W3C's Web Accessibility Initiative Holds Best Practices Training in Spain; Webmasters, Designers Meet in Madrid to Learn About Accessible Design.

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

http://www.w3.org/--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 11, 2004

The Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI), part of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), held a Web Accessibility Best Practices Exchange Training in Madrid, Spain, as part of the WAI-TIES Project. The goal of this two day session was to provide the Web community with information that makes the case for Web Accessibility, and with the tools and techniques to achieve it. The session, scheduled for 9-10 February 2004, was hosted by Fundosa Teleservicios, a company of Fundacion ONCE.

The two-day Web accessibility training covered:

-- An introduction to Web accessibility and how to evaluate Web

sites for accessibility, including demonstrations and case

study examples

-- An overview of W3C/WAI resources that are available to help

managers, developers, policy makers, and others working on Web

accessibility

-- Panels and multimedia presentations covering Web accessibility

issues, including legal and policy issues

-- Detailed directions on developing accessible tables, on-line

forms, images, applications, and scripts

-- A showcase of accessible Web pages and a discussion of using

style sheets (CSS) to create accessible, visually-appealing

Web sites

"We are witnessing a tremendous growth in the use of both the Internet and the Web in Spain," explained Enrique Varela Couceiro, Manager of Accessible Technologies and R&D of Fundacion ONCE. "As accessibility is quickly becoming a requirement for many kinds of Web sites here, it's important to provide Web content producers and designers with the information they need to ensure that their work does not prevent people with disabilities from having access to information and resources."

Included in the full program were speakers from Braillenet of France; Bunnyfoot Universality of the UK; Fundacion ONCE of Spain; Seminario Iberoamericano sobre Discapacidad y Accesibilidad en la Red (SIDAR) of Spain; Videncenter for Synshandicap (Visual Impairment Information Centre) of Denmark; and the W3C Web Accessibility Initiative. The presenters highlighted specific techniques that make accessible design easier for Web content producers.

"We are pleased at the enormous interest in this event from the Web community in Spain," remarked Shawn Lawton Henry, WAI Outreach Coordinator. "It gave us an opportunity to provide training on implementing the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, which are regarded as the international standard for Web accessibility, and on the W3C/WAI tools and resources that help make the Web accessible for people with disabilities."

About the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI)

W3C's Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI), in partnership with organizations around the world, pursues accessibility of the Web through five activities:

1. ensuring that core technologies of the Web support

accessibility;

2. developing guidelines for Web content, user agents, and

authoring tools;

3. facilitating development of evaluation and repair tools for

accessibility;

4. conducting education and outreach;

5. coordinating with research and development that can affect

future accessibility of the Web.

WAI is supported in part by the U.S. Department of Education's National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research; European Commission's Information Society Technologies Programme; Canada's Assistive Devices Industry Office; Fundacion ONCE; IBM; Microsoft Corporation; SAP; Verizon Foundation; and Wells Fargo. The WAI-TIES Project (Web Accessibility Initiative: Training, Implementation, Education, Support) is funded by the European Commission Information Society Technologies IST Programme.

About the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)

The W3C was created to lead the Web to its full potential by developing common protocols that promote its evolution and ensure its interoperability. It is an international industry consortium jointly run by MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (MIT CSAIL) in the USA, the European Research Consortium for Informatics and Mathematics (ERCIM) headquartered in France and Keio University in Japan. Services provided by the Consortium include: a repository of information about the World Wide Web for developers and users, and various prototype and sample applications to demonstrate use of new technology. To date, nearly 400 organizations are Members of the Consortium. For more information see http://www.w3.org/.