[WG: Accessibility] Sakai Accessibility Statement

[Richwine, Brian L]

Hello,

Happy Holidays everyone!

Based on our discussion from the last teleconference. I have modified the Accessibility Statement to be as follows. Sean Keegan suggested that accessibility statements should be at most 2 paragraphs long. If anyone wants to take on wrestling the statement as found between the [-Start-] and [-End-] lines below into two paragraphs, please feel free!

The objective stated in the statement as found below is to meet Section 508 and WCAG 2.0 Level AA compliance along with WAI-ARIA and ATAG and to be "both technically and functionally accessible". This is probably more a Sakai 3.0 objective than a Sakai 2.x reality. If this statement is going to be used for Sakai 2.x, it needs to be modified to reflect the Sakai 2.x objectives. The Sakai Accessibility documentation I've found on confluence states that the "continuing objective of developers is to make the application compliant with Section 508 and WCAG 1.0 Priorities One and Two, and as usable as possible for persons using adaptive technology."[1]

I am going to focus my energies on getting involved in the Sakai 3 discussion and preparing for the Sakai 2.7 release accessibility testing until I get any further feedback on the proposed statement.

-Brian

[1] Accessibility Information Help Page from the Sakai 2.6 Demo Release


[-Start-]
Consistent with our goal to make Sakai the most innovative and powerful Collaboration and Learning Environment, the Sakai Foundation is committed to making Sakai's features accessible and available to all, including users with disabilities. It only makes sense that in designing Sakai, a tool with communication and collaboration features that open the teaching and learning experience to the entire world, the Sakai Community is keeping accessibility constantly in mind to enable Sakai's usability for people with disabilities either directly or by supporting the use of assistive technology.

It is the Sakai Community's intention to design Sakai to high standards of accessibility and to exceed any necessary legislative requirements (such as Section 508 in the USA) that institutions might be under. Where possible, we are implementing accessibility design principals found in recognized international standards. Specifically, we are working towards having Sakai meet all of the W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0 Level AA Success Criteria, and the relevant parts of the Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines (ATAG).

The Sakai Community is going further to ensure Sakai has as few accessibility barriers as possible and provides a rich and enjoyable user experience. By keeping up with emerging standards and best practice design techniques (such as the WAI-ARIA Suite), the Sakai Community is designing Sakai to work with existing and emerging assistive technologies. The Sakai Community has access to accessibility experts through the Sakai Accessibility Working Group and the community at large. It is our goal that each tool in the core Sakai product undergo usability and accessibility evaluations in the design process to make sure it not only meets the accessibility design principals found in the standards, but also that it is both technically and functionally accessible.

An "Accessibility Information" help page is provided with the default installation of Sakai. A copy of the page as provided with the current version can be found here:
http://confluence.sakaiproject.org/display/2ACC/Sakai+Accessibility+Information+Help+Page

The results of the Sakai accessibility evaluation efforts that show Sakai's current accessibility status can be found here: http://confluence.sakaiproject.org/display/2ACC/Sakai%27s+Current+Accessibility

To report accessibility problems with using Sakai, please notify the Sakai Accessibility Working Group Lead (use the subject line "Sakai Accessibility Issue"). Contact info can be found here:
http://confluence.sakaiproject.org/display/2ACC/Accessibility+Working+Group#AccessibilityWorkingGroup-contact
[-End-]



-----Original Message-----
From: Richwine, Brian L
Sent: Thursday, December 03, 2009 12:20 AM
To: accessibility at collab.sakaiproject.org
Subject: RE: [WG: Accessibility] Sakai Accessibility Statement

Thanks Mike!

I've taken a stab at rewriting the rest of the accessibility statement. Including #2 from below, the statement as I have rewritten it as is follows:

[Start]
Consistent with our goal to make Sakai the most innovative and powerful Collaboration and Learning Environment, the Sakai Foundation is committed to making Sakai's features accessible and available to all, including users with disabilities. It only makes sense that in designing Sakai, a tool with communication and collaboration features that open the teaching and learning experience to the entire world, the Sakai Community is keeping accessibility constantly in mind to enable Sakai's usability for people with disabilities either directly or by supporting the use of assistive technology.

It is the Sakai Community's intention to design Sakai to high standards of accessibility and to exceed any necessary legislative requirements (such as Section 508 in the USA) that institutions might be under. Where possible, we are implementing accessibility design principals found in recognized international standards. We are working towards having Sakai meet all of the relevant Section 508 requirements, the W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0 Level A Success Criteria (while striving to meet WCAG 2.0 Level AAA compliance), and the relevant parts of the Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines (ATAG).

Besides endeavoring to comply with accessibility standards, the Sakai Community is going further to ensure Sakai has as few accessibility barriers as possible and provides a rich and enjoyable user experience. By keeping up with emerging standards and best practice design techniques (such as the WAI-ARIA Suite), the Sakai Community is designing Sakai to work with existing and emerging assistive technologies. The Sakai Community has access to accessibility experts through the Sakai Accessibility Working Group and the community at large. It is our goal that each tool in the core Sakai product undergo usability and accessibility evaluations throughout the design process to make sure it not only meets the accessibility design principals found in the standards, but also that it is both usable and functionally accessible. The results of the Sakai accessibility evaluation efforts are available that show Sakai's current accessibility status.
[End]

I am wondering about the function of the accessibility statement and how to determine the sufficiency of what we have so far. So, I took a quick survey of accessibility statements I could find on the web. What I saw made me wonder a few things. Who are the audience members? Where is this statement going to be posted? Is it only getting posted on the main Sakai sakaiproject.org and/or the Confluence wiki, or is it going to be included as a boilerplate accessibility statement for Sakai implementations? Based on the features I saw in the statements I surveyed and depending on who the audience is, the above work is missing a few "standard" features.

In writing the initial effort, I considered the audience to be mainly the prospective/current institutions and the Sakai community at large. The functions I had in mind were: a marketing statement to institutions, to provide evidence to institutions and the Sakai Community at large that the Sakai Foundation / Product Council is committed to accessibility, and to provide hints as to what the accessibility goals are, the implementing processes, and to the current accessibility status. After looking at other accessibility statements, it is evident they are normally written for the benefit of the site visitor, or the users in Sakai's case.

Functions I see as missing from the user's perspective in the above work are: information about the accessibility features users can take advantage of (especially any unique ones), information on the known accessibility barriers (and information on known alternatives or work arounds), and contact information for reporting problems or requesting help.

In my opinion, many accessibility statements' listing of features seemed to be too long and too technical to be of interest or value to the end user and yet insufficient to be of much value to any developers. They weren't necessarily targeting prospective adopters/purchasers, but formats they employed didn't seem sufficient to document a site's/application's accessibility conformance either.

I think it would be best for the user to simply include links to accessibility help documentation (and the end user documentation in general). While the user might be too frustrated, or not sufficiently self motivated to find or read it, the documentation would be quite helpful to disabled student support staff and the training staff at large.

For the Sakai Community, I think it would be useful to provide a link to an accessibility support gateway page that provides quick links to any accessibility documentation covering the goals, criteria, guidelines, checklists, best practices, process description, tools, contacts, etc. that we can provide.

For the Sakai Community and for prospective institutions, including a link to a nicely formatted Current Sakai Accessibility Status which reports on the accessibility by version seems important. Ideally, the reports should include a general overview as well as some reporting of the accessibility results relative to the standards (508, WCAG, etc.).

Depending on where the accessibility statement is posted, it would seem useful to include contact information either to the Accessibility Working Group, or to a contact local to the adopting institution.

Should the statement be limited to accessibility issues for the disability community? What about alternative technology users like the mobile computing community?

-Brian



________________________________________
From: accessibility-bounces at collab.sakaiproject.org [accessibility-bounces at collab.sakaiproject.org] On Behalf Of Michael S Elledge [elledge at msu.edu]
Sent: Wednesday, December 02, 2009 3:59 PM
To: accessibility at collab.sakaiproject.org
Subject: Re: [WG: Accessibility] Sakai Accessibility Goals

Hi All--

I like #2 as well, with the exception of the extra "that".

Mike

Mary Stores wrote:
> Hello,
>
> I like Modified Version 2 in the way that it is worded because it is
> straightforward.
>
> Mary
>
> Quoting "Richwine, Brian L" <brichwin at indiana.edu>:
>
>
>> Hi,
>>
>> The holiday probably interrupted some of the momentum from the last
>> meeting. I'd like to propose that we get the accessibility statement
>> proposal rewritten for Eli this week if possible so we can move on to
>> getting the accessibility goals written.
>>
>> As a start, some of us at the ATC have been mulling over the first
>> paragraph to the proposed Sakai accessibility statement from the last
>> meeting. We came up with two different versions as an attempt to
>> include the suggestion in Eli's comments. They are listed below. What
>> do others think? Please feel free to offer rewrites or comments!
>>
>> Modified version 1:
>> The Sakai foundation's goal is to be the most innovative and powerful
>> collaboration and learning environment; opening the teaching and
>> learning experience to the entire world. The world includes potential
>> users of varied abilities who may employ "assistive" technologies to
>> receive and interact with information. With this in mind, the Sakai
>> Community commits to keep accessibility for all users foremost in all
>> information design decisions.
>>
>> Modified version 2:
>> Consistent with our goal to make Sakai the most innovative and
>> powerful Collaboration and Learning Environment, the Sakai Foundation
>> is committed to making Sakai's features accessible and available to
>> all, including users with disabilities. It only makes sense that in
>> designing Sakai, a tool with communication and collaboration features
>> that open the teaching and learning experience to the entire world,
>> that the Sakai Community is keeping accessibility constantly in mind
>> to enable Sakai's usability for people with disabilities either
>> directly or by supporting the use of assistive technology.
>>
>> Original First Paragraph from last week:
>> Consistent with our goal to make Sakai the most innovative and
>> powerful Collaboration and Learning Environment, the Sakai Foundation
>> is committed to making Sakai's features accessible and available to
>> all. It only makes sense that in designing Sakai, a tool with
>> communication and collaboration features that open the teaching and
>> learning experience to the entire world, that the Sakai Community is
>> keeping accessibility constantly in mind.
>>
>> Eli's Comment:
>> This is the right idea. As much as we understand what "accessibility"
>> is, in a policy statement I think that we need to introduce the term.
>> Our introduction is also a way to hit briefly on the reality that
>> people of different abilities exist and that they need special
>> support.
>>
>> Sincerely,
>>  -Brian
>>
>>
>> Brian Richwine
>> Adaptive Technology Support Specialist
>> Adaptive Technology and Accessibility Centers
>> Indiana University - Bloomington/Indianapolis
>> http://iuadapts.indiana.edu
>> (812) 856-4112
>>
>>
>>
>> From: accessibility-bounces at collab.sakaiproject.org
>> [mailto:accessibility-bounces at collab.sakaiproject.org] On Behalf Of
>> Richwine, Brian L
>> Sent: Thursday, November 19, 2009 2:02 PM
>> To: Sakai Accessibility WG
>> Subject: [WG: Accessibility] FW: Sakai Accessibility Goals
>>
>> Here are the ideas Eli and have working on...
>>
>> From: Eli Cochran [mailto:eli at media.berkeley.edu]
>> Sent: Thursday, November 19, 2009 1:48 PM
>> To: Richwine, Brian L
>> Cc: Eli Cochran
>> Subject: Re: Sakai Accessibility Goals
>>
>> Brian,
>>
>> I have a few comments inline.
>>
>> - Eli
>>
>> On Nov 18, 2009, at 9:25 AM, Richwine, Brian L wrote:
>>
>> Hello Eli,
>>
>> I didn't want the two weeks since the last Accessibility Working
>> Group teleconference go by without making some effort towards
>> developing Sakai's Accessibility Goals.
>>
>> I struggled a bit on how to get started, and eventually decided to
>> write something like the ideal accessibility statement I could
>> envision the Sakai Foundation publishing about Sakai. I figure that
>> if that existed as a guiding vision, then the accessibility goals
>> could be more easily derived.
>>
>> I looked at accessibility statements from similar level projects
>> (Desire2Learn, Moodle, Blackboard, etc.) and then searched for other
>> guiding documents like the National Center on Disability and Access
>> to Education's Best Practice Indicators for Institutional Web
>> Accessibility and the IMS Guidelines for Developing Accessible
>> Learning Applications.
>>
>> I think of the accessibility goals as being broad statements that
>> voice support for the philosophy and inclusive nature of accessible
>> design principals, the standards being embraced, and includes
>> reference to the process/plan and its implementation.
>>
>> I envision that the following all work together:
>> *         An Accessibility Statement
>> *         The Accessibility Goals
>> *         An Accessibility Plan
>> *         Documents needed for and supporting the plan (Guidelines,
>> checklists, protocols, documentation, etc.)
>> *         A Process for Implementation of the Plan
>> *         Progress evaluation
>> *         Results Assessment and Reporting
>>
>> This is right on. I don't know if we have time to produce all of
>> this, but for Sakai 3, we should hit each of these milestones.
>>
>> I'm not a copywriter or have much experience at determining policy
>> statements, but just wanted to make a try at capturing some  ideas
>> and working towards writing them into goals. Here is the 'ideal'
>> accessibility statement I have so far:
>>
>> Consistent with our goal to make Sakai the most innovative and
>> powerful Collaboration and Learning Environment, the Sakai Foundation
>> is committed to making Sakai's features accessible and available to
>> all. It only makes sense that in designing Sakai, a tool with
>> communication and collaboration features that open the teaching and
>> learning experience to the entire world, that the Sakai Community is
>> keeping accessibility constantly in mind.
>>
>> This is the right idea. As much as we understand what "accessibility"
>> is, in a policy statement I think that we need to introduce the term.
>> Our introduction is also a way to hit briefly on the reality that
>> people of different abilities exist and that they need special
>> support.
>>
>> The Sakai Community is designing Sakai to high standards of
>> accessibility, exceeding necessary legislative requirements (such as
>> Section 508 in the USA). To maintain this standard, Sakai implements
>> accessibility design principals found in recognized international
>> standards. We are working towards having Sakai meet all of the
>> relevant WCAG 2.0 Level A Success Criteria, while striving to meet
>> WCAG 2.0 Level AAA compliance and the relevant parts of the Authoring
>> Tool Accessibility Guidelines(ATAG).
>>
>>
>> This is good but is going to scare some folks.
>>
>> Besides meeting and complying with the accessibility standards, the
>> Sakai Community is going further to ensure Sakai's design is usable
>> and accessible to all. By keeping up with emerging standards and best
>> practice design techniques (such as the WAI-ARIA Suite), the Sakai
>> Community is ensuring Sakai will work with existing and emerging
>> assistive technologies. To keep accessibility principals in the minds
>> of the developers, accessibility guidelines and checklists are
>> available for easy reference.  Access to accessibility experts in the
>> Sakai community is available through the Sakai Accessibility Working
>> Group. Every tool in the Sakai product undergoes several usability
>> and accessibility evaluations throughout the design process to make
>> sure it not only meets the accessibility design principals found in
>> the standards, but also that it is both useable and functionally
>> accessible. The results of the Sakai accessibility evaluation efforts
>> are available that show Sakai's current accessibility. Accessible
>> documentation for Sakai administrators and end-users alike is
>> available on maintaining and using Sakai's accessibility features.
>>
>> This last paragraph talks about what we are planning to do as if we
>> have done it. We should rephrase at this point.
>>
>> Sorry this is so brief, I wanted to get it to you before the meeting.
>>
>> - Eli
>>
>>
>> I want to get your feedback before putting much more time into this,
>> so I don't travel too far down a path that isn't in line with what
>> you are thinking. Is this going anywhere you were expecting?
>>
>> Sincerely,
>>  -Brian Richwine
>>
>>
>> Brian Richwine
>> Adaptive Technology Support Specialist
>> Adaptive Technology and Accessibility Centers
>> Indiana University - Bloomington/Indianapolis
>> http://iuadapts.indiana.edu
>> (812) 856-4112
>>
>>
>> . . . . . . . . . . .  .  .   .    .      .         .              .
>>                    .
>>
>> Eli Cochran
>> user interaction developer
>> ETS, UC Berkeley
>>
>>
>>
>>
>
>
>
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