STC AccessAbility SIG
A Blog About Accessibility and Technical Communication

Started in late 2001, GOK was created at the ATRC (University of Toronto) with funding from Sun Microsystems. GOK (an award winning software that provides text entry and graphical user interface interaction using only switches and/or mouse devices), is an on-screen keyboard that provides access to the GNOME desktop through dynamically generated keyboards, and [...]

Read: GOK: the Gnome Online Keyboard »

Orca is an open source scriptable screen reader. The development of Orca has been led by the Accessibility Program Office of Sun Microsystems, Inc. with contributions from many community members. For more information and to download Orca, see http://live.gnome.org/Orca.
Using various combinations of speech, braille, and magnification, Orca is designed to work with applications and [...]

Read: Orca: an open source scriptable screen reader »

October is designated as an opportunity for the GSFC community to gain an awareness of various aspects of disability and accessibility needs. The Equal Opportunity Programs Office is sponsoring a number of events that would be of particular interest to management, supervisory staff, and others who will likely face issues relating to hidden disabilities, cognitive [...]

Read: NASA Goddard Disability Employment Awareness Month Activities »

You might be able to help.
Member Whitney Quesenbery brought us the latest news about the Plain Language bill that we wrote about back in April this year.
It is stuck in the Senate. Senator Bennett (R. Utah) has blocked the bill on the grounds that it would be a problem for the Federal Election Commission and [...]

Read: Plain language bill in U.S. Senate is being stalled »

Turn Firefox into a screen reader with Fire Vox, suggests Roger Johansson of 456 Berea St. He talks about his experience with Fire Vox, the free open-source screen reader extension for Firefox. He has successfully used it on his Mac (after a few unsuccessful attempts), but Fire Vox can also run on Windows and Linux.
The [...]

Read: Turn Firefox into a screen reader with Fire Vox »

[ October 31, 2008; 11:30 am to 1:00 pm. ] The STC Washington, DC Chapter is offering a Webinar about DITA on 31 October. (Speaker: Tom Magliery, XML Technology Specialist, JustSystems; Location: Anywhere with a phone line and a Web connection). Time: 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. [Registration link to be provided.]

Do you feel you’ve taken conditional text to the max – and maybe [...]

Read: Webinar: DITA for Conditional Text »

Talk Like a Pirate Day! Avast, me hearties! Once again, we’ve arrived at 19 September, Talk Like a Pirate Day! On this day, all posts will be automatically converted to pirate talk. They will revert to normal after today (or after a few days as this is the weekend). Because this is automated, the wording [...]

Read: Yarrr! It’s Talk Like a Pirate Day! »

56th Annual Conference logo. STC’s Technical Communication Summit 2009 will be held 3-6 May 2009 at the Hyatt Regency Atlanta, in the heart of downtown Atlanta, GA. See the Call for Proposals for STC’s 56th Annual Conference: Technical Summit 2009. You may submit more than one proposal, but each must be submitted separately. Proposals may be submitted and updated online [...]

Read: Call for Proposals for Technical Communication Summit 2009 »

We encourage members and friends of the AccessAbility SIG to consider submitting a paper for Include 2009. This call for papers in the Caring Technology Research Announcement List was brought to our attention by member Lisa Pappas.
Include 2009, Royal College of Art, London 5-8 April 2009
Submission deadline: deadline October 1, 2008
The RCA Helen Hamlyn Centre [...]

Read: Call for Papers for Include 2009, London, 5-8 April 2009 »

“Think Positive” is the theme for World Arthritis Day 2008.
This theme acknowledges that the challenges associated with arthritis/rheumatism can also get you down emotionally, but that there are a number of positive things you can do to help you feel better in yourself and get more from your life.
Our campaign for this year focuses on [...]

Read: Think Positive - Survey for World Arthritis Day, October 12 »