#23091
Making the Web Friendlier for Lower-Literacy Users 
Describes techniques for improving the experience of lower-literacy Internet users that do not violate the principles of Web design for other users.
Summers, Kathryn. Intercom (2004). Design>Web Design>Accessibility>Writing
#23734
Making Web-Based Online Help Accessible: A Case Study
Accessibility is about providing successful access to information, and the use of information technology by people who have disabilities. The IBM® WebSphere® Commerce development team adopted IBM’s mandate to make its software accessible, and achieved a high level of accessibility in its release of the IBM WebSphere Commerce, Version 5.4, suite of products. Continuing with the next release, the WebSphere Commerce development team strove for an even higher level of accessibility. This paper discusses some of the experiences and lessons learned from making WebSphere Commerce online help and software accessible. It examines some of the most common issues from the User Experience, Information Development, and Test perspectives.
Bot-Roche, Diba, Frances Mullally, Vijay Sivashankar and Donna Sutarno. STC Proceedings (2003). Articles>Documentation>Accessibility>Help
#27196
Making Your Mail Merge "Intelligent" by Using IF Fields
Almost any mail merge will work better if you use IF fields, as the frequently used scenarios discussed below attempt to illustrate.
Rado, Dave. Word MVP Site, The (2005). Articles>Word Processing>Databases>Microsoft Word
#30281
Managing Electrons For Fun And Profit: Technology For The Scientific Communicator
Too much of the information on new technology tools is of little value to the scientific communicator. This session provides topic overviews and discussion of three topics: SGML, electronic networks, and specialized word processing software. Please note that these discussions are introductory; other ITCC presentations cover SGML and the Internet in more depth.
Gunn Bronson, Judith, Jeffrey L. Hibbard and Thomas C. Stickels. STC Proceedings (1994). Articles>Scientific Communication>Software>Word Processing
#22716
Manchester United: Top of the Web Accessibility League?
Manchester United have got a separate accessible website for blind and disabled site visitors. This is not what web accessibility is about.
Moss, Trenton. Webcredible (2004). Design>Web Design>Accessibility
#19618
A set of threaded discussion forums for technical writers and software documentation specialists.
#18202
The Marathon of Chapter Presidency
This panel/discussion takes shape as the audience molds it. Each panelist is a past STC chapter president and has managed to successfully run the “Marathon of Chapter Presidency.” The past-presidents panel comprises a fellow, an associate fellow, a director sponsor, senior members, committee managers, and other leaders of the society. Issues are audience-dependent but may include topics such as handling volunteers, managing money recruiting members, and so forth. Join this informal discussion to share ideas, quandaries, and solutions for successfully leading a chapter.
Oestreich, Linda L., Mark Hanigan, Richard Julius, Patricia J. McClelland and Carolyn L. Watt. STC Proceedings (1996). Presentations>Management>Professionalism>STC
#28361
This chapter ventures deeply into Microsoft heresy. A heretic is someone who preaches heterodoxy, or mixed doctrines. Unlike a lot of official MS and MVP speak, this topic advocates the usage of a certain feature that can be said to be generally considered as broken - Master Documents, or Masters. As so little information is forthcoming on this subject from other sources, yet many writers use them regularly because there is no other choice, it is fully covered here.
Hudson, Steve. TECHWR-L. Articles>Software>Style Guides>Word Processing
#22991
When delivering multimedia content for the three major media players (Windows Media Player, Quicktime and RealMedia Player), the developer must choose whether to have the viewer access the content through a player embedded in a Web page or through a standalone player. Both methods have their advantages. Embedding the player in a Web page allows the user to access the content without another application opening. The standalone players usually have more control options.
WebAIM (2005). Design>Multimedia>Accessibility>Video
#18767
Meet the Special Needs Committee: Many Stories, One Mission
The STC Special Needs Committee was formed in 1998. Its charter is to research special needs in technical communication to find and publish ways in which we can leverage technology both to help technical communicators with disabilities practice our profession and also to help end users with disabilities access information in the products we prepare.
Voss, Daniel W. STC Proceedings (2002). Articles>Accessibility>Community Building
#18298
Microsoft Active Accessibility 2.0 is a COM-based technology that improves the way accessibility aids work with applications running on Microsoft Windows operating systems. It provides dynamic-link libraries that are incorporated into the operating system as well as a COM interface and application programming elements that provide reliable methods for exposing information about user interface elements. By following accessibility design practices and using Microsoft Active Accessibility, you can make technology products for your customers with accessibility needs.
#27707
Microsoft Drops the Office Open Standard Ball
When Microsoft announced a week ago Monday that it had decided to open up its Office 12 XML file formats and had submitted the formats to be considered as a formal open standard by ECMA International, Alan Yates, the general manager of Microsoft's Information Worker Strategy, said, 'The new license that will accompany the Open XML format with the standards organization will go well beyond traditional standards licensing and will be very positive for the vast majority of developers, even open-source developers.' But. The only difference between Microsoft's November 2003 open and royalty-free license for the Office 2003 Reference Schemas and today's Office 2003 license, according to the company, is that 'Microsoft is offering a covenant not to sue for the Office 2003 Reference Schemas.'
Vaughan-Nichols, Steven J. eWeek (2005). Articles>Word Processing>Statistics>Microsoft Word
#27185
Microsoft Word 2004 Document Corruption
If your problem manifests with just one document (or a specific subset of documents), but not with all documents, it is probable that you’re suffering from document corruption. Symptoms may include weird page numbering (drag the thumb down the right vertical margin and watch the page number counter – it will go crazy when you pass a corruption) infinite repagination, incorrect document layout and formatting, unreadable characters on the screen, hangs or crashes when you load or view a particular file. Such corruption is generally carried in the very last paragraph mark in a document, which is the marker for a hidden container in which Word stores all document properties including formatting information.
McGhie, John and Beth Rosengard. Word MVP Site, The (2005). Articles>Word Processing>Software>Microsoft Word
#22993
Microsoft Word Accessibility Techniques
Most people use word processors incorrectly. Rather than use true headings, they simply enlarge the font size and make it bold. If you do this, the document has no real structure that can be discerned by a screen reader. The correct way to provide structure within Word documents is to use Word styles.
WebAIM (2005). Articles>Word Processing>Accessibility>Microsoft Word
#31913
Middle-Aged Users' Declining Web Performance
Between the ages of 25 and 60, people's ability to use websites declines by 0.8% per year — mostly because they spend more time per page, but also because of navigation difficulties.
Nielsen, Jakob. Alertbox (2008). Articles>Web Design>Accessibility>Elderly
#25682
Minimizing Bias in Computer Systems
Computer punch card tallying systems pose serious problems for fair elections. In particular, under-educated groups are more likely not to understand how the computerized system works. In this workshop we were concerned with understanding bias in computer systems and developing methods to help minimize bias through the design process.
Friedman, Batya, Eric Brok, Susan King Roth and John Thomas. SIGCHI Bulletin (1996). Articles>Human Computer Interaction>Accessibility
#19202
Mit Blindenschrift und Computer ins Internet
Auf seiner Homepage beschreibt Matthias Hänel, wie Blinde das Internet benutzen und welche technischen Mittel dafür existieren.
Haenel, Matthias. Matthias-Haenel.de. (German) Design>Web Design>Accessibility
#27551
Is there a way to display text-based data on a map, keeping it accessible, useful and visually attractive? Yes: using an accessible CSS-based map in which the underlying map data is separated from the visual layout.
Duffey, Seth. List Apart, A (2006). Design>Web Design>Accessibility>CSS
#30365
Below are some tips for formatting tables or reports. Your formatting should be consistent throughout your document.
Leigh, Heather. Crazy for Words (2007). Articles>Word Processing>Software>Microsoft Word
#25801
More Than Screen Deep: Toward Every-Citizen Interfaces to the Nation's Information Infrastructure
The spread of information systems and, in particular, information infrastructure throughout the economy and social fabric raises questions about the technology's ease of use by different people, from those with limited technical know-how to those with various disabilities to the so-called power users who push for higher performance on many dimensions.
National Academies Press (1997). Books>Web Design>Accessibility>Government
#23011
Not everyone with a motor disability can take advantage of voice recognition software, but there are many other technologies that can help such people. We'll talk about these technologies, as well as some of the types of motor disabilities.
WebAIM (2001). Design>Accessibility
#25301
Moving In from the Periphery: Exploring the Disciplinary Labyrinth
Once you discover or identify work that you can be passionate about, use that as both a driving force and as a method of developing your place within the profession.
Eyman, Douglas. Michigan State University (2004). Articles>TC>Professionalism
#29303
Moving to OpenOffice: Batch Converting Legacy Documents
What if you want to load XML versions of a large collection of Word files, Excel spreadsheets, or PowerPoint files into an XML-aware database where you can query the collection?
DuCharme, Bob. OpenOffice.org (2006). Articles>Software>Word Processing>OpenOffice
#13251
My Brain Works...My Legs Don't! Let's Take the "Dis" out of Disabilities
STC’s Special Needs Committee has begun its work of information collection for and dissemination to technical communicators with disabilities. This paper by the Committee chair is a “call to arms,” sets out what has been learned so far, and solicits your participation in the ongoing effort.
Skinner, Judith N. STC Proceedings (2000). Presentations>Accessibility
#26144
National Policies for Government Web Writers
Every country has its own requirements for public sector web sites. Legislation and policies vary greatly, and express an attitude. I base my Quality Web Content workshops for government web content writers on the policy of the country concerned. Some countries consider that an accessible site requires accessible writing. Others don't.
McAlpine, Rachel. Quality Web Content (2004). Articles>Web Design>Accessibility>Writing
