Alexandra White
Technical Writer at Google
New York City, New York, United States
Alexandra is a technical writer for Google Chrome, helping developers build a better web. Prior to Google, she was a technical writer, web developer, digital marketer, and one-time off-Broadway stage manager.
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Go beyond empathy: a11y in documentation
Accessibility is a crucial part of product creation. Every team member, from engineer to technical writer, must have at least a basic understanding of what accessibility means for their role in product development. Often, writers leave it to engineers to build accessible products but don’t take into consideration how to make their documentation accessible, too. We can and must do better as writers in thinking about accessible language and content design.
Instead of focusing on empathy and why accessibility is important, this talk will focus on how we can actually make change in our work.
In this talk, we’ll discuss:
+ Accessible style guides and a11y-friendly words
+ Semantic content design in HTML / Markdown
+ Testing for accessibility in docs
+ Advocating for a11y as a priority
You’ll walk away with some easy wins to start making your products and documentation better, as well as some bigger goals to help implement change in your company. After all, accessibility is for everyone.
Technically Speaking: Improve Your Code with Documentation
Quality instructions, informative code comments, detailed READMEs, and smart documentation architecture can make complex codebases accessible to all developers. Documentation is imperative to teaching the next generation of developers, passing work to successors, and helping developers better understand your own work.
When I was an engineer, helpful docs created by my colleagues were critical to quick onboarding and updating older, forgotten projects. Now, as a full time technical writer, I rely on our engineers to be able to concisely explain how features work so I can better communicate with out users. It is essential that everyone (engineers and product included) be empowered to write documentation.
How to assemble a quality writing portfolio
We’ve all spent a long time trying to decide how to craft the perfect cover letter and resume to apply to new positions. To get a gig as a professional technical writer, we're often expected to present writing samples, too. These samples are the key to showing potential employers that you can concisely explain a process in various mediums.
I went through this process many times while applying for different technical writer positions. From my experience going through the interview process and writing submissions for Google, I learned more about what was expected of a technical writer and how to better position myself as an expert technical communicator.
In this talk we’ll discuss:
+ How to pick the best writing samples for a job application
+ How to approach additional writing prompts and homework
+ Document design and packaging writing for print and the web
+ Empathy for our potential employers, readers of the writing samples
We’ll also touch on how to update your existing work to meet the expectations in the job description.
Techorama 2021 Spring Edition Sessionize Event
DeveloperWeek New York 2020 Sessionize Event
Techorama 2020 BE Sessionize Event
Alexandra White
Technical Writer at Google
New York City, New York, United States
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