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Microsoft Accessibility Collaboration Opportunities

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From: Davison, Jane E (MNIT)
Date: May 13, 2016 12:26PM

I would like to participate in Group 1 as well, although I could also participate in group 2 as I am a Mac/Outlook user.

Jane Davison

JANE DAVISON | ITS 3 – Usability and Accessibility Specialist
ENTERPRISE PLANNING AND ADMINISTRATION DIVISION
MN.IT @ DEPARTMENT OF HUMAN SERVICES
444 Lafayette Road North, St. Paul, MN 55164-0239
651-431-4783 (w) | 651-431-7521 (f) | <EMAIL REMOVED>

Information Technology for Minnesota Government | MN.IT Services



-----Original Message-----
From: Kelly Lupo [mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> ]
Sent: Monday, April 11, 2016 1:11 PM
To: WebAIM Discussion List < <EMAIL REMOVED> >
Subject: Re: [WebAIM] Microsoft Accessibility Collaboration Opportunities

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
>
> > > archives at http://webaim.org/discussion/archives
> >



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