Re: Forming an Accessibility Steering Committee

[Brian Cameron <Brian Cameron Sun COM>]

Willie:

> > 1) How would you like the committee to interact?  Via discussions on
> >     this mailing list or via meetings?  If you think we should have
> >     meetings, how often would you prefer to meet, and would you prefer
> >     IRC or phone?
>
> I'm fine with working any number of ways as long as we all agree to 
> focus on achievable problems within our control/influence.  In general, 
> I think we would tend to use all forms of communication available, with 
> periodic meetings to provide progress and direction updates.  I think we 
> should also work to keep some sort of WIKI content up-to-date and have 
> it reflect the activities going on.  Periodic reports to the board and 
> the community would also be very important.

I agree.

> I can envision some more intense collaboration needed up front to get 
> everyone on the same page, and then tapering it off to less frequent 
> (monthly?) meetings.  In addition, we could use GAUDEC and GNOME Boston 
> as a means to have face-to-face opportunities 2x a year.

That makes sense.  I'd say that the frequency of the meetings should be
flexible to meet whatever the current needs of the community are.

> > 2) What would you like to see the Committee be responsible for doing?
> >     I would prefer specific and achievable things rather than vague
> >     generalizations.
>
> Here's some thoughts, though not all complete...  :-)
>
> For immediate near term stuff, I think an evangelization/marketing 
> approach coupled with cleaning up our public face (e.g., a unifying 
> documentation/WIKI refactor) is very important.  GNOME a11y has some 
> really great work in it and we need to show the world how good it is.
>
> We need to be able to quantify the penetration GNOME is having in places 
> like Spain, India, and other countries because of GNOME a11y.  We need 
> testimonials from people with disabilities who have made the GNOME 
> desktop their primary work environment due to the GNOME a11y offerings. 
>  With this, we can give powerful impact statements on stages at FOSDEM, 
> Software Libre, CSUN, etc.: GNOME a11y isn't just the right thing to do, 
> it is also a differentiating feature.

Would someone with an interest in a11y evangalization be willing to step
up to the plate and take ownership of this task of collecting
testimonials and getting them up on the Wiki?

> As part of the evangelization/marketing effort, we also need to reach 
> out to developers to get them interested in a11y.  As anyone who is 
> looking to hire a11y experts can tell you, there are very few qualified 
> people in the world.  We can help change that.
>
> For longer term stuff, we need to look at the overall GNOME a11y 
> offering and do some gaps/strengths analysis.  Where is it strong? Where 
> is it weak?  How can we improve the overall offering?  What should we 
> focus on?  Many of us already know the answers to these questions from 
> the depths of our hearts, but it's always good to write things down and 
> get us all on the same page.  The results of this will feed into 
> specific project areas, many of which we've been pulling together on 
> http://live.gnome.org/GAP/GPTDTRT.
>
> We also need to coordinate efforts across GNOME.  For example: what's 
> going on with metacity's composite manger and gnome-mag?  What new 
> widgets are in GTK+ and do they need GAIL support?  Is this new 
> application "X" accessible?

Yes, it would be nice to have a matrix on the GAP Wiki which shows
which applications have been tested, and which ones have problems.

> What will the impact of an AT-SPI/DBus
> migration have on the entire offering?  If fixes are being made in GTK+ 
> today, will we see them in a release for GNOME 2.22?  When will yelp be 
> ready to roll in the new Gecko engine?  What are the prioritized list of 
> a11y-related bugs for GNOME? Which bugs really really really need 
> addressing, and who can we get to work on them?

Yes, prioritizing a11y bugs is a huge job.  It would be great if we
could get some volunteers to help make sure that bugs have proper
keywords and are appropriately prioritized and highlighted.  Perhaps we
need a place on the Wiki where the most shameful bugs are listed in the
hopes that this will help encourage their resolution.

> We also need to look at things from a wider community perspective.  What 
> integration problems are operating system distributions having with 
> GNOME a11y?  Can we work to resolve the GNOME/CORBA/AT-SPI/KDE/OLPC/DBus 
> issue?  Will we ever fix this problem with audio?  What should we do 
> about speech synthesis from a platform perspective?  What other 
> organizations and standards bodies should we make strong alliances with 
> (e.g., Open A11y Group)?
>
> We also need a nice logo.  :-)

Willie, would you be willing to create a Wiki page on the GAP website
where we can start collecting our ideas, and then we can use the Wiki
for reference in addition to our email discussion?

> > 3) What do you see that is blocking progress (or hindering acceptance)
> >     of GNOME a11y.  What do you think could be done to improve things?
>
> As reflected by our WIKI, it's currently a little anarchistic coupled 
> with chaos.  The steering committee could definitely be something to 
> help unify things.  The fact that the GNOME Board is bringing GNOME a11y 
> to the forefront of its mind is an excellent thing: it shows the overall 
> leadership of GNOME is behind it.  That in itself could have a nice 
> snowball effect.

That, I think, is the hope.

> Another difficult thing to get past is the perception that a11y issues 
> are relegated to a lower priority by developers.  Sometimes it feels 
> this way.  When I observed bug activity this year, however, I saw 
> developers spontaneously looking at a11y problems without needing to be 
> prodded by the a11y teams.  This is way cool, and I think we just need 
> to keep encouraging this work.
>
> Money, time, and qualified people are also always a concern.  There are 
> definitely a number of good ideas floating around to help address 
> these...  ;-)

Even if we don't have time/money to solve a problem, we should at least
make sure the issue is properly documented so that it can be picked up
when the right people/money comes along.

> > 4) Assuming that we can identify a list of tasks in the answers to the
> >     above questions, would you be willing to invest time in the Committee
> >     to chip in and take on tasks to make progress in these areas?
>
> You bet, as long as my boss agrees.  :-)

You should find out.  You should be able to point him to this email
discussion to demonstrate the community interest.  I think with your
leadership experience in GNOME a11y, you would be especially valuable
to have engaged in this sort of project.

Brian