Accessibility Internet Rallies are a method of raising awareness about Web Accessibility and they are used throughout America.
They were originally started in Austin, Texas by group of people in 1998 this group was led by a CEO of a local company in Austin, Texas called Steve Guengarich and it included other CEO’s from companies in the Texas area, community leaders and accessibility experts including Dr John Slatin of the University of Texas and Jim Allan the webmaster at the Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired.
AIR is a voluntary program involving web developers from computing companies, Web Accessibility experts, and voluntary organisations from the local area. About 5 web developers from each computing company take part.
The rally begins with the web developers attending a one hour meeting with the Web Accessibility experts where the web developers are given a brief introduction to Web Accessibility. The web developers then have to attend a Web Accessibility training day where the Web Accessibility experts teach the web developers the methods that they can use to make a website accessible. The training day is usually held at one of the local companies training facilities, which are usually provided free of charge.
Voluntary organisations are given the opportunity to apply to participate in the rally and get the opportunity to receive a professionally designed accessible website free of charge. The voluntary organisations are also given training by the Web Accessibility experts, however the training given to the voluntary organisations is slightly different to that given to the web developers. The voluntary organisations training tends to focus in the business benefits that a voluntary organisation can gain from having an accessible website. Voluntary organisations are also given information about how to prepare information for the competition, how to market there website via the web and what to expect from the web developers that they would be paired with for the competition.
Once the training has been completed the web developers are paired with a voluntary organisation. The web developers then meet with the voluntary organisation to discuss the voluntary organisations requirements for there website. The competition is then held where the web developers develop the accessible web site for the voluntary organisation. Once they have finished developing the sites the Web Accessibility experts judge each of the sites, and the one that they feel is the most accessible website wins.
People with disabilities can also play a vital part in AIR’s. During the first AIR in 1998 students with disabilities took part people with disabilities can be used as volunteers e.g. for user testing or judging. The user testing could provide the web developers with vital user feedback as they developing there sites during the competition. People with disabilities could also be used to test the sites at the end of the competition as part of the judging process. They may encounter problems that a Web Accessibility expert may not see.
If the people with disabilities have the necessary web development skills then they could join a team of web developers. The web developers who took part in the 1998 competition in Texas were so impressed by the work of the disabled students that some of the disabled students were given summer jobs by some of the computing companies who took part in the rally.
All of the participants in AIR can benefits from it. It allows Web Accessibility experts to raise awareness about Web Accessibility. It allows computing companies to make business contacts in the local community and allows the web developers to learn how to develop accessible websites. The company can use this as a selling point of their business. The voluntary organisations involved get an accessible website free of charge. If people with disabilities are used to give feedback to the web developers then it could lead to employment opportunities for the people with disabilities.