MINUTES of EOWG call May 28, 1998
Next Phone Meeting:
Will be Thursday June 11, same time 10:30 to 12:00 noon US EDT.
Phone # info to follow.
Present:
Jim Allen -- Texas School for the Blind (joined partway through)
Dick Banks -- Project EASI
Kynn Bartlett -- HTML Writers Guild
Harvey Bingham -- Yuri Rubinsky Insight Foundation
Peter Bosher -- British Computer Association for the Blind
Judy Brewer -- W3C/MIT
Geoff Freed -- WGBH National Center for Accessible Media (had to leave
partway through)
Chuck Letourneau -- Starling Access Services
William Loughborough -- Smith Kettlewell Institute
Masafumi Nakane -- W3C/Keio
Sheela Sethuraman -- Center for Applied Special Technology (had to
leave partway through)
Action Items from Call:
- EOWG members who want to link additional info from their name on EOWG
member page should send Judy the URL
- JB write deliverables development reference work-list
- Chuck Letourneau, Peter Bosher, Sheela Sethuraman, Dick Banks will
send Judy potential additional EOWG contact info
- JB link WAI-TIDE workpackages & recontact Jaap
- JB should talk to HB off-line on code sample development
- DB will draft quick reference card for discussion
- JA will send JB pointer to InterNic trainings
- JB pursue CD proposal with attention to linkage, stability, and updating
mechanisms
Minutes:
*Please send any corrections to Judy Brewer at jbrewer@w3.org
1. Introductions
Names & organizations as listed above.
2. Administrative
- Contact info
on site, please check accuracy
JB: Please check home page for information and accuracy of info on member
page. Do people want more info linked from that page?
WL: Individual may not be following the "official position"
HB: That's okay if explained individual opinion
JB: Info can be linked from the member name to their own site.
**Send JB the URL's to link. **JB will build a deliverables development
reference list that we can use for our work-space.
- Charter is EOWG point
of reference
JB: Charter has full listing of deliverables, may need to update from time
to time, but good point of reference, please be familiar with.
- Adding members
JB: Need to bring in representatives from projects already involved in
Web accessibility outreach, such as coordinated projects in Nordic countries,
also individuals active in Australia, also projects such as Do-It in Washington
State; not a lot of room to expand group & still have good working
size though.
CL: Suggest Alan Kantor from Canada, doing access outreach with private
sector
WL: NYTimes Cyberpage?
JB: How about generally from the category of developers Web sites,
to get at least one, which in addition to C|Net builder.com, Netscape,
Microsoft are prominent?
WL: ZiffDavis, Webdeveloper.com
DB: Has them all bookmarked, and has some personal contacts, will send
me names
CL: Any Canadian-based members of YRIF?
HB: Would like to see someone from SoftQuad West participating
SS: You want geographic diversity?
JB: Yes
CL: Cynthia Waddell?
CL/PB: Stella O'Brien?
JB: **Please send me e-mail contacts for people mentioned ((I have
Cynthia's)) and I will send Call for Participation & see if they want
to participate at this level or just follow WAI-IG.
- Coordination with
WAI-TIDE educational work-packages
JB: There are WAI efforts funded by the European Commission under the TIDE
Programme, and related or parallel workpackages for education & outreach.
Two liaisons already from WAI-TIDE; Steven Tyler and Jaap Van Lilieveld.
Jaap's mail was bouncing **JB recontact him. **JB will link WAI-TIDE
workpackage descriptions from EO home page.
PB: I'll also be working with Steve and Jaap on these items.
- Agenda review
JB: Would like us to focus on planning several deliverables today: FAQ's;
curriculum modules (slide-set version); interactive CD; promotion materials
if time. Want to use EOWG for planning, concept development; some
deliverables development to be subcontracted. Agenda itmes to add?
WL: A nag on the WAI Bulletin. Said would go out in February.
JB: Yes. Starting a mini-update on WAI Interest Group list today, this
won't be full bulletin because it won't have full project context &
is just going to WAI IG not the whole public. Still trying to get
bulletin out.
3. HTML4 & CSS2 FAQ's
JB: So far we have an HTML4 access features write-up http://www.w3.org/WAI/References/html4-access
and a CSS2 access features write-up http://www.w3.org/WAI/References/css2-access
, both narrative with some technical material. Do we need more or
less technical pieces? - briefer pieces? - need people to review
existing, propose related versions.
WL: Authoring tools working group has focused in depth on one item,
to explain to people more how things work.
DB: May need different versions for different levels.
JB: We want to do different levels.
DB: Commitment to different levels very useful. Very simple versions
would be popular. Quick reference card, for teachers for instance.
JB: A reference card would be related to WAI page authoring guidelines.
Level is audience-dependent. To focus on the more technical document,
what kind of content needs to be included? Tables?
HB: The appendix to CSS2 has samples worked out in excellent detail.
Massive detail, and massive ways to go astray. HB is writing up more
detailed section. Also writing XML variants of this theme.
JB: Focus is on creating a developer's reference?
HB: Recommended practices, as opposed to requirements.
JB: What areas most needed?
WL/CL: Interactive input forms.
DB: Style sheets.
MN: Integration of style sheet language into HTML document. Linking
external styles.
JB: How to synchronize our style sheet developers reference work with
uneven style sheet implementations in user agents and authoring tools?
WL: There are problems with the core style sheets. They're not
accurate.
SS: We should have code samples of style sheets now. We should
go ahead.
HB: Keyboard shortcuts.
JB: Documentation available but needs to be more prominent.
HB: Voice-command activation equivalents?
JB: That item should be handed off to the three guidelines working
groups.
WL: Example code is best gotten from referring to sample code.
Hakon Lie & Chris Lilly have excellent material.
JB: **JB should talk to HB off-line on code sample development.
For the quick reference card, how do we deal with the issue of linking
to an unstable document? The WAI page authoring guidelines may be
in for another major revision.
WL: The checklist will be most used... we can build off of that, it's
stable. Or use Phill Jenkin's.
CL: Not sure that the checklist is stable.
JB: (Just skimmed through headings of checklist & number of items.)
Too extensive. Too much likelihood checklist will change significantly.
But we can talk about format for quick reference card now.
PB: Needs a standard intro. Why access is an issue for some users.
SS: Needs some links for more info so can keep your page short.
DB: http://www.rit.edu/~easi/verne gives an example of a "show-me"
resource to back up a quick reference card. Will draft a quick reference
card.
[brief discussion of time left on call; decided to skip "curriculum
modules: slide-set versions" for now because timeliness of CD discussion]
4. Interactive CD
JB: Possibility of developer and possible funding for CD. Questions
include: who specifically is the audience? what content to include: business
case; guidelines; samples of "good" and "bad" design; evaluation tools;
project description/overview; links to other resources; demonstrations;
other? -theme/approach of CD: what gets & keeps people's interest?
KB: Experience with HWG project is that participants have a huge range
of proficiency. Creators, new beginners, to spec experts. Need
enough different kinds of info so that anyone at any level can come in.
Need to be able to get specific types of info. Need as much control
as possible over selecting info. Need demonstration samples.
Some people will want to jump right in.
CL: SGML university gave free CD ROMS with vast archives of mailing
lists. But they included tools & shareware. Gave a good
grounding. Was an accumulation of live examples.
JA: Was looking for training materials. 15-minutes series by
InterNic. Good training series. 15 min deal. Bulleted
chart. **Will send pointer.
DB: One of the things that's been hard: get done what need to get done.
Likes lots of topic areas, without having to wade through 10-page article.
WL: Throws CD ROMS on the shelf, prefers to deal directly with information
on the Web.
HB: CD Rom gets outdated... anything that's on it is out-of-date in
six months, maybe three.
WL: The time is better spent maintaining the stuff on the Web... absolute
maximum life is several months.
HB: Microsoft puts out a monthly update, that's how frequently updates
can be needed.
DB: Create a CD ROM with the links in it to updated information on
the Web. That would help.
KB: What would the intended target audience be? What different
uses? aid for someone teaching someone in a company? What about
other formats?
JA: Video would be excellent for demonstrating what works & doesn't
for access.
JA: Could cobble together info from various shows.
WL: Production would be an issue, who to do it.
DB: CD could still be valuable to get info out; not everyone has the
connectivity yet. How had impetus for the CD come up?
JB: We've had requests for this, it would be a useful resource to be
able to hand out or to have as core reference materials for interactive
workshops.
JA: Agree, a lot of people don't have reliable connectivity... always
before giving presentations have to pull pages with web-whacker as back-up.
JB: Given that we have a potential opportunity for funding for this,
how about if **go ahead with proposal, focusing on linkage to live Web
for updated info, focus on containing most stable resources, have a plan
in place for updating. [general agreement]
[did not get to remaining agenda item of promotional materials]
5. Plan next meeting
dates & agenda items
JB: Same time two weeks from now? [general agreement]
**Date will be Thursday June 11, same time 10:30 to 12:00 noon US EDT.
JB: Agenda items? Continuation of the ones we didn't get to,
and check-in on progress of others?
WL: Also timelines, checkpoints
?: Will the group be meeting in UK?
JB: Yes, and meeting will be in Peterborough (an hour away from Birmingham
by train). Who from this group would be attending so far?
CL: Will
KB: May
PB: Will, also probably Stella O'Brien.
[end call]
Judy Brewer
June 2, 1998