Live training sessions
An introduction to digital accessibility
If you are new to digital accessibility or would like a quick refresh, this 45 min session is for you. We cover what you need to know to start making a difference. This includes:
- What digital accessibility is and why it is so important for you and your service users
- The challenges people can face when accessing your content and documents online
- A quick look at the rules and regulations and what they mean for us
- Common accessibility problems with online documents (PDFs)
- The advantage of using HTML as an alternative
- What we can all be doing to make sure our information is accessible
- Q&A session
Creating accessible documents
If you write documents that get published on a website, this session will help you to ensure your documents are accessible to everyone. This 2 hour session includes practical live demonstrations of how to do all of the below in a Word document:
- Assign meaningful titles
- Using heading styles correctly
- Creating clean space without having blanks
- Using Alt text and creating accessible images and charts
- Formatting tables
- Avoiding floating images and objects
- Making hyperlinks accessible
- Using the MS Word accessibility checker
- Publishing
- Q&A session
Meeting WCAG 2.2
Local authority websites play a crucial role in sharing information and providing services to the public, making compliance with Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2 vital for ensuring inclusivity.
In this 1 hour session we will cover the 9 new WCAG 2.2 criteria that specifically address issues faced by people with cognitive conditions, those with low vision, and mobility disabilities.
For each new criteria we:
- discuss what the goal is
- identify who it will help
- understand what we need to do
- explore some examples.
By embracing the new criteria, local authorities can ensure that their content and services are accessible to everyone.
Interactive surgery session
In these 1 hour sessions, we can provide bespoke advice and guidance for any staff/services experiencing difficulties with producing online documents or creating accessible web content.
Using Adobe Acrobat Pro for accessibility - introductory level
This 90 min session introduces some of the common issues with PDFs and how to fix these using Adobe Acrobat Pro. It includes demonstrations of how to use the accessibility tools, work out heading structures and logical reading order and how to fix issues such as titles, language, alt text, table headers, artifacts, empty tags, moving tags and saving. Wherever possible we will use your own documents as demonstration documents and attendees will be required to use Adobe Acrobat Pro throughout the session.
Using Adobe Acrobat Pro for accessibility - intermediate level
This 90 min session covers some of the trickier issues with PDFs and how to fix these using Adobe Acrobat Pro. It works through issues such as dealing with complex charts/diagrams and tables, converting layout tables into proper tags, understanding and tagging lists and dealing with footnotes. Wherever possible we will use your own documents as demonstration documents and attendees will be required to use Adobe Acrobat Pro throughout the session.
Writing for your customers
Whether you’re drafting emails, creating blog posts, writing letters, or creating any kind of content for your service users, they way you convey your message matters. In this 2 hour session we delve into the core questions of good communication:
- How well do we really know our audience?
- Are we telling them what they need to know?
- Is our content written in our readers’ language?
- Are we communicating clearly in everyday Plain English?
We then explore the main principles of Plain English, offering practical applications at every step:
- Writing short concise sentences
- Using simple words and phrases
- Using your readers language
- Avoiding slang, jargon and acronyms
- Adopting the active voice for engaging content
- Mastering how to give instructions
- Avoiding complex nominalisations
- Using the power of lists for clarity
How to create and structure effective content
If you are a content editor or you are creating online content for your services users, this 2 hour session is for you. We explore the following questions:
- Why is good content so important?
- Why do we need to improve our content?
- How do people access online content?
- How do people read websites?
We then dive into the topics below, providing a helpful checklist for creating effective content:
- Making content relevant and valuable
- The power of clear copy and design
- Structuring content using the Inverted Pyramid
- Creating trustworthy content
- Making it easy for service users to take an action
- Reducing friction
- Reviewing and evaluating content
User research and customer journey mapping
Understanding your customers’ experiences and needs is a crucial starting point for any project. This 2.5 hour session covers:
- What user research is, why it is so critical and when to do it
- How to carry out your own user research
- Recruiting, designing questions, interviewing, and analysing
- Sharing the findings and the customer experiences captured
- Identifying user needs
- Identifying customer insights
- Creation of user stories
- Customer journey mapping
- Helpful tools, templates, and tips
- How this can be used to develop processes and services that are built around our customers/residents needs
User testing to improve website usability
Seeing your web pages, online forms and transactions through your customers’ eyes is always very revealing. This 2.5 hour session covers:
- What user testing is
- Why and when to do user testing
- How to carry out your own user testing
- Recruiting, designing scenarios, the test and feedback
- Helpful tools, templates and tips
- What we have learnt from users
Working in an agile way
Could you work in a more agile way to deliver projects that meet your customer and business needs? This 2.5 hour session covers practical tools and techniques for working in an agile way using the Scrum Framework. It covers:
- The basic principles of working in an agile way
- What approaches to take for your projects – Agile ‘V’ traditional project management
- The Scrum framework and features
- Creating your Scrum Team
- Deciding on your product vision
- Capturing user needs
- Developing Product Back logs
- Using MoSCoW and Planning Poker
- Sprint Planning and reviews
Nudging customers into action using behaviour change techniques
Behaviour change techniques can be used to encourage your customers to take the action you want. In this 2.5 hour session we can use examples of your own communications and work on changes that could be made. This session includes:
- What behaviour change is and examples of it in action
- Why behaviour change is so important
- Are your communications encouraging customers to do what you want them to do and stopping unnecessary contact?
- How to encourage customers to change their behaviour using techniques including:
– Nudge
– MINDSPACE
– EAST - Activities with some of your own communications
- Tips for good communications