FirefoxSummit/2006/ProposedSessions/Accessibility

Session Title

Sustainable Accessibility Ecosystem

Session Leader

Aaron Leventhal

Summary

Firefox accessibility is becoming a nexus for accessibility in open source, and helping pave the way for open source and open standards to get a real foothold.

In the past, lack of accessibility has been used to block open source and open standards (such as ODF) from being used in government. However, accessibility done right can be a reason for governments to move off of proprietary platforms. This can easily spill over into industry.

However, tremendous effort and coordination are required to move from no accessibility to supporting a rich array of operating systems and types of users. One person can't do it all. The Firefox accessibility effort has grown from 1 person to a community, complete with grants, a newsgroup and a chat channel. The success of the growth of this community may have implications for other sub-communities within the larger Firefox effort.

The session will cover the evolution of Firefox accessibility from potential into a growing ecosystem, and how we plan to grow into a sustainable ecosystem with implications beyond Firefox.

Agenda

1. Diagram high level view of the accessibility problem
2. Show and discuss where we are now
3. Demonstration (ZoomText or Window-Eyes)
4. Discuss solutions to the potential mess (such as API harmonization)
5. Diagram the growth of a community and how we can help optimize it
6. Discussion

Interested Attendees

Ken Saunders