Audience and purpose continue to be the thrust of professional and technical writing courses as these two primary considerations logically drive the design of technical documents. (For whom is a document written? What is a document's intent, and how will it be used?) And with utility and usability as goals in technical communication, readers should be able to access and use information presented in written documents. However, this same access and use, largely dictated by trained and seeing technical writers, is almost exclusively contingent on visual cues, for example, bold type, bulleted lists, hierarchically arranged headings, graphics, charts, and images. Not infrequently designers and writers fail to accommodate visually impaired readers who may have difficulty extrapolating information from technical documents primarily because of flawed or poor design. Calling on Web Content Accessibility Guidelines and on work from Norman Coombs (Equal Access to Software and Information), John Slatin, and others, this paper focuses on audience, purpose, and usability in technical documents, namely websites, as it emphasizes accessibility through design for the visually impaired. Connecting this focus to pedagogy, this paper highlights classroom instruction and demonstrates lessons that promote better informed technical design. The paper concludes by highlighting various resources for teachers of professional and technical writing.
By Joe Wilferth and Charles
Hart
The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga