Notes from 49th International STC Conference
Nashville, Tennessee, May 5-8, 2002

Let's Take the "Dis" out of Disabilities:
A Progression on How to Harness Technology to Meet Special Needs in Technical Communication and to Ensure User Accessibility in Communication Products

Dan Voss, Moderator
With Fabien Vais, Andy Malcolm, Gloria Reece, Helen Marty, Lori Gillen, and Lori Allen

Visit our Special Needs Web site!

Dan Voss is manager-elect of the new Special Needs SIG. A member of the Orlando Chapter, Dan is an STC Fellow who has presented at the past 13 international conferences on topics ranging from editorial training and ethics to proposals and strategic marketing communication.

Fabien Vais is an independent contractor, translator, and teacher (Concordia University and other venues) in Montreal. Fabien has held numerous offices in the Montreal Chapter, including the presidency, and manages the SNSIG listserv. Among his accomplishments was the research and development of Guidelines for People with Special Needs, and Addendum, published for the 49th Conference in Nashville.

Andy Malcolm, elected Secretary of the STC this spring, is a Fellow in the Society, has been a member for 38 years, and has made far too many contributions to list here. Andy, who asserts that his recently acquired septuagenarian status qualifies him to specialize in special needs of the aging, recently retired from the Rochester Insitute of Technology, where he was an instructor for the deaf, among other specialties.

Gloria Reece is an instructor at the Tift College of Education at Mercer University in Atlanta, and is a member of the Atlanta Chapter. She previously was active in the SpaceTech and MidSouth chapters. Gloria has an extensive background in industry as well as in academe.

Helen Marty, president of the Southern Arizona Chapter, works for Misys Healthcare Systems. A 10-year STC veteran, Helen is a copy editor for the SNSIG newsletter, Achieve!

Lori Gillen is with McKesson Health Solutions and is a member of the Boston Chapter, where she has served as treasurer and as managing editor of the newsletter, The Boston Broadside.

Lori Allen teaches at Armstrong Atlantic State University in Savannah. A 12-year STC member, she has served on the Ethics Committee and both as a judge and a coordinator for the national pubs competition. She co-authored (with Dan) the textbook, Ethics in Technical Communication: Shades of Gray (Wiley, 1997).

Session Description: This progression, sponsored by STC's new Special Needs SIG, included seven table presentations/discussions listed below. The SNSIG's mission is to help technical communicators with disabilities overcome their special needs in the practice of our profession and to help end users with disabilities access the products technical communicators create.

Note: Since we were conducting this progression and I was one of the table hosts, I obviously couldn't take notes on the individual presentations. However, following the list of the seven topics at the progression are links to some of the presentations, tech papers, and handouts from those presentations and from similar progressions at previous conferences, as well as informational material on the Special Needs SIG and the Special Needs Committee (SNC) which preceded it. In addition, e-mail links are provided to the hosts of each of the seven table discussions at the progression in Nashville.

Presenters Fabien Vais, Montreal Chapter, and Lori Gillen, Boston Chapter, share ideas for the Special Needs progression in Nashville. Fabien and Lori were two of the seven table hosts at the well-attended and highly successful progression.

The Seven Progression Topics

1. "Dealing with Special Mobility Needs: a Lesson in Fairness and Coping", Fabien Vais.
2. "Writing for the Disadvantaged Reader", Andy Malcolm.
3. "Web Page Compliance for the Americans with Disabilities Act", Gloria Reece.
4. "The Role of Telecommuting as a Career Enabler for Technical Communicators with Disabilities," Helen Marty.
5. "What You Can't Hear Can Hurt You," Lori Gillen.
6. "The Phantom Foe: Learning to Live and Work with Fibromyalgia," Lori Allen.
7. "The Ethics of Special Needs: It's a Matter of Fairness," Dan Voss.

Progression Summary

• This one-page summary provides a brief overview on the Special Needs initiative within STC and lists the progression topics and table hosts.

Links to Presentations, Papers, Handouts, and Informational Material
(Keyed to Progression Topics)

Web Site Accessibility for the Visually Impaired: Gloria Reece

• "Accessible Design Principles". Presentation by Gloria Reece summarizing principles of accessible Web page design, from technical session UID 3A at the 49th conference, "Designing for Usability and Accessibility." Includes an audience analysis using the SOAP technique (Subject, Occasion, Audience, Purpose) providing content criteria for accessible Web site design for anyone, anywhere.
• "Usable, Accessible Web Pages for Low Vision: Criteria for Designers". Paper by Gloria Reece published in the conference Proceedings to the 48th conference.

Telecommuting: Helen Marty

• "The Role of Telecommuting as a Career Enabler for Technical Communicators with Special Needs". Paper by Helen Marty published in the Proceedings to the 49th STC conference.

Writing for the Disadvantaged Reader: Andy Malcolm

• "Writing for the Disadvantaged Reader". Table-top visual aids from Andy Malcolm's presentation provide valuable tips for teaching writing which, while focused on disadvantaged learners, are also a useful review for teaching composition in general.

Hearing Impairment: Lori Gillen

• "What You Can't Hear Can Hurt You". Paper by Lori Gillen discussing how hearing impairment can both influence learning during childhood and produce special challenges that extend into adulthood and one's professional career.

Deafness: Andy Malcolm

• "Deafness, an Introduction". Presentation by Andy Malcolm at the progression table in the 48th STC conference.

Mobility Restriction: Fabien Vais

• "Dealing with Special Mobility Needs: A Lesson in Patience and Coping". Paper by Fabien Vais, published in Proceedings to the 48th STC conference
• "Conference Guidelines for People with Special Needs". Assisted by members of the East Tennessee Chapter, Fabien Vais researched, wrote, and published this comprehensive set of guidelines to help attendees at the 49th STC conference who have disabilities to navigate the breath-taking but complex and challenging Gaylord Opryland Hotel in Nashville. Carolyn Watt assisted Fabien in production of the document, which was posted to the STC conference Web site and distributed in hard-copy form at the conference.
• "Addendum to Conference Guidelines". Fabien also arrived at the conference a day early, conducted a personal site visit from the viewpoint of a mobility-restricted visitor, and published this 6-page addendum to the guide which included additional resources to those presented in the original guide as well as specific pointers based on his observations during the site visit. Both the "Guidelines" and the "Addendum" were made available to conference attendees with special needs. Efforts to produce a similar set of guidelines for STC's Golden Anniversary conference in Dallas in 2003 are already underway, with the assistance of the Lone Star Chapter.

Ethics and Special Needs: Dan Voss

• "The Ethics of Special Needs: It's a Matter of Fairness". Presentation summarizing how special needs relate to the six ethical guidelines governing the Society, focusing on the areas of legality, professionalism, and fairness.
• "The Ethics of Special Needs: It's a Matter of Fairness". Paper published in the Proceedings, to the 48th conference providing in-depth discussion of the subject areas covered in the above presentation.

Informational Material on the Special Needs Committee and the New Special Needs SIG

• "Mission Statement of the Special Needs SIG". This strategic planning document presents the three basic missions of the Special Needs SIG: (1) assisting technical communicators with disabilities; (2) helping technical communicators make our products more accessible to end users with disabilities; and (3) taking a leadership role by conducting an informational outreach program, both within and outside the STC, and by conducting and publishing cutting-edge research on disabilities. It also identifies specific strategies and tactics to execute those basic missions, which, in turn, will be linked to the Society's 2002-2007 Strategic Plan, currently in development.
• "Meet the Special Needs Committee: Many Stories, One Mission". Paper by Dan Voss published in the Proceedings to the 49th conference.
• "How Did the Special Needs Committee Get Started?" Paper by Mark Hanigan published in the Proceedings to the 47th conference in Orlando in 2000.
• "My Brain Works, My Legs Don't!... Let's Take the 'Dis' out of Disabilities". Landmark paper by Judy Skinner, Manager Emeritus of the Special Needs Committee, published in Proceedings to the Y2K conference in Orlando.
• "Year II and Growing: A Report from STC's Special Needs Committee". Presentation from the 48th STC conference includes a look back, with Dan Voss speaking for Judy Skinner, covering accomplishments of the SNC to date; and a look forward, as Voss outlined and statused the goals and objectives pertaining to special needs in the 2001-2005 STC Strategic Plan.

• "Serving Special Needs in Technical Communication". Paper by Dan Voss that was originally published in the journal of the American Translators Association (ATA), The Chronicle, in February, 2001, and reprinted in the Proceedings to the 48th STC conference. It summarizes the history of the Special Needs Committee, outlines its goals and objectives for the years ahead, and appeals to the ATA to form a sister committee and join us in the effort to improve professional opportunities for those with disabilities in our professions.

Join the Special Needs SIG!

Contact our SIG manager, Dan Voss.