[games_access] GAI & "Enabled Users"

[Jonathan Chetwynd]

Thomas,

having contributed to WAI for over 6 years since 1998, there is one  
group I'd like to add to your proposal.

"Enabled Users"

WAI does have some,  however W3 generally has an overly corporate feel.

Involving end users ensures that everyone is kept directly in touch  
with needs.

regards

Jonathan Chetwynd
http://www.peepo.co.uk     "It's easy to use"
irc://freenode/accessibility
On 29 Nov 2004, at 16:47, Thomas Westin wrote:

Hi,

  I'm presently at work and have to travel home, so I will have a  
problem getting home in time for the online meeting. Anyway, I'll try  
and get online as soon as possible.

  Here is a short report from my visit and presentation at Techshare,  
Birmingham, UK on November 18.

  Techshare website:  
http://www.rnib.org.uk/xpedio/groups/public/documents/code/ 
public_rnib004057.hcsp

  I presented our work with the SIG, and also briefly Terraformers.

  Keynote speakers were e.g from W3C WAI, Judy Brewer and and a guy from  
Adobe presenting new accessibility features in Acrobat 7.

  I also found some time to speak to Judy Brewer about the possibility  
of some bilateral collaboration between the GA-SIG and W3C WAI. I still  
have to follow up on this, but she said informal relations were very  
easy to set up, and that should be a good starting point.

  I got some ideas of how we could present accessibility guidelines for  
future versions of whitepapers. W3C WAI have two main areas, one for  
tools and one for content. For content there are three levels of  
accessibility. I think a similar approach could be fruitful for helping  
the game industry start implementing easy things first.

  To reach out further: Since time is a rare component, I suggest we  
setup online presentations instead of traveling. I'm planning to hold  
online presentations of our work with the application I showed you  
briefly last time. As a first step, I would like to have your consent  
with me doing this although I have trouble attending our meetings. I  
think it is a good way to reach out to many interested people in a time  
and cost effective way.

  Finally, I think we could go on with the idea of sponsorship into  
forming a similar "initiative" as W3C WAI. My initial idea was to do  
this, but IGDA wanted something smaller first, which resulted in the  
SIG. Now, I think we have proven to be serious about this and can talk  
to Jason about forming an "initiative", or GAI (compare with WAI, Web  
Accessibility Initiative). It should be formed by a consortium of  
leading game development studios and publishers as well as  
international disability organisations. Also, existing developers of  
accessible games should be included.

  A lot do to of course, but I would like to have your feedback  
regarding these ideas.

  Kind regards,
  Thomas

IGDA Games Accessibility SIG Mailing List <games_access at igda.org> on  
den 29 november 2004 at 02:26 +0100 wrote:
Hi everyone --


  I hope that all the IGDA Games Accessibility SIG members have signed  
up for
  the mailing list! I had an extremely bad computer crash about 1 1/2  
weeks
  ago and the recovery process has been very time consuming. Long story
  short...if you've emailed me in the last week and a half or so...your  
email
  may have gotten caught in the crash so please let me know if you have
  emailed me and haven't heard back yet!!


  Also, if one of you has a reminder email from the last meeting with  
all the
  email addresses of the GA SIG members on it, can you forward it to me  
at
hinn at uiuc.edu as soon as possible? Also, if anyone has the minutes from  
the
  last meeting, could you forward that to me as well?


  Anyway, just a reminder that we have a meeting for the Game  
Accessibility
  SIG is tomorrow at 9am (US pacific time)/12noon (US east coast time).  
Please
  try to be there if you can! We'll catching up on recent SIG business


  IMPORTANT (how to get to the meeting): If you aren't already on MSN
  Messenger, please sign up for an account as soon as possible. Then add  
me,
vrgrrl at hotmail.com (that's right, vrgrrl), to your contacts list.
  I'll make sure that you are added to the conference room when I see you
  online right before the meeting. Email me at hinn at uiuc.edu if you have  
any
  problems.


  Hope to see you all tomorrow!
  Michelle
  IGDA Game Accessibility Committee Chair




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  IGDA Game Accessibility SIG www.igda.org/accessibility/ 

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