DIAGRAM Out and About

• CSUN 2016–San Diego, CA-March 23-25, 2016

This year has flown by and CSUN 2016 is almost upon us. Many people from DIAGRAM, Benetech staff as well as our non-Benetech community members, have sessions this year and we are really excited about all of them! Here are the ones we already know of:

• The DIAGRAM Center will be hosting our annual “office hours” event and we will send out more details as it gets closer. The “office hours” are a great time to meet, touch base in person, and of course plan new and ongoing collaborations. So if you’re at CSUN, or just in the area, we really hope you’ll stop by and join us!
• Lisa Wadors, Gaeir Dietrich and Kaela Parks will host a pre-conference workshop on March 22 called “Tactile Graphics Solutions from 2D to 3D”. In this beginner level workshop, participants will learn how to optimize the usefulness of tactile learning objects in colleges and universities, experience a 3D Printer in action and do some hands-on exploration of 3D model lending libraries.
• Anh Bui will give one of the early talks of the main conference on March 23 as she introduces DIAGRAM + to CSUN attendees. Her talk “Accessible Images and Beyond: DIAGRAM Center +” will dive into our new five-year initiative for Born Accessible content as well as our expanded mission and scope.
• Sue-Ann Ma and Sina Bahram will present “Discovering Accessible Math that Works with Your AT: Math Support Finder” on the morning of March 25. Their session will help CSUN attendees learn about the accessible options available for reading math visually, aurally, or tactually and the combination of tools needed to do so.
• Robin Seaman, George Kerscher, Richard Orme and Elaine Ober will present “New Guides by Publishers, for Publishers: How to Create Accessible EPUB 3”. Also on March 25, this session will explore ways in which publishers can improve the accessibility of their ebooks for all readers.
• Charles LaPierre, Sue-Ann Ma, Mark Hakkinen and Becky Gibson will hold an afternoon session on March 25 called “Diagrammar Use Cases: A Framework for Making Images & Graphics Accessible”. Participants will learn about the Diagrammar. A content model standard created by the DIAGRAM Center to help make images and graphics accessible to all readers.

• IAAP (International Association of Accessibility Professionals)–November 3, 2015 (webinar)
  • Sue-Ann Ma and Charles LaPierre along with DIAGRAM community member Neil Soiffer presented a webinar for the International Association of Accessibility Professionals (IAAP) entitled, “Latest Developments in Accessible Math in Browsers and EBooks”. It focused on tools publishers and other content creators can use to make their digital math content accessible. A recording of the webinar can be purchased at http://www.accessibilityassociation.org/content.asp?contentid=161.

• Inclusive Publishing Ecosystem: A Roadmap for Born Accessible Content –Milan, Italy-November 13, 2015
  • Betsy Beaumon presented “The DIAGRAM Center: Accessible Images & Math” at the Inclusive Publishing Ecosystem: A Roadmap for Born Accessible Content. Her talk focused on the work DIAGRAM is doing to help publishers and content creators make images and math born accessible through the creation of resources, tools and standards.  For an overview of the conference and summary of the presentations given visit http://www.smartbook-tisp.eu/resources/raising-the-bar-for-an-inclusive-publishing-ecosystem.
• Accessing Higher Ground–Denver, Colorado –November 16-20, 2015
  •  Lisa Wadors of Benetech and Gaeir Dietrich of the High Tech Center Training Unit (HTCTU) hosted a pre-conference session on 3D printing titled “Tactile Graphics Go 3-D”. Their session examined how 3-D printing can be used effectively in the creation of accessible education materials. For more information visit http://accessinghigherground.org/wp/show1prop4grid2015.php?vpropid=2691&vday=Tuesday.
  • Sue-Ann Ma and DIAGRAM Content Working Group Co-chair Lucia Hasty joined forces to present “New Developments in Image and Math Content Accessibility 2.0 “. A session exploring the use of 3D printed objects in education, the latest developments in creating accessible math using Math ML Cloud and additions to the recently released second edition of the Accessible Image Sample Book. For more details on their presentation visit http://accessinghigherground.org/wp/show1prop4grid2015.php?vpropid=2684&vday=Thursday&vdis=grid

• The 3rd International Workshop on Digitization and E-Inclusion in Mathematics and Science 2016 (DEIMS2016)–Kanagawa, Japan-February 4 – 6, 2016
  •  Experts from all over the world will come together to discuss and present new technologies, strategies and future perspectives dealing with the digitization of STEM content in ways that are accessible. DIAGRAM partner MathJax will be there and so will DIAGRAM community member Volker Sorge. Dr.  Sorge will be giving a keynote lecture entitled “Assistive Technologies for STEM Subjects – From Bitmap Graphics to Fully Accessible Chemical Diagrams” about his work to make chemical diagrams web accessible. For more information and to register visit http://workshop.sciaccess.net/DEIMS2016/index.html.