Digital Accessibility Eldering Project
Background
In 2018, at the AccessU accessibility training conference in Austin, there was a discussion between Wendy Chisholm, Lainey Feingold, and Sharron Rush about eldering in the accessibility community. In early 2019, Alan Cantor brought the discussion to CSUN. The overarching goal is to foster eldering within the digital accessibility community.
The first tangible initiative that has emerged from these discussions was the need to update digital accessibility information presented on Wikipedia. To prioritize and organize that effort, we started this repository. In December of 2019, the group determined that the overall project needed a name and that there were other platforms - YouTube for example - that needed related content. As well there is a need for mentoring and community development. A space below was created to brainstorm titles for the project and initiatives like mentoring and the creation of a YouTube archive. These activities are open to anyone with interest and time to help. Thank you!
About Eldering
Eldering is a concept related to a guidance or mentoring type role within a community. As the community of digital accessibility grows, this group agreed to approach the idea of eldering deliberately and to begin to put some structures in place to help our community grow coherently and to preserve and integrate its history into the larger history of disability rights. "In 2006, The Eldering Institute began using the word "Eldering" to distinguish "wisdom in action"—with the focus on action." ~ from the Wikipedia article on Eldering.
Participating in this group
- Since eldering is related to community, we hope to receive broad community input.
- One easy step would be to add your ideas here on this wiki.
- To do that, you must join WAI-Engage the community group that oversees this project.
- Joining a community group requires a (free) W3C account. if you do not have one, you can Request free W3C account
Current Initiatives
The Digital Accessibility Eldering Project currently pursues the following initiatives:
- Building and documenting the narrative of how digital accessibility relates to the history of the disability rights movement.
- Updates on Wikipedia
- Compile Video Archives
- Mentors in Digital Accessibility
Naming Project and Initiatives
Overall Project
We have tentatively named the Project with the title of this page. Other ideas are welcome. Here is a format to put your naming suggestions and why:
- [My idea] - [Rationale] [Your Name]
Suggesting New Initiatives
Here is a format for suggested new initiatives you would like to see become part of this project
- Example YouTube Channel - for people to post historical videos to a safe repository. Submitted by Mike and Alan at the meeting of 18 December this suggested YouTube channel initiative will be created when we have agreed on a name. Suggest names for this initiative in the following format:
- [Name of Channel] - [Rationale] [Your Name]
Current Participants in this project
- Alan Cantor
- Wendy Chisholm
- Lainey Feingold
- Nandita Gupta
- Angela Hooker
- Mike Paciello
- John Rochford
- Sharron Rush
- Lori Samuels
- Doug Schepers
- Natalie Patrice Tucker
- Elle Waters
- [add your name]
Meeting Minutes
Several undocumented meetings/discussion occurred, included those to plan presentations at AccessU 2018, CSUN 2019, round table sessions at AccessU2019, and more. In November 2019, Mike Paciello agreed to lead project organization and implementation. Notes from subsequent meetings are linked below.