- From: Robert Neff <robneff@home.com>
- Date: Wed, 28 Jul 1999 10:12:00 -0700
- To: <w3c-wai-eo@w3.org>, "Marja-Riitta Koivunen" <marja@w3.org>
- Cc: "wai-gl" <w3c-wai-gl@w3.org>
a most excellent idea! ----- Original Message ----- From: Marja-Riitta Koivunen <marja@w3.org> To: Robert Neff <robneff@home.com>; <w3c-wai-eo@w3.org> Cc: wai-gl <w3c-wai-gl@w3.org> Sent: Wednesday, July 28, 1999 6:46 AM Subject: Re: i do not understand? > A lot of this sounds like the problems when first starting to promote the > importance of usability. Maybe it would be good to gather some successful > cases of how these accessibility problems are/were tackled in companies to > somewhere to help other people with similar problems and also to give > feedback to working groups. > > For instance, some beginning solutions with usability were often to invite > developers (and managers) to give input for usability test cases and them > show them how the users are struggling (often things that had been too hard > to change for months were changed in five minutes during the break between > the test users). > > Marja > > At 11:13 PM 7/27/99 -0700, Robert Neff wrote: > >to share some experiences as we gear up to support a large scale e-commerce > >and interactive site... > > > >we are implementing a web based configuration management tool in a very > >rapid application development environment. we are testing and implementing > >this in our large office that has programmers, coders, writers, graphic > >artist, multimedia types, technical manager, and just plain mangers. Easy, > >right? Not really, i now have more grey hair. > > > >we had powerpoint slides, text, instructions and documents. it took us > >three to four weeks to get everyone in a room to show the concept. tried > >marketing earlier and people gave me time but were more interested in > >telling me why they could not support it or why they they did not have > >time. even had upper management support to move forward. > > > >our heavy deliverable schedule and customer support just did not permit a > >group meeting or individual training. i spent more time explaining roles > >and concepts and trying to walk people through this. so we implemented > >before we had all the materials and forced people to use CM. we also held > >their hands and provided a lot of nuturing. they also were not using the > >guidleines we gave them. > > > >some people just did not want to understand, because they cannot comprehend > >why they need it. some people do not want to do it because it gives up > >control and impacts their abilitiy to deliver. some people want to learn > >but do not understand the language and are afraid and confused. To win > >these confused types, we had to reword everything and pay quarter everytime > >we used an acronym or technical term. Turns out the lead CM manager and > >trainer who was explaining everything had no idea he was losing the > >non-technical folks. neither did i and i understood it. > > > >The programmers and coders caught on quick and learned the process. Some > >want to learn but didnt have time. still some refuse. we found some could > >beat the system after the fact and had to address these issues. we caught > >that in quality checks. > > > >Our office was one heck of a testbed! When we deploy the intranet and > >assign coordinators and responsibilties to offices and larger sites, we are > >dealing with people who do not know HTML and have never been in a web > >production environment or software engineering environment. So by now you > >are wondering how we could have done things better given a lack of resources > >to prepare and no time to train. We just had to do it or else it would have > >never been done. Then you say good luck implementing the process in the > >field where no one uses HTML, just web authoring tools. > > > >Hmmm, does this sound similar to the guideline's path? well hope so, > >because this is our environment and the biggest barrier i found was > >communication. Technical types do not speak the same language amongst > >themselves and even far worse, they do not know how to communicate to the > >non-technical folks who are the foundation for most web shops in the > >government. > > > >thanks for reading this far and that is why i am pleading to make these > >understandable and easy to find so we can accomplish our goal - universal > >design! based upon experience <smile> and the no-technical types are > >taking down my picture form their wall - they found someone else to throw > >darts at! > > > >rob > >
Received on Wednesday, 28 July 1999 10:17:53 UTC