Authoring Accessible Content

Presentation for Accessing Higher Ground 2020

Accessible content is easy for people to find, understand and use. But how do you create it? It starts with plain language, active voice and organization! Learn where accessible content lives, from microcopy to headings to interactive media like audio and video. Discover how visual presentation can make content more (or less!) accessible, and how to translate the visual hierarchy into programmatic structure.

Transcript

1. Authoring
   Accessible Content
   Accessing Higher Ground
   November 12, 2020
   

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2. 2
   • Accessibility & Universal Design Specialist - Knowbility
   • Formerly Bright Umbrella, CTRL+CLICK CAST & Web Standards Sherpa
   • Author Microformats Made Simple
   • Co-author HTML5 Cookbook
   • emily@knowbility.org
   • @emilylewis
   

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3. 3
   • Use Zoom's Q&A panel
   • Dedicated Q&A segments throughout, including at the end of session
   Your Questions!
   

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4. 4
   • Use Zoom's chat for comments and interactions
   • Select "Panelists and Attendees" to share your comments with everyone
   • For hands-on exercises, post your answers in chat
   Your Participation!
   

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5. 5
   Introduction
   Spirit of Accessibility
   What Is Accessible Content?
   Project Lifecycle
   10-min Break
   Creating Accessible Content
   Maintaining Your Content
   Q&A
   Agenda
   

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6. 6
   Spirit of Accessibility
   

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8. It’s About People
   

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9. Can people with disabilities get the
   same information, perform the
   same interactionsand function as
   others with comparable ease?
   

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10. 10
    Benefits of Accessibility
    

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11. Neil Lenane
    Talent Acquisition/Diversity and Inclusion Leader
    Progressive Insurance
    If you do not intentionally include,
    you unintentionally exclude.
    

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12. 12
    Increase Revenue
    Boost Market Share
    Improve Efficiency
    Drive Innovation
    Reduce Legal Risks
    The Business Case
    

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13. Susan Goltsman
    Founding Principal of MIG, Inc.
    Co-author of Play for All Guidelines and The Inclusive City
    It doesn't mean you're designing one
    thing for all people. It means you're
    designing a diversity of ways for people
    to participate in an experience, so that
    everyone has a sense of belonging.
    

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15. 15
    What Is
    Accessible Content?
    

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16. Reduces cognitive load
    Helps users focus
    Conveys content structure, hierarchy
    Reflects organizational policy, standards
    

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17. 17
    Project Manager
    Content Strategist
    Information Architect
    Copywriters, Subject Matter Experts
    Content Authors
    Critical Roles
    

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18. Collaboration
    

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19. 19
    • Planning
    • Content Strategy
    • Information Architecture
    • User Experience Design
    • Visual Design
    • Front-end development
    • Back-end development
    • Quality Assurance
    • Maintenance
    Project Lifecyle
    

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20. 10-min Break
    

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21. 21
    Creating
    Accessible Content
    

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22. 22
    • Audience
    • Inverted pyramid
    Writing: General
    

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23. 23
    Challenge Yourself by Earning Extra Credentials Through an
    Academic Organization
    Hands-On: Improve this heading
    

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25. www.plainlanguage.gov/about/definitions
    Content your audience can
    understand the first time they
    read or hear it
    

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26. 26
    • Succinct
    • Simplified
    Writing: Plain Language
    

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27. 27
    implement
    Hands-On: Name a simpler synonym
    

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28. 28
    The SGA has a requirement for
    Hands-On: Simplify this phrase
    

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29. 29
    Catnip is loved by all my cats.
    vs.
    All my cats love catnip.
    Writing: Active Voice
    

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30. 30
    The meeting minutes must be approved by the board of
    directors.
    Hands-On: Make this sentence active voice
    

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31. 31
    • Spelling
    • Grammar
    • Localization
    Writing: Oft-forgotten Details
    

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33. 33
    • Chunking
    • Proximity
    • Clear fonts
    • Sufficient line spacing
    • Limited text styling
    • Good contrast
    Visual Presentation
    

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34. 34
    • Navigation →
    • Heading →
    • Paragraph →
    • Input labels →
    Programmatic Structure
    

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35. 35
    Web Best Practices
    

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36. 36
    • Page and domain
    • Most important content first
    • Concise
    Page title
    

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37. 37
    • Action verbs
    • Meaningful out of context
    • Plain language
    Headings
    

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38. 38
    • Descriptive
    • Succinct
    • Meaningful out of context
    Links
    

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39. 39
    • Ordered vs. unordered
    • Consistent line lengths
    • Parallel structure
    Lists
    

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40. 40
    • Expand
    •
    Acronyms & Initialisms
    

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41. 41
    • Instructions
    • Error messages
    Forms
    

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42. 42
    The email address you entered does not match the required
    format. Please enter your email address using standard
    format.
    Hands-On: Improve this error message
    

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43. 43
    • alt attribute always
    • Decorative vs. functional
    • No images of text
    Images
    

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44. 44
    • Transcripts
    • Captions
    • Audio description
    Audio & Video
    

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45. Testing
    

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46. Maintenance
    

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48. @emilylewis
    emily@knowbility.org
    training@knowbility.org
    

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