"Developing Accessible E-learning using Flash" Workshop

I attended a fantastic workshop yesterday titled "Developing Accessible E-learning using Flash". It was conducted by Shilpi Kapoor - Director, Net Systems at Gateway Hotel, Bangalore.

The first session talked about "What is Accessibility", "What is Disability" and "Kinds of Disability and aids available for them". We also learned what the hinderence are for the challenged people in learning environment specifically, E-Learning. We were also shown the different Assertive Technology (AT) tools such as Screen Readers, Tectile diagrams and Braile manuscripts.

In the next session we learned about the laws related to Accessibility across the world (i.e. US, UK, and Australia). It also included the laws related to the learning environment for challenged people, like Article 504, and the famous Article 508 of the US laws. I was surprised to know that laws for Accessibility also exist in India.

In the last session we learned about how to implement Accessibilty in our e-Learning courses developed using Flash. The learning also included the steps/precautions to make e-Learning courses accessible. This session was quite an eye opener for me primarily because I have been developing e-Learning apps in Flash for quite some time now.

Shilpi, I would like to thank you for the session and the support but more importantly for making us feel how lucky we are. You make me realize that disability is just a state of mind and we all carry some sort of it.

We all carry disablities but one who can recognise his/her own disabilities and help himself and others overcome them will be an "Able" person for me. As of me for now, I still have a long way to go!