If you provide learning technologies or services to a federal agency or even use Section 508 as your organization’s guidelines for accessibility, you’ll need to ensure your eLearning and other digital content meets the updated standards. But do you know what those new standards are and how to best design for them?

The law is moving from U.S.-based standards created over a decade ago to the more universally accepted WCAG standards.  Much of the new and old standards are similar, but there are specific differences.  Will this mean a lot of new work for you and your team? Maybe; maybe not.  Many of the new guidelines revolve around good design and things you might already be doing anyway.  But others may involve a new approach.

In this session, you’ll find out more about the Section 508 refresh and what these changes mean when it comes to successfully creating accessible content that adheres to the law. You’ll learn how these changes may impact the way you currently design for accessibility and discover what guidelines, tools, and resources you can use to develop and test your web-based content to make sure it meets these standards. You’ll also look at specific examples of accessible courses built with Storyline, Lectora, and Captivate.

After this session, you will be able to:

1. Identify new requirements in the updated standards that might change how you design or build your courses.
2. Plan for the additional design and technical requirements.
3. Determine if your current approach to design and development needs to change.
4. Find additional resources to learn more.

Diane Elkins is the co-owner of Artisan E-Learning, a custom e-learning development company and E-Learning Uncovered, where she helps people build courses they’re proud of. She has built a reputation as a national e-learning expert by being a frequent speaker at major industry events for ATD, The Learning Guild, and Training Magazine. Her favorite topics include accessibility, instructional design, and authoring tools. She is co-author of the popular E-Learning Uncovered book series as well as E-Learning Fundamentals: A Practical Guide from ATD Press. She is a past board member of the Northeast Florida and Metro DC chapters of ATD.