RE: WAI-AGE task force - who to contact

Dear All
I think I may have missed the beginning of this discussion. I wondered if you are aware of this little study back in 2004:
Lazar, J., Dudley-Sponaugle, A., and Greenidge, K. (2004). Improving Web Accessibility: A Study of Webmaster Perceptions. <http://www.apa.org/divisions/div21/MemberActivities/chb2004/jl.pdf>  Computers and Human Behavior, 20(2), 269-288. 
Regards
Suzette

 -----Original Message----- 
 From: public-wai-age-request@w3.org on behalf of Anna.Zhuang@nokia.com 
 Sent: Wed 11-Feb-09 7:46 AM 
 To: andrew@w3.org; public-wai-age@w3.org 
 Cc: 
 Subject: RE: WAI-AGE task force
 
 


 Dear all,
 
 My 0.2 cents. For those busy reading I quoted concrete proposald with ***..***.
 
 I already complained about the title before. Response is a reactive measure and the whole document is suggesting proactive steps.
 
 I think we should not strongly encourage accessing webmasters because these are the people who mainly fix the bugs or malfunctions. Another observation is, any feedback channel or contact made available on a website is likely not to be the right person to handle accessibility issues with the website. And from my own experience, you may hit the right person who can't care less about complaints and you may equally likely hit a person who has nothing to do with your problem but who has enough willpower to help you and he will push things forward.
 
 I once was in a situation where important information on a webpage was unavailable and the only possible contact for the site was a webmaster. The information was of such importance to me that I had no choice but to send an e-mail to the webmaster and in this case he was good enough to contact the right person and fix the problem.
 
 I assume the target audience for the document are those who have various degree of difficulty to figure out whether they should do anything and/or how and another audience would be people who can figure out many things but are still seeking for some ideas or advice.
 
 ***It would be good to move the target audience from the requirements doc to the real one.***
 
 ***It would be good to have a section describing diferent ways an organization can be approached and how to make choices. We need to highlight that different organizations make themselves available by different means. Possible choices not limited to a single organization:
 - Feedback form or e-mail
 - List of people responsible for different areas with contact information
 - List of top management of the organization
 - Webmaster
 - Postal address of the organization
 - anything else***
 
 I would say that feedback form should be tried first because this is a channel dedicated to deal with customers and there are people allocated for this task. Likewise I would say that webmaster like company's postal address would be the last choice. Whereas contacting company's CEO would be an attractive idea, the bigger the company the less chances to get CEO's personal attension. It may even make sense to advise to try to contact CEO directly if one knows that he is dealing with a small company.
 
 ***In further actions I would suggest to try to use other available contacts if nor response received. Try to contact disability advocates/advocated for elderly anyway. If an organization responded but has not fixed the problem, this is a more complicated case but doing both of the above would be appropriate***
 
 ***Have several versions of sample e-mail. Have a version to address CEO, a version to address some available contact, a version for specific feedback channel. Maybe explain that the same text can be used in an e-mail, paper letter or feedback form***
 
 That's it for now. Have a nice telco.
 
 Anna
 
 
 
 
 >-----Original Message-----
 >From: public-wai-age-request@w3.org
 >[mailto:public-wai-age-request@w3.org] On Behalf Of ext Andrew Arch
 >Sent: Monday, February 09, 2009 3:53 PM
 >To: public-wai-age@w3.org
 >Subject: WAI-AGE task force
 >
 >
 >Dear Task Force,
 >
 >As per schedule, we are meeting this Wednesday at the usual time:
 >   http://www.w3.org/WAI/EO/wai-age/teleconf.html#meetings
 >Teleconference Bridge:
 >   +33.4.89.06.34.99 / +44.117.370.6152 / +1.617.761.6200
 >Teleconference code: 9243# (WAGE#)
 >IRC: Channel - #waiage; server - irc.w3.org; port - 6665
 >
 >*Agenda:*
 >Responding to Organizations with Inaccessible Websites
 >- requirements: http://www.w3.org/WAI/EO/changelogs/cl-responding.html
 >- initial draft: http://www.w3.org/WAI/EO/Drafts/responding/
 >
 >For consideration this week:
 >- audience for the document
 >- overall reactions to initial draft
 >- title of the document
 >- tone of document
 >- walk through
 >   - contacting
 >   - reporting
 >   - follow up
 >   - samples
 >   - resources
 >
 >As always, if you can send your views and comments by email we
 >can consider them in advance.
 >
 >Thanks, Andrew
 >--
 >Andrew Arch
 >Web Accessibility and Ageing Specialist
 >W3C/ERCIM, Sophia Antipolis, France
 >Ph +33 (0)4 92 38 79 46
 >www.w3.org/WAI/WAI-AGE/
 >
 >
 >

Received on Wednesday, 11 February 2009 10:33:05 UTC