Breakout 1I

Designing & developing accessible content from start to finish

Presented by:

Samantha Haney - Founding Partner of Waypoint Ventures LLC

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Karin Carlson - Instructional Designer & Accessibility Specialist at Waypoint Ventures LLC

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1 in 4 adults in the US, and 1 in 5 in the world, live with a disability. Learn how we develop and deliver industry-leading learning content that’s accessible for everyone. Our mission at Waypoint Ventures is to transform the learning process, designing our content to ensure it meets the needs of everyone, including people with visual, auditory, cognitive, and/or social disabilities. Our development team—including designers, writers, developers, artists, and editors— receive accessibility training and regular updates on best practices so that accessibility awareness becomes natural to their daily lives and, by extension, to our products. At Waypoint, accessibility is part of  product design from start to finish. We don’t treat it as an afterthought. During this session we will demonstrate how we rigorously test completed content to ensure that everyone can participate. Accessibility design, screening, and testing are part of our overall services.

Waypoint Ventures Founder Samantha Haney started the content-development company in 2003. It specializes in technical courseware that’s engaging and accessible. Waypoint is an accessibility-forward company with a uniquely trained in-house accessibility team who hold certifications from Trusted Tester (the U.S. Department of Homeland Security), the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), and Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG). Under Samantha’s strong leadership and guidance, Waypoint has evolved into an In-demand content-development enterprise whose accessibility team actively engages with the product-development process, from design through development and publication, and also reviews client products, services, and communications to ensure their content is compliant.

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Karin Carlson is a Microsoft Certified Trainer (MCT) based in the heart of Canada in Winnipeg, Manitoba. With over 22 years of classroom training and consulting experience, she has developed accessibility courseware and delivered training for clients in both the US and Canada. Accessibility for websites and applications classes cover current guidelines, standards, and legislation, including WCAG 2.1 and Section 508. With a busy teaching schedule, Karin is still an active application and website accessibility tester and consultant, providing accessibility assessments and follow-up coaching to developers and content creators in Canada and the United States.

Presentation Information & Materials