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Accessibility Essentials: A 2025 NISO Training Series

Training Series

Scope

Accessibility Essentials is a new 8-week training series that will empower attendees with actionable insights and practical guidance toward accessibility compliance for professionals in scholarly communications and publishing. Attendees will come away with an operational understanding of what it means to engage in accessible publishing and methods to ensure their organizations are prepared to achieve accessibility compliance. This seminar will cover upcoming regulatory changes and what is needed to avoid fines and expensive lawsuits; accessibility standards and best practices; and human-centered web design. From production to public relations, this seminar is critical for all information practitioners, content or product development experts, and scholarly communications professionals. Each week will focus on answering these questions:

  1. What is inclusive publishing and why do we care about accessibility?
  2. What are the repercussions for non-accessible content, services, other programs?
  3. What does an accessible or inclusive publishing program look like; what does it take to achieve?
  4. What does an inclusive web design program entail, and what methods or techniques are involved?
  5. What are the relevant standards for accessible publishing programs?
  6. How do we implement inclusive text-based content production?
  7. How do we implement inclusive multimedia content production?
  8. How do we develop inclusive publishing strategies, roadmaps, and budgets for the long term?

Course Duration and Dates

The series consists of eight (8) weekly segments, each lasting 90 minutes. Specific dates are:

  • April 3, 10, 17, 24
  • May 1, 8, 15, 22

Each session will be recorded and links to that archived recording will be disseminated to course registrants within 2 business days of the close of the specific session.

Training Facilitator

Lettie Y. Conrad, Product Experience Architect, LibLynx, and Part-Time Instructor, San José State’s School of Information

With more than 20 years’ experience in scholarly publishing and product design, Lettie brings human-centered methods to her work with technology and service providers. She is a dedicated information professional, passionately delivering inclusive innovations in research and publishing. 

Lettie is driven by an interest in how scholarly communicate and manage their research information. In her 8 years as an independent researcher and consultant, Lettie contributes both commercial solutions and original research to the study of scholarly information experiences.

In her 10 years with SAGE Publishing, Lettie played a key role in establishing product management expertise and user-centered product lifecycles and market research routines. She was instrumental in launching user-centered web and mobile products, driving research and analysis that enabled evidence-based product management to maintain outstanding quality of SAGE platforms. 

Currently, Lettie serves as Product Experience Architect for LibLynx, a part-time instructor in San José State’s School of Information, among other independent projects. In her spare time, Lettie is a Publications Committee member for the Association for Information Science & Technology and a ‘chef’ with the SSP’s Scholarly Kitchen blog. You can read more about Lettie on her LinkedIn and ORCID profiles.

Training Facilitator

Simon Holt, Senior Product Manager, Content Accessibility, Elsevier

Simon Holt is Head of Central Strategies, Content Acquisition at Elsevier. He is also Disability Confidence Manager for the organization, working to identify and remove barriers that prevent people with disabilities achieving their potential at work. He lives in Oxford, UK.

Guest Speakers

Confirmed guest speakers (others TBA) include: Will Awad, Digital Accessibility Consultant, iAccessDigital; Bridget Burke, Front-end Designer and Accessibility Expert, University of Michigan Libraries; Rachel Comerford, Senior Director of Accessibility Outreach and Communication, Macmillan Learning; Caroline Desrosiers, Founder & CEO, Scribely; Neil Gilstrap, Chief Technology Officer, Cadmore Media; Bill Kasdorf, Principal, Kasdorf & Associates, LLC, and Founding Partner, Publishing Technology Partners; Stephen Laverick, Senior Associate, Maverick Publishing Specialists; Bob Liu, User Experience Strategist, University of Arizona Libraries; Jack McElaney; Chief Revenue Officer, Microassist; Simon Mellins, Independent Digital Publishing Consultant and Accessibility Specialist, Simon Mellins Consulting; Beth Richard, Senior Publishing Editor, Institute of Development Studies; Stacy Scott, Head of Accessibility, Taylor & Francis; Leon Terner, Head of Multimedia, The Lancet Group; and Satyen Vora, Manager, Digital First Optimization, Elsevier.

Event Sessions

Thursday, April 3, 2025, Session One: Introductory seminar

Speakers

Lettie Y. Conrad

Product Experience Architect and Part-Time Instructor
LibLynx and San José State’s School of Information

What is inclusive publishing and why do we care about accessibility?

We will kick off this seminar series by defining the key terms and concepts for digital accessibility and inclusive publishing.

Recommended Reading

Foundational materials

Best practice: Scholarly communications 

Keeping current

 Experiences of disability

Thursday, April 10, 2025, Session Two: Laws and regulations

Speaker

What are the repercussions for non-accessible content, services, other programs?

This module will focus on the regulatory space, addressing key court cases and legislation that define the legal ramifications of digital accessibility.

Recommended Reading

Global

  • The Marrakesh Treaty to Facilitate Access to Published Works for Persons Who Are Blind, Visually Impaired or Otherwise Print Disabled. 

European Union

United States

Thursday, April 17, 2025, Session Three: Introduction to accessible publishing

Speakers

Simon Mellins

Independent Digital Publishing Consultant and Accessibility Specialist
Simon Mellins Consulting

What does an accessible or inclusive publishing program look like; what does it take to achieve?

This module will guide us to a deeper level of understanding about accessible publishing and how to establish an accessible program in your organization.

Thursday, April 24, 2025, Session Four: Introduction to inclusive design

Speakers

Bridget Burke

Senior Front-end Developer and Accessibility Specialist
University of Michigan Library

Lettie Y. Conrad

Product Experience Architect and Part-Time Instructor
LibLynx and San José State’s School of Information

Bob Liu

User Experience Strategist
University of Arizona Libraries

What does an inclusive web design program entail, and what methods or techniques are involved?

In this module, Lettie and Bridget will introduce inclusive and human-centered design principles, and how they align with delivering accessible web design.

Thursday, May 1, 2025, Session Five: Standards seminar

Speaker

Bill Kasdorf

Principal and Founding Partner
Kasdorf & Associates and Publishing Technology Partners

What are the relevant standards for accessible publishing programs?

In this module, Bill will provide an intensive session on the prevailing standards and guidelines for accessible publishing and inclusive design.

Thursday, May 8, 2025, Session Six: Accessible print/text-based production

Speakers

Bill Kasdorf

Principal and Founding Partner
Kasdorf & Associates and Publishing Technology Partners

Beth Richard

Senior Publishing Editor, Institute of Development Studies

How do we implement inclusive text-based content production?

We will dive into the technical requirements and workflows for accessible publishing of text-intensive products and services.

Thursday, May 15, 2025, Session Seven: Accessible multimedia production

Speakers

Rachel Comerford

Senior Director of Accessibility Outreach and Communication
Macmillan Learning

How do we implement inclusive multimedia content production?

This module will dive into the technical requirements and workflows for accessible publishing of products and services with multimedia and special formats.

Thursday, May 22, 2025, Session Eight: Looking ahead

Speakers

Lettie Y. Conrad

Product Experience Architect and Part-Time Instructor
LibLynx and San José State’s School of Information

How do we develop inclusive publishing strategies, roadmaps, and budgets for the long term?

We will conclude with a forward-looking module dedicated to planning accessibility programs and exploring the state of the art in accessible publishing.

Additional Information

Registration is non-transferable, and login via this Zoom link is exclusively accessible to the registered individual. As registrants, you can expect to receive a message containing your attendee sign-on credentials three business days prior to the scheduled Thursday session.

If you have not received your instructions by the day before an event, please contact NISO headquarters for assistance via email (nisohq@niso.org). 

Registrants for an event may cancel participation and receive a refund (less $30.00) if the notice of cancellation is received at NISO HQ (nisohq@niso.org) one full week prior to the event date. If received less than 7 days before, no refund will be provided. 

All events follow the NISO Code of Conduct. More information can be found here.

Broadcast Platform

NISO uses the Zoom platform for purposes of broadcasting our live events. Zoom provides apps for a variety of computing devices (tablets, laptops, etc.) To view the broadcast, you will need a device that supports the Zoom app. Attendees may also choose to listen just to audio on their phones. Sign-on credentials include the necessary dial-in numbers, if that is your preference. Once notified of their availability, recordings may be viewed from the Zoom platform.