Discussion Group – Defining Our Purpose 

Meeting details

Date

September 3, 2024

Participants

• Tobias Christian Jensen (organizer)
• Erik Gustafsson Spagnoli (notetaker)
• Simo Hellsten
• Anne Thyme Nørregaard
• Stein Erik Skotkjerra
• Umut Gultekin
• Anna-Liisa Mattila

Agenda

We will try to answer:

1. What are the Nordic aspects of our group? 
2. How can we benefit from and contribute to W3C? 

Meeting notes

The discussion group format is a good way to discuss topics in a more focused manner.

What are the Nordic aspects of our group? 

Open discussion about the purpose and objectives of this group:

• We have had two purpose workshops in the past. Notes from the latest session: Purpose Workshop 2024
• Tobias says he originally came for the opportunity to network with accessibility people in a structured way, not in a US time zone.
• Is the purpose of this Community Group mainly networking?
• We want to raise awareness of accessibility in the Nordics in general.
• We have previously had success with our education and outreach group, pushing higher education to include accessibility in their curriculum.
• Two purposes that Anne sees: 
  • Ensure Nordic interests are represented in the different task-force groups at W3C. (E.g., WCAG, Maturity model, ACT, etc.)
    • We could do this by collectively writing public comments on the drafts.
  • Study groups could be helpful in figuring out how to best participate in W3C work groups.
• It is suggested to have a talk about the EN 301 549 vs WCAG gaps and bridges.

How to structure a study group and its topics

One idea is to have two study groups per session that can discuss a topic (in breakout rooms) and present it in the larger group. For instance, a European Accessibility Act (EAA) discussion/roundtable session to see the different implementations and additions of the EAA in the Nordic countries is interesting.

• To gauge the Community Group’s interest, we will create a vote on which topics people would be interested in discussing/studying:
  • ACT-rules
  • EN 301 549 interpretations, gaps, and bridges to WCAG
  • How are countries monitoring the EN standard apart from WCAG?
  • Contribution to the Accessibility Maturity Model
  • Accessibility in higher education
  • WCAG3

Tobias will set up a poll in Slack and link to it through the community email group.

Can we reach out to current W3C members in the Nordic?

There are 10 members in Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden:

• Aalto University
• Agency for Digitalization
• Criipto
• ERICSSON
• National Library of Sweden
• Regional State Administrative Agency for Southern Finland
• Siteimprove
• Stiftelsen for internetinfrastruktur (IIS)
• Tampere University
• Whereby

How can we benefit from and contribute to W3C?

• Simo: Been in the COGA group.
• Anne: Previous W3 group experience has been more official with a specific task. More of a networking group as it feels now. Are there any demands from W3C in terms of using the brand for a networking group?
• Stein-Erik: Get a start on the W3C groups. Is there a study group for how to participate better?
• Simo: W3C connection – is someone participating in the TPAC meeting this month (hybrid)? It’s kind of a main event for W3C.
• Stein-Erik: Suggests contributing to the WCAG3 work with feedback, etc.

What is a Community Group supposed to do?

The description of a W3C group includes networking and open discussions.

Community Groups may also choose to develop test suites, white papers, demos, or merely to hold discussions. https://www.w3.org/community/about/#cg

So maybe we can still keep the networking aspect that seems to draw the biggest crowd and combine it with the mentioned topics in study groups.