Welcome to Beyond Alt Text! In our first episode, Jacob Wood and Nicole L'Etoile share how they each found their way to digital accessibility, and why they started this podcast together.

Jacob talks about growing up with progressive vision loss, losing the ability to do the things he loved, and getting that control back with assistive technology. That led him to make accessible PDFs for tabletop role-playing games, and later to teach learning designers how to build accessible content. Nicole shares a childhood memory of being left out that has stayed with her, her path from schoolteacher and principal to helping adults learn, and why accessibility work can feel lonely. Jacob closes with the story of a street corner in downtown Portland that changed how he thinks about sharing what he knows.

Full transcript and episode page: https://www.beyondalttextpod.com

IN THIS EPISODE

0:00 Intro

0:17 Why we started this podcast

0:41 Jacob's story: vision loss and assistive technology

2:56 Making tabletop role-playing games accessible

3:52 From games to learning design

5:13 What are tabletop games?

6:24 Why agency and control matter

9:13 When people don't seem to care

10:16 Standing up for accessibility on a team

11:40 Nicole's story: being left out

12:49 From teacher and principal to adult learning

13:43 Hidden disabilities, and why the work can feel lonely

14:59 A street corner in downtown Portland

17:26 Choosing to include people

19:01 What this podcast is for

20:57 Coming up next: ATD Core 4

TAKEAWAYS

- Inaccessible content takes away people's control. During onboarding at Wells Fargo, Jacob needed a team lead to read his training courses aloud and click the buttons for him, and he started the job two weeks behind the rest of his group.

- When you create content without thinking about accessibility from the start, you are choosing to exclude the people you aren't thinking about.

- Inaccessible content doesn't only cost companies money. It costs people their dignity.

- You don't need to be the expert. If you know how to do something someone else doesn't, that's something you can share.

- If you're the one person on your team pushing for accessibility, you're not alone. That's who this show is for.

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE

- NVDA, the free screen reader for Windows: https://www.nvaccess.org

- ZoomText, screen magnification software

- Articulate Storyline and Rise, e-learning authoring tools

YOUR HOSTS

Jacob Wood

Website: https://jacobwood.me

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jacob-wood-writer

Nicole L'Etoile

Website: https://www.letoile-education.com

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicoleletoile/

GET IN TOUCH

Have a question, a tip or a story to share? We'd love to hear from you.

Visit https://www.beyondalttextpod.com

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