Re: Updating Policies -- initial thoughts

  Hi Jennifer,

Thanks for all this! Brief replies below.

> I have ONE request/action:
> If it's easy, can you update the page-title of the Draft Policies document so that when I alt-tab among pages, I'll be sure when I'm in the draft?  Thanks in advance. I mean this: http://www.w3.org/WAI/EO/Drafts/policy-updates

SLH: done.

> 2.  I agree that the introduction needs to be shortened, and I'll take a stab at it as soon as I can.

SLH: I think we need to rethink the entire "front matter". I've added it to the Open Issues in the changelog.

> Is the intro the right place to mention the harmonization document?

SLH: I think so. I've added it to the draft.

> 3. I am thinking that we should update what we have, and then, for the second batch of updates, I can focus on finding any new countries. Does anyone know, right off, if there are any?

SLH: I think we want to prioritize countries that we know are referencing WCAG 2.0 as well. A list of countries is in the changelog at http://www.w3.org/WAI/EO/changelogs/cl-policy-list#status

> 4.  Is it necessary to indicate where a document was formerly located? I'm persuadable, but I find the link references that are not "live" slow my skimming and comprehension.
>
> Might it be easier to maintain if the current page were simply archived and linked to at the bottom?
>
> W3C might care about what was updated and what used to be where, but I'm not sure the updates/changes need to be flagged for the general reader.
>
> In addition, I'm afraid that this kind of flagging may highlight the maintenance issues.
>
> If I'm coming to this page, I'm going to look for my country, or another country that interests me, and find the links for that as quickly as I can. I'm envisioning someone who may come to this page from the "Contacting Organizations about Inaccessible Web Sites" page. If I were that person, I'd want the two or three links I should be citing in my email.
>
> I worry about overwhelming people with two many choices.

SLH: I added to the Open Issues in the Changelog for discussion. If I remember correctly from before, we thought having the old like might help someone locate the document if they really want to -- and maybe nag the owner to put up a redirect.

> 5. Should there be a new category that relates to Global efforts such as the UN Convention? Or ITU may have something(s)?

SLH: I added it to the Open Issues in the Changelog to see how it plays out. Mostly I think this will be determined by if there is global information that we want to include.

> 6. Is it worth considering either eliminating, or lessening, the "Additional Information" sections?
>
> Or maybe, when soliciting updates, we indicate that people only may include three links at the VERY most?
>
> I'm thinking about future maintenance and too many choices.

SLH: I added it to the Open Issues in the Changelog for discussion. One issue is that in some countries there is very little formal legislation and the additional information is vital.

> 7. When possible, if there are only certain sections in a document, I'd like to try to "deep link" right to them, using a nested list. I know this runs contrary to my generally wanting to simplify, but I find it hard to see textual citations and then have to shift among pages as I try to locate them in the legal document. I suspect I'm not alone.
>
> But of course, people probably often don't construct the documents to make deep-linking easy.

SLH: I added it to the Open Issues in the Changelog for discussion. Mostly I think we'll want to look at this on a case-by-case basis.

> 8. I doubt that we will want to update the United States states page right away. It's here: http://www.w3.org/WAI/Policy/USA-States.html
>
> But if you want to document in the changelog, Shawn, I happen to have these three links for MN handy:

SLH: My feeling is that states are lower priority. Anyway, to help manage updates, they should be sent to wai-eo-editors@w3.org (per http://www.w3.org/WAI/Policy/updates.html ) -- with a clear subject line to help organize them.

> Laura Carlson's Web Reference -- has mostly English-speaking countries -- US, UK, and Australia: http://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/accessibility.html#law

SLH: I'm collecting a list of lists in the changelog at http://www.w3.org/WAI/EO/changelogs/cl-policy-list#archive Feel free to send those directly to me.

Thanks,
~Shawn

Received on Monday, 1 August 2011 21:02:58 UTC