LAAC currently uses Zoom Webinars for our online trainings for advocates. We migrated to Zoom from GoToWebinar because of the greater accessibility options it offers. Zoom is more compatible with screen-reader technology. It also allows us to provide live-captioning.
In order to address our accessibility concerns, we have developed an internal practice for ALL of our trainings. We continue to strive to make our webinars more accessible for California’s legal services attorneys, and we welcome any input from our members.
We ask in our registration process for any accommodation requests. Below, we have copied our practice for our members to copy if they wish.
Process
1. With every webinar announcement, we include this statement: “LAAC recognizes that Zoom may not be accessible to all advocates. We are happy to accommodate any of your accessibility needs. Please let us know in the registration process if you have a request.
2. In the registration process, where the person registering would enter their name, organization, etc., we ask this: “Do you require an accommodation to fully participate? LAAC staff needs at least three business days to address most requests.”
3. LAAC staff then constantly checks to see if anyone has requested an accommodation. If anyone has responded yes, we respond with this email.
Thank you very much for registering for [training] on [date].
You are receiving this email since you notified us that you require accommodations in order to participate in the upcoming webinar. LAAC is happy to accommodate any of your accessibility needs, and below are some examples of what LAAC can provide:
A. LAAC can provide the PowerPoint presentation in advance in outline form which will be accessible for screen-reader technology. Furthermore, the presentation can be printed and enlarged for larger font needs.
B. If you are unable to type during the webinar, LAAC can unmute you if you “raise your hand” to ask a question. Please note that you will have to CALL in on a telephone, rather than participate by using a microphone and speakers on your computer.
Please let me know if one of these options would be sufficient. If you require further accommodations, I would be happy to work with you to ensure that you are still able to participate in the webinar.
4. Immediately after every training, we upload trainings to YouTube, which automatically captions within 24 hours. LAAC’s work-study interns then go in and view the trainings, correcting any mistakes in the auto-captioning. This process may take up to two weeks, depending on intern availability.
If you have any suggestions on improving our accessibility by modifying our accommodation practice, please email Trainings@LAACOnline.org! Thank you!