Shadi and Eric V introduced "Accessibility Statements" resource. Requirements doc will be coming in the next couple weeks. We plan to do good work on it at the May Face-to-Face, and come out of that with specific initial decisions for what it will be. Brent reminded people of the May Face-to-Face page. He asked people to indicate their participation. He invites people to add potential topics. Shawn brought to the group the idea of including summaries for most EOWG resources. This was a suggestion from usability testing in October, and also in a public comment (27). (We've already done it for several pages that we've updated. We just hadn't formally agreed upon it in EOWG.) EOWG RESOLUTION: Include summaries at the top of most EOWG resources.
Shadi: EricVelleman introduction
EricVelleman: Works at the Accessibility Foundation in the Netherlands and working on PhD
Shadi: We have a new project, in
the work items with EricV leading the editorial work, about
providing guidance for Accessibility Statements
... The primary question is: What is an Accessibility
Statement?
<shadi> "Your organizational policy may be an internal document and not suitable for the public. To communicate your effort, consider providing a public accessibility statement that reflects your policy, goals, and achievements."
<shawn> from Developing Organizational Policies on Web Accessibility <https://w3c.github.io/wai-website/plan/org-policies/>
In the planning and managing resource, we also reference "accessibility statement" for people to use.
Shadi: It makes sense in terms of
an overall orientation, to provide the purpose of an
Accessibility Statement
... An outline of some of this:
1. Giving users information about the overall accessibility of the site
1a. How is that different than a general help page?
1b. Getting too technical isn't useful for many users
Do we want to focus on the user's needs vs technical details?
<Norah> and who to contact if you (user) encounter problems
Due to legal issues, accessibility statements can become too nebulous/hand-wavy
In the Netherlands, you must communicate accessibility more specifically (which could be a good model)
All public entities must publish an accessibility statement - oriented to the user - and how to get alternatives for inaccessible content
This is all background info to think about in terms of how a website owner can create an accessibility statement that helps the end users
with a goal of being open and transparent about accessibility
Two important data points:
1. WCAG Conformance Claims (page-based)
also called Evaluation Statement/Report in WCAG
This can back up your accessibility statement with a detailed report
We have funding to create an Accessibility Statement generator tool (like the EM Report tool)
but we will focus on the guidance aspect first
then determine how best to address the presentation of a tool
EricV: The idea is to produce something in the next two weeks for people to review.
Questions time:
Norah: Also need to consider
including contact information if someone is encountering
problems on the site which need to be corrected for
accessibility
... Glad you're working on this. It's something we're talking
about here at our organization.
... We often give advice to other universities to place contact
information which shows a commitment to accessibility
Shadi: Also here there is a little tension between executives wanting their statements to stay high level which doesn't help the end user. The trick is to find the right balance
Norah: I like that you're thinking about both levels in this effort.
Shadi: If there are other comments or ideas, please feel free to send them to the list. Examples to be shared are good to know about
Brent: I'm also glad we're doing
this, as we are thinking about accessibility statements in our
organization. Working with leadership, legal teams, and
others.
... There is tension with determining how much transparency due
to legal risks.
Do you see any use/possible way to have guidance based on the country or region the business is in?
<yatil> [ Tenon has a good one, I think. General info: https://tenon.io/documentation/accessibility.php VPAT: https://tenon.io/documentation/vpat.php and WCAG Conformance Declaration: https://tenon.io/documentation/wcag-pat.php]
Shadi: In Europe, public websites are in a unique, tough position due to being required to publish the detailed accessibility statements
Because they're forced to do so.
In the U.S. there is also the VPAT which gets closer to what the requirements in Europe are.
<lkee> https://www.loc.gov/accessibility/
We will aim for "good practices" to promote through this resource for organizations to make their own decisions around, but getting country-specific may be too much detail
EricV: A solution could be to ask people to fill this out themselves. The statement could contain components that address specific countries based on what the user fills out
Brent: This is probably something that can be best addressed by the organization themselves.
<shawn> +1 for date on statements!
Brent: Additionally, we need to
ensure there is attention paid to last updated date on the
statement to avoid having outdated statements
... The VPAT is now indicating that you must have an ACR
(accessibility conformance report) and struggling with the word
"conformance"
LKee: Shared the link for the Library of Congress (US) accessibility statement, which accessibility has now become a hot topic for us.
The accessibility statement was written by the communications department, and can be an example of a high-level approach (without much detail)
Shadi: Often, without the details, people consider accessibility statements not useful to people with disabilities
LKee: People are advocating for more movement and detail in the accessibility statement for LOC
<yatil> +1 Usefulness for endusers might be one of the important selling point for accessibility statements.
Shadi: Often, accessibility champions within an organization are held back by the lawyers
But this resource may be helpful to them to say here's what is recommended
Shadi: Expect some initial draft work in the next two weeks via a wiki page where we'll request comments and feedback
<shawn> https://www.w3.org/WAI/EO/wiki/EOWG_F2F_May_2018
It will be Thursday and Friday in Austin after AccessU.
Topics suggestions are available on the page linked by Shawn
Please add participation information to that page, too, as soon as possible for planning purposes.
If you cannot attend in person, but you can be available by phone, we can support that for parts of the meetings.
Within the Agenda, there is a link to the planning section: Please do add items there for anything you want to add for discussion/group working sessions at the F2F
We are almost positive we will not be meeting at St. Edward's University. Sharron is working on what location (Knowbility offices or at the Omni) and we'll let you know soon.
<shawn> https://github.com/w3c/wai-website/issues/27
Shawn: Question about redesign: Some of the pages had a clear summary section at the beginning of the pages. Got positive feedback on that in usability testing. Recorded that as a suggestion - to put summaries on most pages.
We had not talked about that much in EO, but I (Shawn) wanted to bring this to the group for input
Norah: I like the summary. Including the summary and doing that in a consistent manner helps people with cognitive disabilities. That's a good reason to use a summary (and do it consistently)
<shawn> +1 to helps some people with cognitive disabilities (and also good usability for others)
<krisannekinney> +1 to nora's point
<shawn> proposal -- include summaries on most EOWG resources
+1
<j-pulido> +1
<Howard> +1
<Norah> +1
<krisannekinney> +1
<Brent> +1
<shawn> +1
<shadi> +1
<lkee> +1
<evelleman> +1
<yatil> +💯
RESOLUTION: Include summaries at the top of most EOWG resources
<Chris> +1
Brent: I do have one question - Are there any resources where having a summary would be disruptive to the content/purpose of a specific page?
<shawn> +1 for not required on every single resource -- might be some there is a strong reason not to
Shawn: I think it's covered by "most" in the resolution wording
<evelleman> There is a lot of research on Quikscan (providing summaries to improve reading). Maybe interesting to see if there are requirements in there for the summaries?
<Chris> thanks! take care!
<vivienne> +bye
<krisannekinney> bye!