TechWhirl (TECHWR-L) is a resource for technical writing and technical communications professionals of all experience levels and in all industries to share their experiences and acquire information.
For two decades, technical communicators have turned to TechWhirl to ask and answer questions about the always-changing world of technical communications, such as tools, skills, career paths, methodologies, and emerging industries. The TechWhirl Archives and magazine, created for, by and about technical writers, offer a wealth of knowledge to everyone with an interest in any aspect of technical communications.
This is, in general, called accessibility. The US Federal government's
requirements are, to some extent, covered in section 508 of the
Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). However, accessibility goes
beyond this. The W3C has standards for web accessibility, and other
countries have established or are establishing their own.
You have to consider many issues in dealing with this:
* What level or levels of compliance do you *need* for contractual
obligations?
* What level or levels do you *want* as a competitive advantage for your
products?
* What standards do you need to follow to achieve these levels of
compliance?
* What processes and documents do these standards require?
* What products do you need to fix? What are the priorities? How will
you identify issues?
Who will be responsible for fixing them? How will the fix schedule
interact with other product schedules?
* What training do you need? Who will be responsible for it? How will
mediate conflicts?
* What will you do in a situation where you *can not* fix an issue?
Every project will take a different amount of time, depending on the
size of your products.
As I remember, I needed about 1 month to learn all the requirements for
accessibility. A lot of my learning was done as I went, by investigating
issues and resolving them.
You probably want to find an accessibility consultant. If you need help
with this, I may be able to help, since I have a good friend who is the
head of accessibility for Adobe.
Joe Malin
Technical Writer
(408)625-1623
jmalin -at- tuvox -dot- com
www.tuvox.com
The views expressed in this document are those of the sender, and do not
necessarily reflect those of TuVox, Inc.
-----Original Message-----
From: techwr-l-bounces+jmalin=tuvox -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
[mailto:techwr-l-bounces+jmalin=tuvox -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com] On Behalf
Of Lucero, Peggy
Sent: Monday, June 05, 2006 9:01 AM
To: TECHWR-L
Subject: 508 Remediation Specialist
Is there someone on this list who's worked to on this kind of project:
Taking content developed by internal staff and making it compliant with
section 508 of the ADA. The content will be in a variety of media
formats.
Basically, someone within ear shot of this list who's experienced
remediating content for 508. When you were first approached to do this
type of work, how long did it take for you to get up to speed with the
section 508 requirements to do this accurately and properly??
WebWorks ePublisher Pro for Word features support for every major Help
format plus PDF, HTML and more. Flexible, precise, and efficient content
delivery. Try it today!. http://www.webworks.com/techwr-l