RE: late incoming: Publishing@W3C Summit Theme

Hi,
 
I recently sent out a copied message:
 
 
Thought the item below would be of interest.
 
Also, FYI EPUB Accessibility 1.0 is now under the W3C after the merger, and the spec points to WCAG 2.0.
 
DAISY is working on the Accessibility  Checker for EPUB (ACE) and betas will be out in the 3rd quarter and first release by EOY. Benetech is gearing up on the Certified by Benetech.
 
Cool stuff!
 
Best
George
 
Dear Publisher,
 
As of 10/1/15, the University of Phoenix updated its accessibility policy regarding its expectations for delivering an accessible experience for all students. The policy identifies the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0 Level AA standards as the university’s standard of web accessibility.  The WCAG standards, developed by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C is an international community that develops open standards for the web) are considered industry best practice and have been identified by the Department of Justice and the Office of Civil Rights in the US Department of Education as the benchmarks for web accessibility under the Americans with Disabilities Act and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973.
 
To comply with this policy change and best serve our students, faculty and staff with disabilities, we require our partners make any content or technology currently utilized by the University of Phoenix accessible and in compliance with the W3C WCAG 2.0 Level AA specification by September 1, 2017.
 
Failure to meet WCAG 2.0 Level AA compliance will result in the discontinuance of use by the University of Phoenix of that content or technology, unless an exemption is issued.  Exemptions will be considered on a case-by-case basis with individual partners following a full accessibility evaluation and consultation with the university’s accessibility, instructional technology and academic teams.
 
As part of this effort, the University’s Instructional Technology team will reach out to each partner individually over the next few months to review all content and technology currently in use.

Accessibility Requirements

A tool or resource is accessible when a person with a disability is afforded the opportunity to acquire the same information, engage in the same interactions, and enjoy the same services as a person without a disability in an equally effective and equally integrated manner, with substantially equivalent ease of use.  This means individuals with disabilities who use screen readers and other assistive technology, in particular, are able to interact with the product in a way that allows them to navigate the system using a keyboard, to determine focus and independently and accurately navigate the system using their assistive technology.  It also means that individuals who are deaf or have a hearing loss are able to perceive audio content through the use of closed captions or transcripts.  To ensure this standard of accessibility is met, the University of Phoenix will require all content and technology moving forward to align with the following industry standard specifications:
*         W3C’s Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0 Level AA, and the Web Accessibility Initiative Accessible Rich Internet Applications Suite (WAI-ARIA) 1.0 for web content;
* W3C’s MathML 3.0 specification for digital mathematical and scientific notation; and
* The DAISY Consortium’s Digital Accessible Information System (DAISY) Standard or the International Digital Publishing Forum’s (IDPF) EPUB 3 specification for digital publications and documents.  
 
It is important to note that the United States Access Board recently released a final rule updating Section 508 standards and Section 255 Guidelines for Information and Communication Technology to include the WCAG 2.0 Level AA specifications.  The final rule is effective March 20, 2017 and compliance with these standards for those contracting with the federal government is required on January 18, 2018. 

Action to Take

There are certain actions our partners can take to prepare your teams and products for compliance with the university’s accessibility policy.  While it may seem that these are new requirements, all colleges and universities are required to ensure that its programs, courses, activities and services are accessible to those with disabilities across the university.  The university recommends the following:
 
*         Review the WCAG 2.0 Level AA guidelines to understand our expectations and requirements.
*         Ensure all student and faculty facing content and technology you license or provide to the University of Phoenix is compliant with the WCAG 2.0 Level AA specification by September 1, 2017.
*         If you cannot align your content or technology to the W3C WCAG 2.0 Level AA specification, please contact ProductADA.Accessibility@phoenix.edu <mailto:ProductADA.Accessibility@phoenix.edu>  to discuss options. 
*         Provide the following for all integrated products to ProductADA.Accessibility@phoenix.edu <mailto:ProductADA.Accessibility@phoenix.edu>  as an acknowledgement to this email
1.       Voluntary Product Accessibility Template (VPAT)
2.       Accessibility Roadmap
3.       Demo Credentials 
4.       Expected Compliance Date
 
Please note, the university’s accessibility and instructional technology teams are available to consult with our partners to determine current accessibility levels of products.  These teams are available at ProductADA.Accessibility@phoenix.edu <mailto:ProductADA.Accessibility@phoenix.edu> .
 
 Best
George
 
 
 
 
 
From: Bill McCoy [mailto:bmccoy@w3.org] 
Sent: Thursday, May 11, 2017 5:21 PM
To: 'George Kerscher' <kerscher@montana.com>; 'Bill Kasdorf' <bkasdorf@apexcovantage.com>; 'Siegman, Tzviya - Hoboken' <tsiegman@wiley.com>; 'Dave Cramer' <dauwhe@gmail.com>
Cc: 'Karen Myers' <karen@w3.org>; 'AUDRAIN LUC' <LAUDRAIN@hachette-livre.fr>; 'McCloy-Kelley, Liisa' <lmccloy-kelley@penguinrandomhouse.com>; 'Paul Belfanti' <Paul.Belfanti@ascendlearning.com>; 'PBG Steering Committee (Public)' <public-publishing-sc@w3.org>
Subject: RE: late incoming: Publishing@W3C Summit Theme
 
HI BIllK and George,
 
BillK thanks and I hope you get well and well caught up by next week!
 
George, personally I think it’s critical that we make a11y a focus for this event. It is one of the key things that already unites EPUB 3 and the rest of the Open Web Platform and to the extent that I see the real underlying theme for the broadest audience as “Beyond PDF”, a11y in the broadest sense (including optimized reading on mobile devices) is a primary driver for the need to go beyond PDF and the paper-replica model for representing content.
 
This does lead me to a crazy idea about a potential theme. I have always thought of a11y as the mine canary for all kinds of  machine processing, because well-structured content with metadata is much easier to reliably analyze, summarize, etc. I even once gave a Books in Browser talk suggesting we were creating content for machines to read, not humans and arguing that this was a good thing not an Orwellian disaster (despite what Jaron Lanier thinks). Of course the Web also makes Big Data practical and available to all (Ok Google). But this was all well before the current boom in AI. We could have a theme about AI and the future of documents/publications and weave in a11y to that as well as the imperative to move beyond PDF to OWP since it will facilitate content that can be processed reliably and at Web scale and with granularity (vs. PDF, “ the roach motel for data” [1]). And  I know some folks in our world such as Liza Daly have gotten into AI lately. Just an idea…
 
--BillM
 
[1] http://www.techradar.com/news/software/pdf-is-where-documents-go-to-die-says-microsoft-exec-1089202 
 
From: George Kerscher [mailto:kerscher@montana.com] 
Sent: Thursday, May 11, 2017 2:26 PM
To: 'Bill Kasdorf' <bkasdorf@apexcovantage.com <mailto:bkasdorf@apexcovantage.com> >; 'Siegman, Tzviya - Hoboken' <tsiegman@wiley.com <mailto:tsiegman@wiley.com> >; 'Bill McCoy' <bmccoy@w3.org <mailto:bmccoy@w3.org> >; 'Dave Cramer' <dauwhe@gmail.com <mailto:dauwhe@gmail.com> >
Cc: 'Karen Myers' <karen@w3.org <mailto:karen@w3.org> >; 'AUDRAIN LUC' <LAUDRAIN@hachette-livre.fr <mailto:LAUDRAIN@hachette-livre.fr> >; 'McCloy-Kelley, Liisa' <lmccloy-kelley@penguinrandomhouse.com <mailto:lmccloy-kelley@penguinrandomhouse.com> >; 'Paul Belfanti' <Paul.Belfanti@ascendlearning.com <mailto:Paul.Belfanti@ascendlearning.com> >; 'PBG Steering Committee (Public)' <public-publishing-sc@w3.org <mailto:public-publishing-sc@w3.org> >
Subject: RE: late incoming: Publishing@W3C Summit Theme
 
Hi,
 
I too have been following it all. I alerted the WAI chairs to the coming event. Bill, you will probably be in touch with Judy.
 
/George
 
 
 
From: Bill Kasdorf [mailto:bkasdorf@apexcovantage.com] 
Sent: Thursday, May 11, 2017 3:08 PM
To: Siegman, Tzviya - Hoboken <tsiegman@wiley.com <mailto:tsiegman@wiley.com> >; Bill McCoy <bmccoy@w3.org <mailto:bmccoy@w3.org> >; 'Dave Cramer' <dauwhe@gmail.com <mailto:dauwhe@gmail.com> >
Cc: 'Karen Myers' <karen@w3.org <mailto:karen@w3.org> >; 'AUDRAIN LUC' <LAUDRAIN@hachette-livre.fr <mailto:LAUDRAIN@hachette-livre.fr> >; 'McCloy-Kelley, Liisa' <lmccloy-kelley@penguinrandomhouse.com <mailto:lmccloy-kelley@penguinrandomhouse.com> >; 'Paul Belfanti' <Paul.Belfanti@ascendlearning.com <mailto:Paul.Belfanti@ascendlearning.com> >; 'PBG Steering Committee (Public)' <public-publishing-sc@w3.org <mailto:public-publishing-sc@w3.org> >
Subject: RE: late incoming: Publishing@W3C Summit Theme
 
Hi, folks—
 
I am even later to this discussion. I’ve been ill the last couple of weeks and struggling to recover (including from a sinus infection) before I get on a plane to London tomorrow. So I have only been able to do what was urgently necessary. I’m even giving a keynote presentation next Wednesday that I’ve hardly begun to prepare. So needless to say, I’ve had to defer looking at this lively thread since it started. (Not to mention hundreds of other emails.)
 
I have not looked at any of these, but before I leave for London I needed to make sure you didn’t interpret my silence as lack of interest. I don’t want to comment until I’m up to speed with where you’ve been going. Which I’m really sorry about, because as you know I love programming stuff like this and will be very happy to be involved. If there’s something you really need me to look at or weigh in on in the next week please let me know with a “BillK” or something in the subject line so I will respond right away. Otherwise, I will try to catch up on these and many others as I can, but I will be busy with IPTC meetings in London (including BBC) much of the time there. 
 
I should be able to get well caught up the week of the 22nd, but I didn’t want to wait that long to at least touch base. I look forward to joining this discussion when I can. Thanks!
 
--Bill
 

Bill Kasdorf

VP and Principal Consultant | Apex CoVantage

p:
734-904-6252  m:   734-904-6252
ISNI:  <http://isni.org/isni/0000000116490786> http://isni.org/isni/0000000116490786
ORCiD:  <https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7002-4786?lang=en> https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7002-4786
 
 
From: Siegman, Tzviya - Hoboken [mailto:tsiegman@wiley.com] 
Sent: Thursday, May 11, 2017 4:25 PM
To: Bill McCoy; 'Dave Cramer'
Cc: 'Karen Myers'; 'AUDRAIN LUC'; 'McCloy-Kelley, Liisa'; 'Paul Belfanti'; Bill Kasdorf; 'PBG Steering Committee (Public)'
Subject: RE: late incoming: Publishing@W3C Summit Theme
 
Hi Bill,
 
Apologies for coming late to the game. I love Dave’s idea of reaching out to our proposed audience to ask them what they want to hear. People who are included in the planning are a lot more likely to come and thus more likely to participate. I understand the time constraints though. I am also aware that the conferences we’ve discussed have had full-time staff and larger budgets. We are offering some of our time and experience.  
 
I do think it’s a good idea to focus the meeting. When I’m asked to speak, and the topic is “ebooks”, I don’t know where to start. If I am given a specific topic, I can usually come up with a good proposal. Here are a few ideas:
 
* Decentralizing publishing – working within and without the giants of digital publishing (renaming Dave’s David and Goliath)
* The making of a standard and why it matters to publishing (EPUB, (P)WP, ISO)
* OpenSource me – is OS relevant to your work? What does it mean to be opensource? Is that different from Open Standards (a personal favorite of mine, given some of the work I’ve been doing at Wiley).
Should I put these ideas on the wiki?
 
Best,
Tzviya
 
Tzviya Siegman
Information Standards Lead
Wiley
201-748-6884
 <mailto:tsiegman@wiley.com> tsiegman@wiley.com 
 
From: Bill McCoy [mailto:bmccoy@w3.org] 
Sent: Thursday, May 11, 2017 3:58 PM
To: 'Dave Cramer'; Siegman, Tzviya - Hoboken
Cc: 'Karen Myers'; 'AUDRAIN LUC'; 'McCloy-Kelley, Liisa'; 'Paul Belfanti'; 'Bill Kasdorf'; 'PBG Steering Committee (Public)'
Subject: RE: late incoming: Publishing@W3C Summit Theme
 
I should also add that if your issue is really that you think we need a significantly narrower/topical focus for theme than anything that’s been proposed so far, that is something the PBG SC can certainly discuss. That was not the direction we came to in March but IMO there is time to narrow focus if that is what is desired and assuming we think a tighter focus will better achieve our goals. But we would need to agree on a more specific focus ASAP (within 1-2 weeks).
 
--Bill
 
From: Bill McCoy [mailto:bmccoy@w3.org] 
Sent: Thursday, May 11, 2017 12:51 PM
To: 'Dave Cramer' <dauwhe@gmail.com <mailto:dauwhe@gmail.com> >; 'Siegman, Tzviya - Hoboken' <tsiegman@wiley.com <mailto:tsiegman@wiley.com> >
Cc: 'Karen Myers' <karen@w3.org <mailto:karen@w3.org> >; 'AUDRAIN LUC' <LAUDRAIN@hachette-livre.fr <mailto:LAUDRAIN@hachette-livre.fr> >; 'McCloy-Kelley, Liisa' <lmccloy-kelley@penguinrandomhouse.com <mailto:lmccloy-kelley@penguinrandomhouse.com> >; 'Paul Belfanti' <Paul.Belfanti@ascendlearning.com <mailto:Paul.Belfanti@ascendlearning.com> >; 'Bill Kasdorf' <bkasdorf@apexcovantage.com <mailto:bkasdorf@apexcovantage.com> >; 'PBG Steering Committee (Public)' <public-publishing-sc@w3.org <mailto:public-publishing-sc@w3.org> >
Subject: RE: late incoming: Publishing@W3C Summit Theme
 
HI Dave, well we’ve had a draft theme statement for many weeks and now we have an improved one. If we want to start over from scratch with an appeal to the public to help us devise a theme we can do it. But IMO the PBG SC should have decided to do that in March in London. At this late date, with need to announce that an event is happening and open it for registration by June 12, I think with your and Tzivya’s fresh thinking we should instead improve (/redo) the theme we already have been working on and move on to get the event announced and start working on program. I do think a public call for proposals does make sense.
 
--Bill
 
From: Dave Cramer [mailto:dauwhe@gmail.com] 
Sent: Thursday, May 11, 2017 12:37 PM
To: Siegman, Tzviya - Hoboken <tsiegman@wiley.com <mailto:tsiegman@wiley.com> >
Cc: Bill McCoy <bmccoy@w3.org <mailto:bmccoy@w3.org> >; Karen Myers <karen@w3.org <mailto:karen@w3.org> >; AUDRAIN LUC <LAUDRAIN@hachette-livre.fr <mailto:LAUDRAIN@hachette-livre.fr> >; McCloy-Kelley, Liisa <lmccloy-kelley@penguinrandomhouse.com <mailto:lmccloy-kelley@penguinrandomhouse.com> >; Paul Belfanti <Paul.Belfanti@ascendlearning.com <mailto:Paul.Belfanti@ascendlearning.com> >; Bill Kasdorf <bkasdorf@apexcovantage.com <mailto:bkasdorf@apexcovantage.com> >; PBG Steering Committee (Public) <public-publishing-sc@w3.org <mailto:public-publishing-sc@w3.org> >
Subject: Re: late incoming: Publishing@W3C Summit Theme
 
Publishing@W3C is new. We have been blessed with a fresh start. In the spirit of W3C, let's get the community involved in planning the conference. 
 
First, we need a theme, a topic, something more than "this is a digital publishing conference, y'all are interested in digital publishing, you should come." Heck, we could ask  Twitter (and BISG, and existing WG/CG/IGs) what people loved or hated about IDPF/BEA, and what they'd like to see from a P@W3 Summit. We could each send emails to our colleagues asking such questions. How do we find out what would bring Peter or Rena to California? Ask them!
 
Once we have a theme, let's put out a call for proposals. I'd love to see speakers and panelists I haven't heard before, but just asking the people we already know is guaranteed to result in the usual suspects. This way we get volunteers rather than draftees, and the level of response will give us some information on how much enthusiasm is out there for such a conference.
 
Dave