Newsletter of the Society for Technical Communication, San Francisco Chapter August/September 2006

May 2006 Meeting -- Meeting the Needs of More Users: Making Information Accessible
Presented by Linda Urban and reviewed by Gilbert Gonzalez

Linda Urban returned to give another presentation at the San Francisco Chapter STC meeting on Wednesday, May 17. Her focus was on the topics of accessibility, who accessibility helps, what it's like to use adaptive technology, accessibility issues, and tools and techniques you can use to make your Web-based material more accessible.

Linda continued with her presentation by discussing accessibility and inclusive design. Accessibility allows the use of a product even within limiting conditions. Inclusive design refers to a general design approach within which a product meets the needs of the largest possible audience for that product.

So, why should we bother with the topic of accessibility? There are many reasons, including improving the quality of peoples' lives, it's a good business decision that makes loyal customers, and it's the law: Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act. Finally, accessibility helps everybody. Take, for example, curb cuts. Everyone uses them: not just people with accessibility issues.

As technical communicators, we have a standard arsenal of tools we use to create quality documentation. For example, we look at a document's structure, language, tone, clarity, and grammatical correctness. However, we also need to consider whether people in our audience can use a mouse to click a drop-down menu, hear a multimedia clip, or see the explanatory graphic. We need to create content that can be read and understood by both the average user and by those who use adaptive technology.

Adaptive technology tools help improve information access for people with disabilities. Some programs and hardware include screen readers, screen magnifiers, and Braille displays. Operating systems and software may include built-in adaptive technology features. Yet, not everyone who could benefit from adaptive technology has it. It can be expensive to acquire and take a long time to learn.

If you want to simulate what it's like for people with accessibility issues, try one or more of the following: turn on the audio reader to "hear" a Web site, try to read a Web page using a screen magnifier, or simulate the tasks of navigating through a Web site without using a mouse.

To make your information accessible, take the following into consideration:

• Text size -- Use relative font size settings. This provides flexibility and benefits almost everyone. Use textual descriptive equivalents when you create graphics, charts, graphs, and tables. In addition, use ALT tags with solid, meaningful, descriptive text. For tables, use captions and summaries for row and column headers.
   
• Navigation links -- Links need context cues. When using navigation links, it is important that the Web site skip the navigation links. Otherwise, it will result in a large amount of repetitive information being processed by the screen reader.
   
• Secondary windows and pop-up windows -- When using pop-up windows, make sure you evaluate and test them. Let the user know that clicking on a link will open a secondary window or pop-up window. Provide the user with a way back from the secondary window.
   
• Sound -- Provide captioning, or a script, for those who cannot hear a multimedia presentation.

Finally, test and re-test your content to experience how a person who uses adaptive technology will experience your content. Use different adaptive technologies to "read" your content. Visit www.w3.org/WAI for a complete set of guidelines and checklists.

Gilbert Gonzalez is an information developer with over 16 years of experience writing software documentation for a variety of audiences: from end-user manuals and help systems to API reference developer documentation.

Copyright © 2006 by the Society for Technical Communication, San Francisco Chapter (www.stc-sf.org). This article may be reprinted in another STC publication under the provisions of the chapter's copyright policy.

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