#20000
Advice, guides and reviews from web accessibility specialist, Matthew Ogston.
Ogston, Matthew. Social Publishing Blog, The (2002). Design>Web Design>Accessibility
#26367
Starting from the basics of Active Accessibility, this article leads you through the development of a software testing application. You'll see how this testing application interacts with common controls and other UI elements, then processes the resulting WinEvents.
Klementiev, Dmitri. Microsoft (2000). Articles>Accessibility>Software>Microsoft Windows
#27188
Some of the Most Useful Word Shortcuts
This list doesn't attempt to be comprehensive, but is a list of the shortcuts which save me the most time.
Rado, Dave. Word MVP Site, The (2005). Articles>Word Processing>Software>Microsoft Word
#24179
Speaking in Tongues: Dealing with Word's Dictionaries 
Word has powerful language tools, but if you don't understand how they work, even a simple spellcheck can pose problems. In this article, I'll discuss how to take full advantage of Word's language settings.
Hart, Geoffrey J.S. Intercom (2004). Articles>Word Processing>Software>Microsoft Word
#19239
The Special Educational Needs and Disability Act 
The Special Educational Needs and Disability Act was given Royal Assent on 11 May, and will begin to come into effect from 1 September 2002. The Act removes the previous exemption of education from the Disability Discrimination Act (1995), ensuring that discrimination against disabled students will be unlawful. Institutions will incur additional responsibilities in 2003, with the final sections of legislation coming into effect in 2005. The legislation will apply to the UK, with the exception, at the moment, of Northern Ireland. As the Act is an amendment to the existing Disability Discrimination Act 1995 (DDA), it only protects people defined as disabled according to that legislation. This definition is based on an individual's ability to carry out 'normal day-to-day' activities, and so may exclude some students who are usually considered disabled by the support systems within their institutions. Under the new law all publicly-funded further and higher education institutions, schools with post-16 provision, and local authorities when they provide further, adult or continuing education or training will have responsibilities.
Corlett, Sophie. TechDis (2001). Articles>Accessibility>Legal>United Kingdom
#19240
Speechlet is a system which allows blind students of the Java programming language to use existing course material. Most Java courses use program examples that generate graphic output. The main reason for this is that students enjoy writing programs that produce interesting and exciting outputs. However, a blind student is unable to see the output of their program and is unable to even gauge that their program has worked. Speechlet was therefore produced to allow a blind student to move the mouse pointer over the screen and hear a spoken description of what is there. This paper discusses the reasons for the development of Speechlet, followed by a description of its operation and finally a discussion of its use in practise.
Mullier, D.J. TechDis (2003). Articles>Web Design>Accessibility>Software
#15198
Provides a few suggestions about how writers and editors can use spelling and grammar checkers more effectively.
Hart, Geoffrey J.S. Intercom (2001). Articles>Word Processing>Software
#26118
This section shows you how to use Word’s spelling, grammar, and research tools. You also learn how to hyphenate documents, print envelopes and labels, and work with XML.
Glenn, Walter. O'Reilly and Associates (2004). Articles>Word Processing>Software>Microsoft Word
#22887
This progression is sponsored by the STC Quality Professional Interest Committee. Each subgroup within the Quality PIC is sponsoring a discussion table, with additional topics of special interest to technical communicators. These topics have been selected based on their timeliness and practical value to practicing technical communicators.
Fisher, Lori H., Donald S., Lenk, Jr, Ted Dennison, David Robbins, Richard D. Colvin, Connie 'C.J.' Bibus and Ralph E. Robinson. STC Proceedings (1997). Articles>TC>Quality>Professionalism
#14093
STC Special Needs Special Interest Group
The Special Needs SIG serves as a focal point both to help members with special needs achieve their potential and to help ensure the accessibility of technical communication products to end users with special needs. We accomplish this by researching and publishing information about products, services, and literature that can assist technical communicators with disabilities in their career activities and to assist all technical communicators in developing products that are fully accessible to users with disabilities.
#23174
Stephen Hawking and Me - Flash MX Accessibility
An article that features tips on building accessible sites in Flash MX.
evolt (2003). Design>Web Design>Accessibility>Flash
#30821
The Stomper Scrutinizer: Web Browser w/Visual Simulation 
The Stomper Scrutinizer is a webkit based browser that includes a simulation of human foveal and peripheral vision. By providing a realistic distortion of non-focused page content, the Scrutinizer reveals the perceptability of design features. It is also useful for conducting usability tests, design reviews, and has a number of features (including screenshots) for talking about design.
Andy Edmonds. StomperNet (2007). Resources>Software>Accessibility>Web Design
#26749
Stop Graphics from Increasing the Size of Your Word Documents
When you insert a graphic into your Word document, it increases the file size automatically as Word has to ‘store’ (i.e. duplicate) a rendering of the graphic in the document. To avoid this happening, you can reduce the file size by storing only the links to the graphics and not the actual graphic itself.
Klariti (2006). Articles>Software>Word Processing>Microsoft Word
#27192
Strait and Narrow: Using Columns
When you open a new blank document in Word, you begin typing at the left side of the screen/page and continue typing to the right margin, where Word wraps your text back to the left so you can start again. All your lines of text are full width. But sometimes you need to divide your text into two or more columns.
Barnhill, Suzanne and Dave Rado. Word MVP Site, The (2005). Articles>Word Processing>Software>Microsoft Word
#29687
Stuckness and Low Vision: How Technology and Socratic Classroom Dialog Changed My Life
The author shares some stories from her own life that may be useful in helping Web page designers and product developers better understand issues surrounding low vision, hearing loss, and mobility restrictions using her 'art of accommodation.' In this article, she discusses this art as it applies to seven areas: (1) reading structural cues and wayfinding, (2) multimedia, (3) graphics, (4) text design and visual threshold, (5) contrast, (6) glare and size of electronic displays, and (7) mobility.
Reece, Gloria A. STC Proceedings (2005). Articles>Education>Accessibility>Web Design
#19189
Stuckness and Low Vision: How Technology and Socratic Classroom Dialogue Changed my Life
Gloria discusses her low-vision condition, the problems it poses in her life and work and the accommodation strategies she has developed.
Reece, Gloria A. Usability Interface (2003). Design>Usability>Accessibility>Visual
#23130
Suggerimenti per un Flash Accessibile
Realizzare siti usabili in Flash è una questione di mentalità e non di prodotto. L'autore ci indica 10 suggerimenti per rendere le animazioni Flash più usabili ed accessibili.
Volpon, Antonio. FucinaWeb (2002). (Italian) Design>Web Design>Accessibility>Flash
#31198
Summer Internship @ Google, Inc.: Accessibility Experiences
This paper summarizes some of the major lessons learned about conducting usability tests with visually impaired participants while working as interns at Google, Inc. The lessons were in four major areas: (1) recruitment and scheduling, (2) preparing the usability lab for testing sessions, (3) using think-aloud protocol with screen readers, and (4) helping observers to get the most out of the test sessions.
Shaikh, A. Dawn and Philip Strain. Usability News (2007). Careers>Internships>Accessibility>Visual
#18614
Surpassing Gutenberg--Access to Published Information for Blind Readers
We examine some surprising reasons to explain why electronic book publishing will become a versatile medium comprising 10% of all consumer book sales in the U.S. by 2005, estimated by Anderson Consulting at $2.3 billion. The Association of American Publishers (AAP) and the Open Electronic Book Forum (OEBF) both pin this expectation on open standards--any book, anytime, anywhere, for anyone. Electronic books will succeed, we argue, in part because they provide communicative opportunities not available in traditional, static print media. But, they will also succeed because of developments in technology for blind readers which will benefit all readers regardless of ability or disability. As evidence we offer, among other points, Microsoft Corporation's licensing of technology developed to benefit blind people for use in Microsoft Reader and mainstream publishing applications. We demonstrate, further, that technology transfer from disability to mainstream use has solid historic precedent.
Sajka, Janina and George Kerscher. American Foundation for the Blind (2002). Design>Usability>Accessibility>Visual
#29451
Surviving Our Success: Three Radical Recommendations 
The world of usability practitioners is undergoing massive changes. I know because I read it in the New York Times.
Spool, Jared M. Journal of Usability Studies (2007). Articles>Usability>Professionalism
#22713
SVG Linearization and Accessibility
The usage of SVG creates new possibilities as well as new challenges for the accessibility of Web sites. This paper presents a metadata vocabulary to describe the information content of an SVG file geared towards accessibility. When used with a suitable tool, this metadata description can help in generating a textual ('linear') version of the content, which can be used for users with disabilities or with non-visual devices.
Herman, Ivan and Daniel Dardailler. SVG Open (2002). Design>Web Design>Accessibility>SVG
#23165
A way of avoiding the problem with embedding Flash on a web page (which you cannot tab out of).
Norgaard, John. Sonokids (2004). Design>Web Design>Accessibility>Flash
#31658
Although we all know that the colors viewed on your computer's monitor are not accurate for print reproduction, your screen color is probably good enough to yield reasonably accurate colorblindness test results. We invite you now to test yourself for colorblindness on-line.
Copresco (2005). Resources>Accessibility>Visual>Color
#24203
Taking Advantage of "Automatic Text" Features
I recently began looking for a way to eliminate the need to manually perform small repetitive tasks. In Microsoft Word, that way is through the software’s 'automatic text' features: Autoformat, Autocorrect, and Autotext. In this article, I’ll focus on these features in Word, but will also discuss how to lighten the work load in other software.
Hart, Geoffrey J.S. Intercom (2004). Articles>Word Processing>Software>Microsoft Word
#22931
During the past few months, two new initiatives have been launched which could significantly affect everyone involved in website accessibility: EuroAccessibility and UKDeAN.
Kessler, Dennis. Accessify (2003). Articles>Accessibility>Standards>Europe
