Fwd: [Fwd: [abcd-www] FW: FREE Media Access Workshops at WGBH]

[Luis Villa <luis villa gmail com>]

Not sure if anyone in Boston can take advantage of any of these (I
probably can't) but thought it might be good to pass around.

-------- Forwarded Message --------
From: Rebecca Dornin <rdornin hbs edu>
To: abcd-www abcd harvard edu <abcd-www abcd harvard edu>
Subject: [abcd-www] FW: FREE Media Access Workshops at WGBH
Date: Mon, 07 Nov 2005 09:25:57 -0500

October 21, 2005

Press Contact:

Mary Watkins
Media Access Group at WGBH
617/300-3700 voice
617/300-2489 TTY
mary_watkins wgbh org


WGBH and Shapiro Family Foundation Collaborate on Community Workshops
Exploring Accessible Media Technology

This fall, WGBH's National Center for Accessible Media (NCAM) and the
Carl
and Ruth Shapiro Family Foundation are collaborating on a series of
workshops for nonprofits in the Boston community. These workshops will
share WGBH's internationally recognized expertise in the field of
creating
and enhancing access to various kinds of media for users who are deaf,
hard of hearing, blind or visually impaired. The goals of the
partnership
are to build awareness of the needs of disabled members of our
community,
and explore the tools and technology that can better serve the city's
entire population. The workshops also will provide an opportunity to
further expand the social network of individuals and organizations
working
to make greater Boston a model among cities integrating accessibility of
services and resources for all.

The workshops will take place at WGBH, and will focus on five general
areas outlined below. Representatives from a wide range of organizations
have registered to attend, including university-based disabled student
service and tech resources offices, VSArts of Massachusetts, Easter
Seals,
Boston's Out-of-School Time Network, The Learning Center for Deaf
Children, H.E.A.L. Foundation, Outdoor Explorations, Gay and Lesbian
Advocates and Defenders/GLAD, Cultural Access Consortium, Massachusetts
Rehabilitation Commission, Patriots' Trail Girl Scout Council, the town
of
Brookline's Web operations office and the YMCA. Space is still available
for several of the workships. Organizations that wish to take part are
invited to contact WGBH's Mary Watkins for more information and to
register at mary_watkins wgbh org  or 617 300-3700 voice, 617 300-2489
TTY.

All workshops will be accessible to persons with disabilities via
captioning and sign language interpretation. The topics to be addressed
are:

Making Web Sites Accessible Part 1
Thursday, October 27, 9-11am
This session will look at  identifying and repairing most errors on Web
sites. Open to nonprofits and to those Web development agencies they
contract with.

Making Web Sites Accessible Part 2
Thursday, November 3, 9-11am
For those already familiar with the basics, this session will address
issues with PDF, JavaScript and Flash. We also will cover incorporating
external media onto sites while maintaining accessibility. Attendees
will
be trained on how to use WGBH's MAGpie-free, do-it-yourself software for
captioning and describing digitized media.

Advocacy Makes it Happen Part 1
Tuesday, November 15, 9-11am
People with disabilities, parents and social service professionals are
often the first source of information on assistive technology for
everyone
from the salesperson at Best Buy to the person on the phone at Comcast,
and even for some educators in mainstream settings. Learn the current
facts, what's on the horizon and how to make technology serve the needs
and desires of people with sensory disabilities. Co-hosted with Brian
Charlson of The Carroll Center for the Blind.

Advocacy Makes it Happen Part 2
Tuesday, November 29, 9-11am
This session addresses access to TV and movies. Great strides have been
made in the area of television and movie theater access. While the
technologies for captioning and description are now in the marketplace,
advocacy from the community is absolutely crucial to "getting to equal."
Learn tips from those on the front lines. Co-hosted with Pat Hill from
the
Massachusetts Assistive Technology Program.

Access to Educational Media
Wednesday, December 14, 9-11am
Educational media is moving online. How do state and federal standards
apply? Attendees will hear about access challenges, solutions and work
still to be done from NCAM's director of Research and Development.

About NCAM
WGBH's partnership with the Carl and Ruth Shapiro Family Foundation on
this workshop series grows out of WGBH's three decades of experience
pioneering and furthering access solutions to mass media for people with
disabilities. WGBH developed captioning for television in the early '70s
and brought video description (which describes on-screen action,
settings,
costumes and character expressions during pauses in dialogue) to
television and videos in the late '80s. Throughout the '90s, these
services were applied and integrated into other forms of mass media,
including movie theaters (via WGBH's "MoPix" technology and service),
Web
sites (via WGBH's MAGpie, a free software tool that enables
do-it-yourself
captioning and description for digitized media) and classrooms (through
projects which utilize captioning and description to increase literacy
levels and foster inclusiveness for all students). A previous
collaboration the Shapiro Foundation enabled NCAM to conduct outreach
with
Boston-area educators around Cornerstones, a free literacy curriculum
for
students who are deaf or hard of hearing developed by NCAM using video
elements from the PBS series Between the Lions. Today, all of WGBH's
access initiatives are gathered in one division, the Media Access Group
at
WGBH. For more information, visit <http://access.wgbh.org>

About WGBH
WGBH Boston is America's preeminent public broadcasting producer, the
source of fully one-third of PBS's prime-time lineup, along with some of
public television's best-known lifestyle shows and children's programs
and
many public radio favorites. WGBH is the number one producer of Web
sites
on pbs.org, the most-visited dot-org on the Internet. WGBH is a pioneer
in
educational multimedia and in technologies and services that make media
accessible to the 36 million Americans who rely on captioning or video
descriptions. WGBH has been recognized with hundreds of honors: Emmys,
Peabodys, duPont-Columbia Awards...even two Oscars. In 2002, WGBH was
honored with a special institutional Peabody Award for 50 years of
excellence. For more information visit www.wgbh.org.

About the Carl and Ruth Shapiro Family Foundation
The Carl and Ruth Shapiro Family Foundation was established in 1961. The
Foundation's areas of interest are arts and culture, education, health
and
hospitals, Jewish life and social welfare.  Grants are concentrated in
Greater Boston and Florida. The Foundation's tradition of giving has
been
characterized by major capital projects. Over the past three years, the
Foundation has established three new strategic grant program
initiatives.
The first, called the Special Assistance Initiative, aims to promote the
well-being of individuals with disabilities primarily through increasing
access to assistive technology and expanding opportunities in sports,
recreation and the arts. The second, called the Youth in the Arts
Initiative, provides funding for after-school art programs for at-risk
youth. And the third, to be launched later this fall, is called the
Empowerment Initiative and will target its funds to specific kinds of
programs that enable and support individual empowerment.
                        ##
-------------
Lise Simring
Educational Interpreter/
Interpreting Team Schedule Coordinator
Boston Arts Academy
174 Ipswich Street
Boston, MA 02215
617-635-6470 work
617-470-9997 cell





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