visible and complex portal site, she will offer practical information on how to make it happen and how best to avoid the pitfalls. Web sites, Accessibility, Section 508, the ADA, and Section 504: Understanding the Legal Requirements Kathy Gips with Rachel Tanenhaus (Adaptive Environments) This workshop will clarify who has to comply with Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act, 508 exemptions, what the Americans with Disabilities Act, and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act require of public school districts, municipalities, state government agencies, businesses, post-secondary schools and others. Section 508 and Beyond: Web Accessibility for More People, More Situations This is an all-day session requiring pre-registration. Shawn Lawton Henry (UIAccess.com) Integrating accessibility into web design and development process creates web sites and web applications that work effectively for more people in more situations. For some, web accessibility is clearly a requirement (such as under Section 508); for others, it's just good business. This workshop provides hands-on experience of the usability problems encountered by an aging population and people with disabilities when interacting with web interfaces - problems also encountered by people without disabilities in various situations. Participants earn how to develop visually appealing, dynamic, interactive web sites without sacrificing accessibility, and will understand: * how functional and situational limitations impact web interaction, through hands-on experience * benefits of designing accessible web pages and applications, including the legal, social, and organizational impetus * how to use standards and guidelines such as the Electronic and Information Technology Accessibility Standards under Section 508, and the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) from the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) Participants will review the basics and cover specific web accessibility problems and best practice solutions that benefit all users, with and without disabilities. In addition to learning 7 simple things that can make web pages more accessible, participants will see how to code accessible: * Style sheets (CSS) * Navigation, such as tabs and "fly-out" menus * Forms for data entry * Data tables and layout tables * Multimedia and Flash This workshop goes beyond the minimums for Section 508 and shows how to make web pages "transform gracefully" to work better for customers who have images turned off to speed download time, for elderly customers with low vision who are using large fonts to make text readable, and for customers who are blind or not blind, and driving a car and using a voicing browser. Participants will also learn about techniques for evaluating web accessibility, and get to use free tools for testing accessibility. Rhode Island School of Design Since its founding in 1877, Rhode Island School of Design has earned a worldwide reputation as the preeminent art and design college in the country. Today, with more than 16,000 alumni, the college enrolls approximately 1,800 undergraduates and 275 graduate students from the United States and more than 47 countries, offering degree programs in the fine arts, architecture and design disciplines and art education. Academic programs include research and design initiatives, the exploration of art criticism and contemporary cultural concerns as well as international exchange programs. Each year, RISD hosts prominent and accomplished artists, critics and authors to its campus. Included within the college is The RISD Museum, housing 80,000 works of art in its permanent collection. For more information on the college and its programs, as well as The RISD Museum, call 401-454-6100 or visit RISD's Web site at http://www.risd.edu. Adaptive Environments Founded in Boston in 1978, an outgrowth of the Arts and Human Services Project at the Massachusetts College of Art, Adaptive Environments was the first non-profit organization in the US dedicated to design as a key to social equity across the spectrum of ability and age. Adaptive Environments addresses all of the design disciplines - from urban design through architecture, landscape architecture, interior design, industrial design to information design. Adaptive Environments' work is project-based and the target audiences vary from local to regional, national, and international. Adaptive Environments is an internationally recognized resource on universal design and is the lead sponsor of Designing for the 21st Century, An International Conference on Universal Design. It is also home to the federally sponsored New England ADA and Accessible IT Center. For more information, visit http://www.AdaptiveEnvironments.org Rhode Island School of Design, Department of Graphic Design RISD's graphic design curriculum educates students in the art and science of visual communication, emphasizing the professional practice of design. Throughout the course of study, students learn that graphic designers, as agents in the communication process, contribute to the visual culture of our society by stressing the primacy of information communication over mere visual cosmetics. Additionally, students learn to master problem-solving methodologies and critical design thought while developing a design language. The department offers three-degree programs: Bachelor of Fine Arts, Bachelor of Graphic Design, and Master of Fine Arts. Rhode Island School of Design & Adaptive Environments RISD's Department of Graphic Design has had an ongoing collaboration with Adaptive Environments ever since a casual conversation regarding the designer's role in web accessibility with the organization's Executive Director, Valerie Fletcher prompted RISD Professor Hans van Dijk to action. Three years ago, van Dijk developed the "Universal Web Project" to research advancements in Web interfaces from a designer's point of view. His goal was to fundamentally influence computer interface design and information architecture so that they become more accessible in general - integrating aesthetics with functionality with particular emphasis on sensitivity to users with vision impairment, the elderly and beginning readers. With assistance from RISD graduate students, van Dijk has researched demographic trends and the needs of disabled users as well as relevant legislation, tools, technology, guidelines, resources and legibility issues. He has continued to probe the issues through a Universal Web Design course that has attracted RISD undergraduate and graduate students in architecture, illustration, graphic design and industrial design. # # # Note to Media: Interviews can be arranged with Roger Mandle, President, Rhode Island School of Design; Valerie Fletcher, Executive Director, Adaptive Environments, Hans van Dijk, Professor, Graphic Design, RISD; and other featured presenters by contacting Brien McDaniel, Senior Press Officer, RISD, at 401-454-6342 or bmcdanie@risd.edu.