Web accessibility means more than creating Web sites for visitors that are sight impaired. It means building responsive Web accessible information for people with sight impairment, as well as cognitive and learning disabilities. Envision the next “wave” of seniors behind the boomers, those of us who not only use technology but demand that it be available to us at all times and in how we use it. One out of 5 Gen X’ers will experience some type of disability as they age and accessibility best practices will be at the forefront of meeting those needs.
Since August 2011, here at Aviso, we’ve had the pleasure of learning and navigating the world of Web accessibility through building and managing an Agile accessibility team for a client in the health care arena.
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Karen McCall training an Aviso Agile team in PDF validation and remediation - NYC Oct 2011
Karen McCall training an Aviso Agile team in PDF validation and remediation - NYC Oct 2011
The practice of creating Web accessible information has great support from the Web community in general. Web compliance requirements have stepped up in the health care industry but much education and process development is lacking. A champion in the organization is necessary to see the long term impact of building an in-house Web accessibility process.
To prepare and support our accessibility team, we turned to the experts at Knowbility Inc., “a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization whose mission is to support the independence of children and adults with disabilities.”
Through one-on-one consulting, intensive classroom training and continued support, we work with Sharron Rush, co-founder and executive director at Knowbility, Karen McCall of Karlen Communications, one of 7 accessibility experts in the world, herself a sight impaired trainer. Not to mention the patience and direction provided by Ron Hicks, Knowbility’s business development director who was driven to teach us that accessibility is more than simply running Adobe’s accessibility checker.
I’m proud to have just picked my class schedule for the upcoming Knowbility-John Slatin AccessU Conference 2012, an intensive 2 day accessibility training conference in Austin, Texas. Both Cindy Orie, primary marketing researcher and SEO Coach at Aviso, and myself are looking forward to meeting folks passionate about providing quality compliance in the world of accessibility and to learn how we can evolve Agile methods to serve the teams tasked with this extremely complex but rewarding work.
- Accessibility is for People–AccessU 2012 - Day 1
- AccessU Conference Day 2
- AccessU Conference Day 3
Online marketing has become a hot topic. SEO, social media, link building, Twitter, Facebook, paid search, banner ad placement … the list goes on and on. And like Philippe Petit, famous tight rope walker, seen here crossing the Twin Towers in NYC in August 1974, expectations are high and the pressure is on for Search marketers to deliver the sought after traffic that is expected to increase visibility and ultimately convert visitors into revenue.
Ultimately everyone wants the reward but the path to success is often a mine field of obstacles that are difficult to overcome such as:
- Time
- Budget
- Failed expectations
- Dedicated staff
For an Agile Search Marketer, the above obstacles cannot exist. The challenge is finding the right balance that fits your schedule, budget and ability to invest time or resources into online marketing efforts that work.
So what is an Agile Search Marketer? There are 2 concepts that define “agility” when describing an Agile Search Marketer.
Definition of “Agile” (verb)
- the power of moving quickly and easily; nimbleness: exercises demanding agility.
- the ability to think and draw conclusions quickly; intellectual acuity.
Definition of the Agile Scrum Project Management Methodology
“The Scrum project management methodology introduces the idea of “empirical process control.” That is, Scrum uses the real-world progress of a project — not a best guess or uninformed forecast — to plan and schedule releases. In Scrum, projects are divided into succinct work cadences, known as sprints, which are typically one week, two weeks, or three weeks in duration. At the end of each sprint, stakeholders and team members meet to assess the progress of a project and plan its next steps. This allows a project’s direction to be adjusted or reoriented based on completed work, not speculation or predictions.” *Source Ask.com
To think and to move quickly are important characteristics of the Agile Search Marketer but in order to become agile, it requires a journey that will change not only how you work but in how you view your online search marketing role in your business or within an organization. Search marketing is a long term commitment that involves:
- Ongoing discovery
- Project management
- Time management
- Setting expectations for yourself and for stakeholders
- Defining reasonable, realistic goals
- Measurement and testing
None of this happens overnight. Becoming an Agile Search Marketer involves acquiring knowledge over time and achieving incremental successes that build into high level milestones. Each win or loss is valuable in terms of helping you to think and draw conclusions quickly about the visitors you want to convert, bringing you closer to online marketing agility.
Anna Maria Virzi from ClickZ describes how corporate giants, American Greetings and Hunt’s applied Agile Marketing using Scrum concepts and adapting an agile mindset. AG found opportunity to showcase an e-card campaign during a hot political event that was showcased on YouTube during the last presidential election while Hunt’s mitigated a potential large scale PR issue due to a product recall.
Google has an awesome checklist to guide you through:
- Account setup
- Custom reporting
- Linking accounts with your AdWord campaign and Ecommerce data
- Exploring advanced features
- And more…
Emily Pronin of Princeton University and Harvard University’s Daniel Wegner identified the following:
(straight from Wikipedia) “a link between the short bursts of activity that microblogging frequently involves and feelings of elation, power and creativity, have been cited as a possible reason for the rapid growth of microblogging..”
What is micro blogging? (Wikipedia again) “Micro blogging is a form of multimedia blogging that allows users to send brief text updates or micromedia such as photos or audio clips and publish them, either to be viewed by anyone or by a restricted group which can be chosen by the user. These messages can be submitted by a variety of means, including text messaging, instant messaging, email, digital audio or the web.”
Michael Gray of Search Engine Land introduces us to 5 micro blogging sites that aren’t Twitter:
Check out Micheal’s full column to develop strategies to inspire power, elation and creativity with your customers:
http://searchengineland.com/5-microblogging-sites-that-arent-twitter-23481
