content - Digital Challenger

Get together on 16th May, 2015 for the Digital Fest, Hyderabad

All your customers are Online. It’s high time that your business moves online too and leverage digital techniques for marketing.

At ‘Digital Fest’, expect to listen to experts in the domain of digital marketing. leverage on new methodologies and network with other businesses.

Walk in at 9 AM for a meet-and-greet before the registrations happen at 9:30 AM. Here’s the agenda through 5 PM:

9:30 AM – 10:30 AM: Spot Registration and Badge Collection / Networking
Come early to collect your entry badge. Also catch up with other participants and start networking over a cup of coffee.

10:30 AM – 10:45 AM: Welcome Note
Welcome note by the organizers, a short and crisp dialogue, setting the pace for the day.

10:45 AM – 11:30 AM: “Customer Acquisition through Organic Search” by Mohan Reddy
Google is changing its algorithm and making businesses very tough to index and rank. Explore the ways to crack the algorithm and get indexed your site thus rankings

11:30 AM – 12:15 PM: “On-line consumer behaviour” by David Bajam
This session highlights the psychology of online buyer and brings in the facts and real time analysis on consuming patterns. From content , design and ad positioning , this session describes the granularity of consumer thought process

12:15 PM – 1:00 PM: “AdWords for Mobile Audience” by Prasanth
Reach your customers on the go with Ads on Mobile Devices.. Implementing the “New Call Only Campaigns” for Lead generations.
-How to stay ahead with your mobile strategy

1:00 PM – 2:00 PM: Networking Lunch

2:00 PM – 2:45 PM: “How to Create Engaging Content” by Subhorup Dasgupta
Content Marketing is the engine that feeds SEO. Learning and understanding the art and science of content creation not only enhances your application of SEO but also opens up new career opportunities. In this session with Subhorup, we will learn about what goes into creating engaging content

2:45 PM – 3:30 PM: “Lead Generation and Nurturing – Platforms, channels and tools” by Meraj Faheem
We’ll see how you select which platform to go with for generating leads/users via different channels and then nurture them using different tools

3:30 PM – 3:45 PM: Tea Break

3:45 PM – 4:45 PM: Open House : Q & A
The most important session of the day. We will have all the speakers available on the stage for a free wheeling chat

4:45 PM – 5:00 PM: Announcements / Closing Note

I met a lot of blogger’s in last few years who often keep asking me the same question How to make our blog content accessible? I thought to answer the question over here. Most of the blog platforms out there are accessible but there are few ground rules if followed will make sure that your content is readable by visually challenged readers.

Choose accessible blogging platform
Describe your images
Avoid read more and click here links
Add widgets on the right hand side
Use appropriate font
check if all forms have labels

Choose accessible blogging platform

Choosing the right platform is the key factor in making your content accessible. I personally prefer wordpress as it is the most accessible platform both at the backend and frontend. I worked with joomla and drupal earlier but don’t prefer them as drupal confused me with its backend and navigational elements of joomla in the backend are not very much accessible.

Even people with visual impairment can easily signup at wordpress.com for the first time and can start blogging. So choose wordpress either self hosted or wordpress.com one.

Describe your images

Most frustrating part for any screen reader user while rereading a blog post is images without alternative text. For example you are explaining a story and put a picture and a scene of the story is understood by looking at the picture, how will a person with visual impairment will understand this? So add appropriate alternative text to all images, wordpress provides this option when you add pictures.

Tips for better alternative text

Keep the text brief.

If there is a graphic with words on it then add a text version of it.

If there is a creative picture then explain the picture, this way you create new content.

Avoid abbreviations.

Avoid Click Here and Read more

Often I find blog posts containing click here to know more or links that do not provide descriptive text. Avoid this methodology as it may confuse the screen reader user. Best practice is to provide with full text like “click here to download the software” or “read more about this technology”.

Add widgets on your right hand side

Screen readers read any web page from left to right so it is important for us to avoid adding any widgets that may confuse the user. In wordpress most widgets can be added in the left hand side, right hand side or in the footer area. If you are trying to present something valuable user then break the rule of using left hand side widget and please do mention the same by providing an accessibility policy.

Use proper fonts

Look and feel of a blog is dependent on the theme used so choose your themes carefully because apart from screen reader users there is a large portion of low vision users. Since browsers like internet explorer and Mozilla can zoom in and zoomout the text, test the font once it is chosen.

Check if all forms have labels

I often see that search area, comment forms and subscribe to blog forms lack proper labeling. Screen reader users cannot understand how to take action if the forms are not properly labeled.

Here is a sample of a text field that has been labeled correctly:

< label for=”email”>E-mail :</label> < input type=”text” name=”email” id=”email” size=”20″>

Note that the ID and LABEL FOR must be equal to the same value.

All these actions can be full filled easily if you got a blog on wordpress as it is the most accessible CMS platform. In my next post I will take you through a list of plug-ins that can make your wordpress more robust in terms of accessibility.