UX writing for accessibility
As a UX writer, I focus on a very neglected area: Accessibility. Or more specifically, UX writing for accessibility. I’ve been working on my certification from the International Association of Accessibility Professionals, with plans to take my test in June.
I became interested in writing for accessibility during an experience review of a website with a user who is blind. And he said, “I wish you’d put periods in the aria labels so the text doesn’t run together.” So, thinking this was a well-known accessibility guideline, I jotted it down and tried to find the source of those well-known guidelines. That was in 2016 and I have yet to find those “well-known guidelines” I was looking for. In fact, the first guidelines I wrote were the user experience tester’s top 10 pet peeves.
I started this blog a year ago and couldn’t decide what to write about because there are many excellent UX writers who blog and I wanted to give y’all information that is hard to come by. And it’s been 4 years since I started the accessibility journey – so now I am sharing my knowledge with the world!
If you have specific questions about accessibility, let me know and I’ll blog about it. As a data-driven tech writer, you can help me set my priorities. But absent of any questions, we’re going to dive deep into how screen readers work and how to test with them.
Stay tuned!
Andrea Fowler View All →
I’m a user experience writer (more than a UI copy writer) and content strategist in the Seattle area. I design help, training and support features for an IT admin tool. I also consider myself something of an accessibility expert – especially in writing screen reader text.
In my free time I love painting and hiding rocks around Whidbey Island, embroidery, cross stitch, Zen Tangling, and tie-dying. My other hobby is robotics and I’ve got a really cool Pi car. I’m a total geek: I collect Funkos and Playmobil, read hard science fiction and graphic novels. And I don’t ever want to hear you talk smack about Sam and Dean Winchester (Supernatural 4-ever!).
Words are design 