Image showing a ring-bound notepad and purple pencil on a wooden desk. The word blog is in the centre, with red arrows pointing to associated words: content, connect, like, links, web and share.
I’ve (happily) taken on a few additional responsibilities recently, all under the theme of inclusivity:
- became the EDI coordinator for DDaT
- joined a working group to create a digital inclusion plan for Luton
- had approval for a digital accessibility apprenticeship* – to start once our website replacement project is complete
* The path to being officially qualified in my specialism is finally on the horizon!! ❤️
This week I took on (again, happily) another new role! I’m now the editor of this Digital Luton blog.
Dave Briggs was responsible for bringing the blog to life – helping us to work more collaboratively and ‘out in the open’. He did a fantastic job of getting us started 👋 and has now passed the baton to me. Hopefully I can live up to his prowess in this area!
In with the new…
My first task was to make a couple of changes to the blog itself. Each post now has:
- quick share options to platforms like LinkedIn and Facebook
- reactions (coming soon) – I’ve always missed the ability to give a ❤️, 🎉or 🤞🏻, depending on the message
You can also filter what posts are displayed now. Use the category list if you just want to:
- read people’s weeknotes and updates
- see what our DDaT away days are all about
- find out about LocalGov Drupal or the progress on our new website
It’s also useful if you don’t want to read any posts about my accessibility obsession 😛
Keeping it inclusive
Talking of my obsession… one of my biggest work passions is making sure anything we publish is accessible for as many people as possible, regardless of any limitations they may have.
For any colleagues that want to know how to make your content (blog or otherwise) more inclusive, just ask. I’m always happy to share the love!
I’m going through current posts right now to made little tweaks here and there and we’ll continue the mission for all future posts.
Style it out
Future posts will also be subject to a style guide review before it’s published. For example, no more title case! We use sentence case everywhere now.
This is because unexpected capital letters change the shape of a word and, as adults, we don’t read every letter in a word – we recognise the shape.
Pesky, random capitals change the shape of a word, so they can be harder to read for some people, also making reading slower.
It’s just a tiny change but the collective tiny changes we make in the name of accessibility and our style guide create a more pleasant user experience!
Get in touch
Drop me a Teams message if you have a question, an idea for the blog or any other suggestions. I’m happy to help however I can 😊