Author: Sina Bahram

Founder of the inclusive design firm Prime Access Consulting (PAC), Sina Bahram is an accessibility consultant, computer scientist, researcher, speaker, and entrepreneur. In 2012, Sina was recognized as a White House Champion of Change by President Barack Obama for his doctoral research work enabling users with disabilities to succeed in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) fields. Believing that accessibility is sustainable when adopted as a culture, not just a tactic, Sina and his team work with executive management, policy makers, engineering teams, content creators, designers, and other stakeholders within institutions to promulgate accessibility and inclusive design throughout the fabric of an organization. Under Sina's direction, PAC has helped over 100 organizations to meet and exceed their inclusivity goals, from the creation of accessible websites and mobile apps to achieving a comprehensive inclusive design methodology across the enterprise. In 2017, Sina served as the co-chair of the Museums and the Web conference. In addition to serving on and chairing various boards, conferences, committees, and working groups across corporate, non-profit, and research entities, Sina serves as an invited expert on the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) Accessible Rich Internet Applications (ARIA) working group where he helps shape the next generation of digital accessibility standards and best practices.

MW2015 Workshop: Inaccessibility Is Not An Option, from Demos to Contracts: Demonstrating the fantastic benefits of accessibility and inclusive design, then making your contracts match your beliefs

Workshop
Sina Bahram, Prime Access Consulting, Inc., USA

This workshop, in three parts, aims to advance general awareness of inclusive design, convey a working knowledge of digital accessibility issues, and proffer actionable advice and tools to museum professionals who wish to join the ever growing community who are incorporating accessibility and universal design into their everyday practice.

The first part exposes all members of the audience to a screen reader user interacting with digital content. Said content will be interacted with on a laptop and an iPhone highlighting the accessibility features of both platforms. This section facilitates a gentle introduction to real world web and application-based accessibility, while wrapping the knowledge transfer in a fascinating and fun series of technology demonstrations.

The second part of the workshop will convey the basic tenets of inclusive design. From the standard seven principles, which have been adapted specifically to museums, to real world examples, the audience will gain a new appreciation for everything from an electric toothbrush to doorknobs. These principles are not only directly applicable to real world exhibits and digital presence, but also to the design process and should be adopted as a general strategy for addressing the creation or update of any institutional asset or artifact.

The third part provides the audience with actionable tools, such as RFP language, that can be freely used to enhance an institution’s accessibility. It’s easy to believe in accessibility and universal design, but how can we put the correct language into requests for proposals (RFPs) and statements of work (SOWs) so that external developers do not consider these critical concepts unimportant or worse, optional? The audience will be better equipped to understand how best to insure that we, as a community, work to advance our standard expectations of accessibility and inclusiveness, thereby enhancing the experience for all users, regardless of functional limitation.

Register here for the Museums and the Web 2015 Conference and for the workshop Inaccessibility is not an option