The Communications and Marketing Guide covers the internal and external business communications of the organization, social media, and disability etiquette. See the Accessible Communication Guide for practical tools and tips focused on accessibility.
Table of Contents
Time Savers
Read:
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- Creating an Access Culture #AMAConf, 3 minutes from the Arts Marketing Association.
- Content Design London: Dumbing down, by Sarah Winters, 5 minutes. Sara Winters explains why plain language writing does not dumb down good content.
- Disability Etiquette: Tips on Interacting with People with Disabilities, 15 minutes from the United Spinal Foundation.
Watch/Listen:
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- Disability Etiquette PSA-Living Spaces, 1 minute from the United Spinal Association. Fast tips on how to behave with people with disabilities.
- Disability Etiquette – Respectful Ways To Interact with People With Disabilities, 2 minutes from the Rocky Mountain ADA Center.
- Disability Sensitivity Training Video, 4 minutes from the Washington, DC Government features a diverse cast and uses humor to show common mistakes and suggests better ways to interact with people with disabilities.
Toolkits and Training
Online toolkit(s):
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- Guidelines: How to Write about People with Disabilities (9th ed.); also available in Spanish (Normas: Como escribir y reportar sobre personas con discapacidades). Both editions are available online and as downloadable PDFs.
- Plain Language Learning (centerforplainlanguage.org) This website includes examples, templates, tools and a checklist.
- Plain Language Tools from the National Archives.
- Rooted in Rights #AccessThat: Written guides and short, 1 to 3 minute videos that explain how and why to include transcripts, captions, audio description, and alt text in social media images and videos. Includes videos from people with disabilities explaining how web inaccessibility impacts them.
- Social Media Accessibility Guidelines from the American Foundation for the Blind (AFB). Best practices of digital accessibility and resources that take you step-by-step through the process of adding and editing alt text on major social media platforms.
- Texas Historical Commission Webinars of upcoming events and see the following categories of past webinars: Audience Engagement, Marketing & Social Media, Technology, and more.
- Working Document of Best Practices: Tips for Making All Visitors Feel Welcome, Museum, Arts and Culture Access Consortium (MAC)
Webinars:
Style Guides
- WebAIM: Web Accessibility in Mind, the latest information on Web and digital accessibility, plus checklists for Word and PDFs.
- A Progressive’s Style Guide from Sum of Us.
- An Accessible Marketing Guide from the Arts Marketing Association’s culturehive from Cambridge, UK.
- Asian American Journalists Association Guidances and Resources
- Described and Captioned Media Program provides free resources that are useful beyond its core educational audience.
- The Diversity Style Guide was originally a project of the Center for Integration and Improvement of Journalism, based at the Journalism Department at San Francisco State University. This guide includes alphabetical and topical listings like aging, religion, and disabilities.
- GLAAD Media Reference Guide
- National Association of Black Journalists Style Guide
- National Association of Hispanic Journalists (NAHJ) Cultural Competence Handbook
- National Center on Disability and Journalism Style Guide
- Native American Journalist Association Reporting Guides
- Native Nations 101 Series from the Native Governance Center.
- The PR Council Style Guide
- Religion Style Book
- NLGJA: The Association of LGBTQ Journalists Style Book
Additional Resources
- Exploring Boston’s Freedom Trail is a sample of an accessible tour
- Hootsuite Blog, Inclusive Design for Social Media: Tips for Creating Accessible Channels
- Keep It Real for Destinations – A guide to incorporating Wise Growth in your communications with visitors, residents and businesses – Collections Trust
- National Park Service, Gettysburg National Military Park Audio-Described Brochure, this brochure was hosted on UniDescription, Even though UniDescription is specifically for NPS, the standards for audio description are good. The web version is done in a simple format that anyone can use as an example to create their own web brochure.
Content is available under Creative Commons Attribution unless otherwise noted.
