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Re: Proposal for an online, crowdsourced accessibility testing platform

for

From: Bevi Chagnon | PubCom
Date: Aug 27, 2010 11:54AM

I'm very excited about this proposal.

I'd like to contribute examples for testing that I run into with federal
government documents, especially those that are more technical in nature.
WCAG 2 and ITC 2 (508 for the US fed govt) don't address many of the
situations my govt clients are in.

I can contribute services:
-- technical samples (including Word documents, Excel spreadsheets, PDFs
made from InDesign and office software)
-- writing and online training demonstrating the technique/best practice.

But we'll need someone to manage this project and coordinate all the
players, tasks, and final recommendations.
Any suggestions?

--Bevi

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Bevi Chagnon | PubCom | <EMAIL REMOVED> | 301-585-8805
Government publishing specialists, trainers, consultants | print, press,
web, Acrobat PDF & 508
Online at the blog: It's 2010. Where's your career heading?
www.pubcom.com/newsletter


-----Original Message-----
From: <EMAIL REMOVED>
[mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> ] On Behalf Of Terrill Bennett
Sent: Friday, August 27, 2010 11:30 AM
To: <EMAIL REMOVED>
Subject: Re: [WebAIM] Proposal for an online, crowdsourced accessibility
testing platform

I haven't seen an offer to host an accessibility project, so in order
to get this project-thingy off-center...

* I host my domains with DreamHost.com. They offer unlimited
everything that counts (domains, sub domains, mySql databases, disk
space, bandwith, user's, email accounts, etc).

* Think LAMP.

* The downside is: it's a shared server. "Timing" things could be a problem.

* Dedicated hosting is available, for a fee: $69 USD/month with one
year pre-payment. Other options available.

* It is possible to set-up user's with SSH access to a specific
domain, for those who choose to help administrate.

* Willing to set-up any software we agree on such as Joomla,
WordPress, Moodle, Wikimedia, Twiki, Drupal, phpBBS,
Your_Favorite_Package_Goes_Here.

So there it is. Feel free to up the ante with your own offer!

-- Terrill --



> We've mulled around the idea of taking this approach with a future
> WebAIM screen reader survey - presenting various paired samples and
> asking which is more accessible. The fundamental problem and
> difficulty with this approach is that things that are inaccessible are
> inaccessible - you'd have to be very careful that you're asking the
> questions and presenting the samples in a way that is useful and gives
> you accurate data. It is quite likely that a screen reader user could
> identify something as being the most accessible while a significant
> amount of inaccessible content or functionality was not presented to
> them. How would they know the content is missing?
>
> It's difficult to analyze the accessibility of distinct elements in a
> vacuum entirely separated from a broader web page or online
> experience.
>
> WebAIM would be interested in collaborating on such a project. We
> actually have quite a few ideas noted already.
>
> Jared Smith
> WebAIM
>
>