Microsoft Office Accessibility Training Sessions for the Australian Government
Microsoft will be running two training sessions in Canberra on optimising the accessibility of Microsoft Office documents. These sessions will primarily focus on Word, however PowerPoint and Excel will also be covered. The sessions have been designed specifically for Australian Public Service (APS) personnel in partnership with AGIMO.
As government agencies are obliged to make all online information accessible and authors are responsible for ensuring the accessibility of their documents, it is important that authors understand how to do this properly. Our initial National Transition Strategy (NTS) survey highlighted the need for better education around the creation of more accessible online documents. Creating an accessible Word document is often the first step to creating accessible PDFs and web pages. We are very keen to develop accessible document authoring skills across the APS, so if you are responsible for authoring web content or creating other documents, these sessions are for you.
In these sessions Microsoft will walk users through common techniques for creating accessible documents in Microsoft Office. The presentation will cover information about both the tools available for ensuring accessibility as well as how to effectively use styles and formatting. Users will also be given a basic understanding of how to correctly use graphics in a document. The sessions will be led by Daniel Hubbell. Daniel is the Technical Evangelist for Microsoft’s Accessibility team and is also the president of the board of directors for the Assistive Technology Industry Association. Daniel has a degree in communications from San Francisco State University and has been with Microsoft for more than 14 years.
Two identical training sessions will run in the morning and afternoon of 24 May 2012 at the University of Canberra.
Please note that places are limited. Please register online directly with Microsoft to secure your place.
If you cannot attend on this date, don’t worry – Microsoft intends to record the sessions and will make them available to be viewed after the event.