RE: Forming an Accessibility Steering Committee

["Ian Pascoe" <ianpascoe btinternet com>]

Hi all

The responses I've seen so far on this topic has been like a who's who of
the Gnome A11Y community!

I would like to raise a tentative hand to join as a user, as I agree that
without the input of the actual users, how would you know if the direction
you were to take was the right one.  That being said, I am very much aware
of my limitations in knowledge on both Gnome and the way Linux works, and
certainly can think of a number of people within the Orca User community who
have a much better understanding of these things.  However, muy hand is
still up.

Seasons Greetings

Ian

-----Original Message-----
From: gnome-accessibility-list-bounces gnome org
[mailto:gnome-accessibility-list-bounces gnome org]On Behalf Of Willie
Walker
Sent: 17 December 2007 23:47
To: Willie Walker
Cc: gnome-accessibility-list gnome org; Brian Cameron
Subject: Re: Forming an Accessibility Steering Committee


Hi All:

I just want to add a little more to where things are right now.  Here
are a couple URLs where we've done a fair amount of formal work on the
current and future goals for GNOME a11y:

   GNOME Boston 2006 Accessibility Summit:
   http://live.gnome.org/Boston2006/AccessibilitySummit
   (see also http://live.gnome.org/AccessibilityProjects)

   GNOME Boston 2007 Accessibility Summit:
   http://live.gnome.org/Boston2007/AccessibilitySummit

The Mozilla Foundation has also been very gracious in their support for
work such as pyatspi, AT-SPI/DBus investigation, ARIA support in Orca,
Collections work for AT-SPI, etc.  It's all very positive stuff!

For the cross platform and inter-community notions, I think we also need
to be cognizant of the fact that there are other active forums in place.
  For example, the Open A11y Group of the Linux Foundation
(http://www.linux-foundation.org/en/Accessibility) has served as a
neutral place where members of the GNOME, KDE, and other communities
have been coming together to discuss these kinds of things.  The
AT-SPI/DBus work being done by Rob Taylor and Mark Doffman, for example,
will be discussed in the Open A11Y meeting tomorrow.

I think a steering committee is a fine idea and I'm happy to help
(perhaps lead?) the group.  For the committee to work best, I think it
needs to include at least users and developers.  The users are key in
helping set the direction of what we need to focus on -- much of Orca's
success, for example, is due to the fact that users are directly
involved.  Based upon the successes of the GNOME Boston Accessibility
Summits, I also think that we need to keep focus on concrete, achievable
tasks.

Will

PS - What I think we really really desperately need at the moment is a
wordsmith/writer than can help us get the http://live.gnome.org/GAP
pages in order.

Willie Walker wrote:
> I'll happily raise my hand.  Thanks!  :-)
>
> Will
>
> Brian Cameron wrote:
>> The GNOME Foundation Board of Directors recognizes the importance
>> of Accessibility in the GNOME desktop.  To help foster a more
>> clear and positive vision, the board thinks it would be helpful
>> to form an Accessibility Steering Committee.
>>
>> The purpose of this committee would be (in general terms)
>>
>> - Help oversee a11y issues with the GNOME desktop
>> - Identify ways that the GNOME Foundation can better promote a11y
>> - Recommend actions to the GNOME Foundation board.
>> - Serve as a more clear a11y leadership team
>> - Help to standardize free a11y interfaces so that a11y solutions can
>>    be best shared across desktops.
>>
>> I am wondering who in the GNOME a11y community would be interested
>> in being a part of this Committee.  Being involved would mean
>> having time to engage in discussions and related tasks.  It also
>> may make sense to meet for a phone conference on a regular schedule
>> (perhaps once or twice a month) if possible.
>>
>> Once we have identified who would like to participate in such a
>> Committee, we can work out the details.  Please respond if you would
>> like to be involved with the GNOME community in this capacity, and
>> any ideas you have on how this committee could work best.
>>
>> Thanks,
>>
>> Brian
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> gnome-accessibility-list mailing list
>> gnome-accessibility-list gnome org
>> http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/gnome-accessibility-list
>
> _______________________________________________
> gnome-accessibility-list mailing list
> gnome-accessibility-list gnome org
> http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/gnome-accessibility-list

_______________________________________________
gnome-accessibility-list mailing list
gnome-accessibility-list gnome org
http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/gnome-accessibility-list