STC Usability SIG Newsletter
Usability Interface

Call for Proposals: Special Issue on Accessibility and Technical Communication

Technical Communication, the peer-reviewed journal of the Society for Technical Communication, is pleased to announce a special issue exploring accessibility and technical communication, to be published in February 2006. The guest editors are Gail Lippincott of RGL Solutions and Kathryn Riley of the Illinois Institute of Technology.

Description

Researchers in fields ranging from human factors to cognitive psychology have studied ways to produce interfaces, adaptive technology, and design guidelines for accessible communication. Policy planners in many countries wrangle with legislation aimed at accommodating citizens with disabilities, including the growing senior population.

Too often, however, technical communicators are missing from these multidisciplinary discussions. To ensure accessible communication, we must incorporate the findings of other disciplines into our own teaching, research, and practice, and we must bring our audience expertise to bear on research and legislation. This special issue focuses on accessibility and the technical communication profession.

Possible Topics for This Special Issue

We welcome articles that will help practitioners, teachers, and researchers understand communication principles, technologies, organizational dynamics, and legislation related to accessibility. We seek articles that offer new insight into the audience traits that accessibility studies investigate: physical (e.g., sight, hearing, mobility), cognitive (e.g., learning, reasoning), and social (e.g., resources, access, training, attitudes). In addition, we seek articles that discuss the consequences of adopting—or ignoring—accessibility initiatives in practice, education, or research. Questions of particular interest include the following:

• What are the social, economic, legal, and organizational impacts of accessibility?
• What practical difficulties arise in implementing accessibility in technical documents?
• How can we apply international guidelines or national legislation to accessibility?
• What is the writer’s role in ensuring accessibility?
• How can awareness of accessibility issues best be taught in academic programs and the workplace?
• How can writers influence interface design to ensure accessibility?
• What new tools or technologies can we use to meet audiences’ needs for accessible documents?
• How can we apply our expertise in audience-centered communication to accessibility studies?
• How does legislation about accessibility change the economics and practice of producing publications?
• How do accessibility issues relate to ethical questions in technical communication?

Types of Submissions

We welcome all standard methodological approaches, including (but not limited to) case studies, experimental research, ethnographic and observational research, and literature reviews and annotated bibliographies. All proposals and manuscripts will be peer-reviewed. Acceptance of a proposal does not guarantee acceptance of the final article.

Publication Schedule

Send proposals by e-mail to both editors:

• Gail Lippincott at glippincott@earthlink.net
• Kathryn Riley at riley@iit.edu