W3C

- Minutes -

Education and Outreach Working Group Teleconference

10 Apr 2015

Summary

Eric began by thanking EO participants for feedback and addressed concerns some had about Search function and making the filters vs search term results more clear. In considering the informal usability testing that will be done at the F2F in May, questions arose about how to make people aware of the opportunity, when to alert them, whether to let potential participants know about tools in advance, and when to post the information. Shawn asked everyone to add ideas for usability testing to the EO wiki. Kevin then introduced the group to the Requirements Analysis for the Quick Start Guides which started lively discussion. EO remembered the business card sized QuickTips for WCAG 1 and brainstormed ways to incorproate the qualities that made this so appealing as the Quick Start Guides are developed to help people get a jumpstart on accessibility related to their role. Melody suggested the need to communicate the life cycle of going through these tools and where would they fit in the work cycle of each role. She agreed to work on that taxonomy and to talk with AnnaBelle who has had similar suggestions. Please contribute to the wiki and/or on the weekly survey, and thanks to all.

Agenda

Attendees

Present
Lydia, Shawn, Kevin, Brent, Shadi, Sharron, Howard, Eric E, Jon, Andrew, Paul, Melody
Regrets
Vivienne, AnnaBelle, Wayne, Sylvie, Vicki
Chair
Shawn
Scribe
Sharron

Contents


Quick Ref Search

<shawn> http://w3c.github.io/wai-wcag-quickref/

<shawn> https://www.w3.org/2002/09/wbs/35532/eoweekly20150406/results#xq2

Eric: First thanks everyone for the feedback, I would like to quickly address the observation that the search function is just duplicating the behavior of the user agent. It looks true but the difference is that this function only searches main content, not side content or navigation.

Kevin: I don't think these are strong objections, I only wondered what was the value, what was the purpose and how was it different? I am happy with your note that it only searches content.

Eric: I am working on an approach that will allow us to get more out of the search function. The way it works now, many results are hidden. It currently only searches visible content. But if you change your filters, it will update search results. This is causing confusion. The question is do we need to make it clear that there are hidden results?

Shawn: Yes it needs to be clear that it only shows what is there, how the filters impact the search results. All of those things and how it works need to be made very clear.

Andrew: Is it possible that the Search becomes Search All or Search Visible?

Eric: Yes, good idea

<shawn> +1 to possibility or Search All, Search Visible

Howard: is there a way for the screen reader user to quickly move through the displayed result?

Eric: It is a programming challenge and I have not yet implemented it. One concern is where do you bring the focus within each search result?
... what I have done now is use the arrow that is pointing down to move the focus to the next search result. But people did not understand it. Still needs working out.

Howard: Visually it is great, you know the context and it is very helpful, just wondering how to extend that to sceen reader users.

Eric: Thanks Howard, any other comments.

Eric: Will make the Show/Hide much more clear and improve the mobile rendering. That's about all I had for discussion. If anyone has additional comments or questions, please speak up now.

<Andrew> IE9 and IE11 both showing 0/0 results even when stuff found

<yatil> Will have cross browser testing soon-ish, Andrew.

Shawn: Thanks so much everyone for putting those comments in the survey, allowing Eric to process and report more efficiently.

Informal usability testing for May

<shawn> https://www.w3.org/WAI/EO/wiki/UT_May_2015

Shawn: Basically we want to get started with the plan. There is a page there in the wiki, thanks for survey input. I would encourage everyone to go ahead and use the wiki to add suggestions, categories, anything you wish. We can work collaboratively.
... this is a planning page so please add suggestions right on the page. Let's talk big picture first. Notice that informal is an important component of our plan. Do we even want to call it usability testing. It could be more informal, like "request for feedback." What else?

Kevin: That covers it.

Shawn: Any questions about the test itself?
... top priority is QuickRef, next is Planning Guide and last is WCAG EM Report tool. It is up for discussion.

Lydia: Does the user who is signing up need to know how long it will take?

Shawn: We need to define. There could be a recommended length but always let people quit whenever they wish.

Lydia: Is it a session on its own?

Shawn: No, we will do the test concurrantly with the sessions and people can sign up for anytime during the day.

Sharron: we need to let people sign up ahead, during registration they will be distracted
... we could add to the class sign up on site but I don't think we can expect many people to sign up on the spot. They will be looking at their schedules, getting oriented, won't pay attention during registration. I think we need to have a message that gets sent out ahead of time so people can think aobut what they might go to late or leave early, etc and sign up accordingly.

<Howard> agree with Sharron.

<Lydia> I concur

Shawn: If we do that, we would identify the tools and people may look at them in advance...any reason not to do it?

Andrew: It depends on the type of feedback we are looking for, we may or may not want them to see the tools ahead.

Shawn: I think we don't want them to know what they will be testing

Sharron: Jayne will need very specific information

<Howard> I would vote for providing the titles of the tools

Brent: Why not let them know about the tool in advance at least what it is meant for to pique interest?

Shawn: They have been announced and people may have already looked at and investigated them. They could search and find it since two of them are released.

Howard: I think it is a good way to get people interested. To leave it open ended is too abstract. Against the risk that they may look in advance I think they must know something in order to be interested.

<Andrew> we could just refer to new tools that assist you to work with WCAG and Web Accessibility more efficiently

Sharron: I agree with Andrew, don't make it too easy to find and most people won't have time.

Shawn: So let's all jump into the wiki to suggest ways to word the invitation and entice people to participate.
... anything else to discuss now?

Kevin: Mine is more of a question, when do we need to put info?

Sharron: Now because class schedules have been announced, people are really looking at the class schedule pages and making decisions about what classes to take.

Shawn: And we will still need to be flexible enough to allow people to drop in since they may not understand in advance but find themselves more interested when they get there.

Lydia: I am looking at the wiki page and trying to figure out what we are testing. It would be great to allow people to test on their own...can we send some questions that we want to have answered?

Sharron: Are you saying that we should formulate questions and make them public?

Lydia: No I am thinking that the first question should be "Have you ever wondered ---" and then lead to the point how does that work and make it more interesting for people to become a test participant.

<shadi> +1 to Lydia

Shawn: OK good idea, I will add to the wiki and encourage everyone to do that and perhaps by next week try to have something more specific. Go for it, add your ideas to the wiki. We want to get the description out to the registrants soon.
... One question will be to look at each of the tools and make a brief description and devlop specific questions. Anyone who already knows what questions you would like to look for, please add those now. Shadi can you ask Wilco to do that as well?
... any other questions or comments on this for now? OK please feel free to add comments and suggestions to wiki.

Quick Start Guides

<shawn> https://www.w3.org/WAI/EO/wiki/Quick_Start_Guides/Requirements_Analysis

Shawn: Wanted to introduce this resource today and it will be on the survey for next week. Don't get hung up on the language of the Draft - this "will" be this - since it is all still in the visioning stage.

Shawn: Questions, suggestions, ideas remember it is a blank canvas...

Andrew: Not sure of the purpose, are you anticipating by topic or by role?

Shawn: By role and Kevin has a start to it but did not want to confuse or influence thinking since it is up in the air. Do others wee this as more useful by role or by task?

Howard: wondering how different this is from EasyChecks?
... and how similar? is it along the same lines only More extensive?

Shawn: Back when we did the EasyChecks the uptake was great and we even thought about how useful it would be to provide something that is a quick and easy intro for roles other than evaluators.

Andrew:An Easy Steps Guide for other roles.

<shawn> http://www.w3.org/WAI/WCAG20/glance/

Shawn: Shadi and Kevin also had the thought that this would be even more simple, more like WCAG at a Glance.

Andrew: If you are brand new, the WCAG at a Glance approach won't work since simply you won't get it. It really is not enough information to orient people who are completely new
... so I think we want to be somewhere in between the two to be useful.

<shawn> easy checks http://www.w3.org/WAI/eval/preliminary.html

Melody: It would be good to understand going through the life cycle of going through these tools, where would they fit in the work cycle of each role?

Shawn: Would you want to help document that Melody?

Melody: Yes, I could do that.

Shawn: You may even want to work with AnnaBelle who has talked about visualizing all of the WAI resources.

<shadi> http://www.w3.org/WAI/quicktips/

Shadi: Remember the Quick Tips?

<shadi> http://www.w3.org/WAI/quicktips/

Shadi: maybe the word introduction is ambiguous and means different things. I think Melody's question is right on the mark. Is it meant to be an intro or is it more of a kickstart to get people along the road to accessibility.

<melody> How does this relate to the Planning Guide (aka the Dynamic Planning Guide)?

<shawn> planning guide is management level. this is implementation level.

Sharron: If it is meant to be an intro or a kickstart
... I think we are over the hump, that most people have at least heard of the need for accessibility - don't think everyone is brand new to the concept any longer

Andrew: Disagree

<yatil> agrees with Sharron, most people have heard of accessibility but don't grasp the nitty gritty...

Kevin: you're optimistic

Melody: I disagree as well - most people I know don't even have accessibility on their radar. Also, what's the difference between management and implementation level? Is there a reason why they can't be combined?

Shadi: If you are a developer who knows what alt attribute is, you want to know how to implement. Don't want to send them to WCAG and learn all about it. No, here are a few things you can do right away
... and then link to more informatin and more in depth understanding

<jon> Do those disagreeing think there are people who don't know about accessibility, or don't know that they need to know about it and really believe the responsibility for it belongs to someone else?

Shadi: There will be a challenge in this for sure and overlap. So it is important to define and come to common understanding about what we want these to be. Must understand the audience as well.
... we will get back to this question when we get to the various roles.
... for the developer we would send them to the tutorials, but managers may get linked to the Planning Guide

Sharron: If we think of Easy Checks as quick start for an evaluator. so then for the other roles... what would a designer need, what IA need... 4 or 5 quick things they can do to see tangible results.

Shadi: The Easy Checks is a How To - a very detailed How To - and these are not meant to be that. It is more of a direction setting rather than what to do.
... and then link to more information. So the question is rather whether we want this to be as in depth Easy Checks or higher level.

Jon: I agree with Sharron's point that there are more people who are aware of accessibility as an issue. The problem arises becasue most things about accessibility are written from a technical POV and many do not see their relationship to accessibility.

<kevin_> +1 to jon's comment

Shawn: So from what you are saying, Jon it would be very useful to use these Quick Guides to let those people understand what is their relationship to accessibility.

Melody: Exactly why I suggested the lifecycle map of the tools

Jon: Yes and to make them really useful, we need to place them within an entire taxonomy that allows people to find and use them effectively.

Sharron: +1 to Jon

Melody:...and where the gaps are

Sharron: Keep thinking about the taxonomy, it is important.

Andrew: The work we began a few years ago on the Responsibility Breakdown could help us find a way to organize this work.

Shawn: Yes Kevin has looked at it and is using some of that, but have not wanted to ovewhelm and confuse everyone with that.
... SR and I will talk about whether that is a sub-group project. Kevin, in terms of what these are, your purpose has "audiences new to accessibility" Since we are now talking about newbies vs quick reminders, internal support. So let's talk more about that.

Melody: It seems like it could be useful to both audiences. People who work on the web either as a developer or as an owner. I have found people confuse accessibility for device optimization. There is that group of people as well as those who say "I really want to make my site accesibile but don't know where to start"

Shawn: Do we want to say the primary audience is newbies and secondary is those who need need a reminder and additionally making clear the way various roles relate to responsibility for accessibility.

Sharron: I would reverse primary/secondary

<Andrew> +1 to Sharron

Shadi: There is a contradiction here. A designer who is new, 'how to get started' is different from 'what are my responsiblities.'
... The checklist you would use as an experienced developer will be the QuickRef. An experienced manager will use Planning Guide. This is more of a signpost, a jumpstart, not a recurrent source of support.

Sharron: So you are saying this is something like they will use only when they are starting out and won't go back to it?

<shawn> http://www.w3.org/WAI/quicktips/

Shadi: Yes it is a framework for getting started to help against the common feeling of being overwhelmed by accessibility.

Shawn: The link is to the business sized card that we would give out and people loved them, we handed out 100's of 1000s of these in over 40 languages. My question is what was it that worked and made people love them so much? Can we identify that and make these resources more like that?

Howard: The great thing about them you could put them in your wallet, they were convenient to look at, refer to, hand out. They were so accessibile and handy!

Shadi: When did you use them?

Howard: I used them as a good reminder when I needed it and a useful tool as a trainer to give out.

<Zakim> Andrew, you wanted to mention use

Shawn: What about the information was useful?

Andrew: People would always ask for more, it was good as a conversation starter because it conveyed the information simply and was a way to show people here is some of what I learned about.

Shawn: So it was a prompt more than a learning tool.
... some tips on a business card made it seem easier to implement

Howard: The other thought I had was maybe starting it off with the roles. If somewhere there could be a way to channel people to the right one for their role.

Shawn: Kevin and Shadi, anything from the group to help with the next stages?

Kevin: I get the whole picture of what people are seeing about the variety of audiences we could target. I have formed a perception of who will benefit and I would like to be comfortable that the group agrees that it is primarily for those new to accessibility, helping them get started.
... does that meet with what people are thinking about?

Shadi: I agree with Kevin. The approach to these - is it more of a signpost, a conversation starter or is it actually meant to be informational?
... I am wondering what the level is in terms of whether it should be educational or more of a guide?

<Andrew> sees value in short instruction approach.

Shawn: is the purpose to help people who are new feel comfortable, know where to start or is it meant to be informational?

Andrew: I think there is more value for it to be a more educational resource. Newbies may be confused by being told what to do and given no further instruction. it could be provided as an expandable bit of info.

Brent: I like the direction that Kevin was going at the end - helping those who are new to accessibility feel comfortable and how to get started. I also agree that we have to find a way to tie them together as Melody mentioned. This must be a way for beginners to latch onto something, not feel overwhelmend, and use the Guide to connect to all the resources relevant to my role.

Shawn: Kevin, can you review and incorporate this thinking so that we can respond more specifically to the Purpose and Goals of this resource.

Kevin: OK will do

Videos production

<shawn> https://www.w3.org/WAI/EO/wiki/BenefitsVideos

<shadi> https://www.w3.org/WAI/EO/wiki/Videos_and_Stories_on_the_Benefits_of_Web_Accessibility

Shadi: Following this link, you will find some questions about audiences etc but I also would like for you to watch videos this week. Our purpose is to make videos that show how cool accessibility is. There are questions in the survey this week related to this.

<shawn> innovative

Shadi: We want to show examples that make accessibility less abstract, more real and cool for additional reasons. Would appreciate your feedback as well as input on the target audiences. Would like to focus on that this week. There are as well brainstorms in the requirements section that came from November's F2F.
... please respond to those and your thoughts about demonstrating the broader benefits. Feel free to add to the wiki or the survey any of your feedback or additional ideas. There are some cool videos already out there, many are educational and there are advertisements as well that highlight disability and technology and raise awareness.

<Howard> do you have pointers to videos we can sample?

Shadi: if you have the time, please browse, add links to others you know and let us know what you like about some of these and why. We are preparing to do some and would like input. Any questions or comments?

<Andrew> https://www.w3.org/WAI/EO/wiki/Videos_and_Stories_on_the_Benefits_of_Web_Accessibility#Example_Videos

<shadi> https://www.w3.org/WAI/EO/wiki/Videos_and_Stories_on_the_Benefits_of_Web_Accessibility

Shawn: anything else for this week? Thanks all, stay in touch on the wiki and the surveys and we will talk more next week.

Summary of Action Items

[End of minutes]

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