Happy 2022! Starting with a Quick Look Back.

Well, we made it. It’s already a new year somehow and today is the first day of the spring 2022 semester.

I’ve been wrapping up some projects and organizing data from all of our 2021 accessibility workshops. Looking over the numbers, I can’t help but feel a strong since of pride about the work we’re all doing together to make Rice a more inclusive and accessible place for everyone, inside and outside of the hedges.

Here are some numbers for you:

We hosted a total of 60 accessibility workshops over five different months on about 15 unique topics. That averaged out to about three one-hour workshops per week during those five months of training.

All workshops were hosted remotely on Zoom to help keep us safe during this second year of the pandemic. Fortunately, this enabled us to start producing a pretty nice little library of training videos. Check out our Kaltura Media Gallery. We’re really optimistic about the possibility of bringing back some in-person learning opportunities this year (fingers crossed).

We had a total of 242 registrations from 84 unique individuals across more than 50 Rice departments. That averages to just slightly less than three workshops per person, so we’re feeling pretty good about how accessibility knowledge continues to grow within our community. Keep it up, y’all!

The most popular workshops were:

1. Basic Accessible Design Principles (a.k.a. Design with WCAG) with 38 registrations.
2. Acrobat and PDF Accessibility Essentials with 34 registrations.
3. Microsoft PowerPoint Accessibility Essentials with 29 registrations.
4. A tie between Better Video Captions and Accessible PDF Forms with 21 registrations each.

We are planning a new month of accessibility workshops for February 2022, so stay tuned for our announcements about that series. Of course, if there are any workshop topics you’d like to see us cover, or if there are any you’re hoping we’ll repeat again, please don’t hesitate to contact us. Also, let us know what delivery modes you prefer (i.e. remote live, in-person, asynchronous).

Let’s make 2022 the best year yet for expanding access, diversity, and inclusion at Rice University and beyond. Cheers!