Need some articles

[RockLinks]

Hi everyone,

Im not sure if this is the correct place to put this topic but you can move if needed. Im setting up a website that gives free information about more or less anything, i have wrote alot of articles for it already but could do with some more. If anyone on this forum would like to write something or email me something they have already written in the past that would be great. I will credit you and will put a link back to your own site.

[Ozzy]

Have a look through some past newsletter that I have sent out at http://newsletter.quickformations.com and read some of the articles in there. If any take your fancy contact the author direct and I'm aure so long as you give credit where its due they'll be happy for you to use them.

[VeryMark]

We have free information sheets available in pdf or Word format you can use - let me know which file format you would prefer.

[RockLinks]

Thanks to both of you there. Word format would be best.

[UKRobin]

FEEL HAPPY TO USE THE BELOW BUT PLEASE INCLUDE URL:

Should Businesses Be Afraid Of The DDA?


The Disability Discrimination Act part III concerning providers of goods, services or facilities came into effect on October 1 2004. The act aims to end the discrimination that many disabled people face. There are around 10 million disabled adults in this country and the Disability Discrimination Act gives them important rights of access to everyday services and employment opportunities that others take for granted.

If your organisation is not accessible to disabled people, you could be missing out on a lot of potential customers. Disabled customers have a combined spending power of over £80 billion, as well as facing the possibility of having to defend yourself or company in court for Disability Discrimination. So making your services more accessible to all disabled people should be a priority to your business.

To be able to best meet the many requirements of the DDA you first need to know in what areas your business is currently non-compliant. This is best achieved by the means of an Access Audit that will examine all areas of disability including those with Visual impairments, Hearing impairments, Physical disabilities including disabled and ambient disabled as well as learning difficulties. Many businesses have spent a great deal of money on alterations to their buildings or services in their own attempt to comply to the DDA, only to find that money had been spent in areas that would be deemed ‘Unreasonable Adjustment’ by a competent Access Auditor, or in many cases costly alterations had been made that did not comply to the many requirements of the DDA.

When employing the services of a DDA Access Auditor, care should be taken to ensure that they fully comprehend and put into practice ‘Reasonable Adjustment’ As recommended by both the DDA and the DRC (Disability Rights Commission) It is not a case of simply employing the services of an Access Auditor or Access Consultant that may be a member of the N.R.A.C (National Register Of Access Consultants) Many Access Consultants simply work to the requirements of the Building Regulations Part M or British Standards 8300 and have not comprehended or understood ‘Reasonable Adjustment’ Simply following these stringent regulations without considering ‘Reasonable Adjustment’ could cost your business a great deal of unnecessary money!

So, in answer to the question Should Businesses Be Afraid Of The DDA? The answer is NO the DDA should be embraced but businesses and service providers should be afraid of choosing the wrong Access Auditor/Consultant!
www.access-auditing.com

[UKRobin]

Also may use the following:

ASSISTING THOSE WITH VISION IMPAIRMENTS

I am forty five years of age and for most of my life, well the last forty three to be precise I was under the impression that blind people as in those with white sticks or guide dogs were totally blind. It was not until I became an Access Auditor that I studied such disabilities as vision impairments that I became aware of the true facts.

There are over two million registered blind people in the UK with more than five million unregistered. 94% of those blind people can see to some degree or other be it colours, shades or distorted shapes etc.

It is because of this I would like to share my finding on the importance of colour and luminance contrasting to give aid to the many vision impaired people in the world.
For example if a person with a vision impairment enters say a public WC they would find a white WC system, white walls (Probable), white wash basin and so one those facilities would be near on impossible to locate.
By painting the walls in a contrasting colour those white objects stand out can be identified by most vision-impaired people. Handrails on stairs that are the same colour as the wall in another example but in this case a danger when not identified. Simple solution again in contrast the rails in say blue, black, green in fact any colour that will create a strong contrast.

A large part of the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 that became law on October 2004 is the requirement of contrasting many everyday objects to offer assistance to those millions with visual impairments. For more details on the DDA see www.access-auditing.com.

[RockLinks]

Thanks for that i will include the url

[Johill]

Hi

You are welcome to use this article I wrote recently:

10 steps to promote your small business:
Are you a small business or start up? Do you sometimes feel invisible? Here are ten low cost marketing ideas guaranteed to boost your profile........Full story:
http://affinitytrading.com/article.php?story=20050421114535592

You don't have to credit me - although there is a link to my website under Step 4! None of the other links are affiliate / sponsored links - they are just resources that I think are helpful.

If you are interested I can send you a plain text version or an html version - let me know if that would be useful.

Regards

Jo

[Webstuff]

Rocklinks; will this be similar to about.com? Because a properly spelled alternative would be very welcome. Do you intend to include tutorials, as well as informative articles? Will you use a dynamic website or will it be manually updated? Are you going to allow visitor rating / comments on articles?

Excuse all my questions, I'm just nosey :P

[RockLinks]

Hi Jo thanks for that article i will credit you. Webstuff thanks for all the questions :D Its just going to be a website with free information basically, i am going to add articles by hand and there wont be any rating / comments type thing. It will definatly not be like about.com. I think it will do well in search engines so any articles people send me will help their websites.

[Rob]

Hi,

I have written a range of articles focused on small business issues. You can find the full list at http://www.smallbusinesssuccess.biz/free_small_business_articles.htm

They are free to use, just include the credit at the bottom.

[RockLinks]

Hi Rob, thanks for that can i use all of them?

[Rob]

Yes, no problem.

[RockLinks]

Great, cheers :D