Long time, no see...

It's good to be back on the blogger - and now the Accessibility and Usability Committee is bigger and better than ever. Welcome to our newest member, Wendy Johnson, who is a part-time CTEP member at PPL!

As we prepare for our next presentation, the committee has decided to tackle the project of making a multi-cultural website that will contain mini-tutorials on computer basics. We will be focusing on Hispanic, Hmong, and Somali cultures to accommodate the populations a lot of the CTEP members work with. We will also include cultural differences that may effect the way you work with the members of these cultures to make them more comfortable and welcome at your site.

So, hold on, and in just a few short days, we will have posted our latest developments on this topic.

Goodnight and Goodluck.

October 20, 2006


Today, we talked about our goals for the year. Using the main CTC website, we would like to contact/visit each site to see what services and programs are offered that improve the accessibility and usability of technology for their communities. We would like to implement these resources in our own CTEP trainings, our CTEP sites, and other Community Technology Centers.

Other goals for the 2006-2007 CTEP year include:

• Writing grants for those sites that do not have or cannot afford the above resources
• Finding resources that will allow us as CTEP members to use their gadgets and gizmos to train fellow CTEP members in what is available and how it can empower different disabled groups
• Using these resources and "proof" of empowerment for research/capacity building
• Advertise Accessibility - create ads in newspapers, flyers, radio, websites to spread the knowledge of these resources and where they can be found
• Working with the media committee to create a master website of easily accessible mini-trainings in how to use general aspects of a typical computer (how to use a mouse, how to use the internet, etc.)

Until next time...

Accessibility and Usability Committee

Mission Statement:

To educate CTEP members about accessibility and usability, to increase member awareness so they are better prepared to serve their community.

Goals:

• To educate CTEP members about accessibility and usability via a website.
  
• Diversity training for CTEP members.
  
• Train CTEP members and other organizations to learn how to develop accessibility standards for sites on how to make their services and information more accessible in different languages, such as Somali, Hmong, and Spanish, as well as being accessible for people with different reading levels and physical disabilities.

Activities:

• Make a media kit to show how a site can be made accessible for ELL learners and people with physical disabilities.
  
• Make basic information in web page format outlining ideas on how to help webmasters to make their web pages more accessible.