Community Collaboration

misc

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CSUN 2012 session

Web Accessibility Community Collaboration CSUN session
Published Description: This session invites discussion of new opportunities for community collaboration to provide updated accessibility guidance that meets a range of needs, from beginner to advanced.
from proposal: Web accessibility expertise has developed around the world. A web search for "web accessibility resource" yield tens of thousands of results. How to we harvest the wealth of knowledge to provide:

Clear, concise guidance for beginners.
A forum for discussions among experts on the more complex issues.
Support for a diverse needs.

For over 15 years there have been various efforts to bring together the web accessibility community. For example, the W3C Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) provides an open Interest Group, dedicated Working Groups, and new Community Groups. Several organizations provide e-mail and other discussion forums, and new groups keep forming, for example, on LinkedIn. Collaboration tools such as wikis are becoming more common. What can we learn from these past efforts to inform future efforts? Based on experiences from past efforts that have succeeded and failed, the panel will address issues such as:

How to maximize input from individuals with little time to devote to it. Often those with the most expertise have the least amount of time to contribute.
How to manage the signal to noise ratio – that is, how to isolate the main points and conclusions from within lots of discussion and tangential issues.
How to provide a forum for discussion of difficult issues among “experts” while not clouding the overall web accessibility picture for beginners and those who just want the easy, quick answers.
How to meet the diverse needs for web accessibility support. For example, an analysis of those seeking information on web accessibility identified 32 user groups categorized as web developers and content providers, tool developers, managers and assistants to managers, disability focused, related to contracts, many others.

W3C WAI stuff

Participating in WAI
Web Education Community Group, notes on accessibility section, EOWG work on Curriculum & Course Materials - Note: anyone may join Community Groups!
WAI accessibility support database
WAI-ACT Project

possible low-hanging fruit

wiki page for listing "Advocacy groups of people with disabilities, of older people, or others, [that] may be interested in contacting the organization about their inaccessible website." in support of Contacting Organizations about Inaccessible Websites
wiki page for recruiting/finding people with disabilities to help with early evaluation, in support of Getting a Range of Users (for Involving Users in Web Projects for Better, Easier Accessibility & Involving Users in Evaluating Web Accessibility)