Summary transcript for 19 Jan 2012 #AWCchat: web accessibility

Thanks to everyone who participated in our seventh #AWCChat on Twitter.

Our guest host was Glenda Watson Hyatt; she is a web accessibility expert and is also known as the Left Thumb Blogger. Glenda has cerebral palsy but never lets that stop her from anything.  We also enjoyed her blog post afterwards – Behind the Scenes of a Tweetchat.

There were four questions for discussion during this chat:

1)   How do you know if your website is accessible to those with disabilities?

2)   Who sets the rules for web accessibility and where are they found?

3)   What is the business case for paying more attention to accessibility? Why does it really matter?

4)   What is one thing that people can start doing TODAY to make their site more accessible?

We tweeted lots of additional resources during the chat, so don’t miss taking a look at the transcript, and connect with Glenda on Twitter at @GlendaWH.

**  On Chirpstory – the summary transcript for 19 Jan chat on web accessibility.

The next #AWCChat is scheduled for 26 January 2012, on making the jump to being a freelance communicator.

**  Chat schedule and topics for January 2012

Thanks for your support of the AWC (Association for Women in Communications) community.

Summary transcript for 12 Jan 2012 #AWCchat: writing for the web

Thanks to everyone who participated in our sixth #AWCChat on Twitter.

There were four questions for discussion during this chat:

1)   How is text content presented differently on the web than in print, and why? (meaning, what is the reason for bullets, white space and headers/subheaders?  There’s science behind it.)

2)   Links are one of THE most important elements of writing online. How do you pick anchor text, who to link to, etc.?

3)   How can you write in a way that helps SEO (Search Engine Optimization) but doesn’t sound robotic?

4)   The web is multimedia, not just text. So, “writing for the web” is also “creating for the web” with video, images, etc. Agree or disagree?

We tweeted some additional resources during the chat, but if you do nothing else, read this definitive post about writing for the web, written by usability expert Jakob Nielsen in 1997 and still relevant today.

**  On Chirpstory – the summary transcript for 12 Jan chat on writing for the web.

The next #AWCChat is scheduled for 19 January 2012.   Our guest host is Patti DeNucci, author of The Intentional Networker, about how to take the anxiety out of networking for business.

**  Chat schedule and topics for January 2012

Thanks for your support of the AWC (Association for Women in Communications) community.