– DRAFT –
Cognitive and Learning Disabilities Accessibility Task Force Teleconference

Update from AG meeting yesterday

Julie: How was the AG all-day meeting

jeanne: The meeting was pretty good. We did make progress, but not as much progress as we wanted.
… we aren't going to change what we are doing now. We didn't make a decision on conformance. There was good support for "stacked outcomes" where outcomes build on each other.

<julierawe> https://docs.google.com/document/d/1JKJ32DK_A82ahsQ_k0RVPc-ZYpX5uuKtuGOLdo2OqyY/edit#heading=h.ofc72f1ys4p0

What to work on next

Julie: Should we work on an assertion?

Jeanne: I think it would help to have a built out assertion as an example. Right now, there aren't any built out examples.

Julie: My concern is that if we build an assertion, people would give up on detailed tests and just rely on an assertion.

John: I looked up assertion and saw some examples online. Do we want to create our own or piggy-back on others?

Julie: We acknowledge in a plain language assertion that there is a large body of reserach that we are drawing from from a variety of countries

EA: If we don't create an assertion, otherwise someone else could do one that is difficult to understand. If we do it, we can do it well.

Julie: Let's try it.

Clear Language Assertion

Clear Language Working Draft

<JohnRochford> https://www.plainlanguage.gov/resources/articles/revisiting-plain-language/

<JohnRochford> https://formatically.com/how-to-write-assertions

Jeanne: I like the part about Back it All Up, and Be Clear and Concise

<JohnRochford> http://www.administrativerules.org/archive/2006/summer/conference/info/presentations/20060710-2pm-Plain_Language.pdf

Julie: A plain language review was conducted

Jeanne: And the suggestions were implemented

Julie: I think we want to make companies make a statement that they did a plain language review.

JohnR: For example, 20% of our employees are trained in plain language.

EA: Could we say that we follow these guideline published by the EU?

JohnR: How can they prove it?

EA: They can't. They keep them in a file drawer and have to bring them out and show they did them.

JohnK: In the US, we have to do it for US federal law, and make an attestation that we followed it.

Julie: If we said X% of our employees have received a training?

EA: There is a way that we can link to the rules they used. Probably every country has plain language guidelines.

John: Is it present Yes/No? Is there a link to the plain language guidelines that this entity is following?

Jan: +1 to JohnR. It would be difficult to prove that a tranining happened. But we can say "the resources are available in the company.

<EA> +1 to JohnR's idea as well

Julie: In my website, the engineers are not content creators, would they be required to be trained or know that the resources exist?

Jan: Would they ever know that the repository of information exists?
… large companies have global policies and there is training so that people know they exist.

JohnR: I like that we are effective with the least amount of burden. It makes it more likely that people will do it.

Jan: "Here are our resources, and internally, they are reminded annually where they are located."
… THey also should be available to vendors, so third party developers of content know about them and use them.
… and optionally they should link to them

Julie: Do they boil down to bullets:
… We assert that we have a link to plain language resources on our employee training.

Jan: Companies have required training. Code of conduct, security training, and everyone has to take it. As a part of their global annual training, here is where our guidelines are and available to employees.

Julie: I want to see some more teeth in it. Just having a link to a website is apt to be ignored.

[suggestions for bronze, silver, gold (or stacked outcomes)]

EA: When the site has to use complex language, that a glossary is included..

JohnR: Or a plain language summary.

Jeanne: THose are measurable, so they can be addressed elsewhere.

JohnR: We assert we do 3 of these X things.

Bronze: We assert that we have a link to a plain-language guideline in our employee resources. [INSERT LINK HERE]

Bronze: We assert our editorial guidelines include plain language XYZ.

Bronze: We assert we include plain-language summaries at the top of of XYZ

Silver: We assert this plain-language guideline is part of our organization’s annual training.

Gold: We assert X% of our content creators have received training in plain-language guidelines.

Gold: We assert X% of our pages have been reviewed by an editor trained in plain language.

JohnR: We could come up with a system with a weighting process of what is the most important

EA: For example, at a university, most of the pages are made by 3rd parties. THey couldn't do it.

Julie: Think about it next week.