– DRAFT –
W3C Accessibility Maturity Model - TPAC 2022 breakout

<fazio> Maturity Model Link

<Sheri_B-H> FPWD at https://w3c.github.io/maturity-model

Maturity Model

<Irfan_Ali> fazio: welcome to the maturity model presentation. lot of issues were coming out from the WCAG when we started. to ensure that accessibility work is in continuation. big problem in fixing older tech

<Irfan_Ali> ...in our legislation, barriers are supposed to be moved. this model suggests, how to create a process and improvements. it ensures that you have got a sustainable model of accessibility program

<Irfan_Ali> we have worked with Sheri and other folks on this model

<Irfan_Ali> we ran so many push backs in the beginnings. but whatever we have included in this model is to ensure the sustainable model for the accessibility that can work for the large organizations

<Irfan_Ali> Sheri_B-H: some organization are sued and they come up with an argument that we are working on it. and then they get sued again, and this model helps to prevent such problems.

<Sheri_B-H> Communications: Information as it relates to an organization’s accessibility, as well as accessibility of all internal/external communications. Knowledge and Skills: Ongoing education, and outsourcing practices to fill gaps for accessibility operations. Support: Accessibility assistance provided to internal employees and external customers with disabilities. ICT (Information and Communication Technology) Development Life Cycle: Inc[CUT]

<Irfan_Ali> Sheri_B-H: after looking at 6 other maturity models we came up with this list.

<Irfan_Ali> Sheri_B-H: we consider Communications, Knowledge and Skills: support, ICT (Information and Communication Technology) Development Life Cycle, personal, Procurement, and culture dimension

<Irfan_Ali> https://w3c.github.io/maturity-model

<fazio> https://w3c.github.io/maturity-model/#culture-ratings-for-evaluation

<Irfan_Ali> Sheri_B-H: there are four stages in this maturity model including inactive, launch, integrate, and Optimize

<Irfan_Ali> Sheri_B-H: we are also providing the supportive excel-sheet to trial run your own assessment.

<Irfan_Ali> Sheri_B-H: reason for this is because this not a single person or single day operation. requires lot of data collection.

<Irfan_Ali> Sheri_B-H: excel is not optimal but narrative has to be set before we move forward. You can download the template and fill out your own.

<Irfan_Ali> Sheri_B-H: communication is important and they could be like external and internal formal and informal major and minor generated by the organization directly or by third parties under contract to the organization

<Irfan_Ali> Sheri_B-H: we have few non-digital accessibility support here.

<Irfan_Ali> Sheri_B-H: you could add non-digital support or remove and you have that flexibility

<Irfan_Ali> fazio: we have had thisb use-case in the beginning of this model but we have worked on it and it doesn't seems to be problem. remember this is only FPWD and it will get more matured in the future

<Irfan_Ali> janina: the point of FPWD is to gather more information and ideas from the wider community. Experience that the community shares with us help us to mature this.

<Irfan_Ali> Sheri_B-H: in an organization where they are not getting started or not perfect and not doing correctly, it allows to identify the low hanging fruites which helps you to pick them out and target those areas with your resources

<Amanda> https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1fzPlHjHIaSQn9GvpJd86SDpV49U8Beg_iXj6K5aeyGg/edit#gid=1552848103 direct spreadsheet link

<Irfan_Ali> Sheri_B-H: we can take whatever use case you have and utilize them in our documents.

<Irfan_Ali> Sheri_B-H: communication is important and they could be like external and internal, formal and informal, major and minor generated by the organization, directly or by third parties under contract to the organization

<Irfan_Ali> Sheri_B-H: if the resources have the a11y experience then perhaps you do not need any training. but if you dont have those resources then you need a proper training for your resources to keep them up to date with the standards

<Irfan_Ali> fazio: with knowledge and skills are two variables to determine the process of trainings

<Irfan_Ali> jptownley: we have used the digital accessibility maturity model published by other organization. how does those models map to this?

<Irfan_Ali> Sheri_B-H: I wrote this and evolved this maturity model. we built it to be more flexible

<Irfan_Ali> jptownley: whats the utility of level zero in context of actual business audited

<Irfan_Ali> Sheri_B-H: you can use your score based upon the template the determine

<Irfan_Ali> Sheri_B-H: disability equality index, you will get full credit if you do it following the proposed criteria

<Irfan_Ali> fazio: this is a tool of encouragement and guidance about the things to get done.

<Irfan_Ali> jptownley: we have had lot of success using the maturity model with the false sense of success where 100 score is not 100%

<jptownley> false sense

<Irfan_Ali> Sheri_B-H: some company scored the 100 then for 7 months they did not even have any a11y program

<Irfan_Ali> .. it is very important to things looked at the perspective.

Irfan_Ali: this work got my attention
… cannot say much about the company, but I got some new talking points by looking at this document
… and driving within the organization an awareness about Accessibility
… the C-level doesn't understand the tech, but they understand the process
… I particularly like all the parameters, various stages, proof points and dimensions
… I may have some feedback to send to you, Sherri and Fazio

Sheri: Please use Github or send to me

Fazio: Please comment to me or on Github

Janina: this is a public working draft; that is an intent

Fazio: Intel, for example is playing with it

Irfan_Ali: I may want to talk to you

Sheri: not mapping to single employees; what do FAQs look like, are customer support people trained for helping people with assistive technologies, etc.
… feedback loops on all of these are important
… cannot get to higher levels without feedback loops
… we did a retrospective; here's what we did, here is what we need to change
… proof points; goal of the third level
… ICT Development Lifecycle
… we picked ICT purposefully to cover all ICT and different categories

<Irfan_Ali> rssagent, make minutes

Sheri: block of proof points for design, development, experience, quality review
… again, each of four levels is associated with an outcome
… Next one is personnel
… in Personnel focus on recruiting people with disabilities, and strategic engagement with people with disabilities
… other dimensions of DEI

Fazio: One of the justifications

<jptownley> Nothing about us without us.

Fazio: in order to make sure you are testing appropriately, you have to have people with disabilities in the program

<jptownley> Glad to hear you address this.

Fazio: that hands-on experience in the development processes

Sheri: VMWare has a large program
… accessibility needs to be discussed with employees with diabilities
… that is the direct path to how this impacts the accessibility of the end product

Janina: you need to see these people as your colleagues in the lunch room

Sheri: Procurement
… sends wrong message
… and spend a whole lot of time doing accommodations
… Jeff Kline was involved; he wrote the book on strategic accessible procurement
… goes both ways; if I'm buying stuff, or if a company asks me how I'm doiong
… and you can state how you stack up agains the W3C Accessibility Maturity Model
… a vendor reaches out to me frequently
… and that factors into procurement and into other areas as well
… Developed by someone who is experienced in accessibility procurement
… Moving on to Culture
… we has organizational culture with proof points
… integrate into DEI initiatives, W3C initiatives
… culture is last of the dimensions

Fazio: Do we have any questions or comments

Amanda: I'm excited; I think it's very good
… as someone who works with clients on this every day
… this is fantastic
… eager to work with spreadsheet and provide feedback

Fazio: we're looking to figure out the scores and creating an overall picture

Sheri: We are just scoring at the dimension level right now
… scoring has been a contentious topic at W3C in general
… in terms of Silver
… we wanted to settle the behavior down first
… before deciding about scoring at the organizational level

Fazio: it's a tool for continuous improvement
… not necessarily of how mature

Amanda: it's acknowledgement that there is a process

Janina: And that you have a process to go through

Fazio: How do you prove you are taking steps
… not just US, EU, multi-nationals need to do this
… show me you are trying to be accessible
… you can show consumer what you do; what you put behind your accessibility statement

Janina: feedback will be helpful on all areas
… dare I say "dimensions"?
… and how data is collected
… or suggestions on a better spreadsheet
… or some kind of SQL database on the backend to generate reports
… by no means this is the spreadsheet that will show up with the next updated working draft

Sheri: I hope not as well, we want to incorporate feedback

Janina: all aspects are up for comment

Sheri: And open to more participation
… if you are excited, we're down for that
… 8:00am Pacific on Wednesdays

Amanda: Perth, AU

Sheri: I asked protocols group
… they started to alternate every other week
… we can make alterations to meeting times

Makoto: Thank you very much for the presentation
… this is a practical model
… in Japan, web accessibility is not required
… but the number of companies making accessible web sites and apps is increasing
… many companies have not started their efforts yet
… some companies got sued in US
… how would you recommend using this model to companies who are approaching web site accessibility

Sheri: what is the value of a zero
… if you haven't started anything, and starting at zero
… Look at proof points to get you to level one

<jptownley> @makoto would love to connect jptownley@mac.com

<jptownley> may have some insight...

Sheri: if you decided as an organization to invest, that will help you to prioritize a roadmap
… you just want to start by getting to level one

Fazio: If you get a one, you have to acknowledge what you are doing

CharlesL: we created a global certified accessibility program for publishers for EPUBs
… we do score and have multiple sections about images, about tables, etc.
… similar to your dimensions
… each has its own score from one to four
… and you get a detailed report
… you get those each scored, and get an overall score to present to higher levels
… we got a 60% gca score overall
… and look at 3% on tables v 100% on tables
… although usually it's the opposite
… that is how we worked and publishers really responded

Sheri: We built this to be industry agnostic
… but no reason why you cannot integrate it into your own existing maturity model
… maybe you are doing tables at 3% because you don't have the right training

Charles: yes, making comparison about scoring by sections and the overall score

Fazio: and we want to know why and be flexible

Janina: right scoring model is helpful

Jonathan: is there a strategy to map success criteria to these proof points

Sheri: we deliberately divorced from @
… did not want it to impact our delivery timelines
… the ICT section, we could look to expand that
… and look at automated or manual testing

Fazio: we called it WCAG MM at first, then changed it to W3C
… there are other ICTs and other guidance to consider
… for example cognitive is a W3C Note
… so any W3C suggestion, not just WCAG

Janina: and many other normative areas
… others on their way as well
… what exactly...the slice you want to look at at any moment is likely to be changing
… can be expanded but will help industry to compete and to try new approaches
… what's wrong with competing against your competition down the street on doing accessibility better

Janina: instead of how we can avoid it, it's let's do better

Lionel: Can you describe the ecosystem in which you see this working
… the DAM comes along to help companies implement

s/DAMM
… thinking about the ecosystem
… how this tool will be deployed in companies that do not have SMEs to assess themselves

Sheri: It was designed for people to self-administer for people with small knowledge; or they can contract own

Fazio: It's simplified language
… maturity model to be divorced from @
… allow any organization to use

Janina: would it be ok to say it's more of a business model rather than a tech model?

Fazio: yes, when I assembled group, acknowledged that we needed a broader approach
… Accessibile Architectures is the perfect home for us, not just for WCAG; ICT and processes

Lionel: this resembles other process assessments, ISO standards

Fazio: yes, 9001

Lionel: Have you comment on that?
… if it is indeed like ISO 9001?
… there is a huge ecosystem of consultants that pile in
… can you comment?

Fazio: That was my initial proposal
… we got Sheri and Jeff involved
… and they brought in this expertise
… and looked at gaps in the other standards or approaches
… did not want to re-create a new ISO model

Sheri: ISO is pay to play
… you cannot download the guidelines
… without spending a lot of money
… this is more flexible, versus ISO being more rigid

Fazio: 9001 is do what you say, which is what we've got here

Lionel: the PDAA...something similar?

Sheri: Jeff can speak to that
… I have to drop now
… appreciate everyone participating
… Please continue the conversation

Janina: we are out of time

Fazio: Happy to answer quesitons

Janina: we need to leave for another meeting

David: I had this on my calendar for tomorrow
… listening to conversation; good comments and feedback
… Important thing about this organizational model
… not sure if you coverd it
… if you do those things, you have a hell of a systems
… and it's for customers of companies

<jptownley> ...is there a possibility of getting that spreadsheet as a xls file in the GitHub, rather than a google doc.

<jptownley> ?

David: and you can ask them for a maturity model and ask them to share the results, assuming they answer successfully
… It is a valuable procurement tool
… and an enablement tool to build the capacity to have all the pieces in place to be a fully accessible organization

Fazio: yes, we talked about that
… Jeff was a big part about this
… thank him also for his hard work

Amanda: how can I be involved?

Fazio: we are TF of APA
… Wed 8am PT

Janina: asynchronous is possible
… if org is member, get nominated to APA
… individual, maybe could become an IE

[adjourned]