For many years I have worked as a proof-reader and editor on an assignment basis. It seemed a suitable outlet to my fastidious nature and relentless drive for detail (attributes that I have only marginally been able to tamper for polite society since). What it has given me, however, is a deep appreciation of the intricacies of good type setting, clean style guides and accurate referencing.
Fast forward to the present day, I am starting to learn more about the digital footprint all these choices and settings create and which of them support interoperability with assistive technologies. What used to be, to my untrained eye, just a flat surface, a 2-dimensional choice of matching the style to the words for the benefit of the reader, suddenly had 3 dimensions: making the text comprehensible to technology to assist in its easy transformation across media by means of tags and codes and alt text… and with it opening up to a more agile interaction with that all-important source material that was being communicated.
So I have set myself two goals: to collate reference material in support of accessibility that may help in designing documents at the outset with accessibility in mind; and to work on some style sheets that can meaningfully integrate what characteristics might be required for different materials to make them meaningfully accessible in their own context and user groups.
What does it take to annotate an art textbook in digital print? What software best integrates disciplinary challenges like specialist symbols and characters? What etiquette rules should be followed in the landscape of gifs and emoji? How can good editing eliminate additional workflows and processes to create differently accessible materials? Is there really ever going to be a “golden copy”?
Let the journey begin 
Accessibility Resources
Government Digital Service – An accessibility reading list – Accessibility in government (blog.gov.uk)
TextBox Digital – Designing Accessibly – University of Kent (textboxdigital.com)
Universal Design for Learning Guidelines UDL: The UDL Guidelines (cast.org)
Ally Accessibility Formats Blackboard Ally: Getting started with alternative accessible formats – Blackboard Help for Students – University of Reading
Guidelines for Assessment Descriptions NWEA Image Description Guidelines for Assessments
Guide to writing ALT text What is alternative text? How do I write it for images, charts, and graphs? (matthewdeeprose.github.io)
Accessibility Resources Portfolio Favorite Resources – Inclusive Instructional Design
Visuals and Graphics around Accessibility
Designing for Accessibility Dos and Dont’s – https://accessibility.blog.gov.uk/2016/09/02/dos-and-donts-on-designing-for-accessibility/
Accessibility standards, compliance legislation and tools
ADA Accessibility Compliance for College and University Websites | Aha! :: Elliance Blog
Website Accessibility Conformance Evaluation Methodology (WCAG-EM) 1.0 (w3.org)
Evaluating Web Accessibility Overview | Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) | W3C
Maintaining Accessibility Sustain | Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) | W3C
Contrast Checker WebAIM: Contrast Checker
MS Office Accessibility Inspector Accessibility Inspector for Everyone (matthewdeeprose.github.io)
Nvda Screen Reader NV Access | Download NVDA
Reporting around Accessibility
University of Edinburgh – Monitoring and Data | The University of Edinburgh
Community
Anthology Accessibility Discussion Board Accessibility – The Anthology Community
Anthology Ally User Group Dashboard – Ally User Group
Digital Accessibility at the University of Reading User stories (reading.ac.uk)
AbilityNet What is Digital Accessibility? | AbilityNet
Champians of Accessibility Network Introducing the Champions of Accessibility Network | Skyscanner’s Travel Blog
UoE Intern view of LaTeX Lewis Forbes – LaTeX and Accessibility – Information Services Group: Student Employee Blog (ed.ac.uk)
Self-help and training materials
Discovering Learning styles Enter The Learning – Liberated Learners (pressbooks.pub)
ABC Teaching toolkit Toolkit for facilitators | The University of Edinburgh
Make your PowerPoint presentations accessible to people with disabilities – Microsoft Support
University of Edinburgh Resources
Playlist Details – Global Accessibility Awareness Day – 18 May 2023 – Media Hopper Create
Creating accessible materials | The University of Edinburgh
Learning Technology and Accessibility | The University of Edinburgh
