Digital Accessibility Updates for Wikipedia

From WAI-Engage: Web Accessibility Community Group

Background

This is an initiative of the Digital Accessibility Eldering Project. Its purpose is to integrate more of the history of digital accessibility into existing pages on Wikipedia and to create an overarching narrative with links to relevant topics and biographies of key people. Bio pages will be created as they relate to the narrative as described below.

Goals

  • Provide a space to organize and accomplish Wikipedia edits to reflect the importance of digital accessibility in the disability rights movement.
  • Identify key contributors to the effort and start or update personal profile pages.
  • Embellish disability history pages with digital leadership and advocacy efforts.

How to Edit Wikipedia

  1. You may create wikipedia pages based on people's lives and relation to the larger narrative of disability rights.
  2. You may also edit disability history pages directly if you are a wikipedia editor.
  3. ...please add other ideas about how we might move this initiative forward.

What needs updating?

Existing pages

Suggestions for pages that could use accessibility references or content enhancements:

Suggested New Topic pages

  • Digital Accessibility
  • Accessibility Professional/Specialist

From 2020-05-27 discussion between Alan Cantor, Mike Gifford, Doug Schepers, John Rochford

Topic edits on Wikipedia

Mike Gifford sent detailed "how to" edit topics methodology as follow up to the May 25, meeting. That information is amended to the minutes document.

Suggested featured topics

  • Oral history of AT, UCONN, 10 years ago
  • Accessibility Timeline
  • Raised Dot Computing
  • ICADD International Committee of Document Design
  • SGML
  • Berkeley Systems
  • Apple Outspoken
  • EMACS Speak and PDF
  • AAC devices
  • Words Plus single switch interface
  • Closing the Gap
  • Stanford Special Collections Library
  • Stanford History of Accessible Technology
  • Echo Speech Synthesizer
  • Assistive Technology Oral History Project, Tufts NE Development Center
  • Space Shot 1996
  • Web Adapt to Me

Suggested New Biography pages

Approach:

To add to the list of suggested biographies, consider the narrative of the history of the digital accessibility movement and how your candidate fits into and contributed to the narrative.

We provided Wendy Chisholm as a template for you to use.

In edit mode, use the formatting from the example and replace the text with your submission. Please include the following information for any suggested additions to the list:

  • Name
  • One sentence summary of contribution to digital accessibility
  • Links to online works or references to work or biographical information

Wendy Chisholm (example)

Suggested Bios to Develop:

  • [add your candidate using the template above]
  • ...