Creating a Sustainable Accessibility Training Program

Creating a Sustainable
Accessibility Training Program
Jacqueline L. Frank
Instruction & Accessibility Librarian
Link to slides: bit.ly/SustainableAccessibilityTrainingProgram

Your Presenter
Jacqueline L. Frank
Instruction & Accessibility Librarian
jacqueline.frank@montana.edu

Outline
• Introduce Padlet for comments
• Acknowledge challenges
• See one model of a tiered accessibility training program
• Outline steps to create a program at your institution
bit.ly/SustainableAccessibilityTrainingProgram

Learning Outcomes
• Understand one example of an accessibility training and
awareness program, and how it helps ensure all employees
across the organization have basic accessibility knowledge.
• Understand how the model can be adapted to many different
organizations, or accessibility roles.
• Identify specific steps to develop a sustainable training
program, in any organization.
• Realize that spreading accessibility knowledge can be a
shared responsibility, and can be promoted by anyone even if
it isn’t your primary responsibility.

What are some challenges to
maintaining accessibility awareness?
• Unmute to speak, or
• Comment using Padlet:
padlet.com/jacqueline_frank/accessibility_training

What are some challenges to
maintaining accessibility awareness?
Cont.
• Time (always)
• Employee Turnover
• Changes to standards
• Not part of primary responsibilities
• Many more!

What accessibility training exists
at your institution?

Accessibility Training at the MSU Library:
A tiered approach
1
Initial training &
awareness for
new employees:
Individual
meetings
2
Ongoing training
for all employees:
workshops
3
Maintaining
awareness:
All-staff email
and meeting
updates

First tier:
1
Initial training &
awareness for new
employees:
Individual
meetings

1. Initial training for new employees, cont.
• Onboarding manual includes self-guided accessibility
training exercise
• Schedule meeting with new employees
• Opportunity to meet the new folks
• Introduce accessibility resources:
• Accessibility webpage & request form
• Accessibility Content Strategy
• Department specific policies & requirements
Could be
an email!

Preview: Self-guided Accessibility Training

Preview: Accessibility Content Strategy

Second tier:
2
Ongoing training
for all employees:
workshops

2. Ongoing training for all employees
• Deliver internal workshops during summer & winter break
Topics are chosen on as-needed basis, including:
• Creating accessible PDFs and Word Documents
• Accessible print materials
• Accessible meetings & presentations
• Student tools & resources in the library
• Universal Design for Learning (UDL)
• Can also just share invites to external trainings

2. Training materials:
• Digital handout*
• Lesson plans (optional for sustainability, includes my own
reminders)
• PowerPoint slides sent in advance (most workshops)
• Recording when possible, based on technology in the space
• Online training works best for recording
• Moving forward: trying to offer hybrid options

Third tier:
3
Maintaining
awareness:
All-staff email
and meeting
updates

3. Maintaining awareness
• Share ‘Accessibility Spotlight’ in all-staff meetings
• ~5 minute updates
• Highlight current accessibility projects, articles, best
practices, trends, updates to standards, etc.
• Keeps accessibility in the minds of employees
• Also sent as an email after the meeting
• Posted on our library intranet

Acknowledgement: Accessibility is
part of my job title and official
responsibilities

Is accessibility part of your
official job responsibilities?

Accessibility is a
shared responsibility
If you think accessibility is important, you
can make a difference by spreading
awareness across your organization,
whatever your role!

The bare minimum
1. Send email to new employees (or ask if someone else can)
• Introduce accessibility resources, requirements, and/or
policies
• Possibly include self-guided accessibility training
exercise
• Create email template
2. Share invites to external training, or offer occasional training
3. Occasional all-staff updates via meetings and/or email

Steps to creating a training program:
1. Locate or ask about existing policies & resources
2. Adapt the self-guided accessibility training exercise (optional)
3. Create an email template for new employees introducing
those resources, and/or asking for an initial meeting
4. Start sharing invites to training, or present your own training
5. Start sharing all-staff updates via meetings and/or email

What are some additional ways that a
training program could be
implemented?

UDL Slides Check
✔ Minimum 24 sans serif font
✔ Use of bullets/numbers for lists
✔ Correct reading order
✔ Sufficient color contrast
✔ Plain language
✔ Alt-text for images
✔ Descriptive links

Creative Commons License
Please attribute Jacqueline L. Frank with a link to the original
presentation.
Except where otherwise noted, this work is licensed under
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/
Creative Commons and the double C in a circle are
registered trademarks of Creative Commons in the United
States and other countries. Third party marks and brands are
the property of their respective holders.

Thank you!
Questions?
jacqueline.frank@montana.edu
Feedback:
bit.ly/JFeval

Creating a Sustainable Accessibility Training Program

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