ANN: Making Web accessible to visually impaired

["Chet Ensign"<chet.ensign@xxxxxxxxxx>]

     Receipients of the XML/EDI and XSL mailing lists - 
     
     I realize that this may be a bit off topic, but not so much as it may 
     appear at first... 
     
     Perhaps the ultimate electronic data interchange is what happens when 
     we read an electronic text on screen. Imagine the barrier to that 
     information interchange when the reader can not see that screen. 
     
     For those of you in the New York area, the SGML Forum of New York is 
     cosponsoring a workshop on the problem of accessibility and how XML 
     and related technologies are helping bridge that gap. The workshop is 
     being held April 8th at the McGraw-Hill building in the Rockefeller 
     Center area. The detailed announcement follows. 
     
     I am happy that the Forum has been able to help put together what I 
     think is an important event. I'm sending it out to you because I 
     wanted this notice to reach as broad a cross-section of the XML 
     community as possible. 
     
     Thanks and best regards, 
     
     /chet 
     
     --- 
     Chet Ensign
     Manager, Data Architecture
     Matthew Bender & Company, Inc. 
     
     
     <announcement>
     The SGML Forum of New York, the Yuri Rubinsky Insight Foundation, the
     Literacy Assistance Center of New York and Recording for the Blind and 
     Dyslexic invite you to:
          
                        "HOW TO CREATE ACCESSIBLE WEB SITES" 
               --Finding a Wider Audience Through Web Accessibility--
          
       In a world overflowing with information, not all electronic 
     information is equally available to all.  In the US. alone, 49 million 
     people with varying disabilities lack adequate access to what the rest 
     of us take for granted.
     
       Through a series of informative presentations, you will be given the 
     inside track on what your organization can do to make your Web 
     site--and your other information resources--more accessible.  You will 
     leave better informed about the scope of accessibility problems, 
     better equipped to evaluate the accessibility of your own information, 
     and better prepared to take the steps that can make your information 
     available to all. 
     
     Presentations include:
     
                          - Keynote Address -
              Jerry Michalski, Managing Editor, Release 1.0
                     (www.edventure.com/release1)
     Newsweek magazine dubbed Jerry Michalski "software seer" & he has 
     been called "ultra-prescient."  Release 1.0 is considered the computer 
     industry's most intellectual newsletter.
     
                     "Creating Accessible Web Sites"
             Mike Paciello, Yuri Rubinsky Insight Foundation
                            (www.yuri.org)
     YRIF's mission is to promote equality of access to information for
     all. The presentation: what every web master & corporation should
     know about accessible web sites.
     
       "AudioPlus: Accessing print materials by those who are disabled"
            Dennis DeVendra, Recording for the Blind & Dyslexic       
                            (www.rfbd.org)
     This presentation will show how a person who is blind would use
     the internet and will demonstrate a sample digital talking book.  
     It will include a discussion of the components which will make
     up digital talking books (HTML/XML, SMIL, digital audio).
     
                    "Writing for Cross Media Publishing"
                       David Silverman, Sencor Corp.
                       Robert Reich, EcoSystems Inc.
     The need for documents to be designed for multiple media types
     and the need for a curriculum for teaching writing in a multimedia 
     context will be discussed.
     
     
                             -- LOCATION --
          
     DATE:     Wednesday April 8, 1998
     TIME:     2:00 - 6:00 p.m.
     PLACE:    McGraw-Hill, Inc.
               2nd Floor Auditorium
               1221 Avenue of the Americas (enter on 48th or 49th St.)
               New York, NY 10020
     COST:     Free for paid members of the SGML Forum of New York
               $20 for non-members 
          
     All proceeds from this event benefit the following organizations:
      - Yuri Rubinsky Insight Foundation (www.yuri.org)
      - Literacy Assistance Center of New York- (www.lacny.org)
          
     Please Note: The SGML Forum does not have the facilities to 
     accommodate credit cards for payment. Receipts will be available. 
          
                           -- RESERVATIONS --
          
     Please reserve your place at this event, send an email message to:
     
          censign@xxxxxxxxxx 
     
     with the subject line: 
          
          REPLY - Web Access Event
          
     You will receive an acknowledgment by email. 
     
               
                           -- SPONSORSHIP -- 
          
     The SGML Forum of New York, Inc. wishes to thank:
          
                  The McGraw-Hill Companies
                  ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ 
     for their sponsorship and generous support of this event.
     
     
     -------
     For more information, contact: 
               Joe Davidson <wjd@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> 
               or tel.: 212-691-4463
     



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