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The InDesign + Accessibility Summit:
A CreativePro Online Event

NOTE: The following is from the 2020 event. To see details on our 2021 event, click here.

Join us November 19-20, 2020 for The InDesign + Accessibility Summit, the essential HOW-TO online event for InDesign professionals who need to master accessibility.

Ensuring your documents are accessible is not just a good idea: it's the law. No matter what sector you work in — from government to legal, finance to health care, engineering to education — it's critical that you understand how to make your documents accessible to people with visual impairments, mobility challenges, and other disabilities.

Inclusion and diversity are two of the most important themes in today's culture, and building accessible documents is a key action you can take today to help. One in four people in the United States lives with some sort of disability — that's over 60 million adults! You can make a difference by learning to make your documents accessible to more people.

Topics include:

  • What does it mean to be ADA compliant and follow Section 508 guidelines?
    (Note that this event covers both U.S. and international accessibility topics.)
  • Understanding and implementing the 13 principles of accessibility
  • Building documents: Best practices for paragraph and character styles
  • Designing infographics and charts
  • Accessible branding
  • Creating long documents the right (and accessible) way
  • Becoming the accessibility expert in your company
  • Essential add-ons and utilities
  • The InDesign to Acrobat PDF workflow
  • Accessible (a11y) EPUB: It's possible!
  • How accessibility actually improves your SEO and reach

Scroll down to see the full agenda!

Speakers include:

Bevi Chagnon

Dax Castro

Chad Chelius

Laura Brady

Karen McCall

Colleen Gratzer

Rob Haverty

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Agenda:

Day 1: Thursday, November 19, 2020

All times listed in Central Daylight Time (Chicago) or UTC-5
9:00 AM – 9:05 AM Central:
Welcome

David Blatner

Brief introduction to our topic and speakers for our first-ever accessibility summit!

 
9:05 AM – 10:00 AM Central:
Understanding and Interpreting the 13 Principles of Accessibility

Dax Castro

Creating accessible documents requires not just following guidelines, but understanding their intent. Join Dax as he steps through the 13 principals of WCAG. Learn which ones you should memorize, which ones will give you the most grief and what to do about it when it comes to document accessibility.

 
10:15 AM – 11:05 AM Central:
What Your Documents Look Like to Me

Karen McCall

The best way to learn why accessibility is important is to experience it yourself! Who are those of us with disabilities who are trying to access your digital content? What is the difference between how someone who is blind or has a visual disability and someone with a learning, cognitive or print disability approaches digital content. This session guides you through:

  • Examples of how people with visual, learning, cognitive or print disabilities see digital content.
  • Examples of the technology used to access digital content.
  • Samples of a screen reader reading inaccessible and accessible content.

The session ends with a real-life example of how inaccessible digital content impedes those of us with disabilities from reaching our potential.

11:20 AM – 12:15 PM Central:
Getting the Fundamentals Right

Chad Chelius

Creating accessible PDF files is anything but straightforward, but Adobe InDesign is one of the most powerful tools you can use to do it! Join us for a focused overview of the essential steps you need to take in order to generate clean, solid, accessible PDF files from Adobe InDesign. In this session you’ll learn:

  • Fundamental components of building InDesign documents in preparation for accessible PDF output.
  • Learn tips and shortcuts for making the process easier.
  • Learn what not to do to avoid annoying and frustrating roadblocks.
  • Learn powerful InDesign features to streamline the process.
12:15 PM – 1:30 PM Central:
Lunch and Informal Meetup

Meet the speakers and other designers in this informal meetup and discussion.

1:30 PM – 2:25 PM Central:
Accessible Tables

Dax Castro

Tables are one of the hardest things to get right in accessible documents. Most of the time we are stuck with what we are given and told to “make it accessible” Learn from the master as he explains the ins and outs, what to watch out for, what will take up most of your time and shortcuts that will keep you out of the weeds.

 
2:40 PM – 3:35 PM Central:
Designing with Accessibility in Mind

Colleen Gratzer

Learn how to design with accessibility in mind—and you won't have to sacrifice creativity! In this session you will learn:

  • who benefits from accessible color choices
  • guidelines pertaining to color and contrast
  • how to check color and contrast
  • how to resolve issues
  • why it’s important for designers to think about accessibility as early as possible in the design process, even at the branding stage
3:50 PM – 4:45 PM Central:
Discussion with the Adobe InDesign Team

Rob Haverty, Abhinav Kaushik, et al.

The InDesign team is joining us! Learn what they've been up to, ask questions, and help drive the future of accessibility features in InDesign.

5:00 PM – 6:00 PM Central:
Panel Discussion: Pitfalls, Pratfalls, and Practice

Bevi Chagnon, Dax Castro, and Laura Brady

Join us for a fun discussion about common problems designers have when attempting to create accessible documents, their sometimes painful results, and what we can learn from these experiences.

Day 2: Friday, November 20, 2020

All times listed in Central Daylight Time (Chicago) or UTC-5
9:00 AM – 9:05 AM Central:
Welcome

David Blatner

Welcome to Day 2 of The InDesign + Accessibility Summit!

9:05 AM – 10:00 AM Central:
Accessible EPUB Documents

Laura Brady

When creating digital documents from InDesign, you should also consider the common EPUB format. But EPUB has its own accessibility challenges. Learn how to work the InDesign gears to make better ebooks. Publishing to any ebook store (Amazon Kindle, Barnes and Noble's Nook, Apple iBooks, Google Play, Kobo, etc) means coming to terms with ebook formats. Making accessible ebooks from ID requires understanding a few first principles about accessibility in ebooks and how to use a few key ID tools to help you get there.

  • Edit all export tags for semantic structure
  • Understand the impact of the export to EPUB options
  • Some tools and scripts to help you get there
10:15 AM – 11:15 AM Central:
Key Accessibility Tips and Tricks for Designers

Bevi Chagnon

Learn strategies and techniques from one of the world’s leading accessibility experts! From the front cover to the back – and everything in between — these tips will help you build accessible projects faster and easier, and improve your mastery of the tags and reading order. And you’ll see better results in the final PDF, too.

11:30 AM – 12:30 PM Central:
Dealing with Graphics, Infographics, and Charts

Dax Castro

If you are tired of patterned fills in your charts and graphs, this session will teach you 3 other methods of accessibility compliance without making your existing graphic look even more confusing. Learn the art of Labels, Symbology, Strokes and how to write effective alt-text. Never struggle with accessible charts and graphs again!

12:30 PM – 1:30 PM Central:
Lunch and Informal Meetup

Meet the speakers and other designers in this informal meetup and discussion.

1:30 PM – 2:30 PM Central:
Advanced Planning and Remediation

Bevi Chagnon

As hard as you try, you just can't do everything you need in InDesign. Learn about key next steps that require Acrobat to tweak the PDF for accessibility and add some required features. Also gain insight in how to plan and manage an accessible project, as well as key points to have in your contracts and work orders.

2:45 PM – 3:30 PM Central:
Next Steps: How to Become the Expert

Dax Castro

You have been thrown into the deep end of the accessibility pool and have been told to swim. Or, maybe you dove in all on your own. Either way, in this session you will learn how to approach being the subject matter expert in your company. This session will teach you:

  • What to do to gain and maintain credibility
  • Major pitfalls to avoid
  • Techniques for becoming the one they run to and not the one they run away from!
3:30 PM – 4:30 PM Central:
Panel Discussion: Essential Tools, Add-ons, and Services

Chad Chelius, Colleen Gratzer, and Karen McCall

Sure, you can do most of what you need in InDesign and Acrobat… but you can often do it easier or quicker with a third-party tool. Discover these expert's favorite add-ons for stepping up your accessibility workflow, from good to great.

Registration Details:

Your registration includes:

  • Livestream access to all Summit sessions and live speaker Q&A
  • One year of on-demand access to all session recordings
  • Speaker handouts from the world’s top experts.
  • Savings on future live and online CreativePro events with the alumni discount.

Pricing:
2-day pass: $695
$100 off for nonprofit, government, education, and CreativePro/InDesignSecrets Premium members. Discounts cannot be combined, or added after registration. Please contact us here for discount information prior to registering.

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