Exciting New Work, May Events, Social Media, and More!

It's been another whirlwind two weeks! At least I managed to get a newsletter out while it was still Monday... for most of you. (Sorry, European friends!)

One of the reasons I've been so busy is starting a new full time job! I'm over the moon with my new role as a Technical Training Consultant for Level Access.

If you aren't already familiar with this leader in the accessibility space, I encourage you to check them out! There are public events running through May (and beyond!) to celebrate Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD) all month. Check out GAAD @ Level here.

I've also come on board part time with ProFound as their Events, Education, and Web Manager! I've been very inspired by the work they are doing in the disability leadership space and I'm excited to be able to contribute to their mission. If you're not already part of the ProFound Network, you're missing out on some exciting events, discussions, and other resources. Talk to me about how to join!

From the Blog

If you haven't been following the Inclusive Pixelation blog (https://inclusivepixel.com/blog/), here's what you've missed:

• Accessible Writing Bonus! All About Emoji

I thought I was done with my planned series on Writing for Accessibility. We covered writing ALT text, writing for readability, and writing captions, transcripts, and audio descriptions, but I wanted to add one more “writing” topic to the series: accessible emoji use!

I shared a few best practices for accessible emoji use in the #A11yBook, but I recently picked up the wonderful resource Accessible Social and found several new tips! This one was new to me; I hope others find it useful too:

Double-check emoji descriptions. An excellent resource for digital content creators who want to use emoji in smart and strategic ways is the website emojipedia.org. The site lists every known emoji along with their different appearances and descriptions across platforms, devices, and browsers. It’s a useful way to double-check emoji descriptions before using an icon.

Read the rest of the post on the blog, and check out these other posts too!

• Disability Book Week, April 23-29

Did you pick up a new book featuring a disabled character? I found one that was highly recommended (and managed to finish it in two days). Head over to the blog to learn about Disability Book Week and maybe find a new book to read.

• #A11yBook epub Format eBook!

Finally, the formatting nightmare is complete! I worked with an excellent Fiverr freelancer to tweak and tweak again until we got it perfect for your Kindle. If this is the version of the #A11yBook you've been waiting for, you can get it on Amazon now!

From Social Media

I'm just one person (for now), but I do manage to make an appearance on social media every now and then!

I had some fun creating my first short form video - what the rest of the world is calling Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts. I admit, I do not regularly consume content in this format, so it's been a learning experience! But I'm excited to get some accessibility knowledge out into the world on these platforms.

I also gave the same colorful treatment from the ALT Text tips to the Writing Captions, Transcripts, and Audio Descriptions tips and made another image scroller, also on Instagram an LinkedIn.

May is Mental Health Awareness Month, and we're helping to #BreakTheStigma at Inclusive Pixelation with my post about my experience with bipolar disorder.

Make sure you're following Inclusive Pixelation on social media for colorful tips, more attempts at video, news, events, and more! (More followers might even convince me to hire some part time help with this. 😊)

• Instagram @inclusivepixel

• YouTube @InclusivePixel

Speaking of Events

Speaking of upcoming events, I hope I'll see you this month! I'm continuing the ATD Chapter Accessibility for Online Learning Tour with ATD Nebraska and ATD Memphis Chapter - and then heading to Association for Talent Development (ATD)'s Chapter Leaders Conference to share some accessibility and programming best practices with other ATD Chapter Leaders.

In between these ATD events, I'm excited to see an international audience at the upcoming Workplace in Action® DEI Webinar on Accessibility & Disability Inclusive Workplaces. If your organization is looking for a proven DEI framework and wondering how accessibility fits into your plans, I'd love for you to get in touch with us. Express your interest in the webinar here.

I also can't wait to see everyone at my free GAAD (Global Accessibility Awareness Day) Foundation webinar on Accessibility at Work - this will be a great open conversation on accessibility best practices I've found from many organizations. I hope you'll join the chat! More details and registration information here.

Whew, that's all for now! If you just can't wait for the next newsletter, you can catch posts as they come out by following Inclusive Pixelation on LinkedIn or subscribing to my blog at https://inclusivepixel.com/blog/ - until next time!