Scheduled at 1:45 pm in Colorado F on Thursday, November 14.
#39495Speaker(s)
- Rachel Comerford, Senior Director of Accessibility Outreach and Communication, Macmillan Learning
Session Details
- Length of Session: 1-hr
- Format: Lecture
- Expertise Level: All Levels
- Type of session: General Conference
Summary
[new version:] Accessibility efforts face similar challenges in every industry and environment. There are just not enough resources to go around. Time, people, and of course money are in high demand and low supply. Those of us participating in the effort can quickly find ourselves burned out by it. While an accessibility knowledge base does not replace hands-on assistance and 1:1 support, it can become a repository of collective learning and the basis for continuous improvement within any organization.
This session will cover how establishing an accessibility knowledge base can support your peers and colleagues in learning more about accessibility, reduce support requests, and give you a chance to better understand where your team or organization is on their accessibility journey.
[old version:] Accessibility work carries similar challenges in every industry. There are just not enough resources to go around. Time, people, and of course money are in high demand and low supply. Those of us participating in the effort can quickly find ourselves burned out by it. While an accessibility knowledge base does not replace hands-on assistance and 1:1 support, it can become a repository of collective learning and the basis for continuous improvement within any organization.
Abstract
Knowledge bases are not meant to, and cannot, address every question that may arise from colleagues and customers, but they can empower others to independently address accessibility challenges and provide an education for future challenges.
In this presentation, we’ll talk through three steps to establishing a successful knowledge base:
(1) Kickoff - Finding existing resources to provide immediate support. Depending on the needs of your audience, there are a number of resources already available to get your knowledge base up and running. While this quick win is unlikely to hit on the very specific needs of your audience, it will serve as a starting point for users to provide feedback. Quick wins are also a great way to build engagement early in a project and provide usage data to encourage future funding. We will talk through some of the existing resources that have been helpful and how to sort through them as well as new technologies like AI that may, and may not, be helpful.
(2) Research - Establishing who your audience(s) is and determining their needs. For the knowledge base to be successful in the long term, you need to know who you are trying to help. At Macmillan Learning, we have two primary audiences that we try to support: schools and employees. The needs of those populations have little overlap: schools are focused on procuring accessible products and students need to know how to use the accessibility features of our products. We’ll review how to identify your audience and how we gain a better understanding of their needs.
(3) Development - Sourcing new and customized resources to meet the needs of your organization. You’ve built out baseline knowledge resources, isolated the audience with the greatest need, and determined what they need to better support themselves. What’s next? We’ll talk about where to focus customization efforts for your documentation and point to some resources that may help you.
Keypoints
- Learn how to use a knowledge base to reduce support requests and address misconceptions.
- Employ incremental improvements while meeting your audience where they are.
- Brainstorm opportunities to socialize documentation and teach your audience methods for self-service.
Disability Areas
All Areas
Topic Areas
Accessible Course Design, Alternate Format, Faculty Development & Support, Uncategorized
Speaker Bio(s)
Rachel Comerford
Rachel Comerford is the Senior Director of Accessibility Outreach and Communication at Macmillan Learning where she leads cross-functional efforts to ensure students of all abilities have access to their course materials. In 2020, BISG awarded Rachel the Industry Innovator award for her work helping Macmillan Learning to become the first Global Certified Accessible publisher by Benetech. Under her leadership, Macmillan was recognized by WIPO’s Accessible Book Consortium with the International Excellence Award for Accessible Publishing in 2020 for their work towards providing educational materials that any student can use. She has over a decade of experience in the print and digital publishing world. Prior to coming to Macmillan as an editor, she held a variety of editorial and sales positions at WW Norton and Pearson.