To make a little easier for everyone to access the links I referenced, I’ve listed them here.

You can also view a recording of the presentation by WebAbleTV.

Links:

•  Million Dollar Comma www.snopes.com/legal/comma.asp
• Two Million Dollar Comma www.robhyndman.com/2006/08/07/the-2-million-comma/
• “Accessibility for web writers, part 1” www.4syllables.com.au/2010/09/accessibility-web-writers-part-1/
• “The state of our union is … dumber: How the linguistic standard of the presidential address has declined” www.guardian.co.uk/world/interactive/2013/feb/12/state-of-the-union-reading-level
• Dan Zarella’s WordPress plugin, measuring the readability of blog posts danzarrella.com/introducing-danzarrellas-readability-analyzer-plugin-for-wordpress.html
• Rhonda Bracey’s “The problem with readability scores” (cybertext.wordpress.com/2010/08/05/the-problem-with-readability-scores/)
• Webdesigner Depot’s design checklist www.webdesignerdepot.com/2010/02/a-review-of-consistent-designs-on-the-web/

On February 27, I presented a session called “Writing for Everyone” at the CSUN Conference.

Accessible content makes it easier for everyone to get the information they need, reducing confusion and translation costs, improving searches, and optimizing content strategy.

If you want to read the annotations (speaker’s notes), view the presentation at SlideShare.

UPDATE: It isn’t possible to read the annotations through SlideShare, so I’ve uploaded and linked it. View WritingForEveryone (PDF, 4.6Mb).

On Tuesday, July 30th, I gave a webinar (sponsored by Adobe) on Creating Accessible Content. Here are the links I referred to in the webinar:

• Accessibility for web writers, part 1
• Dan Zarella’s Readability Analyzer Plug-in for WordPress
• Illiterate America by Jonathan Kozol
• The problem with readability scores by Rhonda Bracey

In addition, you might also want to check out:

• Accessibility Camp (list of camps around the world)
• Accessibility Summit 2012
• HTML <abbr> Tag for Acronyms & Abbreviations

In addition, search for the Twitter hashtag: #a11y (and #accessibility). And look at my Twitter favorites and my Delicious bookmarks.

(Disclaimer: I have not received anything from any company for posting these links. I used the links listed here as resources for my webinar.)

Got more links people should check out? Add them in the comments!

On Tuesday, June 19, I presented a webinar (sponsored by Adobe) called “Making Sense of Accessibility”. I included several quotes and lots of links in this session, and I thought it might be easier if you could reference them all in one place. (I’ve also added some other links that I thought you might be interested in.)

“People with disabilities constitute the nation’s largest minority group, and the only group any of us can become a member of at any time.”

Disability Funders Network – Disability Stats and Facts

“The rule of thumb in many usability-aware organizations is that the cost-benefit ratio for usability is $1:$10-$100. Once a system is in development, correcting a problem costs 10 times as much as fixing the same problem in design. If the system has been released, it costs 100 times as much relative to fixing in design.”

Gilb, 1988

“Web accessibility is not a legal issue. It’s an equal opportunity issue.”

Rakesh Babu, quoted in To The Blind, The Internet Isn’t Always So User-Friendly

“For people without disabilities, technology makes things convenient. For people with disabilities, it makes things possible.”

Judith Heumann, U.S. Department of Education’s Assistant Secretary of the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services (quoted in Why Web Accessibility Matters)

• “10 Excellent Tools for Testing Your Site on Mobile Devices”
• “A Positive Strategy for Expanding Market Share”, United States Department of Labor, Office of Disability Employment Policy
• “Accessibility: Are You Serving All Your Users?” by Tim Bray
• “Accessibility in Your Life” (Tilgaengelighed i dit liv) by Karen Mardahl for Ignite Denmark (See also the corresponding blog post for notes and transcripts.)
• Disability – a global picture, Table 2.2: Estimated prevalence of moderate and severe disability, by region, sex, and age, Global Burden of Disease estimates for 2004
• Disability in America Infographic
• Disability or Disabled – Which Term is Right?
• Disabled World
• Game Accessibility Special Interest Group of the International Game Developers Association
• “How to Ensure You Pay More for Web Accessibility Than You Should” by Derek Featherstone
• In The Pit (Xbox)
• iOS Accessibility
• Laws:
  • Australia: Disability Discrimination Act 1992 and updates
  • Canada: Canadian Human Rights Act (www.chrc-ccdp.ca/about/human_rights_act-eng.aspx
  • United Kingdom: Special Needs and Disability Act 2001
  • United States: Section 508 and Americans with Disabilities Act
• “Not Just Taking Up Space: Almost-Infinite Job Possibilities at NASA”, by Deborah Kendrick.
• Sina Bahram
• Stem Stumper (iTunes and Android
• The AbleGamers Foundation (ablegamers.org/
• “The Cost of Accessibility” by Sean Yo
• The Curb Ramps of Kalamazoo: Discovering Our Unrecorded History
• The iPad as an Affordable Communicator: Initial Review
• The Paciello Group Blog
• The ROI of Usability (Usability Professionals Association (H/T Whitney Quesenbery)
• The ten point business case for web accessibility
• UK Net Guide, “Disability market ‘worth £80 billion’ annually”
• United Nations: Disability and Employment
• United States Department of Labor Office of Disability Employment Policy
• WAI (World Wide Web Consortium’s Web Accessibility Initiative)
  • Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines (ATAG)
  • User Agent Accessibility Guidelines (UAAG)
  • Application Rich Internet Applications (WAI-ARIA
  • Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG)
• Web Accessibility Evaluation Tool (WAVE)
• WebAIM – Web Accessibility in Mind
• WGBH Access Services

In addition, search for the Twitter hashtag: #a11y (and #accessibility). And look at my Twitter favorites and my Delicious bookmarks.

(Disclaimer: I have not received anything from any company for posting these links. I used the links listed here as resources for my webinar.)

I’ll be presenting a series of three webinars on accessibility. The webinars, hosted by Adobe, cover:

Part 1: Making Sense of Accessibility (June 19)

“But we don’t have any disabled users.” As with any discipline, making your content accessible makes it better for all your users, not just those with disabilities. The first part of this three-part series covers:

• Myths
• Web standards
• Types of disabilities
• Legal issues
• Existing solutions
• Possible future solutions

Part 2: Creating an Accessible Layout (July 17)

What can you do to make your content appear more accessibly? During the second part of this three-part series, you’ll learn tips to make your documents (printed or online) more accessible to more users. This session will cover:

• Document structure and layout
• Colors
• Fonts
• Padding, margin, and line-height
• Borders and underlines
• Custom Cascading Style Sheets (CSS)

Part 3: Developing Accessible Content (July 31)

You’ve learned why your content should be accessible and things you can do to make it appear more accessibly. In the last part of this three-part series, you’ll learn ways that you can create more accessible content and why they matter:

• Grammar
• Paragraph and sentence length
• Alternative and title text
• Link text
• Data tables
• Images and videos
• Labels

Register at the Adobe site.

On January 31, Sarah O’Keefe of Scriptorium Publishing and I talked about tech comm trends for 2012. We each covered three trends (so six in total).

Many thanks to all who attended You were a great group!

View the webcast recording. And visit the Scriptorium site for more videos and to see the list of upcoming events.

Register now for the 2012 WritersUA Conference, which will be held in Memphis next year at The Peabody Hotel. You can get all the information from the WritersUA conference web page.

Hope to see you there!

On Friday, 1 October 2010, I presented “Getting the Most Out of Twitter…Everywhere!” at the 2010 LavaCon Conference in San Diego.

You can view the slides of that presentation at SlideShare. (I was hoping that my animations would be preserved…maybe someday :-).)

Jackie Damrau from STC Lone Star Chapter reviewed my session (along with several others and LavaCon) in the October 2010 issue of Technically Write.

I’ll be speaking at STC Houston about HTML5 and CSS3 on Tuesday, Nov. 9, from 5:30 pm to 7:30 pm. (Get more information at the STC Houston website.)

While I’m in Houston, I’m offering half- and full-day consulting slots to companies who want me to come onsite. The time slots are being offered in the following order:

• Tuesday morning (half-day only)
• Monday afternoon or Monday all day
• Monday morning
• Wednesday morning or Wednesday all day
• Wednesday afternoon
• Thursday morning or Thursday all day
• Thursday afternoon
• Friday morning or Friday all day
• Friday afternoon

Terms and conditions:

• Any topic is fair game, EXCEPT for HTML5/CSS3. Some possibilities include collaborative authoring, creating CSS-based layouts, virtual teams, accessibility, and Help authoring.
• Companies can choose to “pick my brain” or receive specific instructions on a topic, or a combination of both.
• Fees will be determined after we discuss what you need. I will cover all expenses (although I won’t say “no” if someone wants to take me to lunch ;-)).
• A 50% non-refundable deposit is required, which holds your time slot. All deposits must be received by 15 October 2010. Purchase orders for the deposit or entire fee will be accepted.
• First come, first served. Once a time slot has been reserved and the deposit or purchase order has been received, it will be removed from the list. (I’ll update the list as people tell me that they want slots.)
• All arrangements must be in process by 28 September 2010. (I have to make travel arrangements that week!) If you make any changes after that date and those changes affect my travel plans, you are responsible for change fees.

Feel free to contact me if you have any questions! (And I hope to see you at the STC Houston chapter meeting. Come by and say “hi!”)

LavaCon will be held in San Diego this year, from Sept. 29 through Oct. 2. (I’ll be presenting two sessions: one on setting up WordPress and one on third-party Twitter tools.)

I’ve been talking to Jack Molisani, and he told me that the schedule will be posted soon. (You are going, aren’t you?) Keep checking the LavaCon site for the latest information!