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Academic Tech Expo 2019 Review

The University of Oklahoma’s (OU) Academic Tech Expo (ATE) 2019 was held last week. This two-day event, hosted by the University of Oklahoma’s (OU’s) Information Technology, Libraries, Center for Teaching Excellence, and Office of Digital Learning departments, offers sessions covering various services available at OU, demos and hands-on workshops, tours of the Innovation Hub, how various departments are utilizing available technology, and an inspiring keynote address by Dr. Maggie Melo of The University of North Carolina.  Several opportunities to expand digital accessibility knowledge were offered and included table discussions and online learning demonstrations. 

Electronic and Digital Accessibility: A presentation about introductory accessibility information  

Darcy Adams Maelzer from OU’s Center for Public Management (CPM) partnered with Donna Lewis from OU’s Disability Resource Center (DRC) to present introductory information about Electronic and Digital Accessibility.  Information included an introduction to accessibility and its importance, legal expectations, and an explanation of the best practices noted in the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, or WCAG, and resources available to assist in developing accessible documents and websites as well as remediating existing documents and sites.

Round Table Discussion: A Q&A event where all accessibility-related questions were welcome 

Donna Lewis from OU’s DRC, Aaron Biggs from OU’s Office of the Provost Information Technology, and Kevin Buck from OU’s Information Technology hosted a round table about Digital Accessibility.  Participants were able to ask questions and receive answers specific to their interests and current duties and responsibilities. 

E-Learning with Accessibility in Mind: A presentation about the Adapt Authoring Tool  

Jessica Anderson and Darcy Adams Maelzer from OU’s CPM partnered with Thomas Beard from OU’s Human Resources (HR) department to discuss CPM’s e-learning course development tool, Adapt.  Adapt is an easy to use authoring tool that allows course designers to create fun, accessible, and interactive e-learning that is also accessible. Participants received a live demo of how quick and easy it is to create an interactive training that can be used in any Learning Management System.

The full list of events can be found here at the ATE 2019 Schedule. 

Check back on January 30th for an introduction into what accessibility means.