Making Your Business Accessible

Presented by: Mary-Colleen Jenkins
Host: Tina Loucks-Jaret

Many freelance editors create multifaceted businesses that delve into teaching, coaching, and writing as well as straight editing. And we create business materials—websites, newsletters, social media posts, presentations—to share our brand and hopefully generate business. But do we know how to create these business assets so they are accessible to everyone, including people with disabilities?

There are so many resources out there to help us build a business or a branding/marketing strategy, but few of these resources talk about accessibility. Our presenter, Mary-Colleen Jenkins, will define accessibility and offer a starting point for building accessible practices and design into your small business content. We'll cover some easy best practices to start employing now, and share resources for further exploration.

Mary-Colleen Jenkins is an Instruction Accessibility Specialist on IT-Accessible Technologies team at the University of Washington (UW). Mary-Colleen’s area of focus is outreach and faculty development, so her role is about supporting faculty in making their course materials, especially digital content, accessible to students with disabilities. The philosophy behind her work is “Progress over Perfection.” Each step forward is an important step forward.

Prior to her current role, Mary-Colleen followed a career path that is familiar to many members of the Guild: Teaching, Editing, and Consulting. She has taught in several programs at the University of Washington, including the Engineering Communication Program (2014-2022), the Editing Certificate Program (2017-2020), the Technical Writing and Editing Certificate Program (2011-2013). Mary-Colleen also served on the Guild board from 2012 to 2014.