[Reader-list] CIS Workshop on Web Accessibility

[Pranesh Prakash]

Dear Gora,

On Thu, Jan 29, 2009 at 22:20, Gora Mohanty <gora at sarai.net> wrote:
> On Thu, 29 Jan 2009 12:04:23 +0530
> Pranesh Prakash <pranesh at cis-india.org> wrote:
>
>> Dear All,
>> Greetings from CIS.  We are organising a "Workshop for Web Developers
>> on Web Accessibility" in New Delhi from February 16th-18th, 2009. The
>> workshop will have seven trainers from Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore who
>> are experienced in web accessibility issues and WCAG 2.0. The workshop
>> aims to bring together participants from government departments, NIC
>> and web developers from organisations from the private sector
> [...]
>
> Could you provide us with more details here? Who are these
> trainer, what are their qualifications, etc.

These are the trainers:
* Mr. Dipendra Manocha (Developing Countries Coordinator with the
DAISY Consortium, and President of DAISY Forum of India)
* Mr. Prashant Ranjan Verma (Manager DU-NTPC Foundation ICT Training
Centre, formerly head of NAB's Technology Training Center, Digital
Library & Braille Press, and awardee of Nat'l Award for Empowerment of
Persons with Disabilities 2007)
* Mr. Manish Agrawal (Technology Manager, Sapient Corporation)
* Mr. Pranav Lal (Accessibility Technology Consultant
<http://techesoterica.wordpress.com/category/concepts/accessibility/>)
* Mr. Krishnakant Mane (Accessibility Specialist and Free Software
Advocate, Project Fellow of Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Education
at TIFR on the SELF portal, and Chief Resource person for the Insight
project)
* Ms. Anusha Kadambala (Structured Accessibility Design specialist,
resource person for the Insight project, and the True Vision project
in ELCOT).
* Mr. Rahul Gonsalves (Accessibility Evangelist and Web Designer,
<http://rahulgonsalves.com/projects/> and
<http://www.barrierbreak.com/events-conference/techshare_presentations2008.php#track3>)

> I hate to seem negative about people making at least a real
> effort at bringing about change, but in my opinion, talk about
> accessibility is a joke when many sites in India whether in
> the government, or in the private sector, cannot even handle
> basic standards, and Indian languages correctly. A poor start
> at identifying such offenders is at
> http://wiki.linux-delhi.org/cgi-bin/twiki/view/Main/HallOfShame

I'm glad that you're skeptical.  However, much of the problems with
web standards and web accessibility standards are actually not too
disparate.  If open standards are properly used in the development of
web content, then many accessibility issues will also go away.  Proper
usage of CSS and ALT-tags, for instance, are part of both web
standards and web accessibility standards.  Many things that are part
of accessibility standards seem to be just plain common sense.  Well,
there's that old cliche about how uncommon such a thing is.  Following
web accessibility standards improves usability for people without
disabilities too.  Older people, people with lower fluency with
languages, people with lower bandwidth, people who are new to the web
-- all these people also benefit greatly.  So, web standards and web
accessibility standards aren't that very disjunct by nature.

> Regards,
> Gora

Regards,
Pranesh