Train your volunteers to be “disability aware”

Cartoon people one ow whom is in a wheelchair

The National Disability Co-ordination Officer program and ADCET offers free online training for workers and volunteers for "awareness of disability and the impact that societal attitudes and inherent stigma and discrimination have on the lives of people with disability" called Introduction to Disability Awareness. The course is FREE! They also provide a screen reader version for …

Checklist for accessible events

Crowd at a 4ZZZ carpark gig, photo by Matt Dennien

Organising an event?  What do you need to know about making an event that welcomes everybody? The Australian Digital Inclusion Alliance (ADIA) offer a checklist to help you be sure you've covered all the bases regarding accessible infrastructure,  language, catering and tech. ADIA say, "Meetings and events are critical for presentation, consultation, sharing information, gaining …

EVENT: National Arts and Disability Strategy consultation d/l Dec 3

Group shots of radio groups with people with disability

People with disabilities, mental health issues and organisations are invited to write a submission to the National Arts and Disability Strategy, deadline is December 3. https://www.arts.gov.au/have-your-say/national-arts-and-disability-strategy You can fill in a survey, or make a formal submission. Surveys here: people with disability including a mental health condition organisations carers of people with disability They have …

Is your station accessible? Some excellent checklists to find out

row of cartoon people with various abilities

As I am fond of saying, "you don't know what you don't know".  Thankfully when it comes to accessibility of our station buildings, documents and communications, others have done the work for us with these easy to use checklists: AusCamps Association have made this fantastic resource for assessing access that includes background info on legislative …

MEDIA RELEASE: Radio 4EB’s Katharina Loesche wins the CBAA National Features and Documentary Series 2018 with doco about Achilles Brisbane

CBAA press release: Radio 4EB, Brisbane’s Katharina Loesche has taken home the 2018 CBAA Community Radio Award in the National Features and Documentary Seriescategory for her radio documentary ‘The Runners’ Guide’. In ‘The Runners’ Guide’, Katharina followed a running group of vision-impaired joggers, finding solutions to get exercise in the Brisbane area. It was produced as part of the 2018 National Features and …

EVENT: Fostering your station’s accessibility @ #CBAAconf2018

Find out what you can do to make your station more accessible, and engage a largely untapped font of new and enthusiastic volunteers! Sat November 10, 2018 at the 2018 Community Broadcasting Association of Australia Conference, Gold Coast Convention Centre. This workshop, presented by Kim Stewart (4ZZZ and CMTO) and Emma Couch (CMTO), Sancha Donald …

Teaching yourself accessibility

A11y means Accessibility

If you want to create accessible documents, websites or digital newsletters for your community radio station, you might benefit from checking out these online courses.  Accessibility means making sure your content is available to as many people as possible, increasing audience, participation and social justice. Become an #A11y today! Some free online courses: Udacity have a …

Need accessible documents? Check out MSWord templates

Picture of Sampler cover: Man with guide dog crossing road

In recent weeks I've been exploring the wonderful (and hitherto mostly unknown to me) world of accessible word documents. In MS Word, using document styles, headings and alternative descriptions (alt-tags) on images makes your document more readable for those using screenreaders, as well as more consistently formatted for everyone else. In addition, formatting for accessibility …