WORKSHOP: Accessible Worship in the digital space

Learn how to incorporate digital access into your worship and related church activities through this disability-led practical hands-on online workshop.

This workshop from the Centre For Accessibility Australia, is applicable to; church leaders, staff and volunteers that run and manage worship activities including the worship service, church meetings, preparing newsletters, church websites and office administrative processes to help maximise inclusion for congregation members with disability. 

This online workshop is not a passive webinar – you will have an opportunity to experience how a blind user interacts with content, try out tools to check your content for accessibility and most importantly, engage with the presenter to ask questions during and beyond the workshop. 

This half-day workshop is delivered by Dr Scott Hollier, a leading international authority on digital access.

Workshop includes:

• My faith journey: Scott shares his journey of faith as a person with a disability and experiences in church. 
• How People with Disability Engage with Content – Includes a demonstration of how assistive technology users engage with content produced by churches. There will also be an opportunity to experience the content in a similar way to a blind user.
• Accessibility Implementation – Provides support to church leaders as to what areas need to be considered for accessibility.
• Policy and Legislation – Highlights the legal requirements for making digital content accessible. Includes discussion of the W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) standard that is required by the Australian Human Rights Commission.
• Role-based Requirements – Focuses on the digital aspects of church including how best to prepare overhead slide presentations, accessibility of newsletters, website accessibility, meeting preparation for small groups and promoting church activities on social media.
• Remote worship – With worship services and meetings going online due to COVID-19, this section looks at best practice to ensure people with disability can participate.
• The Future – with immersive environments like virtual reality becoming popular, will we need to consider the accessibility of worship in a virtual online space?  This section looks at the current international work supporting the possibility.

About Dr Scott Hollier – CEO, Centre For Accessibility Australia 

Dr Scott Hollier specialises in the field of digital accessibility and is the author of the book ‘Outrunning the Night: a life journey of disability, determination and joy. With a PhD in Internet Studies and senior management experience across the not-for-profit, corporate and government sectors, Scott is an internationally recognised researcher and speaker.

Scott’s roles include CEO and co-founder of the Centre For Accessibility Australia,  holds academic positions at Edith Cowan University and the University of South Australia and is an Invited Expert for the W3C Accessible Platform Architectures Research Questions Task Force. In addition, Scott is legally blind and as such has both a professional and personal understanding of the importance of accessibility.