The meeting convened with the purpose of debriefing from the March face to face meeting and reaching common understanding about upcoming work and prioritization. Summaries were given by the face to face leads of specific topics including role-based accessibility (Denis), Training/Teaching curriculum materials (Howard), Website redesign & new pages (Brent for Shawn), open issues in the Policies work (Robert), Selecting authoring tools requirements analysis (Shadi for Nic), Integrating user stories (Brent), Understanding WCAG 2.1 docs (Shadi), and Business Case (Sharron). These are all currently active projects and will have updates and deliverables within the next few weeks. In looking at current work, Brent emphasized the importance of the Understanding docs. Norah is supporting Shadi in meeting the expectations of the AGWG and has an ambitious schedule for the sub-group to follow to ensure that goals are met. They are waiting for the green light from AGWG and will begin processing the review as soon as possible. Brent asked to confirm the participation of those who had earlier stepped up to do this work and finalized that at the time of the meeting, the group was designated as led by Shadi and Norah supported by Chris, Vivienne, Sylvie, Brent, Robert, and Nic. A survey will ask for any additional help that is able to be provided by EOWG participants. Brent invited the group to review the dynamic table on the wiki page to review the work EO is chartered to accomplish. Current Charter Work. As the meeting wrapped up, Denis shared two possible names for his roles project. Those are ARBOR - Accessibility Role Breakdown Ownership Responsibilities or Ra11y - Role-based Accessibility (Matrix). The group preferred the Ra11y Matrix. Brent wrapped up with reminders to complete attendance surveys and stay up with work for this week. Thanks all!
Brent: Today's meeting will be mostly informational since we are introducing new projects and hoping for participation. Will start with the F2F debrief.
<Brent> F2F Meeting Summary: https://www.w3.org/WAI/EO/wiki/EOWG_F2F_March_2018#Post-Meeting_Summary
Brent: Please take a look at the page and we will quickly go through, refresh our memory and look at a few things that have happened since. First is the topic of Role Based accessiiblity. Denis would you like to summarize?
Denis: I brought colleagues from
Optum Bill and Sean, recently joined as IEs, who have worked
with me on this for quite a while.
... since we chose to bring the work to EO, we wanted to pitch
our high level concepts and approach, including the
definition of various stakeholders during the life cycle of a
project. On Day 1, we had interest from Sarah and others on
participating in the small group. On Day 2, we looked at the
issues in more detail. Since then, we met with Brent to further define the scope, including being clear about what is not in scope.
...Brent will get back to us with EO expectations and so the next couple of weeks will be developing the requirements documentation and project plan.
There are 4 of us working on this so far - including Caitlin
from Deque who is providing context for the UX role. Our goal
is to ensure that roles are represented by someone who
actually works in that role in real life.
Brent: Status of Sarah and Bree?
<Chris> They were both at the F2F in San Diego
<shadi> https://www.w3.org/2000/09/dbwg/details?group=35532&public=1
Shadi: Sarah's company is a
member, Bree's company is not and we will have to investigate the
possibility of her being an Invited Expert.
... if Denis' colleague is going to actively participate, she
should join EOWG.
Sharron: If over time, they bring in consultants to provide perspective on that role, would it be too much to expect each of those to go through the process of becoming invited experts?
Shadi: I wouold like to get Shawn's perspective on this but it seems to me to be prudent if they will significantly contribute even to a part of the process, it would be best to have the formal status.
Brent: OK will follow up with
Shawn
... and Denis I am aware that I owe you some feedback and will
get that to you next week. Next was the curriculum development
and Howard is the lead on that. Howard?
Howard: I worked on the detail for the proposal, getting more specific about what the curriculum would cover - that was my primary focus on Tuesday. Need to clean it up and polish for submission back to EO. I received so much good feedback at the F2F and now must incorporate it into the plan and bring back to the group.
Sharron: timeline for that?
Howard: Next two to three weeks.
Sharron: Can put it on the planning meeting agenda for the 25th.
Howard: Sounds good.
Brent: Thanks Howard, next was the redesign. People made good comments, we changed the order for a few items. On Tuesday they went through the few remaining open issues, implementing the resolutions, tweaking the site. We are in beta release now and by the week of the 16th we will do the full release (as currently planned and understood.) Then will need to do outreach.
[post-meeting correction: We plan to have the updated beta the week of 23 April. We will announce and promote that more widely. We hope to replace the existing site in May.]
Shadi: Maybe the following week.
Brent: Yes that may be better since Eric is on true vacation for two weeks.
Laura: I was curious why we have not announced the beta version. Did we decide we did not want to get that wide feedback?
Shadi: Yes there were known issues and decided not to widely broadcast until that was done.
[post-meeting correction: We announced it on 15 March, and were eager for wide feedback:
* WAI IG e-mail
* EOWG e-mail
* Tweet
After we address known issues, we plan to do more announcements and promotion of the beta. That will likely be the week of 23 April.]
Brent: There is a link to the
current status, known issues and ways to comment.
... it is on the f2f summary page
<Brent> WAI Redesign Information: https://github.com/w3c/wai-website/wiki/W3C-WAI-Website-Redesign-Information
Brent: Eric and Shawn keep this
as current as possible, when people comment, they are driven to
that link to raise issues.
... anything else on this?
... open issues in GitHub were reveiwed by Sharron and Brent to identify what could be addressed at the f2f. We were able to consider many of them, closed several, and made good progress during our meeting. We will continue to work through them.
Robert: We have a couple of things listed as next steps and I can nudge Sarah and Andrew and some Canadian participants to make progress by the May f2f.
Brent: If we need the time to work on these issues at the May f2f please tke the initiative to add to the agenda for May.
Robert: Yes, there is one especially. The question about the relationship to the UN resolution / Convention - I recall
Shadi was going to inquire at the W3C about the importance of
including/aligning with the policy page.
... I can add to the agenda to encourage us to do homework in
preparation for the f2f.
Brent: And anyone else, if you
have something to add to the f2f agenda, projects or issues
that you would like to spend time on.
... next is the Authoring Tools, Shadi can you update us?
Shadi: It is an ancient document, Nic had prepared the document analysis, he was leaning toward a very simple page similar to Selecting Eval Tools that he had worked on with Laura. Then later can extend to provide information about using the tools. Keeping Selecting and Using as separate docs. Was bringing that concept back to EO. That is my recollection.
Brent: Thanks for the update, I
know it is Nic's doc to edit and appreciate your
recollection.
... we looked at User stories and decided that we would try to go
back to the original stories we have and try to refer to them
rather than create new users. If we needed to add
characteristics to existing users creating robust user profiles
that will occur throughout WAI documents as user experince is
needed to illustrate concpets.
... next was the Understanding documents for WCAG 2.1. Norah is
supporting Shadi in leading on this and Shadi will tell us more
later in the meeting. Then we looked at progress on the Business Case.
Sharron:Appreciated
that the group looked at the resource on Tuesday and let me sit
in on Webex. Looked at latest work on the general
direction.
...Since the
F2F meeting, I have heard from some organization and have more
case studies to bring to the group in the next few weeks.
Brent: Any additional comments?
Brent: In the last year, we have
been so focused on the redesign effort, which was complex due to the
updates to our resources as well as the technical redesign.
EO partiicpants were often confused and overwhelmed by the abundance of resources and projects
going on at the same time. We will now be able to have a more
focused effort. We have a list of what projects we will drive over the
next few months so we can make the contributions to
complete them sequentially and with greater focus
and concentration.
...The first of these is the
new Understanding documents for WCAG2.1 including revisions
needed for existing Understanding docs.
Shadi: Yes, thanks Brent. This
emerged during the TPAC f2f. It is known that the Understanding
documents have not historically been easy to use. AG is
considering taking these out of the technical specifications
and making them less formal, easier to change and update and
easier to integrate into the QuickRef and easier to link to
related tutorials or guidance. That is the long term
vision.
... for now, working with the existing format, we will support
the Understanding group in the production of the new docs. We
will provide editorial input, making what is produced as
readable, usable, and helpful as possible.
... the issue really is that they are so busy developing the
SCs themselves, the Understanding docs have been delayed and
now are behind. 17 new Understanding docs will be needed within
the next 2 months.
Shadi: Norah has developed a
streamlined process that will allow us to bring a forked GitHub
version to the subgroup for one week of review, Norah and I
will aggregate the comments and provide one more chance to look
at them before sending to AG as a pull request so they can
accept or reject.
... given that we will have about 17 docs in 7 weeks. While it
is a lot, it is quite focused and so we are optimistic and will
try to avoid discussion topics and instead will try to give
specific editorial suggestions.
... it will provide us all with greater familiarity with the new
Understanding docs.
... We have people who have signed on to the small group review
and others are welcome.
Sharron: Are there implications for existing SCs?
Shadi: Not at this time, probably
so in the future.
... we can use this excercise to inform the process and maybe
provide insight into how they may improve the overall development
and help with that but that is for the future.
Chris: When do you foresee getting the ball rolling (for scheduling purposes)
Shadi: We hope every week to have
something to begin with to start the process. They want to
publish in June so I am expecting any day the first batch of
things to do.
... thanks for being ready Chris.
Brent: The support team for this
was developed when people were heads down on document revision
for the redesign effort. Shadi and Norah supported by Chris,
Vivienne, Sylvie, Brent, Denis, Robert.
... now I will ask anyone else who now that you understand the
time frame and the process you are ready to support the
effort?
Nic: I also would like to help.
<Sylvie> Still ok for me to help
Denis: I am going to withdraw, I want to dedicate my time to the role based project that we just launched.
Brent: I will follow up with
those who typically attend the Thursday meeting and update the
list and send to Norah so you know who to involve when you are
ready to go.
... the Business Case is still in development and will be
prioritizing the completion of that over the next few weeks. The
WAI site redesign update and minor updates to content, most
does not need approval but the content that needs approval
will be brought to meetings or survey.
<Brent> Current work: https://www.w3.org/WAI/EO/wiki/EOWG_Current_Projects#Upcoming_work
Brent: Finally there are current
projects listed on the wiki that also includes the charter work
and what we are expected to accomplish by W3C. The table is
dynamic
... it will change as we complete or change timelines. Want to
focus on the link to upcoming and current work. Note that the
Accessibility Statement is part of that and Shadi will be bringing it forward
in the next couple of weeks.
... wanted you to know where to find the map to what we are
trying to accomplish in the next few weeks.
Denis: I know you are expecting a project name from us. We have come up with 2 options. They are:
<dboudreau> ARBOR - Accessibility Role Breakdown Ownership Responsibilities
<dboudreau> RA11y - Role-based Accessibility (Matrix)
ISharron: I like Ra11y
<Howard> I like Rally
<vavroom> I vote for Ra11y
<Chris> RA11y for me as well
Brent: The background is as we develop a project plan wiki page, I asked for a name.
<rjolly> Ra11y
<dboudreau> Bill, Sean and myself kinda liked either, but I think we'll be fine with whichever you guys prefer
<Chris> my thoughts also, Sharron
<rjolly> There is, however, a QA product called "Rally"
<Brent> I like RA11y too
<Chris> could you call it Ra11y Matrix
Shadi: For another perspective, the a11y acronym is a bit exclusive, locking out some people having a "insider" club feeling.
Nic: I was getting on cue to
raise the same issue. However, I have seen these voices that
oppose it, most come from people several years ago and as it
has become more common, I think there is less objection.
... as it is, it speaks to so many people (and much more that
does ARBOR). Seems that we should note and consider it but not
get stuck by it.
Denis: Another part is that I was leaning toward Ra11y myself and adding the rally idea that you are incentivizing a team to rally around the idea of accessibility.
Robert: I like it, we can use the
full name when we need something to sound official and use the
acronym for something less formal.
... should rally behind Ra11y
Brent: (chair hat off) I agree
both with Shadi's point and Nic's observation. I have seen even
within our small microcosm in Pearson that the more it is used,
the less it becomes an insider term.
... I like what Denis just said about rallying together and
getting people to understand that they are part of a whole -
UX, developers, procurement all rally together.
... (hat back on) Can take this back to your small group and
once it is finalized, will create the project plan page.
<Chris> agree, Brent. I feel this is a simple matter of education
Sharron: I think no resolution is needed, just a working title for now and can finalize as project develops
Brent: Great, thanks for the discussion and thanks for bringing those suggestions. Any other comments about current work?
<lkee> I'm submitting a request to attend in Austin today
Brent: We will meet in May in
Austin and October in Leon. Please visit the wiki page,
indicate your ability to attend or your wish for a conference
connection. Any questions or comments?
... will pull together a quick survey and ask for input. Any
other new business?
Sharron: Looking forward to welcoming everyone to Austin next month.
Vivienne: We have opened an office in Kuwait and have a project for the UN and the Kuwaiti governement to develop accessibility guidelines that align to the WCAG. Hoping it will spread through the other Arab states and will be working with them to develop and implement.