Southeast Asia

We are getting ready to teach an accessibility course in the Philippines. To provide more information about the country, read the situation about accessibility. As a developing Asian country, the Philippines realizes the importance of accessibility to its disabled citizen. In this blog post, we will take a look at the present situation of accessibility in this country.

It was a year ago that I taught an accessibility course in South East Asia. Nine blind and visually impaired computer experts and teachers participated. We based the course on WCAG 2.0, which was not yet official at the time. Students who graduated the course has made a great progress towards promoting accessibility in the region. Here I will outline what happened in the last year after the course. If you are not familiar with the project, read the paper I have presented at the CSUN conference in March, 2009.

Presented at CSUN, March 21, 2009

Presented by:

• Tom Babinszki, Even Grounds, Director
• Larry Campbell, Overbrook International Program Director

Introduction

Under the sponsorship of the Overbrook-Nippon Network on Educational Technology (ON-NET), we conducted a web accessibility course online during the first half of 2008, and face-to-face in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, in June of 2008. The purpose of the course was to teach blind and visually impaired people about web accessibility, equipping them to work as accessibility consultants and trainers in their own countries. There is still much work that needs to be done in the South East Asian region on accessibility. For example, there is a need for more accessibility trainers, work opportunities, and, of course, accessible web sites. This paper will discuss the process of conducting a WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines) 2.0 course, including the challenges and lessons learned during the course and its follow-up in order to facilitate further work and share experience with those who are interested in contributing to web accessibility in the South East Asian region.

Adaptive Technology for Rehabilitation, Integration and Empowerment of the Visually Impaired (ATRIEV), is an organization in the Philippines doing wonderful service for blind and visually impaired people. I got to know them in connection with a course which I taught in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in June, 2008. I had several participants from ATRIEV, and I had a chance to learn about their services.

On June 6, 2008, a pioneer web accessibility course was concluded at the Malaysian Association for the Blind (MAB). This course was conducted by Even Grounds, an accessibility consulting company based in the Washington DC area. The course was made possible through the generous sponsorship of the Overbrook-Nippon Network on Educational Technology (ON-NET).

Alexandria, VA - April 30, 2008

A group of visually impaired people in Southeast Asia are participating in a web accessibility course, sponsored by the Overbrook-Nippon Network on Educational Technology. Even Grounds, a Washington DC based accessibility company is conducting a 12 week online course followed by a one week intensive training in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.