W3C

WAI_AGE Task Force - 25 Feb 2009

Agenda

Attendees

Present
Andrew, Shadi, William, Jack, Michael, Darren
Regrets
Suzette, Isabelle, Helle, Nacho
Chair
Andrew
Scribe
Shadi

Contents


Responding to Organizations with Inaccessible Websites

http://www.w3.org/WAI/EO/Drafts/responding/

AA: [reads comment from Michael about 'large vs. small organisations']
... any comments or questions?

WL: some organizations have disability coordinators or similar
... sometimes also legal or policy statements
... could refer to these and quote their own policy
... sometimes Web sites are no longer by organization

MS: very dependent on the organizational culture as to what the best approach is
... often not apparent from their Web site
... not a matter of small or large organization

AA: can we provide guidance?

MS: don't know how to, can't give a general rule

AA: maybe just stating the issue

SAZ: maybe quote some examples to say that diff organisations may have diff cultures and different ways of handling feedback, e.g. disability officer, etc
... might give people ideas

MS: examples would be very helpful for this document and the target audience

WL: "responding" means in response to something

AA: yes, came up but let's take that later

What to Report

AA: tried to provide examples and provide ideas
... have an issue marked, because was unsure about the need to restate being constructive

WL: maybe a repetition but not wrong

SAZ: try changing "must"
... repetition is ok, but the "must" caught me
... feedback should be constructive and usable
... but organizations should also respond even if the feedback is not constructive

JW: agree that constructive comments are important
... people may be frustrated and unhappy

AA: need to address frustration and anger

MS: probably these people don't read this document
... when i'm angry, i'd send an e-mail rather than read a document

<Zakim> shadi, you wanted to address reactive vs constructive messaging

SAZ: in response to MS, yes, but over time you may look for a way to address that frustration and you may land on this doc (or a version or link to it)
... that person may now find guidance, and it may be necessary to keep them calm and suggest constructive response
... a bit of both - may be angry because of ongoing issues
... these people are facing strong issues and may become good allies who may stay on the problem to resolution

WL: maybe we could have good visibility of this document

AA: quotes sometimes increase findability

SAZ: separate issue - but note that w3c has had good google findability
... people also get info from local communities
... forms another channel for distributing our info (with credit we hope)
... maybe in a different format as part of a print publication

AA: back again to some of the examples
... leaning towards taking out listing the types of disabilities
... the examples are self-explaining from the context

WL: developer might wonder why someone doesn't use the mouse

MS: maybe say "can't" use a mouse rather than "don't"

AA: good suggestion
... any other important examples left out?
... don't want to be exclusive

MS: often key information such as contact person or e-mail is in images
... could add something about text in images
... or unlabeled image buttons

WL: cognitive aspects important for older people
... opacity of the Web site may also be useful

SAZ: agree with William and Michael
... 2 relate to text size, 2 relate to mouse use - condense and add more diversity
... cognitive aspects and reading level is good
... images of text and related is also good

WL: readers also discover that they are not alone

Your Computer System

AA: approach for examples OK for people?

WL: may be too geeky

SAZ: if you know what browser, then tell the org - many people just know hwy are using the internet, and not what browser they use
... e.g. if you know which computer system you use, consider providing this to give more information on your situation

JW: also "About XYZ" might be challenging for some readers
... but don't have good suggestions

MS: this whole section may be too long
... even longer than "what is the problem" section
... really hard to teach people what type of browser they are using or such
... they may know the brand but often not the version

AA: might be follow-up?

JW: good suggestion

AA: will remove some of the technical details, and add something brief in the section on follow-up

Further Action

AA: collected several suggestions in here for discussion

WL: Suzette had a good suggestion

AA: [reads suggestion from Suzette's e-mail]

WL: even organizations that are required to be accessible may not respond
... even though there is often a process

AA: any suggestions inappropriate?

Sample email

AA: considered copy & paste samples

WL: could include petitions
... could give it a try

SAZ: express small concern about hypothetical sample emails and how usefully they would be
.... people may get tangled in the details
... more work on the template may be better
... e.g. parentheses and italics may not be sufficient
... more guidance may be useful at the start, e.g. here is a template, but encourage people to adapt
... encourage more effort on template (rather than samples)

Changelog Document

http://www.w3.org/WAI/EO/changelogs/cl-responding.html

AA: title considerations under the "changelog" section
... collected different suggestions here

SAZ: "Contacting Organizations with Inaccessible Web Sites"?

WL: +1

JW: +1

MS: like the "How To Contact..." because we provide how-to information
... communicates the feeling of a helpful document
... as in "how to do it"

AA: a call to action
... maybe works good for a 2-part title

MS: sub-title is often not shown in the search engine results

Summary of Action Items

No actions recorded

[End of minutes]

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$Date: 2009/03/10 12:51:59 $