WAI EOWG Notes, February 19, 1999

Scribe: Chuck Letourneau
Posted by: Judy Brewer
Last updated: March 4, 1999

Attendees | Actions | Updates | WAIcard | Brochure | Demonstration | Calendar | Alternative Browsers | Film | Next

Meeting started with bridge problems -- noisy line, etc.

ATTENDEES

JA: Jim Allan - Texas School for the Blind
HB: Harvey Bingham Yuri Rubinsky Insight Foundation
JB: Judy Brewer (chair) W3C WAI
KC: Kevin Carey - RNIB England
DD: Daniel Dardailler - W3C WAI
SL: Sophie Latulipe - Montreal Quebec
CL: Chuck Letourneau (note-taker) Starling Access Services, Ottawa
CMN: Charles McCathieNevile - W3C WAI
SS: Sheela Sethuraman: CAST (joined late)
WL: William Loughborough (joined later)

ACTION ITEM SUMMARY

• BF from last meeting: review of events page by CL, WL
• All who want "literature stuffer" to send note to WAI-QUICKTIPS@W3.ORG (see Outreach item #1 below for details)
• JA to send URL for Texas report to the list.
• SS to remind CAST Bobby team about coordination with WAI
• JB to start talking to some design houses about the possibilities for test sites. (see Item 4)
• JA to update Events page with suggestions from discussion (see Item 5)
• DD to look at getting an e-mail alias for event-calendar submissions (see Item 5)
• JB to update EO home page and get minutes of past meetings on line.
• JB update policy page to include Portuguese petition progress
• JB review/comment on CSS draft note then circulate to EOWG

AGENDA:

1) Outreach & Updates

• JB Literature stuffer is done! who wants how many? need feedback on format. 2500 already shipped to CSUN
  HB: thinks he needs 500 and needs them by next Friday - will coordinate needs with Judy.
  Chuck would like 50.
  Sheela would like 50.
  Jim Allan would like 50.
  Send mail to : Wai-quicktips@w3.org
  Say "Hi Ron, can you please ship 50 (or whatever) literature stuffers to this address (in what timeline) as per discussion with Judy" and cc Judy on it.
• DD Made a presentation in Paris last week: a congress organised by BrailleNet - he presented WAI and work going on in the Working Groups. Some opportunities for co-ordination in Argentina.
• JA Texas report is out on their network study: "Computer network study on using in schools" IT had a sub group on accessibility. Any interactive computer based textbooks that are used by students should conform to the WAI guidelines. Will send the URL to the list.
  JB: what weight does this report have?
  JA: it is just a report to the legislature, and will begin attempts to put it into law in the next six months (at which point the political fighting will begin). He is expecting opposition from mainstream publishing groups, but is reasonably hopeful that some legislation will be enacted. The report is being widely disseminated.
  JB: Jim, have you looked at the EO policy page recently? http://www.w3.org/WAI/References/Policy. This item should go in the US section.
  JA: No.
  JB: Look at Australia example: national and state: relevant documents would be where the URL of Jim's document. Judy will link in documents or discussion information.
  HB: Chuck's information about the Government of Canada should be similarly treated.
• Portuguese petition went to Parliament earlier this week
• JB will be updating WAI-TIDE deliverables plans over next several weeks. JB: doesn't affect RNIB. Hoping to have good things to talk about re EU in the next few weeks.
  HB: asked about a book being written by RNIB (that was mentioned in the EO deliverable's list?
  KC: is going ahead, but not directly his area - Helen Petrie to co-ordinate with Judy on this.
• CSS draft NOTE revisions underway
  JB to comment & circulate revised version to EOWG.
• JB updated deliverables page some.
• Upcoming presentations:
• JB doing a presentation in Florida on Monday at National Science Foundation, Human Computer Interface Conference & meeting with representatives from Organization for American States.
• HB Bobby 3 - beta is now released.
  JB Coordination with WAI?
  SS: Michael Cooper is the person at CAST responsible for Bobby. Will remind him to coordinate with Judy, Gregg and Chuck.
  JB: asked Sheela to check on the beta status of the product at the default home page because that has caused problems for WAI in the past.
  SS: will inform them.
  JB: NOTE-this item was in error. Cleared up thanks to Sheela's quick follow-up.

2) Additional question on WAI card production

• new format question
  JB: can get decent price on "vinyl card", thin, not glossy, but slightly smaller that a standard business card. Had to drop the word "for" from the "For complete guidelines…".
  Decision: Keep "for" and reduce space requirement by going to lower caps. Maybe play with leading.
• quantity options
  For a little more dollars, we can get 50000 cards instead of 25000. Do we want?
  All: Unclear. JB's decision.

3) Review of flyer second draft

• postponed till following week

4) Re-discussion of demonstration/tutorial site approach

• need to start over & subcontract
  JB: what we had wanted was several dummy web sites mocked up to be exemplary accessible sites that would showcase all the different accessible techniques that we could from the guidelines that would be theme oriented - e-commerce, multimedia/education oriented, a web-portal type, etc. WinWriters had volunteered but they decided that they couldn't do it
• contribution from WinWriters to assist
  However, they agreed to contribute to someone else doing it.
• lessons learned: challenges: (1) familiarity/learning curve; (2) credible & relevant multimedia content
  WinWriters felt that the sites should be populated by relevant materials that he didn't feel were readily available.
  JB: would like to contract it to a design house. Do people have any new ideas about this sort of thing, any new approaches?
  No new ideas were immediately forthcoming.
  HB: sees the principle use for a test suite for ER group. Bobby should make them pass with flying colour. There should also be bad sites.
  SS: Agrees that there should be bad sites.
  SL: disagrees, since people use code from sites, giving them bad examples might confuse.
  SS: thinks that showing bad is good to remind people of what they do that is incorrect.
  JA: unless it is too confusing, why not create a site using all the good stuff, and a similar looking site that uses all the bad stuff too.
  HB: or do a makeover of an inaccessible site.
  SL: concerned that people wouldn't take the time to look at things in detail.
  CL: sees these things as proof of accessibility for managers.
  CMN: agrees.
  JB: if one of the most significant uses will be as proofs, what should we do differently than we already have come up with?
  CL: nothing different than that was proposed.
  SL: what about a tutorial site that walks you through with instructional material
  JB: what about a proof site with the parallel site showing instructional material.
  ACTION ITEM: Judy in the next few weeks to start talking to some design houses about the possibilities.

5) Events calendar checking

• how soon ready to go public
  JA: updated - in discussions with Daniel, decided to go with simple mail-to instead of interactive form. Event listing is at http://www.w3.org/wai/eo/eo-events.html
  JB: the link to the past conferences should go at the top of the page. JA: people haven't been sending information to the list, so Jim and Kitch can't say who has been speaking.
  JB: but you aren't even asking people to submit.
  JA: will add some text to do that.
  JB: the other stuff needs a link from the top of the page or a better header or some raising of profile. Need to make difference between the lists calendar and the other stuff.
  Consensus: add a redirector link to the other sections.
  JB: asked Daniel if we had planned to set up some input-alias, like "WAI-EVENTS" to take Jim and Kitch's e-mail addresses off the page.
  HB: also always put the submission date whether it is closed or not. Mention closed if appropriate, but leave the dates in.

6) Alternative browser resource page

• an updated version for review?
  JB: nothing to say on this at the moment - the page hasn't been updated. Will re-check with Peter.

7) RNIB film dissemination

• update on film preparation
  JB: Steve Tyler and Kevin Carey are not on the call now, so would like to skip this until a later call.

8) Other? Next meetings?

Friday, February 26, 8:30-10
Then March 5, 12, 26,
with a face-to-face at CSUN on Saturday, March 20 in the afternoon