#29010
Can This Marriage Be Saved: IS an English Department a Good Home for Technical Communication? 
In partial answer to the many questions that have been raised about the definition and location of technical writing programs, a random sample of full-time teachers of professional writing was conducted. The results indicate that those located in English departments do not receive the respect and support they need. Those located in other departments are significantly more satisfied. Some strategies for improving the situation are suggested.
MacNealy, Mary Sue and Leon B. Heaton. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication (1999). Academic>Education>TC>Professionalism
#22988
There are two methods for adding captions in QuickTime. There are advantages and disadvantages to each approach. The first allows you to maintain a single file, making the captioned video easier to distribute. The second approach allows you to easily deliver a captioned and non-captioned version of your movie, but requires an understanding of SMIL (it's not too hard).
WebAIM (2003). Design>Multimedia>Accessibility>Video
#22990
RealPlayer uses SMIL to combine media content with a RealText (.rt) file. The .rt file contains the captions themselves and information about how and when they should appear. The SMIL file is really just a pointer file. It contains information about where and how your captions and media content should display.
WebAIM (2003). Design>Multimedia>Accessibility>Video
#22989
Windows Media Player adds captions using Microsoft's Synchronized Accessible Media Interchange (SAMI). SAMI, like SMIL, which is used by Quicktime and RealPlayer, is an XML-based text language. A SAMI file contains the captions and definitions for how and when the captions should display.
WebAIM (2003). Design>Multimedia>Accessibility>Video
#25969
Captions and Audio Descriptions for PC Multimedia
This article discusses the various types of captions, when to use captions, as well as the various types of audio descriptions.
Microsoft (2002). Design>Multimedia>Accessibility>Audio
#22831
CAST is a not-for-profit education research and development organization that uses technology to make education more flexible and accessible for all students, especially those with disabilities.
#19847
The Chicago Chapter STC Institute for Professional Development (IPD) is a good example of how STC chapters can help bridge the gap between theory and practice by partnering with colleges and universities to offer credit courses for those with little or no experience or prior course work in technical communication. Such partnerships help the local STC chapters by enhancing awareness of our profession in their geographic areas (and building STC membership and involvement), by serving the educational needs of its newer members, and by providing teaching and mentoring opportunities for its more experienced members. Above all, by bringing together teachers, researchers, and practitioners of technical communication to design, plan, and implement courses, the Chicago IPD models the very type of teamwork that has become essential for success in today’s world.
Abbott, Christine. STC Proceedings (2000). Articles>Education>Professionalism
#18442
The Internet today is a part of kids' natural environment. Most children have access to the Internet at school and/or at home. In 2000 there were 55,475,000 U.S. households with personal computers. 99 percent of public schools have access to the Internet. The number of Internet users worldwide is expected to grow to 300 million by 2005, from roughly 150 million currently, according to an estimate by IDC. The greatest growth will be in Asia and South America. The number of online users will rise 61 percent to 95 million in the US, more than double to 88 million in Europe and quadruple to 118 million in the rest of the world. NUA Internet Survey, on the other hand, estimated total number of people online to be 407.1 million in November 2000. In November 2000 almost 20 percent of all digital media users were children. A recent National School Boards Foundation telephone survey of 1,735 randomly-chosen households showed that children predominantly use Internet at home and in school. In a survey of 10,000 students aged 12 to 24, from 16 countries, Ipsos-Reid Group found Internet to be widely available to Swedish and Canadian students. 78 percent of students in Sweden and 74 percent in Canada are able to go online at school. 80 percent of Swedish children and 71 percent of Canadian students have web access at home. Taiwan ranked third, with 63 percent accessibility at school, followed by the UK, US, Netherlands, Australia, South Korea, Mexico, Japan, Italy, Spain, Germany, France, Brazil, and Urban China.
Demner, Dina. Universal Usability (2001). Articles>Usability>Accessibility>Children
#27214
Cleaning Up Text Pasted from the Web
The ease of copying and pasting text from Web sites and email greatly simplifies many tasks in Word, but problems often arise in making the pasted text conform to the style of the document into which it is pasted. One of the most common chores is getting rid of excess line breaks, which cause the text to wrap short of the right margin. There are several ways to work around this problem.
Barnhill, Suzanne and Dave Rado. Word MVP Site, The (2005). Articles>Word Processing>Software>Microsoft Word
#26672
As a technical communicator, I am the bridge between those who create ideas and those who use them. Because I recognize that the quality of my services directly affects how well ideas are understood, I am committed to excellence in performance and the highest standards of ethical behavior.
STC Rocky Mountain Chapter (2004). Articles>TC>Professionalism
#19191
Cognitive Behavior Learning Disabilities: Being Different Shouldn't Mean Being Discriminated Against
I view my son's early school years in the 90s as a nightmare. I asked if my son could submit homework done on the computer due to his awful handwriting - weren't his ideas the key issue? - and 'NO!' was the reply.
Mardahl, Karen. Usability Interface (2003). Design>Usability>Accessibility
#18439
Color blindness is mostly neglected, even most of the people do not consider this as a serious problem. However, color blindness can be a problem that disrupts many tasks.
Karagol-Ayan, Burcu. Universal Usability. Design>Usability>Accessibility>Color
#21120
You might do a lot of usability testing on your web site but you still might lose up to 10% of your audience because of some simple mistakes with colors. Specifically, your web site may be designed in a way that doesn't work well for people with colorblindness. Generally the fix is quite simple: be sure to provide excellent contrast between your various web page elements.
Follansbee, Todd. WebWord (2001). Design>Web Design>Accessibility>Color
#19320
Colour is used in interface design for a variety of purposes. Not only can colour convey meaning or highlight content, it is also an important part of corporate identity and branding. Where would the Coca Cola brand be without its distinctive red and white livery? All well and good, but the reality is that the use of colour can cause more problems than it solves. Interface designers must treat colour with caution for a variety of reasons - most importantly the huge variety of ways in which any given colour can be perceived. It is well known that older users and those with colour-deficit vision may have difficulty in perceiving certain colours. Different monitors may be poor at maintaining colours the same across displays, and of course many users are still working on black and white displays. In this environment, poor use of colour may mean that text is hard to read, eyestrain occurs, and users become frustrated. With this in mind, designers should consider the following guidelines relating to the use of colour in interface design.
Gaine, Frank. Frontend Infocentre (2000). Design>Web Design>Accessibility>Color
#24669
Comment Spammers: Internet Pigs and How They Feed
Comment spam is irrelevant, unethical, or unwanted commercial-oriented message propagation on comment posting pages of blogs and web sites. Comment spam is invading every interactive and community building aspect of the internet and web. What you need to do to protect yourself and to stop this attack by "internet pigs."
Streight, Steven. Blogger.com (2004). Articles>Web Design>Discussion Forum>Spam
#26849
Communication Challenges in the WC3's Web Content Accessibility Guidelines
In the first part of this article, we analyze a number of communication challenges and relate them to problems in conveying the November draft of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0. Based on our analysis, the second part of our article offers a number of recommendations for improving the comprehensibility of the WCAG 2.0 for its various intended audiences. Although our discussion has the November draft as its focal point, the recommendations are more widely applicable to other complex documents with diverse audiences. In the final part, we propose a new vision for the WCAG.
Brys, Catherine M. and Wim Vanderbauwhede. Technical Communication Online (2006). Articles>Web Design>Accessibility>Standards
#18740
Cómo Hacer Más Accesibles los Gráficos SVG
SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics) es un lenguaje de etiquetado que nos permite la descripción con XML de gráficos vectoriales en dos dimensiones. En este artículo se resume brevemente como los gráficos SVG pueden ser más accesibles siguiendo las directrices del W3C.
Fernandez, Francisco Jesus Martin and Oscar Martin Rodriguez. Nosolousabilidad.com (2002). (Spanish) Design>Accessibility>Graphic Design>Usability
#26248
Comparing Word Processors: A Writer's Perspective 
Word processing programs have come a long way since I first used WordStar on an old DEC CP/M machine back in the 80s. But despite the drastic difference between then and now, there is so little difference between today's offerings and those of three years ago. Word processing programs have more or less stagnated, and that has given small companies and open-source projects the advantage they needed to create excellent low-cost or free alternatives to the ubiquitous Microsoft Word.
Matzan, Jem. Jem Report, The (2004). Articles>Word Processing
#26105
Comparison of Ways to do Things using Microsoft Word and OOoWriter
Experienced users of Microsoft Word may take awhile to discover how to do common tasks in OOWriter, because some of the menus and the terminology are a bit different; in a few cases no direct equivalent method is available. This series of pages summarizes my research and experiments with OOoWriter 1.1 on Windows ME. You may find some differences if you're using another operating system or version of OpenOffice.
OpenOffice.org (2004). Articles>Word Processing>Software>OpenOffice
#22704
Comprendiendo la Accesibilidad
una completa guía para crear sitios Web, que consigan la conformidad con las normas federales de Estados Unidos para la accesibilidad del contenido Web
Yonaitis, Robert B. HiSoftware (2002). (Spanish) Design>Accessibility>Web Design
#19226
Computer-Mediated Communication and Disability Support: Addressing Barriers to Study
The case study reported here formed part of a linear series of studies undertaken as doctoral research at the Institute of Educational Technology of the Open University between 1994 and 1999. It explored ways in which computer-mediated conferencing (one type of computer-mediated communication [CMC]), could address barriers to study encountered by undergraduate distance learners with long-term health problems, identified by a large scale postal survey of volunteers. These problem areas include: difficulty with handwriting, academic and social isolation and fatigue, together with a need for better interactive communication with support agencies. The approach taken was designed to maximise student autonomy in relation to their studies. Thirteen participants were provided with access to the services of an on-line educational counsellor, both by e-mail and in a confidential peer group conference in the environment of a 'Virtual Campus'. The findings suggest that informal contact with the counsellor in the group environment helped to build rapport and develop confidence for these students to approach her by e-mail when more private advice or help was needed.
Debenham, Margaret. TechDis (2002). Design>Web Design>Accessibility
#31571
The Concept of Universal Design
The idea that environments can support human function is not new to designers. But, the perception that design can enable one’s abilities and participation in society is something relatively new from a consumer perspective.
Steinfeld, Edward. uiGarden (2008). Design>Usability>Accessibility>Universal Usability
#18933
Conduct an Analysis of Your Professional Language and Culture
Take any combination of the projects below and use them to generate data for a comprehensive report on the Language and Culture of your field. You will find one sample of such a document in the Models and Templates section of the web site. Study it closely, as it is a strong example of how such a report can be written.
Lannon, John M. Pearson Education. Academic>Course Materials>Professionalism
#20662
Recently, I was surprised to learn that about 8 percent of men and 0.5 percent of women have some form of color blindness. For some Web sites that could translate to 1 in 12 visitors. That's a larger proportion of visitors than some other groups I consider when designing Web sites. The ratio of visitors viewing the Web with only 256 colors or a 640x480 pixel screen is usually less than 5 percent these days. Now include cross-browser support, older browsers, style sheets, and JavaScript in the mix. If you consider those issues when you design Web sites, you should consider your color-blind visitors, as well.
Newman, Chuck. New Architect (2000). Design>Web Design>Accessibility>Color
#23013
Considering the User Perspective: A Summary of Design Issues
A table which indicates some accomodations web designers may choose to build into accessible websites.
Bohman, Paul. WebAIM (2003). Design>Web Design>Accessibility
