Accessibility – A vital part of good content

Part of the content strategist’s role is to make sure that content is usable to every user. It’s our job to present the same content and information to everyone, regardless of their abilities or disabilities. We should lead by example, and empower users with disabilities to be privy to the high quality user experiences we all evangelise.

Accessibility is about empathy, and about caring for what we make. But it is also legally enforced in many countries. And, when done right, it can have overwhelming benefits for your business.

Irene will talk us through the need to understand accessibility, how to work it into our content planning and processes, and how to go forth and spread the love.

Location: Casino Zollverein (Track 1)

Irene Walker is a content strategist at Sable Group, a professional services group based in London, Cape Town and Melbourne. She works with the brand team on a gazillion urgent projects, including 22 company websites. Because the role is new, she gets to practice her content strategy elevator pitch a lot.

She advocates accessible content at conferences like CS Forum and Confab. Downright pedantic about usability, she will talk your ears off about universal design too - if you let her.

Irene’s passion for accessibility was fostered while she was a web manager for the UK National Health Service back in 2005. Nowadays, she lives in Cape Town with her husband and two bossy Boston Terriers.