STC AccessAbility SIG
A Blog About Accessibility

Each year at the STC conferences, the AccessAbility SIG publishes a roadmap to sessions that are related to accessibility or usability. 2008 is no different. Download the
AccessAbility SIG conference roadmap 2008 today.

Highlights

The SIG luncheon and SIG business meeting are two obvious highlights. The SIG luncheon is on Monday, June 2 at 12 noon in the convention center. The SIG business meeting is on Tuesday from 7:30 AM to 8:30 AM in the Marriott, Room 305. We look forward to meeting current and potential members there!

You can read about many great sessions in the PDF provided in this post, as well as others in the general program. At the risk of overlooking many excellent candidates, we’ll highlight just a few here.

Remember to check the program and bulletin boards for accuracy about the room information!

There are two sessions discussing Technical Communication Body of Knowledge. Part 1 is subtitled “A Framework for Moving Forward”; it is scheduled for Monday, 2:00 PM– 3:00 PM in Room 108B. Part 2 follows on Tuesday, 1:30 PM – 2:30 PM, in Room 113A; it is subtitled “Open Forum for Discussion and Feedback”.
In Part 1,

Members of an STC-sponsored task force will present a progress report on the first steps taken to define the body of knowledge (BOK) in technical communication. Panel members will describe the project background and rationale, review some personas and scenarios created to guide the design of the TCBOK, and discuss the outline of domains and topics created thus far. This framework is intended to guide development of the next stage of the TCBOK: filling in the content that will define the profession.

Part 2 is

a follow-on session designed to give conference attendees an opportunity to give feedback about the STC-sponsored effort to begin defining the body of knowledge for technical communication. Panel members from industry and academe will make brief statements, after which they will respond to questions and opinions from the audience. Defining the body of knowledge is a cooperative effort requiring input by STC members. What would you like to see offered by a web-delivered gateway for learning about the breadth and depth of technical communication? What would you like included in a guide to resources for professional development?

This should be a golden opportunity to discuss the inclusion of accessibility skills in every well-prepared technical communicator’s toolkit!

On Monday, 5:00 PM – 6:00 PM, there is a mini-workshop in Room 104AB entitled “Assessing Accessibility of Websites for Users with Disabilities”. If you evaluate websites, are you considering how people with disabilities use those websites? If not, this is definitely a candidate on your list of “must attends”.

Wednesday morning, 9:00 AM –10:00 AM, has members of the Environmental, Safety, and Health SIG sharing their experiences with “Communicating and Creating Training for Disasters and Emergencies” in Room 111AB. How do you write emergency training that will engage people to become prepared when they are apprehensive about their safety? The lessons the speakers share have relevancy for members of the AccessAbility SIG, the Usability and User Experience SIG, and oh so many others as well.

Enjoy these appetizers as we count down to the conference starting June 1st!