Guidelines for submitting Access News articles

About the new Access News

Access news has recently been revamped. It now has an easier to read format and a splash of colour. We have also rethought how we want to market the newsletter to students and staff.

Access News will be distributed on a bi-monthly basis - April, June, August, October, December. A plain text version of the newsletter will be sent as an attachment with each monthly edition.

We want to encourage students, other Western Sydney University departments, external organisations and any interested parties to submit articles for Access News. We cannot guarantee all articles we receive will be published, however by following these simple guidelines you will increase the likelihood of the article being published.

Article guidelines

Heading

Headings should be short, simple and descriptive. Try to keep headings to a few words.

Length of article

The ideal length of an article is approximately 80 words.

We encourage you to keep articles brief and to-the-point. Depending on the content however, we will consider articles of up to 150 words or longer.

You are welcome to direct readers to other websites for more information. 

Formatting

Articles must be accessible for all students, including students using assistive technology. Please stick to the following guidelines:

• Minimal use of capitals
• Avoid excessive bold, italics, font type and size changes and punctuation, including exclamation marks
• Ensure tables and lists are correctly created. Do not use spacing or the 'tab' function for these
• Text colour should be black (website links exempt)
• Find out more information on how to correctly format your article (opens in a new window)

Content

The content of each article must be suitable to students with disability at the University. When writing your article, it is useful to ask the following questions:

• What is the main message of your article?
• Is your article of interest to students with a disability?
• Is it appropriate for Access News?
• Is the information accurate, impartial and objective?
• Where can students find out more information? (i.e. link to website, person contact details etc)

Images

You may submit an image with your article. Guidelines for images are:

• No more than one image per article
• The image must be clear
• The image must relate to the article
• The image must be formatted to include 'alternative text' for screen readers. If you are unfamiliar with this, please read the information on adding alternative text (opens in a new window)
• Alternatively, you can provide alternative text for the Disability Advisor to incorporate
• Images must not infringe upon any copyright or privacy legislation

The process

Please submit your article to the Disability Advisor responsible for Access News, Kurt Sorensen at k.sorensen@westernsydney.edu.au.

Be sure to include a heading, the actual content, what issue you would like to have the article published in (i.e. what month) and if applicable, an image.

Articles must be received no later than one week before the relevant issue is due to be distributed (i.e. submit articles by the last Wednesday of the month to be included in the next month's edition).

Your article will be reviewed by the Disability Advisor responsible for Access News to determine whether it is suitable for publishing. Articles are subject to change and editing.

If you have any questions or concerns, please contact Kurt Sorensen (Disability Advisor responsible for Access News) at k.sorensen@westernsydney.edu.au.

Background information

Access News is a bi-monthly electronic newsletter sent out to all students who are currently registered with the Western Sydney University Disability Service. The name 'Access News' was the winning entry in a naming competition run in 2005. The competition was open to Western Sydney University students with a disability.

Articles created by the Disability Service and published in the newsletter include information on relevant Western Sydney University policies and procedures, changes within the Disability Service, building works around campus, latest news pieces related to people with disability and much more.

In addition to articles by the Disability Service team, we also publish items of interest from the community and government, such as information on relevant conferences, training programs, career advice, sponsorship, latest research, funding changes and more. The Western Sydney University Disability Service has no affiliation with any external agencies but endeavours to provide information as a service for students of the University.