We’re all responsible for content accessibility with Kenzie Woodbridge
In this episode, I’m talking with Kenzie Woodbridge, a documentarian and self-taught accessibility advocate. We talk about how feeling “not expert enough” is no reason to skip content accessibility, four ways you can make your content more accessible right now, and ways you can serve as an accessibility advocate as you review content and work with contributors.
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Kenzie and I discuss why content accessibility is something we all need to think about as we create content. You don’t have to be an expert to improve your content’s accessibility. We discuss four areas you can focus on right now:
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Kenzie and I discuss why content accessibility is something we all need to think about as we create content. You don’t have to be an expert to improve your content’s accessibility. We discuss four areas you can focus on right now:
- Use actual headings (h1, h2, etc.)
- Use sequential and hierarchical headings (for example, don’t skip straight from h1 to h3)
- Use link text that’s actually descriptive, rather than “Click here” or “See more”
- Add alt text
We also discuss some dos and don’ts with alt text, providing feedback to content contributors who aren’t following accessibility guidelines, tools or processes to help identify accessibility bugaboos in your content, and so much more. Check out the resource list below to sponge a ton of useful resources from Kenzie, too.
About Kenzie Woodbridge
Kenzie works at the British Columbia Institute of Technology (BCIT) in British Columbia, Canada, as a Tech Writer, Trainer, and Knowledge Strategist, and is currently a co-chair of BCIT's Accessibility Committee. They have spoken about documentation and other topics at multiple technical conferences, including Write the Docs (their favourite). Kenzie is also a parent, a tuba player, chronically ill, a crafting dilettante, a gamer, and all around nerd who wrote their Master's thesis about prosocial community in multiplayer Minecraft.
Kenzie is awesome and you totally want to have them as your friend (offer of friendship void where local laws do not permit, not guaranteed in all circumstances, skill-testing questions required).
Resources discussed in this episode:
- Screen Reader Demo - The video Kenzie mentioned by Marc Sutton at U of C
- Digital Accessibility Toolkit from the Government of Canada
- What is Accessibility? (MDN docs)
- Digital Collegium (formerly HighEdWeb) Accessibility Summit 2025
- Sa11y & Editoria11y: Straightforward content accessibility at scale - The conference talk Kenzie mentioned comparing two tools for promoting and checking accessibility within content management systems:
- Sa11y Accessibility Quality Assurance Assistant - One of the two tools discussed in the talk, available for Joomla, WordPress, or as a bookmarklet in your browser
- Editoria11y Accessibility Checker - The second tool, available for Drupal, WordPress, and Squarespace
- WAVE Web Accessibility Evaluation Tools - The WAVE browser extension is Kenzie’s go-to tool for a first pass on accessibility questions. It gives a lot of complex info, which can be overwhelming, but a) if you're seeing a lot of actual errors and contrast errors, you don't have to understand all of those errors to know that there's likely a problem, and knowing there's a problem is the first step 😉, and b) the "Structure" tool quickly shows you a list of the headings on the page and makes it easy to spot skipped levels, etc.
- Pericles screen reader - Not as fully featured as JAWS or NVDA, but useful for quick checks in your browser (Chrome, Edge, Firefox)
- NVDA screen reader - Downloadable for free, because accessibility really means something to them, but if you're able to donate, please do
- JAWS screen reader
- BCIT's Knowledge Base - About Web Content Accessibility
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Creators and Guests
Host
Kate Mueller
Kate is a documentarian and knowledge base coach based in Midcoast Maine. When she's not writing software documentation or advising on knowledge management best practices, she's out hiking and foraging with her dog. Connect with her on LinkedIn, Bluesky, or Write the Docs Slack.
Producer
Chad Timblin
Chad is the Head of Operations for The Not-Boring Tech Writer. He’s also the Executive Assistant to the CEO & Friend of Felines at KnowledgeOwl, the knowledge base software company that sponsors The Not-Boring Tech Writer. Some things that bring him joy are 😼 cats, 🎶 music, 🍄 Nintendo, 📺 Hayao Miyazaki’s films, 🍃 Walt Whitman’s poetry, 🌊 Big Sur, and ☕️ coffee. Connect with him on LinkedIn or Bluesky.
Guest
Kenzie Woodbridge
Kenzie works at the British Columbia Institute of Technology (BCIT) in British Columbia, Canada, as a Tech Writer, Trainer, and Knowledge Strategist, and is currently a co-chair of BCIT's Accessibility Committee. They have spoken about documentation and other topics at multiple technical conferences, including Write the Docs (their favourite). Kenzie is also a parent, a tuba player, chronically ill, a crafting dilettante, a gamer, and all around nerd who wrote their Master's thesis about prosocial community in multiplayer Minecraft. Kenzie is awesome and you totally want to have them as your friend (offer of friendship void where local laws do not permit, not guaranteed in all circumstances, skill-testing questions required).
