Accessible Java using JAAPI

Due to the proliferation of Java applications and applets on the Internet, it is essential that accessibility barriers are not introduced during their development.

O'Gribin, Niall. Erigena (2006). Articles>Accessibility>Programming>Java

Accessible Presentation of Measurements from a Web Accessibility Observatory  

How shall we design accessible GUIs? Which are the main problems, which are the right paths and techniques for doing this? The article is a story about an experience, about the development of an accessible GUI and an analyses of the procedures.

Bertini, Patrizia and T. Gjosater. DFA International Conference (2006). Articles>Human Computer Interaction>Accessibility>User Experience

Accessible Taxes? A Blind Consumer's Experience with the US Tax System

One of the most common, and least enjoyable, experiences of citizens of the United States is that of filing income tax forms. This year, Sachin Pavithran, who is blind, attempted to complete the forms and file them without assistance from sighted friends. Find out whether he was successful or not.

Bohman, Paul, Shane Anderson and Sachin Pavithran. WebAIM (2004). Articles>Web Design>Accessibility>Government

Accessible Web Pages: Advice for Educators

While educators have embraced the responsibility of providing equal access to educational resources to all students, Internet technology presents new challenges in this area. Students who have vision or hearing problems, who have difficulties with motor control, or who face other challenges, such as learning disabilities or language barriers, may find the Web difficult or impossible to explore.

Thombs, Margaret M. Syllabus (2002). Articles>Education>Accessibility>Online

Accessing Information through Natural Language Interface  

The natural language interface (NLI) is a module that allows the user to access the information stored in the underlying database by typing requests expressed in a natural language.

Kovacs, Laszlo and Sieber, Tanja. tekom (2005). Articles>Usability

Accessing Maths and Stats by Other Means

Historically, it has been the work of talented individuals to produce solutions for those with a variety of disabilities who are working and studying in the field of Mathematics and Statistics. Reading graphs from a screen or paper when blind is a challenge, and coping with complex statistics causes many dyslexic students to blanch. However, there are ways of managing independently and it is often through the use of assistive technology that problems are solved and equal access is maintained.

Draffan, E.A. TechDis (2001). Articles>Accessibility>Statistics

The Accidental Beginning of a Highly Successful Special Interest Group (SIG)  

SIGs exist to serve specialized needs within the greater organization. Special Interest Groups (SIGs) and Professional Interest Committees (PICs) are a tool by which the local chapters can serve a diverse range of special interests, boosting chapter membership. The Lone Star Chapter (Dallas/Fort Worth) began hosting SIG meetings three years ago. Currently, with four active SIGs, we are hosting an additional 100 to 200 members per month. This is how we built our SIGs to promote membership in STC. In the spring of 1990, a group of disgruntled contractors began to meet formally to discuss dissatisfaction with insurance plans for independents available through the society. We had been meeting informally for many years, to discuss the job market, rates available, and generally to gossip. We call it networking. personal contact or the sudden ice storm we had that night attendance was down significantly. From that point, we have kept a mailing list updated from our sign-in sheets, and sent postcard reminders about each meeting.

Steele, Karen A. STC Proceedings (1993). Articles>Collaboration>Case Studies>STC

Accommodating Active Learners in Software Documentation Decisions  

Recent research focusing on a minimalist approach to computer software documentation has explored ways to design computer software tutorials and workbooks for users with an active learning style. The principles of minimalism and active learning styles, however, are less frequently applied to traditional reference manuals. This paper reviews several elements of minimalism and suggests ways to apply strategies for active learners to traditional reference manuals.

Smart, Karl L. STC Proceedings (1993). Articles>Documentation>Instructional Design>Software

Accommodating Mobility Impaired Users on the Web

Worldwide, there are more than 750 million people with disabilities and this number is increasing. It is critical that the Web be usable by anyone, regardless of individual capabilities and disabilities since the World Wide Web is supposed to be a place where everyone has the ability to find information or shop. Website designers should be sure that the web pages can be accessible by everyone no matter who or where. Accessibility, a category of usability, is a software product's ability to be used by people with disabilities, such as motion impairment.

Deng, Yu. Universal Usability (2001). Articles>Usability>Accessibility

Accommodating Various Abilities and Disabilities

Training sessions invariably have participants that come from a wide array of backgrounds and have various talents and levels of expertise. Some will be outspoken and others more withdrawn. Some will already have a background in accessible design, while others may have never heard of Web accessibility. Your participants will also have a wide range of technical expertise. You may have die-hard developers that program in text editors or an administrator who doesn't know what HTML stands for. It's important that you gain an understanding of what your training participants' talents and knowledge levels are, and then take advantage of their skills and abilities.

WebAIM. Articles>Education>Accessibility

Accountable Assessment in the Age of Digital Labor  

Entrepreneurship is THE economic mode of the digital age and entrepreneurship is defined by risk. Students who will become workers must be comfortable, even engaged by, risk-taking.

Glaros, Michelle. Kairos (2001). Articles>Education>Assessment>Online

Accurate Image Manipulation for Desktop Publishing

Devoted to the best possible quality in the desktop publishing workflow. This calls for accurate calibration and correct choice for the working space.

AIM for DTP. Articles>Graphic Design>Document Design>Color

Review: ACES Book Reviews

A collection of reviews of recent books in editing (particularly for journalism).

ACES. Articles>Reviews>Editing

Achieving High Visibility on the Global Web - How to Prepare Your Web Site for Translation

Is there a demand for your products or services outside of your domestic market? If so, how are you marketing to this group of potential customers? How do you overcome language and cultural barriers? Web Localization, which is the process of translating your web site into your customers' languages and adapting to local markets, is an essential step toward establishing a market presence.

Iler, Huiping. WTB Language Group (2005). Articles>Web Design>Localization

Achieving International Communication Success

The world is getting smaller in terms of how fast information gets passed around and, at the same time, larger. Larger in the sense that there are new markets, new languages, and new cultures to understand, as we market and sell around the world.

Winters, Elaine. bena.com (1999). Articles>Business Communication>International

Achieving Objectivity Through Genred Activity: A Case Study    

Finding itself at the center of highly publicized legal and political deliberations over fairness in testing, personnel credibility, and legal liability, the training department at a North American transit authority adopted a genre system that enabled the production of objective evidence of job competence, which was then used to make objective decisions about who passed and failed various training programs. The ongoing genre-structured activity of the department involved not only the regularization of organizational texts but also the regularization of social interaction mediated by those texts, which, while producing the types of interpretively stable documents required for successful public deliberation, led to a shift in authority and social relations within the department that instigated considerable resentment and loss of morale among many veteran instructors.

Little, Joseph. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication (2007). Articles>Writing>Instructional Design>Genre

Achieving Success Outside of the Pack

If you're among the individual contributors of the world, your temperament and aptitudes impel you to flee the flock and take your fortunes into your own hands.

Richardson, Douglas. ULiveandLearn.com (2005). Articles>Collaboration

Achieving Usability Beyond ISO 9001

In the January issue, David Dick described how ISO standards 9241-11 and 13407 could be used to create standards and strategies for usability in the product life cycle. Another ISO standard that is an integral part of the product life cycle is called ISO 9001. ISO 9001:1994, 'Model for Quality Assurance in Design, Development, Production, Installation and Serving', specifies (quality system) requirements for achieving customer satisfaction by preventing non-conformity at all stages from design through servicing.

Dick, David J. Usability Interface (1998). Articles>Usability>Standards>ISO 9001

ACM’s Computing Professionals Face New Challenges  

The ACM community is in a position to take a leadership role in responding to the challenges brought by last fall’s terror attacks. Some of us have already been contacted to contribute to designs for improving security at airports, verifying identity at check-in, or redesigning cockpits to give more options to pilots and ground controllers. Others will be asked to redesign systems that trace financial transactions across international borders or examine email patterns among loosely affiliated groups. These efforts win the broadest support when our decisions about how to pursue safety and security are coupled with a strong defense of civil liberties and privacy.

Shneiderman, Ben. University of Maryland (2001). Articles>TC>Professionalism

Review: AcosHelp: Context Sensitive Online Help with PDF Files    

PRC AcosHelp is the World's first 'single source' Windows online help system that allows you to use Adobe Acrobat PDF files for context sensitive online help. AcosHelp is very useful for Document Management systems, where the documents are stored as PDF-files.

Kudesia, Saurabh. International Journal for Technical Communication (2006). Articles>Reviews>Software>Help

Acrobat Features Turbocharge the Online Review Process

One of the more tedious and error-prone processes in technical writing is that of collaborative document review. Even when documents are shared electronically, keeping track of comments, suggestions, and changes contributed by multiple team members can be exasperating. Too often errors due to collaborative review lead to delays, missed deadlines, misunderstandings and an inaccurate final document.

Gravel, Charlie. Carolina Communique (2003). Articles>Document Design>Software>Adobe Acrobat

Acrobat How-to: Enhancing Tutorials With Interactive Elements

A funny thing happens to students after class: They forget what they've learned. But adding interactivity can engage the reader. Try these simple methods.

McCue, Claudia. Creative Pro (2004). Articles>Education>Tutorials>Adobe Acrobat

Across the Great Divide: Embedding Technical Communication into an Engineering Curriculum

The University of Maine has begun a multi-year effort to redesign the way it teaches technical communication to students in the College of Engineering. At its core, this new design will mean replacing the existing requirement of a stand alone course in technical communication.

Adams, David. CPTSC Proceedings (2003). Articles>Education>Engineering

Active Table-of-Contents Control for Content Navigation and Customization  

This report illustrates the design of a novel user interface feature to provide simple and rapid navigation and user customization of the contents of a complex, multipart document. Within a performancesupport application for classroom teachers, the objective was to provide an efficient and instantly learnable scheme for direct user control over the parts to be included in the document as well as quick access to any part of the document. The design relies on the techniques of instructive interaction, an innovative approach for making user interfaces self-teaching even when they incorporate novel or non-standard features.

Constantine, Larry L. and Lucy A.D. Lockwood. Foruse.com (2001). Articles>Usability>User Interface