Ricky Onsman

Principal Technical Writer @ Vispero®

About

I’m Principal Technical Writer for the Knowledge Center at TPGi, which makes me part of a very large, global team focusing on digital accessibility. Part of my job requires a lot of research, testing, reading, and writing technical guidance for the KnowledgeBase: the rules, testing procedures, techniques, solutions, and articles our engineers and clients rely on to make websites accessible. Another part requires more research, reading, and writing content for our Tutor self-directed training courses used by our clients via the ARC platform. There is a third part, which is to aggregate industry news, events, and resources and collate them into newsletters, articles and blog posts. I also contribute to external projects related to my work, including industry group OZeWAI, the LinkedIn Accessibility Book Club, some W3C groups, and events like WordPress Accessibility Day, Ask The Professionals, and Inclusive Design 24. All this is the result of 35 years in information services, information technology, web design, and front end development, both freelance and for various companies. My consistent focus on accessibility in these fields led to work with accessibility-focused agencies like like AccessIQ, Simply Accessible, AccessibilityOz, Intopia, Tenon, and now TPGi. My writing and editing skills have also brought me work with the likes of UX Australia, SitePoint, Web Directions and Smashing Magazine. I mentor writers when I can, and tech review books occasionally. From my hideaway on the south coast of NSW, Australia, I still maintain a small portfolio of web design clients, some of whom have been with me for over 20 years.

Country

Australia

City

Corrimal

Industry

Information Services

Skill

User Experience (UX), Training, Disabilities, Windows Accessibility Tools, Assistive Technology, Digital Accessibility, Technical Writing, Editing, Compliance Auditing, Communication, WCAG Compliance, Web Design, Content Management, SEO, Web Content, Web Development, Content Strategy, Email Marketing, User Experience, Copywriting

Experience

Principal Technical Writer

Vispero®

2020-12 - Present · 5 yrs 10 mos

Technical writer and editor for Tutor training, ARC rules engine, Knowledge Center knowledge base, Vispero blog - all focused on web, mobile, and digital accessibility including WCAG conformance and legal compliance.

Web Designer / Developer

Self-employed

2000-12 - Present · 25 yrs 10 mos

Corrimal, NSW, Australia

All round one-man-band web design, development and content strategies, implementation and management.

Principal Technical Writer

TPG Interactive

2024-7 - 2025-12 · 1 yr 6 mos

Corrimal, New South Wales, Australia

Provide detailed technical guidance to accessibility engineers on implementing digital accessibility, including WCAG conformance. Research and test using tools including tools including ARC Toolkit, axe DveTools, WAVE, Accessibility Insights, and IBM Equal Access Accessibility Checker, plus detailed manual testing. Hands-on testing with Assistive Technology (AT) including JAWS, NVDA, Narrator, VoiceOver, TalkBack, Dragon, Vocie Access, Voice Control, bluetooth keyboards, and physical switches. Writing detailed analyses of research and testing results for in-house, client, and general public developers, designers and content authors for websites and applications on desktop and mobile.

Technical Content Writer

TPGi, a Vispero Company

2020-12 - 2024-7 · 3 yrs 8 mos

Corrimal, New South Wales, Australia

Combining my writing skills and accessibility understandings to work on writing projects for TPG.

Communications & Marketing (part-time)

UX Australia

2015-12 - 2020-12 · 5 yrs 1 mo

Corrimal

My job is to look after the communications, marketing and social media presence of UX Australia, creating and managing online content that is engaging, relevant and promotes the principles of excellence in user experience. It includes working with website content, email newsletters and social media, with a particular emphasis on helping to keep people aware and interested in UX Australia events like the annual conference and similar professional development opportunities.

Web Designer

Flyman Partners

2009-2 - 2020-12 · 11 yrs 11 mos

Corrimal, NSW, Australia

Flyman Partners is a partnership with my wife Hazel Flynn, a highly experienced writer, editor and publisher, in which we bring our skills together to deliver a superior web presence to select clients.

Accessibility Consultant

Tenon.io by Level Access

2019-10 - 2020-5 · 8 mos

Corrimal, Australia

I undertook accessibility and usability consulting, testing, training, documentation and development services.

Digital Accessibility Consultant

Intopia

2018-3 - 2019-10 · 1 yr 8 mos

Corrimal, NSW, Australia

I work with Intopia clients to identify and address accessibility issues, including conducting technical assessments and devising practical solutions. My work can also include developing and conducting accessibility training, workshops, presentations and seminars; build new client relationships; advocating for accessibility and inclusion; and helping to design and build accessibility enhancing products and processes.

Content & Marketing Consultant

AccessibilityOz

2018-2 - 2018-3 · 2 mos

Corrimal

Short term online content and marketing project.

Marketing & Communications (part-time)

Web Directions

2017-8 - 2017-11 · 4 mos

Sydney, Australia

My role in the Web Directions management team was to take editorial, strategic and practical responsibility for the production, distribution and dissemination of user-facing content and marketing material.

Managing Editor

Web Directions

2016-2 - 2017-8 · 1 yr 7 mos

Sydney, Australia (remote)

As Web Directions expands its presence into an annual series of themed conferences, masterclass workshops, local meetups and skills development opportunities, someone has to make sure the right information about the right event is accessible at the right time in the right format on the right device. That would be me. Among other things, this involved compiling, writing and editing Scroll and Wrap magazines.