Rhetorical Accessability: At the Intersection of Technical Communication and Disability Studies (Baywood's Technical Communications) - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0895037882 ISBN 13: 9780895037886

Publisher: Routledge, 2014

Synopsis

Rhetorical Accessability is the first text to bring the fields of technical communication and disability studies into conversation. The two fields also share a pragmatic foundation in their concern with accommodation and accessibility, that is, the material practice of making social and technical environments and texts as readily available, easy to use, and/or understandable as possible to as many people as possible, including those with disabilities. Through its concern with the pragmatic, theoretically grounded work of helping users interface effectively and seamlessly with technologies, the field of technical communication is perfectly poised to put the theoretical work of disability studies into practice. In other words, technical communication could ideally be seen as a bridge between disability theories and web accessibility practices. While technical communicators are ideally positioned to solve communication problems and to determine the best delivery method, those same issues are compounded when they are viewed through the dual lens of accessibility and disability. With the increasing use of wireless, expanding global marketplaces, increasing prevalence of technology in our daily lives, and ongoing changes of writing through and with technology, technical communicators need to be acutely aware of issues involved with accessibility and disability. This collection will advance the field of technical communication by expanding the conceptual apparatus for understanding the intersections among disability studies, technical communication, and accessibility and by offering new perspectives, theories, and features that can only emerge when different fields are brought into conversation with one another and is the first text to bring the fields of technical communication and disability studies into conversation with one another.

About this title

About the Author

Lisa Meloncon

From the Back Cover

IN PRAISE OF Rhetorical Accessability is an important book, not only because it elucidates a range of critical work being done at the intersection of technical communication and disability studies, but, more importantly, because it demonstrates convincingly how work in these areas--which some still consider highly specialized concerns--directly affects every one of us, every day, whether we know it or not. By foregrounding the productive interplay of theories from disability studies and technical communication, the authors highlight how issues of inclusive content, accessible design, medical discourse, and technological embodiment are at work in all of our daily lives. In so doing, Rhetorical Accessability represents a major step toward a broader field of writing studies, toward work on crucial issues in writing that span personal, academic, civic, and professional discourses, that unite scholars of rhetoric, composition, technical communication, literacy studies, linguistics, and other fields.Paul Heilker, Director of the PhD in Rhetoric and Writing, Virginia Tech On every page, this groundbreaking collection--the first of its kind in the field of technical communication--reminds us that disability studies deserves to play a central role in our pedagogies, workplace practices, and scholarship. Lisa Meloncon has assembled an excellent, wide-ranging collection of chapters from both established experts and new scholars. The topics and theoretical lenses are diverse and broad. The chapters are deeply grounded and well-informed. They combine theory and practice in true tech comm fashion. The coverage of web accessibility is excellent, comprising multiple chapters and topics (e-readers, laws, guidelines, accessibility statements, online writing instruction). I'm already planning to add this book to the list of required readings for my graduate course in Web Accessibility and Disability Studies.Sean Zdenek, Associate Professor of Technical Communication and Rhetoric, Texas Tech University In this wise and well-written volume, Lisa Meloncon and her contributing authors have done precisely what they set out to do: to introduce a wide range of issues and start a scholarly conversation about technical and professional communication for and about the aging and disabled. Their timing couldn't be better.Fred Reynolds, Professor of English and Speech, Former Dean of the Division of Humanities and Arts, The City College of New York (CUNY) This thought-provoking collection explores virtually uncharted territory in the psychological, linguistic, sociological, and ethical aspects of accessibility and disability. It opens doors that needed to be opened, and it is bound to spark further exploration, discovery, and progress in the cause of universal accessibility.Dan Voss, Technical Communicator, Educator, Author, Past Manager, STC AccessAbility SIG

Edition details

• Publisher: Routledge
• Publication date: 2014
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0895037882
• ISBN 13: 9780895037886
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 248
• Editor: Meloncon Lisa