GALA Academy Q1 2025 - Designing for Accessibility: Inclusive Innovation
Members: $175
Non-Members: $295
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This comprehensive program covers essential aspects of Web accessibility, beginning with an overview of accessibility concepts, legal requirements, and business benefits. Participants will learn about WCAG guidelines, document remediation, and multimedia accessibility. Practical tools and strategies, including screen readers and semantic HTML, are introduced to help implement accessibility. The course also focuses on considerations for cognitive disabilities and provides best practices for clear and accessible content.
Academy Moderator: Jessica Yaacoub (Director of Operations and Development at Bromberg Translations)
Session 1: Introduction to Web Accessibility and Legal Framework
Objective: Understand the concept, importance, and legal requirements of web accessibility.
Topics:
- What is Web/Digital Accessibility?
- Ethical and legal reasons for web accessibility (ADA compliance, lawsuits, and international standards)
- The business benefits of accessibility: Avoiding lawsuits, enhancing brand reputation
- Introduction to WCAG 2.2 (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines)
Guest Speaker: Bruce Adelson
Session 2: Practical Areas of Document Accessibility
Objective: Explore critical accessibility areas for documents and digital forms.
Topics:
- Pillars of Accessibility (perceivable, operable, understandable, robust)
- What is PDF Remediation?
- Why shall we do it? Introducing the latest standards (highlighting differences between USA and Europe),
- What are the challenges (more technical side of it)?
- How can LSPs leverage and introduce new services for the end clients?
Guest Speaker: Milena Spelta Parenti
Session 3: Tools and Strategies for Website Accessibility
Objective: Provide practical tools and strategies for implementing accessibility within organizations.
Topics:
- Accessibility tools: Screen readers, magnifiers, braille displays, and text-to-speech
- Using ARIA (Accessible Rich Internet Applications) and semantic HTML
- Designing accessible forms, avoiding auto-play media, and ensuring content adaptability
Guest Speaker: Jassem Hashmi
Session 4: What Is Plain Language? Creating Accessible Content.
Objective: Provide best practices and tips for writing and creating accessible content.
Topics:
- Plain Language and language simplification
- Best practices for writing plain language content
- The benefits of plain language in your content
Guest Speaker: Carlo Eugeni
Host organization: Globalization and Localization Association
Event Speakers
Jessica Yaacoub
Bromberg & Associates, LLC
Jessica's role role encompasses a diverse array of responsibilities, where she not only supervises and facilitates communication across all departments but also plays a pivotal role in steering the company toward its development and accessibility goals.
Jessica's expertise extends to client relations and language access services. She actively engages with clients to comprehensively assess their language needs, offering insightful guidance and solutions.
Jessica's linguistic talents further enhance her capabilities, as she is a native Arabic speaker with fluency in French. She holds a Bachelor's degree in Linguistics with a double major in Computer Science, earned at Wayne State University. Committed to continuous growth, earlier this year she earned her MBA at the University of Illinois – Gies College of Business with a focus on digital marketing and inclusive design. Jessica is an avid accessibility advocate and is currently pursuing her CPACC certificate through the Accessibility Association.
Milena Spelta Parenti
Dema Solutions Srl
Milena Spelta Parenti KAM at Dema Solutions Srl - Italy Born in Italy back in 1967 School Education High School specialized in Foreign Languages (EN-DE-FR) School for Interpreter and Translators in Bologna (Italy) Degree in Simultaneous Interpreting (EN-DE) IULM University in Milan Modern Foreign Languages, Degree in Germanistics Work Experience Over 30 years of experience in Export Departments in different industries (from ceramic tiles, to Food Export, till Steel Processing) In 2018 back to the language industry: co-founder of Dema Solutions srl with the role of Vendor Manager, then moved to Key Account Management Leisure Activities Long-time yoga practitioner, serial reader with a passion for contemporary art, and travelling, especially mountain trekking Currently studying Sanskrit
Carlo Eugeni
University of Leeds
I graduated in Conference Interpreting and Translation at the University of Bologna in 2003. In 2009 I got my Ph.D. in English for Special Purposes with a thesis on live subtitling through respeaking. I am associate professor of audiovisual translation at the University of Leeds (UK), where I teach conference interpreting and respeaking and subtitling for the Deaf and the Hard-of-Hearing. I founded the biennial International Symposium on Live Subtitling and Accessibiity, and am the chairman of the Intersteno scientific committee. In 2016, I co-founded the international journal on linguistic and cultural mediation CoMe and in 2020 the journal of professional reporting and transcription Tiro. In 2018, I received the Italian association of cochlear implant users APIC honorary award for my commitment in promoting the empowerment of deaf people. As a professional I have worked as a freelance simultaneous interpreter, a technical translator, a parliamentary reporter, and a professional intralingual and interlingual respeaker. I have published extensively in the fields of Media Access and Audiovisual Translation, and am currently a researcher of the Horizon-UKRI project on easy language iDEM.