Language Archives – Meryl.net home

Captioned Video Accessibility: “Stranger Things” Captions, a Fascinating Case Study

August 10, 2022July 26, 2022 by Meryl Evans

“Stranger Things” is a fascinating case study of high-quality captions as well as too many captions for sounds. We can learn a lot from the show’s captions.

The Joy of a Good Verb

January 24, 2012 by Meryl Evans

Welcome to meryl’s notes blog (this here place you’re lookin’ at) in Plano, Texas. We’re honored to be a stop in Pesi Dinnerstein’s WOW! Women On Writing Blog tour. We’re giving away a copy of A Cluttered Life: Searching for God, Serenity, and My Missing Keys! [affiliate] Read on to see how you can win. … Read more

Howdy from Boston

August 26, 2010 by Meryl Evans

Travel. Love it. Hate it. I dream of going to London, Paris, Greece, Italy and other places. But then I think about all the work it takes to do overseas travel and the desire goes away… for a little while. Maybe it will be easier to do overseas travel when my life calms down — … Read more

Lessons from Language Barriers

June 29, 2010 by Meryl Evans

Image by eyesplash Mikul via Flickr I’d love to read more stories like these two. They provide valuable insight in human nature, perception and more. The Executive and the Branch Manager The first lesson is in perception. I caught this nugget in a New York Times article [Link: Jack Scharff]. It’s a valuable lesson involving … Read more

Watch Your English Style for Web Content

January 15, 2009 by Meryl Evans

I’m hooked on As Time Goes By, a British TV show starring the Judi Dench and Geoffrey Palmer. I’m also getting into British-based Prime Suspect with Helen Mirrin. Not only do I enjoy the repartee between Dench and Palmer, but also hearing the British accents. While I may not have good hearing, I can see … Read more

OMG! President-Elect Speaks in Complete Sentences

November 24, 2008 by Meryl Evans

Photo credit tsevis Here is the article in its entirety as I’m running around trying to get stuff done before hand surgery and Thanksgiving. Grammar geeks rejoice. Shouldn’t we be happy he actually speaks English? Obama’s Use of Complete Sentences Stirs Controversy: Stunning Break with Last Eight Years by Andy Borowitz In the first two … Read more

Hey! What Does Your Business Do?

November 10, 2008 by Meryl Evans

Ever receive a link to a business web site where you can’t figure out what the company does? The home page sounds like something from the company’s fancy and non-sensical mission statement. Unfortunately, many companies rely on content from their business plan and other internal documents. I had a brief client who did this. The … Read more

Poetry Writing with Children

November 1, 2008 by Meryl Evans

I enjoyed reading Great Writing from a Small Child. When I read the post, my 5-year-old had written a poem. The requirements were the poem had to be about you and the end of every line must rhyme with dog. Can you believe not many words qualify? His poem: I have a dog. I like … Read more

11 Ways to Play the Name Game

October 21, 2008 by Meryl Evans

Call me goofy, but I loved singing “The Name Game” as kid: Meryl, Meryl, bo-beryl, Banana-fana fo-feryl Fee-fi-mo-meryl Meryl! Yeah, yeah… I know how some immature kids like to use names like Chuck and Mitch. I’m sure you’ve heard your share. I’ve always been fascinated with names, how they came to be, and their origins. … Read more

Numbers as Brand Names

October 14, 2008 by Meryl Evans

TechCrunch reports that Microsoft calls its next operating system (the one after Vista) Windows 7. Mickey comments: I’d love to see them start using logical numbers again, but it doesn’t add up: Windows 3.1 (“Windows 3”) Windows 95 (4) Windows 98 (5) Windows ME/2000 (6) Windows XP (7) Windows Vista (8) Windows 7 (9?) I … Read more

Meryl is whip-smart, highly energetic, and incredibly captivating speaker and advocate. We invited Meryl to speak at our annual accessibility conference in 2019, and our attendees loved her so much, we had to invite her back for 2020! Meryl really takes the time to really get to know her audience and assess what their needs… Read more “Jillian Fortin, communications director, Knowbility”

Jillian Fortin

Knowbility

We hosted Meryl as the inaugural guest speaker at an internal Employee Resource Group event, and she was an absolutely phenomenal presenter! Her insight and expertise in how we can make video / video conferencing, events, and the hybrid work model in general more inclusive and equitable was so valuable. We’ve already received great feedback… Read more “Stephen Duke, DEI Specialist, WP Engine”

Stephen Duke, DEI Specialist, WP Engine

WP Engine

Such a great difference maker! The presentation was very impactful and powerful. It’s been a privilege to work with you and hope others get a chance to involve you in their effort to drive Accessibility.

Samrawit Biyazin

PwC

I had an amazing experience at the TEDxPlano 2022 event, listening to all the speakers on their bright ideas and unique ways of helping our society. Meryl’s speech was truly amazing and brought tears to my eyes. Meryl’s inspiring talk was an eye-opener and motivated how to handle complex challenges in one’s life without giving… Read more “Vish Annampedu, Principal SERDES Systems Architect, NVIDIA”

Vish Annampedu

NVIDIA

I had the pleasure of hosting Meryl as a panelist and speaker for the Global Accessibility Awareness Day 2020. During preparation for this online event, Meryl proved herself to be an incredibly helpful and thoughtful professional. She was also very well prepared for the presentation and her eloquence and insights at the event contributed to… Read more “Stine Holmgaard, CEO, A.Miroe”

Stine Holmgaard

A.Miroe

Meryl presented to our internal employees on the importance of Progress over Perfection when it comes to accessibility. Her wit and knowledge were a breath of fresh air in an area that can be difficult to navigate, and she left our participants with usable knowledge to take forward in their daily work.

Sharon Joles, MBA, CPACC

Progressive

Your work is super and you are responsive and dependable. I wish we could clone you. Meryl is also talented, fast, smart, reliable, a good communicator, and honest. A precious combination.

Bill Moore, CEO

Zello

Meryl’s thoroughness and attention to detail have been key ingredients to the success of the book projects that we have worked on.

Todd Marks, author

Meryl Evans has been an outstanding freelancer for PC Today Magazine. Her understanding of mobile technology has made her one of our go-to writers. Not only that, she’s extremely prompt and professional. It has been a pleasure to work with her.

Nate Hoppe, editor

Sandhills Publishing

Meryl Evans was my invited guest speaker for Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD) at ETS. Meryl was brilliant and authentic. She shared meaningful experiences that combined with her expertise, created actionable opportunities for our organization to enhance how we engage around accessibility. If you want to bring someone to your organization who is not only… Read more “Ida Jackson Woods, AVP, Chief Diversity Officer, ETS”

Ida Jackson Woods

ETS

It is a delight to work with Meryl. She delivers high quality work with great turnaround. I recommend her highly!

Judy Schramm, CEO

ProResource, Inc.

Meryl provides an awesome menu of digital marketing to help firms. The thoroughness of Meryl’s work is what really impressed me – quick turnaround, corrections and in addition – she provides the Why behind the suggestions that really open up the conversation. Loved the process!

Sue Lemm PMP®

I have to say that working with Meryl has been one of the best experiences one can ask for! She is an excellent communicator (although we only use email), very clear on what is expected and she is always two steps ahead in the process, pointing out potential setbacks before they even occur. Meryl has… Read more “Sara Oblak Speicher, founder and president”

Sara Oblak Speicher, MBA

VBM Pro, Inc.

When I think of “professional writer,” I think of Meryl. When I think of “personable” writer I think of Meryl. When I think of a “Git’er Done” writer, I think of Meryl. When I think of a truly caring and sharing person, in business and life, I think of Meryl. And … When I think… Read more “Steve Kayser, marketing and media relations pro”

Steve Kayser

Kayser Media

I worked with Meryl for a number of years at SBC. I appreciated her professionalism and valued her work products. As a peer, I utilized the documentation she created, and I always found it to be accurate and of high quality. Meryl is a valuable professional with excellent communication skills, creativity, and polish. I recommend… Read more “Tracy Haver, Sr. Tech Team Lead, SBC (AT&T)”

Tracy Haver

SBC / AT&T

I highly recommend Meryl Evans as a professional writer and content maven. I worked for several years with Meryl in the telecommunications field. She was an analyst in the Process department and she served on many key projects with much success. As an analyst, she was responsible for the creation of technical requirements documents, test… Read more “Ann Fields”

Ann Fields

SBC Communnications, Inc.

Meryl is a firecracker who knows how to get what she wants out of life and she KNOWS what she’s doing. If you’re looking for someone to help with your digital marketing and content writing, then you want Meryl helping you out. She’s professional, shows up, and gets the job done.

Heidi Medina

Talk to Heidi

In addition to being an accomplished writer herself, Meryl is a researcher supreme if you need someone knowledgeable about all things. She is fast, responsive and always ‘gets it’ with a minimum of communication. I recommend her services highly. She is a pleasure to work with.

Debbie Weil, founder and author

Wordbiz LLC

I have a good stable [of contributors] — but not as many true writers who also know marketing, which is where I’d put Meryl.

Ann Handley, Chief Content Officer

MarketingProfs

Working with Meryl Evans was always such a great experience. She has this innate ability to promote whatever it is you’re trying to do/sell/share. Her language is always professional and comes across very natural. She helped our company grow our social platforms and did it with such ease! She helped us connect with physicians and… Read more “Karla Quick, director of clinical marketing”

Karla Quick

Meryl was OUTSTANDING at WP Engine’s internal accessibility event today as part of our week of celebrations around the anniversary of the ADA. Her tips for accessibility with captions and virtual events were SUPER actionable and the insights she shared on considerations for accessibility were insightful, inspiring, and funny. As one of the event organizers… Read more “David Vogelpohl, VP Growth, WP Engine”

David Vogelpohl, VP Growth

WP Engine

Wow, did Meryl just make me a better PM and a better human being? Why, yes. Yes, she did. So very impressed by her presentation(s) and so impacted by her expertise, knowledge share, and approach. I feel very grateful for the practical, immediate applications in my work and daily life that were offered as recommendations… Read more “Laura Ayres, PM Privacy and Compliance, Tubi”

Laura Ayres

Tubi

Meryl is inspirational, she’s had such a positive influence on the world of LinkedIn. She’s transformed the way people think about videos, making them realise the importance of captions and how to use them effectively. Her approach and the way she articulates her message demonstrates how awesome she is at what she does.

Louisa van Vessem

Workflow Virtual

I know Meryl not only as an influential advocate and speaker, but also as a personable and capable partner in business. She has provided my organization with valuable feedback from the perspective of a person with hearing loss that has helped us to improve our product and services. Additionally, Meryl has helped me to better… Read more “John Sweet, CPACC, Sr. Director Accessibility and Technology Compliance at Pluto TV”

John Sweet, CPACC

Pluto TV

Meryl was a guest speaker at our virtual GAAD panel event in May (2022). Meryl was an absolute delight to work with and did an amazing job on the panel with the rest of our senior leaders from our product organization as well as Purpose and Inclusion. We had ~500 attendees and we received a… Read more “Arpitha Shetty, Director, Accessibility and Inclusive Design, PwC”

Arpitha Shetty

PwC

We brought in Meryl to celebrate the 32nd anniversary of the passing of the ADA. She gave a wonderfully informative, engaging, and interesting seminar to our company on a wide range of topics from business practices, team operation accessibility, and technical web accessibility standards. By pairing both her lived experiences and statistic data, she was… Read more “John McCall, Sr. Database Reliability Engineer at Flatiron Health”

John McCall, Sr.

Flatiron Health

I was fortunate to work with Meryl for several years on blogs and social media for my company. Meryl went above and beyond in every aspect of her work. Meryl’s writing is well researched, always targeted to the right audience and, importantly, interesting to read. Meryl has always been proactive to maintain an open communication… Read more “George Tatar, CEO at Akruto, Inc.”

George Tatar

Akruto

Meryl is just an incredible fountain of knowledge regarding accessibility, closed captioning, and social media platforms. Meryl was kind enough to spend time with a group of us at NBCUniversal to share her perspectives on the factors that go into the quality of closed captions in both broadcast and streaming video. It was an incredibly… Read more “Lori Samuels, NBCUniversal Media, LLC Accessibility Director”

Lori Samuels

NBCUniversal

We asked Meryl to conduct a full audit of our most important trainings with accessibility in mind. She was awesome to work with – her expertise was amazing, her recommendations on-point, and most of all, her way of working was highly aligned with ours. All this has been extremely helpful to us in setting our… Read more “Paulo O’Campo, Regional CS L&D Manager, Netflix”

Paulo O'Campo

Netflix

I’ve been through at least a dozen writers prior to finding Meryl. She’s the only one we use now and my entire team loves working with her. She writes for a variety of clients across multiple topics. In hundreds of pieces, I’ve had zero complaints from my clients. Her lightning fast turn around helps me… Read more “Kyle Thompson, owner, Big Fish Consulting”

Kyle Thompson

Big Fish Consulting

Meryl Evans is the hardest working Managing Editor I have met. She is very proficient at her job and always meets if not exceeds my expectations. If I needed to hire a freelance editor, I would hire Meryl before anyone else.

Nick Finck

UX pro

Meryl has helped grow my organization, the Institute for Excellence in Sales, by effectively positioning it on multiple social media properties most notably LinkedIn and Twitter. She’s very attuned to getting attention on those properties and is also very proactive in helping her clients post frequently and optimally. She also has brought many fresh ideas… Read more “Fred Diamond, president and co-founder, IES”

Fred Diamond

Institute of Excellence in Sales

Meryl came into my company and took control of our social media process recently. Immediately (within one month) we saw a 30% increase in traffic. Meryl has that communication factor that demonstrates she totally understands and connects with the social media world that we all work in. We are so happy to work with her… Read more “Thomas Logan, founder and CEO of Equal Entry”

Thomas Logan

Equal Entry

Meryl continues to be a guiding light for the PCMA team as we focus our efforts on being inclusive for the global business events community. Her insights, approach and case studies continue to inspire us as we move forward to deliver social and economic transformation for our communities. In January this year we held accessibility… Read more “Gina Meier, Director of Human Resources, PCMA”

Gina Meier

PCMA

Meryl K. Evans is not only a great editor and writer, her love for the Web and its denizens is apparent in all her activities. Whether keeping up with design and development issues via her own blog or other venues, Meryl is a leading voice in the cry for sensible, contemporary, and standards-based design.

Molly Holzschlag, author

Meryl is a joy to work with, whip smart, delivers her work on time and exceeds expectations, and is a great all-around person too! She has written several articles for a new Web site and takes pride in her work. I highly recommend her for this type of work. She truly is a content maven.… Read more “David Strom, writer and speaker”

David Strom, writer and speaker

David Strom, Inc.

Meryl was fantastic at Flatiron Health’s event in honor of the 32nd Anniversary of the ADA! She gave our attendees several best practices, CTAs, and personal insight that exceeded our expectations. Meryl delivers the material in a nurturing and insightful style – never making the audience feel guilty for not previously implementing the best practices… Read more “Avisha Sanassie, DEI Program Associate Flatiron Health”

Avisha Sanassie

Flatiron Health

Meryl is a recommended and an endorsed resource for timely, relevant, and actionable content creation. We’ve worked together and I’ve recommended her to many colleagues over the past 15 years. Most recently she supported our digital marketing team at Park Place Dealerships with the creation of new model year overviews for over a dozen automotive… Read more “Frank R. Sobyak, founder, Dealership Partners”

Frank Sobyak, founder

Dealership Partners LLC

Meryl Evans is a seasoned Internet professional and, dare I say it, unicorn, with a gift for social strategies and fluent, natural-sounding copy/editorial/SEO that advance her clients’s business interests and help them connect more deeply with their customers. I’ve known Meryl since the mid-1990s, when she was already an experienced web consultant and gifted writer.… Read more “Jeffrey Zeldman, author, founder, and publisher”

Jeffrey Zeldman

A List Apart