How to incorporate accessibility throughout the publishing process

In his recent webinar, “Making Textbooks Accessible to Students With Disabilities”, Robert Martinengo, Publisher Outreach Specialist for the CAMI project at AMAC Accessibility, said that the issue of accessibility is even more important when it comes to digital products.

“The ability to navigate through a digital textbook is a critical component of accessibility,” he said. “Navigation is enabled by consistent and rational use of tags throughout the text.”

In addition to effective navigation, accessible manuscripts should also include these four elements, said Martinengo:

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Member Spotlight: Tracey S. Hodges

TAA member Tracey S. Hodges is an Assistant Professor at the University of Alabama and an academic author in the literacy discipline.

She most recently published an article entitled “Transacting with characters: Teaching children perspective-taking with authentic literature” which details a study conducted with her co-authors Erin McTigue, Katherine Landau Wright, Amanda Franks, and Sharon Matthews. To date, she has published 13 journal articles. 

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Busy TAA People: Mary Kay Switzer

TAA member and former TAA Council President Dr. Mary Kay Switzer will be an honored feature in noted Chinese author Albert Chang’s book and paintings, “Six Women,” to be exhibited in Tokyo in April 8-10, 2019.  Chang and Switzer began their collaboration at California State University Pomona. Switzer has been designated Professor Emerita at that university. She is currently living in Tempe, Arizona where she is involved in theatrical productions.

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Publish & Flourish: Revising around key sentences

At the 2018 Textbook & Academic Authoring Conference in Santa Fe, NM, Dr. Tara Gray presented on her twelve-step program, “Publish & Flourish: Become a Prolific Scholar”. Steps 7 & 8 of the program focus on the revision process by identifying and using key sentences in each paragraph as follows:

Step 7: Revise paragraphs around key sentences

Step 8: Use key sentences as an after-the-fact or reverse outline

In order to complete step 7 and revise paragraphs around key sentences, it’s important to first identify the key sentence in each paragraph. So, what is a key sentence?

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How to select effective journal article keywords

Unless potential readers are searching for your article by title or are reading the journal your work is published in, chances are they are going to find your article through a research search engine. If effective keywords are not associated with your article, the search engine uses content in your title, abstract, and article to determine if your article is relative to the user’s search efforts. As a result, your target reader may never see your work.

To improve your chances of getting in front of the right audience, keywords let you identify places where your work is a relevant choice for the reader. Below are five ways to select effective keywords for your journal article.

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The most useful textbook & academic posts of the week: June 22, 2018

Douglas Adams said, “I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by.” Do you like that sound? As the official start of summer is upon us, we hope that you are finding time to work on your writing projects and are better equipped to meet deadlines or to finish work on projects whose deadlines may have passed during the academic year.

Our collection of articles from around the web this week begins with some strategies for writing for publication, conducting qualitative interviews, and conducting interdisciplinary work. It continues with concerns regarding “business-as-usual” confidentiality in a growing state of research openness, unreported editorial misconduct, and the value of literature reviews. Finally, we have found some discussions on peer review, expanded access to ProQuest through Google Scholar, and a new community-controlled open access publishing platform – the Free Journal Network. Enjoy and happy writing!

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