[A11ybok] Resources -- either models or possible data for inclusion

[Ryan E. Benson]

Bill,

The Section 508 is ran by the US Government Agency who makes sure
Section 508 is done. The site is geared toward people who need only
the bigger picture; agency heads, agency officials (picked by the
President), and Section 508 Coordinators. The people who run the site
will say it is for everybody, but I have never pointed somebody there
for an answer. It does have some basic information in way of the
official policy and that very basic
introduction that I think I mentioned in my last e-mail (using reply
versus a new e-mail assists with threading). The US Access Board
actually writes the standards, but people point to section508.gov
because the Access Board stuff makes W3C specs look like light
reading.

Disclosure: I am the lead technical Section 508 SME and basically the
de facto assistant 508 Coordinator for an agency. I am not listed due
to politics.


--
Ryan E. Benson



On Tue, Mar 20, 2012 at 9:57 AM, bill <bill at disability.org> wrote:
> Hi Olivier, Ryan
>
> "The Section 508 site is highly political, policy oriented. The 508.."
>
> I wasn't aware of the political nature of this, but your post did get me
> thinking a little about process
> and perhaps the possible usefulness of a kind of snapshot of it.. at least
> from my perspective.
> This may also help any newcomers to this list trying to get a little
> context.
>
> It seems to me now that we have a couple of main streams of activity
> happening.
>
> The first, which I would consider the 'critical path'
> (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Critical_path_method)
>  is about developing a gap analysis from which we can (through a couple more
> steps at that point)
> ultimately derive a roadmap for moving forward on the development of the
> Accessibility BoK.
> The way we are developing this gap analysis is to create a picture of what
> our BoK will look
> like / contain / appeal to / etc ("To-Be"), and then subtract from that what
> already exists
> 'out there' ("As-Is"), whether that be on the W3C Web Accessibility
> Initiative site or elsewhere.
> On this path, we are at the initial ideas collection stage where people are
> submitting "Just a list of specific topics or features, even if it is just
> at a high level. If you
> keep the topics terse and clear, there's no need for justification *just a
> list*"
> (http://a11ybuzz.com/pipermail/a11ybok_a11ybuzz.com/2012-March/000022.html)
>
> The second stream of activity, running parallel and being captured under the
> thread "Resources -- either models or
>
> possible data for inclusion", seems to be a catch-all for specific resources
> that people would like to see
>
> Included in the BoK and/or contributions that people sharing feel might be
> useful to the
>
> discussion. [ Sorry, my iPad has now decided to double-space :-0 ]
>
>
> In either case, may I suggest that we allow a kind of a free-wheeling
> brainstorming approach in
>
> that we suspend - for now, at this stage - assessing / rating / judging
> contribution (or perhaps,
>
>  using a different thread for that). I just want to clarify that my own
> particular contribution
>
> the section508.gov may legitimately 'carry baggage' or have some other valid
> reason for
>
> disqualification from the ultimate BoK product, I don't know. It's just that
> I've seen progress bog
>
> down in other projects before as people get caught up in issues that might
> be better addressed
>
> as part of a process rather than ad hoc. That process, I believe, will
> likely happen once we've
>
> finished collecting our 'To-Be' material and are beginning to prioritize and
> begin to develop
>
> criteria for inclusion into BoK. It's just that I would like to let this
> process have a chance to
>
> play out - hopefully with an Accessibility Body of Knowledge that we can all
> be proud of :-)
>
>
> Cheers
>
> Bill Shackleton
>
> www.twitter.com/CRPDisabilities
> ==================================
> "We are called to be architects of the future..
>  Not its victims"            R. Buckminster Fuller
>
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