Knowbility OpenAIR Competition - Mentors Needed - Experienced Accessibility Professionals

Dear WAI Interest Group,

Hello!

I’m the chair for this year’s OpenAIR Mentor Committee.

We are in need of very experienced accessibility professionals to serve as mentors.

I am writing to ask if you would consider being a team mentor in the next OpenAIR competition by donating just a few hours of your time.

*AIR to OpenAIR*

As you may know, Knowbility has fostered web accessibility skills and awareness through the AIR competition for more than 17 years. What began as a live, in-person hack-a-thon event has evolved in the last three years into a global online contest, now called OpenAIR. Through programs like OpenAIR, Knowbility has inspired hundreds if not thousands of web professionals to consider accessibility in their work. Several leaders in the industry (maybe even you) found their calling during these events. 

The program is now being recognized globally as an innovative way to make websites accessible – recently awarded for innovation in Accessibility by the FCC in 2015.    

Now that AIR has gone virtual, teams have more time but less hands-on advice and personal instruction. We want them to learn how to design and build with accessibility in mind, but they need a guide – we want to provide that guidance by assigning an experienced accessibility mentor to each team, someone who can answer questions and provide direction - that's where you come in.

*What it will take*

Registration is open now, so as soon as teams sign on, they may be eligible to have a mentor assigned to them. Imagine if you could totally transform the way an entire team of web professionals approaches design, development, and testing.

In the spirit of helping people find their calling in the field of accessibility as early in the game as possible, we’re excited to be opening this year’s competition to teams of students currently in college. If you decide to become a mentor, you may be selected to help coach one of these university teams. All of the duties laid out in the list of mentor responsibilities would be the same, as would the timeline of the competition. The only difference is that the students will be competing against other students, rather than against other companies. This is the program’s flagship year and we’re excited to see how the students perform. If you know you’d like to mentor a university team, feel free to let me know directly. 

I've attached a document outlining mentor responsibilities, please take a moment to look it over. 

*Are you in?*

If you’re interested in volunteering your time, and you are an experienced accessibility professional, please respond to this email.  Knowbility will match you with a worthy team.

Knowbility has had great success in instilling an interest in accessibility through this fun friendly competition. I hope you will join us in evolving the program to have global impact. 

Additional information can be found at http://air-rallies.org/for-mentors/ <http://air-rallies.org/for-mentors/> 

Thanks very much for considering!

CB Averitt