Roger Hudson
Roger Hudson, has an extensive background in media related companies including directorships of a successful film and video production company and a specialist educational multimedia publishing company.
He has more than 20 years experience in developing informational materials for diverse audience groups and conducting focus-group based qualitative audience research.
A good example is a project for the National Heart Foundation that led to the development of new strategies for communicating health messages to people from low socio-economic backgrounds. The research findings have been presented at international medical conferences and are now integrated into national health campaigns around the world.
Roger has researched and produced film, video, audio and print programs for many Government and non-government organisations. He has coordinated the development of commercial and non-commercial web projects and was the driving force behind the Virtual Classroom Project, which explored the use of the Internet for online language teaching and involved more than 500 students from six countries.
Usability and Accessibility
Roger has a post-graduate certificate in Internet Marketing and has provided website usability and accessibility services to many corporate and government clients including, Australian Museum, NSW Health, Royal Botanical Gardens, Qantas and the NSW Guardianship Tribunal.
During 2002/3, Roger was an accessibility consultant for the NSW Office of Information and Communication Technology (formally the Office of Information Technology). In this capacity, he undertook a usability and accessibility audit of selected NSW Government Agency sites and provided practical advice on how the accessibility of NSW Government sites could be improved.
Roger has a detailed understanding of the W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0 and the requirements for website accessibility under the Commonwealth Disability Discrimination Act in Australia. He is also familiar with the U.S. Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and Section 508 (website accessibility) of the U.S. Rehabilitation Act, and how these relate to the W3C guidelines.
As an accessibility specialist, Roger is familiar with the needs of people with disabilities and how these needs can be most effectively met. He is aware of the functionality and potential of the different assistive technologies and has conducted numerous usability and accessibility studies with a wide range of web users including those with disabilities.
Roger has presented usability and accessibility workshops for the Office of Information and Communications Technology, the University of NSW, the Australian Museum, the Office for the Status of Women and the Office of State Revenue (NSW). He developed the usability and accessibility courses for the Sydney Institute of Technology and is a part-time teacher at the Institute.