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Re: Microsoft Accessibility Collaboration Opportunities

for

From: Kelly Lupo
Date: Apr 11, 2016 12:11PM

If this is still open, I am also interested in joining group 1. :)

Thank you,
Kelly

On Fri, Apr 8, 2016 at 11:16 AM, Hadi Rangin < <EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:

> Hello friends & colleagues,
>
> As you know, together we were able to improve the accessibility/usability
> of many products in the past 10-12 years. We collaborate successfully with
> many vendors for higher education including Blackboard, Desire2Learn,
> Moodle, Instructure, Elsevier, Ebsco Publishing, Elluminate, Qualtrics,
> Trumba, ServiceNow, and many more.
>
> In 2013 a couple of colleagues of mine from UIUC and I tested & evaluated
> Microsoft Lync and Outlook. We shared the results with them and wanted to
> engage them in similar collaboration efforts as we have with all other
> vendors but we were unable to do it as their NDA terms and conditions were
> not acceptable to the UIUC legal team. As the result, we never had the
> chance to discuss our findings with the respective product development
> teams.
>
> The good news is that they have used our findings about Outlook and Lync
> to improve their accessibility in their latest versions. I don't know at
> this time how much of our recommendations have been utilized in the latest
> version but I am glad that they have at least considered them.
>
> Last week a couple of my UW-IT colleagues and I had a productive meeting
> with JJ Cadiz, the head of program management for Desktop Outlook and
> principal owner of accessibility for all the Outlook clients and a few
> colleagues of his team. We discussed how we could collaborate and
> contribute to the accessibility of Microsoft products.
>
> To be honest with you, I have never seen Microsoft so motivated to work
> with the accessibility community toward improving the accessibility of
> their products, and I would like to use this opportunity to establish a
> constructive and productive collaboration with them.
>
> We are working to establish two parallel groups that will be working with
> Microsoft on accessibility of their products. This is a rare opportunity
> for us to get involved and shape the accessibility of the products that we
> all have been using in hopes of changing the culture of accessibility at
> Microsoft.
> 1. Microsoft Collaboration Group
> Microsoft Collaboration Group is a long-term project to extensively
> improve Microsoft Office family products. Some of the products in question
> are Outlook client, OWA, SharePoint, Office 365, etc.
>
>
> * Purpose:
>
> o Establish a long-lasting, sleek, and energetic collaboration group
> with Microsoft.
>
> o Select one product at a time, identify accessibility/usability issues,
> and discuss the findings with the respective Microsoft development team.
>
> * Commitment:
>
> o Have knowledge and experience in accessibility and accessible design.
>
> o Are interested in collaborating on accessibility of MS products.
>
> o Can dedicate minimum of 5 hours in a month.
>
> This collaboration involves accessibility/usability testing and evaluation
> and reporting on the products that we choose. We will finalize the
> logistics once we have the 10 members.
>
> 2. Mac Outlook Project
> Mac Outlook Project is a project focusing specifically on Mac Outlook. We
> want five folks use it as their everyday, primary mail client. We expect to
> have Mac Outlook insider builds available for a long time.
>
> * Purpose:
>
> o Provide direct feedback to Mac Outlook Engineering Team about the
> accessibility and design of the product.
>
> * Commitment:
>
> o Be an everyday user of Mac Outlook who's living on the insider builds.
>
> o Provide ten to fifteen minute feedback on rare (maybe one per month)
> design changes.
>
> o Available for the occasional (once every 3 months) 1-hour call.
>
> Time commitment would be for as long as folks are willing to participate.
>
> If you are interested to join either of these collaboration groups, please
> let me know.
>
> Thanks,
> Hadi
>
>
>
> Hadi Rangin
> IT Accessibility Specialist
> Mary Gates Hall 064C
> University of Washington
> Phone: (206) 685-4144
>
> > > > >