Accessibility Code Sprint in Montreal - June 2012

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Mirabuck's picture

Hello everyone,

Montreal's local Drupal Association is planning to run a 3 day Accessibility code sprint in June. Everett Zufelt of and Mike Gifford have both expressed an interest in helping to lead the sprint. We're currently looking at June 15-17 as our dates. A facility has not yet been booked, but Montreal's Notman House has been suggested. It was used successfully for our i18n sprint back in September. We're holding the sprint from June 15th to 17th at the offices of Evolving Web, 114-300 rue du Saint-Sacrement
Monteal.

Please feel free to contribute any ideas that you might have. We're looking for feedback on the proposed dates and facility as well as a general head count of folks interested in participating.

If you have any other questions, please post them.

EDIT: Yo can now sign up at http://groups.drupal.org/node/229943


Bonjour à toutes et à tous,

L'Association Drupal de Montréal prépare pour juin un sprint de programmation de trois jours sur le thème de l'accessibilité. Everett Zufelt et Mike Gifford se sont tous deux proposés pour diriger ce sprint, qui aurait vraisemblablement lieu du 15 au 17 juin. Aucun lieu n'a encore été réservé, mais quelqu'un a proposé la Maison Notman où nous avons tenu avec succès notre sprint i18n en septembre dernier.

N'hésitez pas à nous faire part de vos idées. Nous aimerions avoir votre avis sur les dates et le lieu projetés, et connaître vos intentions afin d'estimer approximativement le nombre de participants intéressés.

Si vous avez d'autres questions, veuillez les publier.

Comments

This sounds great

mgifford's picture

Really looking forward to it!

Agenda

Everett Zufelt's picture

The dates work for me, and I am still quite interested.

Is there an agenda or focus area for the sprint? Drupal Core, contributed modules? What is the desired outcome, or deliverable, for the sprint (this will obviously scale based on those who are interested)?

Accessibility Consultant & Web Developer - Zufelt.ca
@ezufelt on Twitter | LinkedIn profile

Re: Agenda

bowersox's picture

I will hold these dates on my calendar and make arrangements to join as well. This sounds wonderful!

Here are ideas for areas of focus during the sprint:

  • ARIA Core Sprint
  • Layout Initiative Accessibility Sprint
  • Forms API Accessibility Sprint

Re: Agenda

Everett Zufelt's picture

Sounds greate Brandon. Those are excellent areas of focus for Drupal 8.

Accessibility Consultant & Web Developer - Zufelt.ca
@ezufelt on Twitter | LinkedIn profile

I'm in!

Pierre Paul Lefebvre's picture

I'm in!

Reviewing/patching or testing/bug-reporting contrib

omar's picture

I am not a full blown programmer, so I won't be able to help much with big architectural projects. I'm sure I am not the only person in this category, so coming up with some "lower bar" ideas for participation would be great.

On the other hand, I can tweak code, generate/apply patches and such so it would be great if there was one or more accessibility issues commonly found in contrib that have relatively straight forward fixes.

Another idea that comes to mind would be to simply installing modules and/or distributions, runing tests and opening issues in the relevant places.

Re: testing and review

bowersox's picture

That is a great idea! We could have one whole "track" of the sprint be focused on just doing accessibility evaluation of contrib modules. We could do this for the top 20 contributed modules as a service to the Drupal community.

We could file issues and, where possible, generate patches. When we file issues we should give helpful information such as suggested HTML and concrete steps they can follow to improve the accessibility. We don't just want to complain on the issue queue--we want to give actionable feedback to make the most popular modules more accessible.

Who else is interested in that track?

Even if you're not a programmer...

Ryan Weal's picture

...attending the sprint will still be a valuable experience. I've participated in two i18n sprints so far and I'm just starting to post code, for documentation! Yes, we do put some documentation into the Drupal code base.

At the sprints I have learned a lot about how the core development process works and I would encourage all Drupal site builders to attend at least one sprint just to see what it is all about. It is a great opportunity to talk with developers about the issues and the end result is a better Drupal for everyone.

People who have never been to a sprint before... please come! Help us with business cases and documentation or design if programming is not your main gig.

And also, if you've never been to Montréal, what a great excuse to come check out our city! Montréal is really nice in June.

Convinced. I'm in.

dufferin's picture

Convinced.

I'm in.

Re: testing and review

Everett Zufelt's picture

I'm definitely interested in providing assistance to anyone interested in working on this.

Accessibility Consultant & Web Developer - Zufelt.ca
@ezufelt on Twitter | LinkedIn profile

Accessibility of Notman House

mgifford's picture

I'm not from Montreal, but Notman House seems to have accessibility problems:
https://twitter.com/#!/catroy/status/185234878084825088

Brandon, you're coming up? That would be great. Montreal is definitely a great city.

I have done a little to promote this in the accessibility community but will do more when this gets firmed up a bit.

Good point

Mirabuck's picture

An accessibility sprint in a non-accessible venue doesn't make much sense. We're looking into some other options.

Sounds like we could hold this at Evolving Web HQ (which is fully accessible) if nothing else is found.

I've sent an e-mail to

Pierre Paul Lefebvre's picture

I've sent an e-mail to Catherine Roy to see if she's willing to give us a hand. I'm expecting an answer soon.

Sounds like the dates work, now we just need a venue

Mirabuck's picture

Hi everyone,

Sounds like the dates work. Now all we need is a venue. A few ideas have been floated, but other suggestions are welcome.

McGill will be sending 2-3 people.

I've sent an e-mail to

Pierre Paul Lefebvre's picture

I've sent an e-mail to Catherine Roy and she will be unable to attend, but she can help us find a venue if the matter is not settled.

Here is the last e-mail : Michael me demandait de l'aide pour trouver une salle pour votre activité. Malheureusement, je n'ai aucune info pour me guider dans mes recherches (nombre de personnes, exigences techniques, budget (?), etc. Avez-vous tjrs besoin d'aide ?

Venu and agenda

Everett Zufelt's picture

I'm wondering if anyone can provide an update about the venue, an accessible venue is clearly a priority.

Also, could someone please put together a draft agenda for the 3 days? Obviously this is subject to change over time and when we get together.

Accessibility Consultant & Web Developer - Zufelt.ca
@ezufelt on Twitter | LinkedIn profile

Looks like it will be Evolving Web

Mirabuck's picture

Hi Everett,

Evolving web have generously offered to host the Sprint. Their offices at 114-300 rue du Saint-Sacrement here in Montreal are properly accessible.

Unless a better suggestion come along swiftly, I'm pretty sure that's where we'll end up.

We have an organizational meeting happening this Thursday. I hope to have the venue confirmed there.

We'll aim to put together a draft agenda at Thursday's meeting as well.

Venue confirmed

Mirabuck's picture

Hello everyone,

It's a done deal. We'll be using Evolving Web's offices for the sprint.

Myplanet Digital

Everett Zufelt's picture

Just confirming that Myplanet Digital will be sending me, and likely one other developer, for the sprint.

Accessibility Consultant & Web Developer - Zufelt.ca
@ezufelt on Twitter | LinkedIn profile

Draft Agenda

Mirabuck's picture

Here's a suggested draft agenda compiled from ideas presented above. Any others are welcome.

  • ARIA Core Sprint
  • Layout Initiative Accessibility Sprint
  • Forms API Accessibility Sprint
  • Accessibility review of contrib modules
  • Documentation

Media Module

dcmouyard's picture

Unfortunately I have a prior engagement that weekend, but if it falls through I'll attend remotely.

One area that could really use some accessibility love is the Media module, especially the process of selecting media files in the UI.

Event created - please sign up

Mirabuck's picture

Hello everyone,

We've created an event for this at http://groups.drupal.org/node/229943

Please sign up if you plan to attend.