Documentation Accessibility

Documentation is a vital channel for conveying information to users effectively, but users with disabilities face challenges in accessing it.

How can we make documentation more accessible? What are the basic accessibility factors? What are the tools we can consider? Any core steps and standards to follow regardless of document format?

Program

18:00-18:15 Doors open
18:15-18:30 Welcome by Benjamin and Sharif
18:30-18:50 Lorna Jane Mitchell (Nexmo): Tales of a Keyboard-Only User
19:00-19:20 Andrew Hayward (Twitter): You don't know your audience
19:20-19:45 Lightning talks (if any)
19:45-20:45 Networking
20:45-21:00 Doors close

Lorna's talk

Am I a disabled user? I don’t think I’m disabled but due to some RSI injury, a pointing device is an instrument of torture. As a keyboard-only user, I’d like to share some of my experiences of using the web and talk a bit about how my access to the web has changed, from the early days of “it all works if I turn off JavaScript” through a phase of doing OK when I was self-employed and chose my own tools, to today where “modern” web sites are increasingly locking me out of seemingly simple tasks. I’ll show you the world through my tools (and show you how to use them too) and try to point out the quick wins for improving accessibility as well as complaining loudly about the things I wish everyone would avoid!

Andrew's talk

When you sit down to write technical documentation, you almost certainly know what you are writing about. And you probably have a reasonable idea of who you are writing for. But who is your audience really? There is no such thing as a typical user--each of us has our own unique set of needs and requirements. Through this talk, I'll look at the types of people that might make up your audience, the different ways in which they may consume your content, and show you why one of the most important criteria of a user-friendly document is accessibility.

Venue

Benjamin and Sharif will host us at Google's HQ, in the awesome Lala Library.

RSVP

We need to close registration 48 hours before the event for security reasons. Make sure you sign up!