Last year was a big one for me, not least earning a promotion to Principal Technical Writer at TPGI.
TPGi – the big ticket for me this year is Tutor, our set of self-directed training courses. These are ostensibly for our clients but they will also be used by our own engineers, especially new recruits, and may end up being a stanalonwe product for people who are not necessarily ARC Platform customers.
What’s really exciting for me about Tutor is the whizz-bang new delivery framework – a huge step forward from its previously effective but maybe not as engaging interface and structure – and the massive increase we have planned for the range of courses available.
Also for TPGi, I’ll be presenting a talk on PDF accessibility at the enormous CSUN conference in Anaheim, California in March. I co-presented with Hans Hillen, my Knowledge Center boss, last year (on AI and accessibility), but will be flying solo this year.
Still work-related, I’ll continue producing 7 or 8 newsletters a month for different audiences, writing the occasional blog post, and continuing to help refine the range, depth and accuracy of our Knowledge Base articles and Rules Engine for our engineers and ARC Platform clients.
OZeWAI – I remain on the committee of the Australian Web Accessibility Initiative, with responsibility for the monthly newsletters and the website, including blog content. I’ll also be active in the increasingly popular series of monthly Ask The Professionals webinars, moderating a few sessions with experts on a range of accessibility themes.
SAR – I’ll continue to be involved with the Standard Accessibility Reporting Inc project, where I sit on the Panel developing the testing procedures that will lead to a set of accessibility standards that can be applied to a vast range of consumer products, goods, and services.
This year, I’ll be tech reviewing a major new book on digital accessibility, something I used to do when I was Managing Editor at online publisher SitePoint.
Speaking of books, I’m one of three managers of the Accessibility Book Club, which now has over 1,100 members on LinkedIn and is this year expanding into a spiffy new website (for which I’m helping to build an online Bookshelf of relevant titles) and a series of monthly online meetups to discuss selected books (which is attracting growing support from book authors to participate in Q&A sessions).
And speaking of things I used to do, I’ll be acting on stage this year for the first time in 40 years, taking the key role of Puck in Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream in a Sydney amateur production in May.
Another book-related project is providing some editorial backup and mentoring to an author working on a new book on design systems for Smashing Publications, just as a sounding board for a very clever English writer.
I still have a small portfolio of web design and development clients, mostly WordPress, 18 of them: some for family, some long term (20+ years) individual clients, and some pro bono projects. As well as keeping my hand in for design, front end dev and content management, these sites are my sandbox for testing accessibility issues, assistive technologies, new CSS and HTML developments, WordPress plugins and themes, and other emerging technology.
Speaking of WordPress, I’m aiming to reprise last year’s role as APAC Team Lead for WordPress Accessibility Day later in the year.
Having dipped my toe into the waters of online presentations last year, I might seek out a few more of those opportunities, and my role as an MC for a track at last year’s Web Directions Developer Summit has totally rekindled my taste for live conferences. I’d forgotten just how energising a live conference can be.
And I’ll no doubt be attending a selection of online meetups, including the WP Accessibility Meetup, the Web Accessibility Discussion Group, Intopia webinars, Deque webinars, and of course TPGi webinars and podcasts.
And if I have time, I’ll get around to recording some songs I’ve written over the last 50 years – I may as well put them up on SoundCloud for someone to discover before I forget how to play them.