www.earnperhit.com/essay => Professional academic writing www.Lucky-Bet.site => Bet on Sports - 50% Deposit Bonus www.Lucky-Bet.site/casino => Online Casino - 5000$ Welcome Bonus www.Lucky-Bet.site/lotto247 => Lotto247 - Win Big, Live Free www.Lucky-Bet.site/eurobet => Best European Bookmaker Short presentation for Global Accessibility Awareness Day. Looks at how to make accessibility more relevant, understandable for web writers.

1. Making accessibility accessible
A short presentation for GAAD 2013
Melbourne, May 9 2013
Dey Alexander
dey@4syllables.com.au
@Writing4Web

2. My focus is web writers because…
• Content seems to be the lowest priority
– For management
– On web projects
– For user experience and accessibility work
• Accessible templates and a CMS don’t guarantee
accessibility
– 19 guidelines that writers can affect conformance with
– Web is drowning in documents that aren’t managed as well as
web pages (PDF, DOC, RTF)

3. Who are the web writers?
• Not usually writers
– Most are admin staff, subject matter experts,
managers, content owners
– Only a few have communications or writing
backgrounds
• Rarely web professionals
• Most hired for skills other than writing
– Even rarer to be hired for web writing skills

4. Web writing and web writers
• Hidden or unimportant work
– Squeezed into existing roles
– Often not explicit in job descriptions
– Even communications professionals see web as their lowest
priority
• Not seen as web professionals
– Often don’t get web or seek training
– Don’t see themselves as web professionals
• Sometimes managing sub-sites with no prior experience

5. Web writers and accessibility
• IF (a big IF) they’ve heard of accessibility
– “It’s not my job”
– There’s not enough time
– It sounds too hard
And if they had a look at the guidelines …

6. Web Content Accessibility Guidelines LOOK hard
• Screen capture showing a guideline
• Here’s an example – success criterion 1.1
• Lots of jargon and tech speak
• Very off-putting for most web writers

7. So, we need to make accessibility accessible
• Make it visible, raise awareness
• Focus on what’s relevant to web writers
• Make guidelines easier to understand
• Show them how to do it
• Help web team and others mentor them
Here are some examples …

8. Series of articles on accessibility for web writers
• A 17-part series of articles aimed at demystifying
the guidelines
and making them relevant to web writers
• You can access the articles at
http://www.4syllables.com.au/2010/09/accessibility-web-writers-part-1/

9. Training course
• “Web accessibility for writers and editors” is a full-day
in-house training course focused on the needs of
writers and editors

10. Accessibility evaluation for writers and editors
• A checklist and article showing writers how to evaluate their
content using some free and simple evaluation tools

11. Decision tree and tips on writing ALT text for images
• ALT text is m uch m ore nuanced than m any people
realise
• Decision tree helps writers decide if they need a blank,
short
or long text alternative
• Articles with tips on dealing with captions and m aps,
and a list of im age exam ples and how to write the ALT
text for each

12. T-shirts
• T-shirts promoting text alternatives for images
• We’re planning to create more