Karlen Communications
Accessible Ontarians with Disabilities Act Solutions
Karlen Communications is located in Paris Ontario. For the past ten years we have been working with Section 508 compliance in the United States as well as WCAG compliance for Canadian clients.
With the new standards for AODA, your organization will want to take advantage of the expertise of this Ontario based company.
Karlen Communications can provide:
- Provincial or corporate site licenses for valuable resources such as "Accessible and Usable PDF Documents: Techniques for Document Authors," Logical Document Structure Handbook: Word 2007," and "Logical Document Structure handbook: PowerPoint 2007."
- On-site or web based training.
- Consulting on strategies for implementing the Accessible Ontarians with Disabilities Act.
- Document remediation and repair.
Contact Karlen Communications for pricing.
The Background of Accessible Content Design.
The goal of accessibility is to allow the end-user to choose how they view and interact with content. Accessibility is equal access rather than alternative access and direct access rather than comparable access [IMS Guidelines for Developing Learning Applications]. This is also the philosophy behind the WCAG 2.0 Guidelines.
We are now at the threshold of implementing HTML 5, ARIA or "Accessible Rich Internet Applications", and AJAX or Asynchronous JavaScript and XML based technology. We can now create accessible Flash and web based applications which may not have been possible even within the past five years. "Accessibility and usability" are not static elements but evolve and emerge with our ability to implement new techniques and technologies.
Karlen Communications is dedicated to complete and current technology toward accessible and usable digital environments and content.
AODA and Education in Ontario
June 2010 - A key component to the successful implementation of the Accessible Ontarians with Disabilities Act is the revision of curriculum in Ontario to be inclusive.
This means that in primary, secondary and tertiary education any content or software used in the education process will be accessible. It also means that students will be taught how to create universally designed content as a core part of the assignments, projects and collaborative tasks.
Karen McCall has written a discussion paper to being the task of ensuring that graduates in Ontario are employable. Without the integration of universal design in all components of the Ontario educational system the burden to retrain graduates will fall to the businesses requiring AODA compliance.
AODA includes categories such as customer service, employment, transportation, information communication and the built environment. Elements of all of these categories are taught throughout the educational process.
Ontario can be a global leader in inclusive education and an inclusive culture by revising curriculum to meet or exceed AODA standards.,
AODA inclusive curriculum discussion paper.
Direct AODA Links
Forms - note that the PDF forms are not accessible to people using adaptive technology.
There is currently no direct link to the standards required for compliance to AODA under any of the categories.
Copyright 2009 by Karlen Communications. Contact Karlen Communications