NYS Forum IT Accessibility Committee Meeting

February 11, 2010, 2:30-3:30 p.m.
Forum Offices, 24 Aviation Road, Colonie

Attendees: Jason Cortes (GOER), Lisa Cammarota (OCA), Laura Edlund (AT&T), Joel Obuchowski (INS), Debi Orton (GOER), Cecilia Sanchez (OMH)
Remote Attendees: Jeff Bennett (OFT), Brandon Houghton (DOH)

Old Business:

  1. Agency Consulting:
    1. Debi assisted OFT with aggregate statistics with HiSoftware.
    2. Tool for renewal in March may be different tool if/when the state goes to 508. Standard.
    3. Office of Homeland Security asked for support for Blue LATS.
  2. Training - Progress Report:
    1. Writing for the Web: March 8 (proposed scheduling two ½ day session (Kristen, Kathy).
    2. Creating Accessible PDF Documents February 25 (proposed scheduling two ½ day sessions if necessary) (Debi, Jeff) Marty Navojosky from DTF was originally involved in this session, but is returning to work after an illness and is unable to participate at this time. We may do a separate session on PDF forms later in the year and Marty will assist with that one if scheduled.
  3. Interactions with Other Forum Work Groups:
    1. Web2.0 and Accessibility demos along with Accessibility / Usability discussions at Forum's Webmasters Guild meeting on February 5th. (Jason, Jim, Jeff, Estelle, Joel)

New Business:

  1. 508 Policy Recommendations:
    1. Implementation of new 508 has been stalled. CIO/OFT (Marilyn) waiting for OGS's decision for renewal of hybrid standard. They have engaged in fact-finding with OGS to try and understand their objections. Request to assist sent to AG's office on January 14. Begin formulating project team.
  2. Upcoming Presentations:
    1. Creating Accessible PDF's returning in February 25; Planning Sheet.(Debi, Jeff). Discussion on how different screen readers process PDF documents differently (JAWS/Window-eyes, Adobe's "Say aloud").
    2. Writing for the Web scheduled for March 8th. Provide link to materials prior to meeting. Evaluation of training either web based or paper based immediately after the session. Joel contacted Rebecca and submitted the planning sheet and registration details. Kristen/ Kathy will update materials.
    3. Web2.0 and Accessibility Meeting - February 5. Planning Sheet / AV needs taken care of (Jim C, Jason, Jeff, Estelle)
    4. Search Engine Optimization and Accessibility - Possibly April. (Mike S, Jim C, Jason C.) More to follow.
    5. Possible Social Media class including Twitter, Facebook, etc. - Emerging Technologies is planning a brief session targeting a broad audience. Contact Emerging Technologies (Corinne) to see if Accessibility can speak for 10-15 minutes on topic. (Estelle). ITA not participating at this juncture.
    6. Possible Web 2.0 Refresh (Re-visited) with the Webmasters' Guild. Many ARIA features have changed since the last presentation. A re-address of issues that made the technology inaccessible needs a re-evaluation. (Jim C.)
    7. Possible 508 Training - ½ hour sessions targeting Procurement, CIO, Legal (Estelle), PIO.
    8. Accessibility 101 Training - It's been approx 2 years since last training to web designers/developers. (Debi) Curriculum may need updating.
  3. Web 2.0 White Paper discussion: Jason posted on wiki and members commented. Estelle sent to Emerging Technologies work group and presented at their 2/8 work group meeting.
  4. Web Site Updates: Our work group needs to determine how we handle updates to the web site. Potential collaborative updates between Joel and Debi following 2/25 presentation.
  5. Newsletter Volunteer: We are looking for a volunteer to author the monthly newsletter. Debi suggested we request news article submissions from our work group.

Next Meeting:

March 11, 2010
2:30-4:00 p.m.
Forum Offices, 24 Aviation Road, Colonie