Welcome to Future Female meetup Aspects of Accessibilty on Thu 24.10.2019

We heard about diversity and inclusion at the workplaces in August. This meetup takes a step further. Inclusion is much more than a gender or age issue. Every single one of us can be temporarily impaired, and some of us more permanently. Loss of eyesight, hearing, mobility or cognitive skills require a whole new approach to digital services. Both for those who design and develop them as well as for those who are not part of the “majority” of the population. As a matter of fact, 1.5 million Finns are somewhat impaired when digital services are concerned.

The European directive and Finnish national legislation require that public sector operators as well as companies in insurance, finance, water, energy, mailing services and transportation provide their digital services for all. The Finnish act on offering digital services (Laki digitaalisten palvelujen tarjoamisesta (306/2019)) states that everyone has the right to conduct their business digitally. The recently approved EU directive 2019/882 on the accessibility requirements for products and services expands the scope even further, e.g. to e-commerce. A whole new range of tasks are ahead of us. Let’s get started!

Join Future Female, SanomaPro and Avaava as we open up the different aspects of Accessibility at our meetup in October 24th.

Agenda for the evening:

17:00-17:45 Registration and mingling

17:45 Welcoming words by Future Female

17:55 Introduction to digital accessibility / Erja Lohikoski, Avaava

18:05 Design for All! Accessibility and inclusivity in practice / Azra Tayyebi and Elina Jokisuu, Avaava

18:35 Sanoma Pro’s publishing business. Why and how digital accessibility has been taken on the agenda? / Kaisu Kiiskilä and Marja Silenti

18:55 What if your everyday life would be different? Avaava will guide you to another world. Participants will be divided into five groups, each allocated their own tasks. One change is possible given the allocated time.

  •   Back to the future – Gain 20 years with Ageman® suit
  •   Now you see it, now you don’t – See how the world looks through simulation glasses
  •   Hands off! Or at least your dominating one. Experiment on digital services without touching the mouse.
  •   How does your website communicate with a blind person? Screen reader demo

19:45 Share your learnings! What will you take with you and what will be the first thing you plan to fix at your workplace? / Erja

20:15 Closing words by SanomaPro & Future Female

20:25 Let’s mingle!

21:00 End of meetup

Where: Sanoma-talo, Töölönlahdenkatu 2, Helsinki

Be fast: There are only 60 seats available for this event and spots will be filled on a first come first served basis.

Tickets are free of charge. If you register but your plans change, please cancel your ticket in advance so we can offer your seat to people on the waiting list.

Please note that we will charge €20 as a no-show-fee if you don’t cancel your ticket 24 hours before the event.

Registration: 

Tickets are free of charge. If you register but your plans change, please cancel your ticket in advance so we can offer your seat to people on the waiting list. Book you seat from Monday 7.10. at 7 am via Lyyti https://www.lyyti.in/Sanoma24102019

Please note that we will charge €20 as a no-show-fee if you don’t cancel your ticket 24 hours before the event.

About speakers:

Erja Lohikoski has an extensive career in communications, marketing and project management. She has worked in private, public as well as not-for-profit sector. Erja’s first contact with web accessibility was in the ministry of finance where her nearest colleagues were preparing the national implementation of the respective EU Directive. For communications professionals SEO has been on the agenda for ages, accessibility – not so much. Erja admits having done all the typical accessibility mistakes herself when producing contents to web. Avaava colleagues have introduced a new and exciting world and new skills to her which she hopes to share with a wider community. Erja has a master’s degree in Political Science (Sociology, Communications, Economics) from the University of Helsinki.

Azra Tayyebi is Avaava’s Web Accessibility Specialist. She is originally from Iran, where she completed her bachelor’s degree in Computer Engineering. Studies brought her to Finland, to University of Eastern Finland in Joensuu, where she completed her master’s degree in Information Technology. Azra has carried out dozens of web accessibility audits and trained a significant number of system architects, developers, service designers and coders in web accessibility skills. Losing her eyesight has not stopped her from realising her dreams. “If someone else has done it, I can do it, too. If no one has done it yet, maybe I’ll be the first.”

Elina Jokisuu is Avaava’s Inclusive Design Specialist, focusing on user experience and accessibility, both physical and digital. Her field of expertise is cognitive accessibility and accessibility of self-service technologies. Elina has an M.Sc. (Economics) in Information Systems Science, and is to submit her Ph.D. in Engineering (Inclusive Design) at the University of Cambridge by the end of 2019. In her Ph.D. Elina has developed an information resource for product designers to provide design guidance related to cognitive impairment, including memory, thinking and language deficits. Take a look at Elina’s publications on http://publicationslist.org/elina.jokisuu

Kaisu Kiiskilä is an HR professional with background of finance, systems and HR. She has been part of digital transformation for several years in an industry which is changing rapidly. During the transformation Kaisu has seen the change in products & services, roles, processes, culture and also in diversity in Sanoma’s organization. “We need specialists from several areas to be able to create super good CX. It’s important that there is vision to lead our way and together we will reach it. It has been so inspiring to be part of this change. During that time I have learned a great deal and I hope it never ends.”

Marja Silenti works as a project manager at Sanoma Pro. She has more than ten years of experience on several positions on the field of  digital learning. Her thoughts are always on the end users’ side and how technology can improve the learning process. She wants to make learning easy for everyone, so Accessibility project was a perfect fit for her.

Xueli Jin is a software professional who has been in the industry since the 00’s. Now working as a Full Stack developer in Sanoma Pro, her work history includes in addition to consumer Web apps also mobile apps and development tools. Her current professional interests are in consumer-facing services where she can leverage technology to create better products. Key to this are a good user experience and accessibility.

About Sanoma Pro

Sanoma Pro is the leading provider of learning solutions in Finland and the front runner in the development of digital learning solutions. Sanoma Pro provides printed and digital learning content and tools for K-12, vocational and university studies. In addition, Sanoma Pro provides an educational and entertaining offering for children with Oppi&ilo brand and learning services via TutorHouse. Our commitment is to bring better learning outcomes to Finnish children and pupils and efficiency to the teacher’s daily work.
Sanoma Pro is part of the Sanoma Learning division within the Sanoma Group. Sanoma Pro’s Business Technology team is responsible for Sanoma Pro’s digital solutions.

About Avaava

Avaava® specializes in accessible environment, communication and services, as well as signage system design. Avaava offers services and solutions to professionals in the fields of construction, communication and digital services. Respecting diversity and the Design for All principle, Avaava works together with its clients to create a more equal everyday life for everyone.
Avaava is on the board of Design for All Europe EIDD, and a member of the European Concept for Accessibility Network (EuCAN) as well as the European Network of Accessible Tourism (ENAT). Avaava is on the committee in charge of the update of the guidance RT cards of the Building Information Group.