CSS animations, human rights, and big accessibility at the AB Web Meetup

Early July the W3C Advisory Board (AB) met for a face to face in Rotterdam, The Netherlands, hosted by Logius. We used the occasion to organise a get-together with the local developer community. The “Web Meetup” featured three talks looking at web standards in different ways (along with ample time to mingle). We heard about the latest in animations on the web, the process by which web standards are developed and reviewed, and looked at some of the history and application of accessibility guidelines.

About 50 of us got together at Level Level, a Rotterdam-based digital agency that was kind enough to host the meetup. We welcomed web developers, standards folks, accessibility specialists, and designers, who firmly shared one thing: a keen interest in making the web a better place.

A more creative web

Cyd Stumpel, freelance creative developer and teacher at the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences, started off, showing us how scroll driven animations work in practice. She explained what they are and how you can implement them today, while not all browsers support all of the features yet. Holding her microphone in one hand, typing on her laptop's keyboard with the other, she bravely live-coded various demos, directly in a browser (obviously). Pressed by an attendee, Cyd also shared a bit about the website she created for the fish doorbell project. It was great to see the evolution of the web in practice in this talk, and hear from someone so deeply immersed into actually applying the standards to the web, both as a teacher and developer herself.

A more ethical web

Dan Appelquist, of the AB, then presented on human rights and web standards. “Technology without ethics”, he explained, “makes inequality worse”. And W3C is clearly committed to this. According to Ethical Web Principles, “The web should also support human rights, dignity, and personal agency”, and the W3C Vision says that “The web is designed for the good of all people”. Both documents were quoted when the UN's High Commissioner on Human Rights challenged W3C and others to think more deeply about human rights when we develop standards. At W3C, Dan explained, “horizontal review” groups scrutinise our work from angles like accessibility, privacy, internationalisation, and security, which are all areas specifically related to human rights and ethics. Wide review contributes to realising the Vision and aligning standards with human rights.

A more accessible web

After a short break, Cynthia Shelly, accessibility consultant and long time standards contributor, closed off the talks part of the event. She told us no less than five stories from her history in “Big Accessibility”. From making Microsoft's MSN portal work with WCAG 1 during the “portal wars”, which got her to join the Working Group back then, to dealing with inaccessible brand colours that were used to dye so many barista's aprons that changes were out of the question. An important lesson: a lot of making standards work in your organisation is a people challenge more than a technical one.

More AB meetups

We at the AB really enjoyed the meetup, and got great feedback from attendees. I personally loved to see different web-focused communities get this opportunity to meet, and hope we will run similar meetups in the future. The AB sees this kind of activity as part of our work in helping to connect W3C to the wider community. Through events like this, we can make web standards work more visible, encourage greater participation, and ensure that we’re getting feedback directly from those most impacted by our work.