Archives for 2009
The end of the calendar year is a busy time for everyone for many reasons. We’ve collected some recent STC news that you shouldn’t miss. Live seminars schedule is available The schedule of live web seminars offered by STC was updated with the dates for December and January. You can always listen to the archived [...]
Sutherland Shire Council in New South Wales, Australia, has a beach wheelchair available for community use at Cronulla Beach (South Cronulla). The wheelchair allows access to the beach for people who use wheelchairs or who find the beachfront difficult to negotiate. The chair is available free of charge for short term loans. The chair is [...]
Practice, practice, practice. That may be a familiar phrase to anyone who played a musical instrument as a child. It’s a phrase you can apply to all of your skills. It’s also a phrase that pops up on technical communication discussion lists whenever the topic of “unemployment” or “just starting out” pops up. Someone will [...]
Whoa! This site has a new look! What’s the story? Well, we have been having some issues on the back-end. Despite the love for a WordPress theme that was accessible from Day 1 (Sea Beast by the talented Mike Cherim, we had to admit it was a bit old in the code, which required a [...]
Today marks another World Usability Day with the theme of “Sustainability”. What is World Usability Day? World Usability Day was founded to ensure that the services and products important to life are easier to access and simpler to use. Each year, it has a specific focus and is honored around the world on the second [...]
It’s renewal time for STC members. After a turbulent summer with financial worries, our STC president, Cindy Currie has news about the dues and the effort to find an appropriate solution for all of us. Her complete announcement is on the STC Notebook blog. Please read the complete story, including the fees, over there. This [...]
We received great news from SIG member, Brenda Huettner – she’s writing a new book on the topic of… wait… drum roll…. accessibility! Here’s what she tells us: Some of you may remember a couple of years ago when the STC Press was going to publish a book I was writing about accessibility across multiple [...]
Moments ago, it was August 26, and we announced the call for proposals for the STC 2010 conference. Now, the October 5th deadline for submitting your proposals is rapidly approaching. This post is a copy of the reminder mail that Caroline Jarrett, Track Manager for Usability/Accessibility at the conference, sent out on our discussion list. [...]
I recently discovered two new logical-based captchas plugins for WordPress. 1. Logical Captcha (Version 1.0.3, Updated 2009-8-24) takes advantage of the TextCaptcha.com service, which provides logic-based textual questions instead of distorted images or audio to validate that the entity registering is a real live human being, and not a spam bot. Textual logic-based captchas mean [...]
From Space Daily, Tokyo (AFP), 26 August 2009 Robotics and medical experts in Japan on Wednesday unveiled the prototype of a new hi-tech electric wheelchair that resembles a scooter and promises greater mobility. Users ride astride the four-wheeled Rodem—rather than sitting in it, as in a conventional wheelchair—steer it with a joystick and hold onto [...]
Only yesterday, we were saying that we didn’t know when the call for proposals would be out for STC’s Technical Communication Summit 2010 set in Dallas, Texas, 2–5 May 2010 (at the Hyatt Regency Dallas at Reunion.) Today, we are pleased to announce that the STC 2010 Summit Call for Proposals is now open. Go [...]
With all the open calls for papers for various conferences, it is easier to blog about them than to tweet about them. Why the call for papers? Conferences are excellent opportunities to exchange knowledge with your peers. It’s never too early or too late to share. Some even provide special student opportunities to encourage the [...]
STC announces a free program for members who are currently seeking employment or contracts. In this tough economic climate, STC would like to extend a helping hand to those conducting job searches. While members have free access to the Job Seeker Boot Camp, as well as many other benefits, STC has made this program available [...]
Dear typography fans, we found a few entertaining links for your enjoyment. The Potential of Web Typography is probably for the hard-core typography geek. Do as the authors say and read John Daggett’s primer about @font-face first. Then read about the potential of web typography. As they say, “fine typography has always been one of [...]
As Stuart Culshaw pointed out in recent correspondence with me, this is a good case for showing how acronyms can be used irresponsibly. A few days ago, Paul Bernstein pointed out to some of us that Susan Burton, Tom Gorski, Mike Murry, Russ Bombardieri, George Hayhoe, Rob Hanna, Linda Oestreich, Stuart Culshaw, Andrea L Ames, [...]
For many of the participants, it's their first glimpse into the high-tech world and first [opportunity] to spontaneously talk to their classmates.
Update—25 July 2009: The author of the paper discussed below, Brian Kelly, thanked us for these comments and wrote that the paper is available on the repository at http://opus.bath.ac.uk/14902/ if you’d like a copy of the paper before next year. He can release a number of copies. Brian’s site is “UK Web Focus: Reflections on [...]
Whatever your speciality in technical communication, Web development education can affect you in some way. The authoring tools you use will change. New areas like mobile technology will provide new career opportunities as services and products move from your desktop to your browser to your mobile phone to … who knows where? There is a [...]
National Wheelchair Beautification Month was founded by Horace Knowles. According to an article by the Nashua Telegram at nashuatelegraph.com, Knowles suggests attaching a florist’s water tube near the top of a wheelchair by means of Velcro and inserting the real or artificial flower of your choice. It brightens the day not only for the wheelchair [...]
Hooray! We are proud to announce that this blog won an Excellence award in the 2009 APEX® Awards for Publication Excellence in the category of "Blogs, Forums & Wikis"! Information about the competition is available at http://www.ApexAwards.com/. APEX 2009 awards were based on excellence in graphic design, editorial content and the success of the entry—in [...]
Your society needs your input yesterday! Last week, Cindy Currie, STC President, sent out a message to all STC members asking for input to help resolve the financial crisis that the Society is facing. The Society really does need your input now! All members are request to please submit any suggestions that you have to [...]
X-chrom.com at https://www.x-chrom.com/ provides surgical bras, sports bras, and women’s activewear for every body to inspire every body to live an active lifestyle and do more with life. The site shows surgical bras by the type of procedure: shoulder surgery, heart surgery, lung surgery, breast surgery, etc. Their Custom Online Fitting Service provides personal service [...]
The call for review of the working draft of ATAG 2.0 – the Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines – is now open. You can submit your comments until June 11. What needs to be reviewed? This 2.0 working draft of the Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines (ATAG) published 21 May 2009. How to review ATAG 2.0 If [...]
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