Accessibility SG Calls/ISOC Accessibility

June 13 2022 ISOC Accessibility

ISOC internal WG on accessibility (Joyce Dogniez, Naveed Haq, James Wood, Gunela Astbrink and Judith Hellerstein)

The ISOC Accessibility Framework was discussed, concentrating on the second section Ensuring minimal barriers.... The main points were:

• ISOC delivered content training modules including one module on inclusion and accessibility as a test case to 35 staff in late 2021. This material will be incorporated into a comprehensive package to all staff to be delivered after July 2022. The vendor Contentious will finalise the package in the next week and James Wood will share this with the SG for feedback and suggestions for complementary resources with links. The SG in future will be involved earlier in the process.
• A vendor in the UK (TorchBox) is auditing the ISOC website for accessibility and navigability. James Wood and Kristi Mason (Marketing Communications) will check if human testers with disability are checking for accessibility.
• Kristi Mason and a new staff member will be working on event planning. Discussions about making events accessible will be made.
• AMS and Connect will migrate to a new platform called Fonteva based on Salesforce. The migration will take 10 months.
• Other collaborative and communications tools have been or will be checked for accessibility. This includes the AMS and Community.
• 6 and 7 September is ISOC Community. It is an opportunity for the SG to present on accessibility, the work being done, and discuss ideas.
• Jeanette Engel (Talent, Culture and Personnel) may be invited to the next meeting to discuss employment of persons with disability.
• The first Framework section on 'Building a culture of accessibility' will be discussed at the next meeting with the suggestion that disability awareness training (on-boarding) be extended from staff to include Chapters, SIGs and SGs. This is for action by Kyle Shulman.

July 27 2023 ISOC Accessibility

Follow up from Nov 22 2022
(Gunela Astbrink, Joly MacFie, Andre Copelin, Henri Wohlfarth, Naveed Haq, Joyce Dogniez, Klaus Hoeckner)

Continue discussion
1. Next steps with the ASG’s Accessibility Framework
2. BOT Resolution 2023-08  Policy on Accessibility for Persons with Disabilities.

• Important issues for ISOC and everyone
• BOT resolution instructs CEO to prepare a plan.
  • Andrew will lead development
  • Framework will be part of input
  • Andre is focused on AMS for now
• Question
  • Will Andrew be consulting with ASG?
  • Gunela experience of plan development with telcos
  • responsibilities and timelines?
  • Nothing about us without us
• Response
  • Andre will convey this to Andrew
• Funds and Resources?
  • Too early to say
• Next steps?
  • Look at framework
  • Identification of champions
  • More frequent meetings
  • More involvement of PwDs at events
  • Relatively quickly
• Procurement of tools based on existing standards e.g. EN 301 549 or US Equivalent
  • Is it possible to add to framework?
  • Andre notes variations in standards globally
  • Klaus - EN 301 549 is adopted by several countries and may be considered a global standard
  • Current redraft under the new EU act and WCAG 2.2
  • Needs time to go thru all
  • Joyce - EN 301 549 is WCAG 2.1 but also goes to tools and services?
  • Klaus - Yes. Prescribes what but not how.
• Training content
  • Agency selected to review to WCAG 2.1AA
  • Sufficient for now.
  • Modules being reviewed for accessibility
  • 5 courses in Q3 2023 will be updated
  • Dashboard made screen reader friendly
  • Gunela welcomes this
  • Tiered bandwidth courses - Lo/mid/Hi. Lo is WCAG compliant
• Mid Career Fellowship has visually impaired participant, and lessons are being learned.
  • ASG will follow up - Silver Francis Oonyu from Uganda
• New AMS - Fonteva
  • Level Access engaged to do accessibility testing
• Disability Training Course
  • ASG has developed 91 page syllabus
  • Confusion over funding for further development
  • ACTION Joyce to check with Kyle
  • Andre does not have budget, and made suggestions to Kyle for alternatives eg ISOC Foundation or BTN grants to chapters
  • Approx $25k basic , then translation to tiers and languages make it $70-80k.
  • On roadmap.
• Naveed - note on empowerment
  • Recent F2f training in Pakistan w/ physically impaired person
  • Doing video interviews
  • Edit focusing on accessibility
  • PwD gained employment with ISP
• PwD on ISOC staff?
  • New ISOC HR person hire in process
• ISOC Website
  • Henri has been focused on accessibility last few months
  • 3rd party accessibility audit kicked off process
  • WP is accessible by design
  • Issues come with theme, templates, plugins
  • Goal is to improve semantic HTML for screen reader and keyboard compatibility
  • Color contrast issues resolved
  • Comms is working on improving content, with an eye to people with cognitive disabilities
  • Would like to collaborate more with ASG on assessing solutions
  • Using WAVE to check ongoing work, also Firefox Inspector, and Voiceover on Mac.
  • Limited resources e.g. fixing cookie banners took 3 months
• Staff training on creating accessible content
  • Guidelines have been developed and shared
  • Available on GitHub wiki
  • Access to LinkedIn training
• Next meeting to focus on Framework?
  • Andre - we can set up a standard bimonthly meeting?