[Accessibleweb] AccessibleWeb@U - June online discussions

[Rick Ells]

Because of a flurry of changes in many people's lives, we won't try to 
have a AccessibleWeb at U meeting in June. Instead, here is an invitation to 
join in an online discussion and some news items about online resources:

   o Creating an Accessible IT Community of Practice
     How can we work together as a community to create information
     technology that is accessible to people with disabilities?
     On many campuses, this question is being addressed by creating
     a "Community of Practice" which uses various forms of communication
     and sharing (blogs, software libraries, bookmark lists, wikis,
     shared development projects, etc.) to support efficency and synergy
     in achieving and maintaining accessibility in IT.

      * What tools would help us share the load?
      * What accessibility related activities would you find worth
        participating in?
      * What resources can we build to support our work?
      * Where do you find the most useful information about accessibility?
      * What challenges and issues loom large in your situation?
      * What tools, sites, or services are most useful to you now?

     Post your thoughts on this list, or try our experimental
     AccessWebU blog at
     http://accesswebu.blogspot.com/ and post them there.

   o 'Accessibility Tips' Blog Has Good Stuff
     (http://www.accessibilitytips.com/) created by Mike Davies, a
     Web developer for Yahoo Europe (see http://www.isolani.co.uk/).
     Frequent postings, good technical information, forward looking
     attitude. Worth a visit.

   o '10 Reasons Clients Don't Care About Accessibility'
http://www.digital-web.com/articles/ten_reasons_clients_dont_care_about_accessibility/
     A thoughtful article from 2005 by Chrisitan Heilmann raises some
     good points about why some of our efforts do not have much effect.
     A key recommendation is "Stop selling accessibility as a technical
     issue. Address it in the scoping and design phase rather than at
     delivery."

   o Experimental AccessWebU Blog
     In our continuing exploration of how to build community, we have
     set up a blog on Blogspot at http://accesswebu.blogspot.com/
     The theme is "Buzz, thoughts, and observations on the ongoing
     efforts to build information technologies that work for all
     people at the University of Washington."
     We plan to post provocative statements there regularly and
     invite you to comment on them. If you are interested in being one
     of the people who can post statements on the blog, send email
     to rells at u.washington.edu.

   o Call for AccessibleWeb at U Lunch Meeting Speakers
     Would you like to give a talk to people interested in accessible
     IT design? Is there a topic you would like to see us find a speaker
     on? Is there a speaker you would like to recommend? Post your
     thoughts to this list or send them to me at rells at u.washington.edu


   -----------------------------------
     Rick Ells
     Senior Webmaster
     UW Technology
     206.543.2875
     rells at u.washington.edu
     http://staff.washington.edu/rells