W3C

Research and Development Working Group Teleconference

03 Jun 2015

See also: IRC log

Attendees

Present
Shadi, Vivienne, Jason, Markku, Janina, Annika, Yehya
Regrets
Peter, David
Chair
Vivienne, Mark
Scribe
Vivienne

Contents


Charter Status Update and Direction Forward

SA: Introduction of Leticia from University of Paris

<shadi> [[My name is Letícia Seixas and I'm a PhD student at Paris 8 with Prof.

<shadi> Dominique Archambault. He suggested to me to subscribe to the RDWG mailing

<shadi> list.]]

SA: regarding charter updates.
... current proposal is to have this work continue as a task force in the Accessible Platform Architectures (APA) Working Group

<LeticiaSeixas> Thank you

SA: SA will continue to provide the staff support, and the chairs will continue as Mark & Vivienne as task force facilitators togther with working group chairs, Janina
... APA working group was previously PF was Protocols and Formats Working Group chartered to crosscheck accessibility specs of W3C to be sure that accessibility is built in
... dynamic websites and ARIA work saw in this PF group
... the nature of the work has changed from specs checks and identifying accessibility barriers
... group will split WAI ARIA into a specific working group, so RWD work can be put togehter with accessibility cross-check, will have benefits and synergies
... RDWG might be a bit more outward focussed and looking ahead while APA would have a scope to ensure accessibility is built in. RDWG can identify potential issues before the specifications such as the Web of Things
... research part of this group want to look at potential future development and trends, such as use cases. Would allow a good binding between forward-looking focus and continue to working on things as they are developed

Janina: good review of history of PF and explanation of why it was seen as a good fit with this working group as a task force
... APA welcomes the RDWG people, as a task force. PF have used task forces such as ARIA, and a group doing a gap analysis for issues relating to cognitive and learning disabilities - joint group with WCAG
... this task force will drive the work forward in supporting people with cognitive issues. PF had the responsibility to look at every W3C spec and ensure it supported accessibility. Sometimes looked at the document at last call point and called for negotiation
... utilised the specs earlier in process to drive ensuring looking at use cases for accessibility. Getting requirements for a spec early in the process. Aware that no every person has the same level of expertise in technology, and people can serve in different areas, leading understanding. Several areas where we can benefit syngistically from working together. There are problems around

CSS, and there are issues that aren't getting a thorough job done, how everything fits together. IBM put someone else in the CSS working group on behalf of accessibility. Need overall understanding, several people who know how the pieces fit together. CSS welcomes this work.

Janina: media is emerging as important - media accessibility user requirements are almost complete as a note to be published - growing up to be 2-way specification. Hope to build a set of W3C requirements and specifications that comprehend accessibilty from the group up. There is a need for supporting research in the broader area W3C specs are taking and monitor these future technologies meet

requirements.

SA: Status - has been the kind of discussion progressing, charter proposal has been sent to the group. Jason has provided good feedback regarding things that have been not included yet in APA charter. APA distanced from EO work. Accessibility Aware Research Tips are educational and awareness-raising. Scope of group is not likely to do 'how to' do educational issues, but how to create technical

aspects

SA: any feedback from the group is welcome?

SA: will be putting this proposal to the AC again and this will define the work for the future

MH: logically, re transition to task force. TF requires membership - can be members from APA and other groups. Does everyone currently in RDWG automatically become a member of APA

Janina: yes - need to work out mechanics, but essentially yes

MH: in terms of participation in the TF, for good standing - participate in TF but not necessarily in APA call?

Janina: question is frequently raised. good number of members of PF who are very active in ARIA work but don't particpate direclty in PF review activity, unless specifically asked to help with a spec review due to their technical abilities
... you might be on the same mailing list - have a primary APA mailing list with relatively low traffic at the moment. There are also task force lists with heavier traffic.
... regarding how to documentation, we have started (Michael Cooper - primary staff contact) a document to help other working groups deal with accessibility in their specifications, because we have found over time that we are giving working groups the same advice

SA: technically as a TF, sub group of working group, the APA would be the parent working group of which we would be members and part of the main mailing list. Also members of a TF and can create a corresponding group with same infrastructure with same tracking tools, mailing list etc. Gives a bit of separation and reduce some noise.
... every group works differently with some TF more disjointed, depends on work statement of the TF which needs to be developed

<Zakim> shadi, you wanted to speak to logistics

MH: timetables - we have extension to July 16 for current active charters. How soon before we see the AC voting?

SA: current schedule to approve by W3C management to go to AC for review next week - 4 week review period
... a lot of the WAI groups are being reshuffled and so several groups will be sent out together
... joint APA/RDWG should be sent out in time for next week

MH: thanks to Janina for update
... update on current deliverables of the group - chairs need to work on User Modelling Report

Completing Outstanding Work - Short Updates

<mhakkinen> vivienne - progress on user modeling and the next to focus on is Wayfinding. Vivienne will talk to Annika and Christos

SA: have an action item to create a survey for the metrics report, so hope that one will be coming to next week's discussion and there will be a survey open for a week

Switching to WebEx teleconferencing system

MH: Webex - let's move that item up the agenda

SA: we are losing zakim conference bridge and moving to webex as there isn't the funding to support zakim any more. online teleconference systems often have accessibility issues.
... we have an offer of Webex which is a Cisco product. This has been selected. Zakim will be obsolete as at the end of this month, so we need to start switching to Webex now. Even though there are accessibility and usability issues. You have to install another client. offers other benefits such as muting people and writing messages that are different. Teleconference abilities are more scalable

including the symposia.

Sa: in active discussions with Cisco who are a W3C member, trying to get some of the issues fixed.

Janina: several ways to gain access to a teleconference tht is webex generated. For mac users you won't like the webex client, IOS client is better. Android client for screen reader users is very usable. YOu can dial a Boston phone number to gain access. If you use a mobile client or web plugin you can specify a phone number and webex will call you.
... linux client is full of issues, you can be called at any phone number
... IRC will still be used for text, we will have to tell webex who is on the call
... one of primary reasons webex is adopted is that MIT is using webex and we can piggyback on that

MH: Shadi can we get call in instructions to use webex for next week?

SA: yes, start from next week
... try to call in a few minutes earlier next week

Janina: you can have both zakim and webex on the same call for practice
... you should be able to use Skype just the same
... webex may give better audio

WFA 2015 Florence - Conference Summary and Research Trends

MH: wanted to do a quick update on W4A in Florence

http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=2745555

<mhakkinen> Conference papers available through ACM Digital Library.

<mhakkinen> Quick highlights

<mhakkinen> 60 people in attendance. Paciello Challenge papers included a presentation on braille display that is placed on the tongue. Demonstrated how braille could be presented and recognized on the tongue.

<mhakkinen> Another paper focused on the ability of screen readers to present math expressions in speech and braille. The math paper won the Judge's awarrd.

<mhakkinen> Sharif, a PhD student, presented work on how information in graphs and charts can be read via screen readers.

<mhakkinen> Papers this year were of a higher quality. Lots of papers worth looking at, especially some of the future directions. This year's theme was on wearables.

<mhakkinen> Next WFA will be in Montreal. Conf theme and call for papers have yet to be announced.

<mhakkinen> Shadi: Did not attend but reviewed papers. Interested in discussing wearables and whether we should break out wearables from Web of Things.

<mhakkinen> Vivienne: maybe good to link to the W4A papers from our research topics.

goodnight

Summary of Action Items

[End of minutes]

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