introduction [SEC=UNCLASSIFIED]

Hello EO participants,

As a long-time EO participant (from 2001), but having taken an extended break due to travel, relocation, and change of employer, I'm writing a short introduction to introduce myself to newer members and bring older members up-to-date.

I am currently based in Canberra working for the Australian Government Information Management Office [1] in the Web Policy - Accessibility team supporting the Web Accessibility National Transition Strategy [2] under which the Australian Government is moving to WCAG 2.0 conformance. This strategy has a number of enabling projects, including training and education, and some technical projects to consider issues such as spatial data.

From late 2007 through to late 2010, I was working with the W3C/WAI in Europe on the WAI-AGE project [3]. This had a goal of increasing accessibility of the Web for older people as well as for people with disabilities in European Union Member States. With the increasingly ageing populations in most countries, supporting older people with age-related impairments and disabilities is becoming of increasing importance. The WAI-AGE project determined that WCAG 2.0 was a requirement for older people online, and that many of the advisory techniques were particularly important for this user group [4].

Prior to moving to Europe to work with the W3C, I led Vision Australia's Web Accessibility Consulting team [5] from 2001 providing web accessibility evaluation, training and awareness across the government, private and education sectors in Australia. My interest in accessibility came from a background in agriculture and getting farmers online in the 1990's and a stint in the Victorian Dept of Human Services.

I'm looking forward to returning to EOWG and working with you all on WAI education and outreach activities.

Cheers, Andrew
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[1] http://www.finance.gov.au/agimo/

[2] http://www.finance.gov.au/publications/wcag-2-implementation/index.html

[3] http://www.w3.org/WAI/older-users/

[4] http://www.w3.org/WAI/older-users/developing.html

[5] http://www.visionaustralia.org.au/info.aspx?page=544


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Andrew Arch
Assistant Director, Web Policy - Accessibility
Australian Government Information Management Office
Dept. Finance and Deregulation

p: 02 6215 1618 | w: www.finance.gov.au


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