Tiny business helps Federal Government comply with its own policy

Federal Government departments are required to make their websites comply with standards that make them accessible to people with disabilities. Here we introduce our new e-Accessibility training videos Part 1 and Part 2... and it's on us.

"At The Copy Collective, we've noticed that many government websites don't comply, as yet, with the guidelines in regards to copy," CEO Dominique Antarakis said. 

"We thought we'd help out by making free training available to everyone, so that the government didn't have any excuses not to comply with its own policy. We also think that accessible websites are great for all businesses, not just government."

The Copy Collective is a 5-person business based in Sydney. As part of the company's Disability Discrimination Act Action Plan, they wanted a practical way to show that small changes could help everyone. The team thought they would start by helping the Federal Government comply with its own Web Accessibility National Transition Strategy.

Today, The Copy Collective announced the release of two training videos designed to assist copywriters and government departments to comply with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 2.0). Federal government agencies are encouraged to meet the guidelines for their website content by December 2014.

"We're not doing this because we want jobs rewriting Federal Government websites; although that would be nice," Ms Antarakis said. "We're doing it because we want to show that simple changes to copy can make a big difference to access."

"The training we offer is in-depth and detailed. The presenter, Monica Seeber, is one of our freelancers from Perth. She is our resident accessibility expert. Having experience with disability in her own family, Monica is very committed to access and so are we. 

"We've provided 2-hours of training, free of charge. We'd like the Government to make the videos compulsory viewing for all their comms and web teams.

"Making website copy accessible for all just makes good business sense," Ms Antarakis said.

In two hours, the online e-accessibility training takes users through the principles of WCAG 2.0, how these principles will affect websites, and how to create content that meets WCAG 2.0 standards. The YouTube videos are fully captioned and there are downloadable PowerPoint and Text versions of the presentation slides available on Scribd.

Comply by December 2014

The Copy Collective supports governments, NFPs and businesses to comply with the WCAG 2.0. While the compliance imperative is important and it is great to ensure content is available and accessible for all, the steps to make sites accessible have the side benefit of also helping organisations with their search engine optimisation (SEO).

Providing this complimentary training is part of The Copy Collective's commitment to an inclusive society under its Disability Discrimination Act Action Plan.

The Copy Collective encourages people to set aside the time to watch the training videos and understand how the WCAG 2.0 applies to organisations. Trainees will also get the resources and tools they need to make changes to their web copy .

The Copy Collective can be contacted for further support to make website copy accessible. Please note: you don't need to book any work with The Copy Collective to enjoy the complimentary training!

About the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 2.0)

The WCAG 2.0 guidelines were released in 2008 to implement user-friendly web content for people of all abilities.

The guidelines cover the full range of Web content that a user is likely to access — from images and graphs, to videos and podcasts, to the structure and design of each page. Each guideline has three levels of accessibility: A, AA and AAA. Level AAA is the highest level of accessibility.

Compliance with WCAG 2.0 is part of the digital inclusion framework referenced in the Web Accessibility National Transition Strategy.

About The Copy Collective

The Copy Collective is a cloud-based, teleworking business with 80 freelancers, of diverse backgrounds, working in seven countries. The company's five employees are located in Sydney and Perth. 

eAccessibility webinar part1

eAccessibility webinar part2

eAccessibility slides part1

eAccessibility slides part2

Website: www.thecopycollective.com

For more details contact Maureen Shelley 0412 741 186 or mshelley@thecopycollective.com

For interviews contact Dominique Antarakis 0409 911 891 or dantarakis@thecopycollective.com

Accessibility Is Everywhere

Here at The Copy Collective, we’re big fans of accessibility – in the ‘real’ world and the virtual. In this three-part series, Perth-based contributor Monica (@thebigmeeow) will introduce you to the basics of e-accessibility and how you can make your content user-friendly for all abilities. Here we introduce our new e-Accessibility training videos Part 1 and Part 2... and it's on us.

First there was the word.

Then there was the Internet.

And when the word and the Internet got together, they made the World Wide Web.

The Internet is the physical network made up of computers and routers and phone lines and server farms and deep-sea cables. The World Wide Web is all the information that we access using the Internet. And the “word”? Well, that’s “01110111 01101111 01110010 01100100”.

W3C celebrates 20 years. Source: www.w3.org/

The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is responsible for developing Web standards. Their mission “is to lead the World Wide Web to its full potential by developing protocols and guidelines that ensure the long-term growth of the Web” (W3C Mission).

If the Web is an “information super-highway” then W3C is like the Department for Infrastructure: they write the guidelines and technical specifications for designing and building new roads and regional developments.

The Web standards cover all aspects of the Web:

1. Web design and applications
2. Web architecture
3. Semantic Web
4. XML technology
5. Web of services
6. Web of devices
7. Browsers and authoring tools.

For most of us, we don’t know what any of that means – and we don’t really need to (if you would like to know more, the W3C Standards page covers each topic in greater detail). Web developers and graphic designers mediate most of our interaction with the Web; and all we have to worry about is the speed of our Internet connection. 

"The power of the Web is in its universality.
Access by everyone regardless of disability is an essential aspect".
Tim Berners-Lee, W3C Director and inventor of the World Wide Web

Unfortunately, not all Web content is created equal – and not all content is available to everybody. For some people (especially people with a disability) they’re not just worrying about the speed of their Internet connection, they’re also thinking:

“Will this webpage trigger a seizure?”
“Can my screen-reader make sense of the text?”
“Does this video have captions or a transcript?”
"Is this information written in a language I can read?" 

Within the Standards for Web design and applications, the W3C created the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines.

The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0 (WCAG10) were released in 1999, and were then revised and succeeded by the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 (WCAG 2.0) in 2008.

There’s a lot of information in those guidelines. If you print them out, there’s about 34 pages of information. You can access the full WCAG 2.0 for free on the W3C webpage.

WCAG 2.0 covers the full range of Web content that a user is likely to access on Web pages, from images and graphs, to videos and podcasts, to the structure and design of the pages themselves. 

WCAG 2.0 structure

WCAG 2.0 is structured around four broad principles (also known as pillars):

1. Perceivable: Web pages and content must be presented to users in ways they can perceive.
2. Operable: Web pages and navigation must be operable.
3. Understandable: Web content and the operation of Web pages much be understandable.
4. Robust: Web content and pages much be interpreted reliably by a range of users, hardware, and software – including assistive technologies.

These four principles are then broken down into 12 guidelines: 

1. Perceivable
1. Provide text alternatives for any non-text content so that it can be changed into other forms people need, such as large print, braille, speech, symbols or simpler language.
2. Provide alternatives for time-based media.
3. Create content that can be presented in different ways (for example simpler layout) without losing information or structure.
4. Make it easier for users to see and hear content including separating foreground from background.
2. Operable
1. Make all functionality available from a keyboard.
2. Provide users enough time to read and use content.
3. Do not design content in a way that is known to cause seizures.
4. Provide ways to help users navigate, find content, and determine where they are.
3. Understandable
1. Make text content readable and understandable.
2. Make Web pages appear and operate in predictable ways.
3. Help users avoid and correct mistakes.
4. Robust
1. Maximise compatibility with current and future user agents, including assistive technologies.

Those 12 guidelines are broken down further into 61 “success criteria”. That’s a lot of criteria!

Now before you all panic…

Luckily for you, we’ve already done the hard work of figuring out which guidelines are relevant to copywriters. We’ve even put together a couple of videos — so we can talk you though them when you’re ready:
eAccessibility webinar Part1
eAccessibility webinar Part2

You can even download the Powerpoint presentation from the videos.

You can use my videos and powerpoint for free – because you’re worth it.
source: www.funnyjunk.com/

  

Join me for my next Blog - Part 2 of Accessibility is Everywhere - where I introduce the Web Accessibility National Transition Strategy and share useful things for making your web content accessible.

About The Copy Collective

The Copy Collective is a cloud-based, teleworking business with 80 freelancers, of diverse backgrounds, working in seven countries. The company's five employees are located in Sydney and Perth.

Website: http://www.thecopycollective.com/  

For more details contact Maureen Shelley 0412 741186 or mshelley@thecopycollective.com

For interviews contact Dominique Antarakis 0409 911 891 or dantarakis@thecopycollective.com

 

Writing for the Web

Your digital audience is internet-savvy and time poor. So don't waste their precious time (and yours) with long-winded explanations of why they should buy from you.

• Make it short and sweet.
• Make it visual.
• Give them something, and then
• Go home.

Here's a present for you

If you like our infographic, then download the PDF here

If you like our infographic, then see more work by this talented Chicago-based graphic artist 

Thanks to www.clientsfromhell.net

Maureen Shelley shares what she's learned through redeveloping the company's website

What you can learn from us (well, it was me really; sorry Dominique) being The Client From Hell

As a writer, I spend a lot of my time shaking my head over other people’s grammar or their attention to detail or their basic inability to keep to deadlines. Generally, there is a lot of muttering over all the things that humans do that means we turn to a professional for assistance with writing.

I was determined that, when we set about engaging a website designer, we were going to do all the things that an ideal client does to make the job of redeveloping our website as simple and straightforward as possible. It was going to be a pleasure, really.

You are ahead of me, I know, because you know we did everything that the perfect Client From Hell does.

The Brief

We wrote a beautifully, detailed brief – and then we changed our minds. When we changed our minds we did a 180 and then a 360-degree shift in our thinking. I think we ended up back where we started from but I could be confused. Having a very clear idea of what you want the website to do/be is a very good idea and it is one you should adhere to through thick and thin.

The Deadline

We developed what we thought was a realistic deadline – three months. We’d created that beautifully detailed brief, set out the timeline and milestones, said what we’d provide in that time and when we’d provide it by – and then ignored the lot.

We were late with copy (we didn’t have time to write copy – we are too busy writing for other people, we had to employ a copy writer and, fortunately, we know about 50), we didn’t supply stuff we said we would, we forgot things, we changed our minds on the site architecture plan after we’d signed off on the design and the site architecture plan. Yep, we committed all the cardinal sins that a client could possible commit without being struck by lightning.

We extended the deadline to six months and backtracked to four, back to six and – in the end – it took what it took, which was eight months from concept to “go live”. Be realistic in your deadlines. Don’t fix a date based on a Ministerial launch, the calendar or financial year or any arbitrary nonsense such as when the moon is in the 7th house or Jupiter aligns with Mars.

The Rabbit Holes

In Alice in Wonderland, Alice keeps disappearing down rabbit holes pursuing some fantastic idea or creature and going completely off track[i] from achieving her ultimate purpose. In website redesign, there are an inordinate amount of rabbit holes to tempt you – even for the strong willed.

We decided – mid-way through the process – that we wanted to achieve integration of our customer relationship management (CRM) software with our website’s content management system (CMS). 

We thought it would be a good idea that if we were collecting data from our website, it should funnel that data through into our CRM, so we could serve our customers better. We also wanted to be able to update the site ourselves for minor things without having to go back to the web design company.

Well, it is a nice idea in theory and you can do it if you have a spare $28,000 floating around (and I know by writing this I will be instantly pursued by every web designer/CRM/CMS software sales person in the world with a workable, cheaper solution – big tip, don’t bother; I’ve already spoken to you).

Pursuing this particular rabbit hole delayed our “go live” date by about three months. Decide what is really important for the website to do – from the outset – and stick to that.

The Budget

http://lifehacker.com/5725282/how-to-create-and-stick-to-a-realistic-budget-with-mint

We set a realistic budget, I know we did. We worked out how much time it would take and how much it would cost to write the copy, design, develop and collect all the images and illustrations, film and edit the videos, obtain permissions and testimonials from clients, take the photos of the staff (we had to do that three times because we kept hiring more), purchase the CMS licences and approve the design from the designer. I mean, this is our business; we know these things.

Unless I’d been there, I’d say we plucked some number out of the air that had no reference to anything. In the end, I decided the best way to establish a budget for a website redesign is what I’ve been doing with renovating houses for years. 

You take the biggest, most ridiculous number you can think of (based on what you know of costs through the most expensive builder you have ever met), you then double it and then you add 20 per cent. If it comes out to be less than that, you will be happy. This isn’t to say our website designers were expensive, they weren't. It’s just that, like shopping, when you add up all the different product elements, the total makes you cough a bit.

The Design

Some of our clients instantly become experts in copywriting after they’ve engaged us to do their copywriting. It’s a phenomenon I’ve noticed before.

Well, I suddenly became an expert in web design. It was clever of me really, without any training or experience I became more expert in design than our long-suffering designers. I fiddled, I suggested, I offered specious advice about fonts and positioning, I consulted other designers (who I hadn’t entrusted with my money) about the ‘flaws’ in the design.

After a few tears, too many glasses of wine and wringing my hands a bit, I turned to my very sensible son (he must take after his father) who said: “Don’t listen to other designers, they will always find flaws and faults and they will be negative and you will lose faith in your designers. Go back to the designers and tell them what you would like changed and see if it works. And, realise, that you don’t know everything and what may look ‘wrong’ to you is perfectly fine for your audience because – after all – you’re not an expert in web design” (Well, I did something right). You’re paying for expert advice – take it. 

Thank you Beena and Nupur at Blazing Designs. We made it.

---

[i] http://www.alice-in-wonderland.net/pictures/alice-pictures.html