chaxchat

In this episode Chad Chelius and Dax Castro discuss what it means to understand the user experience of a screen reader as well as accessibility technology at large. Creating documents and digital media has its challenges, but what if your product does not respond the way you expect it to? Learn about how to adapt your understanding to the end user experience in today's episode. We are also excited to share two new A11y terms just for you! Introducing Chax-ified and Chax-essible! Other topics we cover today include our new partnership with Tamman, Inc, the experience of being an accessibility specialist on the Mac series of M1, M2, and M3 computers, our upcoming classes, CSUN, and more!

Skip koi pond chat @3:42
How to approach gaining accessibility knowlege @5:43 
How long does it take to implement an accessibility workflow into an organization @7:36
What is the best way to implement accessibility in an organization @8:56
The struggles of content creators in PowerPoint @9:58
Setting the Reading Order (Tag Order) in Venngage @10:59
How to convince the decision-maker to give designers the right tools @12:21
Venngage model of a discoverable learning experience @17:13
How to start down the road of accessibility knowledge  @19:23
Venngage leverages AI for generative Alt-text @20:50
How Venngage teaches you about accessibility as you design @26:43
Go vote to fix the latest bug in Acrobat @29:16
How do you balance the workload and accessibility implementation? @33:33 
How much is enough accessibility to not get sued? @37:03  

Chad and Dax take this session to talk about the possibility of having too much accessibility in the form of multiple patterns in pie charts. They discuss the merits of several approaches to making pie charts visually more accessible. Stick around to hear them give out some secret sauce for troubleshooting tables that just don't seem to want to pass accessibility. Their tip might just save you hours of needlessly hunting for the mislabeled property.

Oh, and if you want to skip the koi pond banter, skip ahead 7 minutes. Watch this podcast on YouTube: https://youtu.be/-F1VtJyMW34

Accessibility Podcast #32: Understanding the Accessibility Checker in Microsoft Word. There is so much packed into this podcast that I can hardly believe it myself. Chad and I walk through some of the handouts for our upcoming MS Word Accessibility class on Sept. 29th and we also talk about several key features and steps for making your Word docs accessible.

We also discuss the most common Checker errors you will encounter:

1. Missing Alt-text

2. Image or Object Inline

3. Merged or Split Cells in a table

4. Check the Read Order

5. Hard to Read Text Contrast

6. No Header Row (in your table)

5 Ways to get your team on board with accessibility.

1.  Start with awareness by asking:

a. Did you know how this works for screenreader users?

b.  Have you seen this cool app for color blind simulation

c. Did you read this article on Harvard's efforts to caption their videos?

2. Chad discusses how to demonstrate easy wins

3.  Learn how tracking time can help get people on board to cut down workflow

4. Find out the secrets of snacks and how they can open the door to accessibility acceptance

5. Engaging don't Complain: Provide solutions when pointing out issues

a. Keep track of recurring roadblocks and plan extra enrichment

b. Provide Checklists and support docs/videos

We also answer the questions:

1. Is it worth taking the IAAP Accessible Document Specialist Test ADS?

2. How long should it take me to remediate a document?

Listen to learn how you can get the Level of Effort Matrix PDF free!

Check out this episode as we walk through 7 accessibility fails you would never know where there without testing with a NVDA. We sneak in about 5 or 6 other things to watch out for as well. If you don't have the PDF that goes with this episode you can download it on our website chaxchat.com or reach out to us on LinkedIn for a copy.

Accessible SVGs (Scalable Vector Graphics) featuring Guest Heather Neff of Equivalent Design. If you have ever wanted to understand how smart SVG graphics can increase accessibility while maintaining brand style this is the podcast for you. Chad and Dax talk with Heather Neff about her goal to bring SVGs to the world "One graphic at a time." We talk about embedded alt-text and how WordPress now pulls description metadata straight from your images and how that can improve your search engine placement.

This episode has lots of great tidbits but there are two standout sections of this podcast. We talk about the merits of an untagged PDF document that links to an HTML alternate version or to an email address. Is this an acceptable practice? We debate both sides. Listen in because I think you will very surprised when we tell you which agency is doing this. 

We also talk about Table structure and how the PDF/UA standard can help you understand if your tables need scope. 

In this podcast Chad and I talk about turning the InDesign limitations of exporting Caption Tags into a benefit. 

We also explore some alternate presentations to bar charts and how to deal with banks of images labeled by a single figure title. We also review two different references in the 14289-1 PDF/UA standard and how they apply to footnotes and figured. Be sure to stick around for our discussion on how solving one accessibility barrier can create another!

Join Chad Chelius and me, Dax Castro as we unravel the question "What standard to do I follow?" Learn when should I aim for AAA Compliance and the difference between WCAG and PDF/UA. Find out how to know the document is really accessible? We discuss some tips on writing alt-text vs providing alternate formats and be sure to stick around and listen to my first call with Be My Eyes and how it completely failed!

Guest Jeff Lawrence, Senior Program Manager of the Creative Services Team at the World Bank talks with Chad and Dax about his journey in implementing accessibility for his team. We discuss the reasons for starting, the struggles along the way and the great progress he and his team have made. Don't miss the our tips for accessible bullets and end notes and I bet you will be surprised at the answer Jeff got when asking the Client to pay more for accessible documents. You definitely want to listen this week!

Testing tables with screen readers ensures a good user experience. Join Chad and Dax as they drop some great shortcut key combos you should know that will help you keep your sanity while exploring how a table is read by a screen reader. See Who's on Twitter and drop a comment on our transcript page to get a free sticker. 

David Blatner, CEO at Creative Pro Network talks about pivoting the Accessibility Conference from a live to an online and the surprising feedback he received.

Join Dax Castro and Chad Chelius as they reveal their favorite accessibility fixups in the Adobe Acrobat Preflight Panel and a few alternatives for multi-line hyperlinks. Stay tuned for our unique opinions on the Preflight Fixup for "Creating Content for Link Annotations" and why they are important. And of course make sure you do not miss this episode's "Who's on Twitter" from Kenya.

In this accessibility podcast Chad and I discuss the merits of the Adobe Acrobat Action Wizard for accessibility and when you should and shouldn't use it. We also talk about dealing with making scanned documents accessible using Acrobat as well as advanced options like Abbyy Fine Reader. You definitely want to stick around to find out Who's on Twitter. This episode's feature comes from Scotland!

This week Chad and I spend some time to talk about accessible maps. We cover some great topics like defining the expected user experience, non-text color contrast, the use of color only, how to make complex maps more accessible and what to do with heatmaps and other non-traditional graphics with a few different approaches. If you struggle with maps, be sure to check out his episode.