This document is currently in draft
A friendly introduction to how A11YChi works [Note: make language in this doc plain and easy to understand]
The Chicago Digital Accessibility & Inclusive Design Meetup (A11YChi) is a community of digital professionals interested in becoming aware of, and learn more about digital accessibility and inclusive design, as it pertains to their role and work. We meet, on average, ten times a year, offering both local and international speakers, presenting on topics related to Digital Accessibility & Inclusive Design. Meetup event are free of charge and are live streamed to extend our reach.
- We strive to be the premier meetup in Chicago, having the highest standards and ethics possible.
- Every organizer is an evangilist and advocate for digital accessibility and inclusion.
- Every organizer contributes to successful meetup events, from planning through to execution.
- We are dedcated to reaching the widest possible audience, throughout Chicagoland and beyond, evangilizing digital accessibility & inclusive design.
The Chicago Digital Accessibility & Inclusive Design Meetup (A11YChi) was created by Dennis Deacon (Organizer) in December 2014. He created it as a way to meet other digital professionals working with accessibility. At the time, Dennis was working at United Airlines, who was mandated by the Department of Transportation to be accessible via the Air Carriers Access Act (ACAA).
Before proceeding, read and agree to A11YChi's Code of Conduct (CoC). After agreement, you'll have an onboarding buddy (OB) to guide you through the process.
The purpose of this section is to ensure all organizers going forward receive the same information and are calibrated to both support the activities of the meetup and to gain as much personal benefit from the organization as possible.
- Join A11YChi organizing team on Meetup
- An OB will grant you an organizer role on Meetup
- An OB will help you become familiar with how to schedule an event, announce an event, check RSVP list, etc.
- Join A11YChi Slack for organizers
- Fill out your Slack profile
- An OB will introduce you to the channels and how they work
- When you are ready, introduce yourself(!), jump in with ideas, and share what you'd like to do
- Join A11YChi team on GitHub
- An OB will add you to the GitHub team
- Accept the invite
- An OB will help you become familiar with ongoing projects and how it works
- Become familiar with how A11YChi handles meetup logistics
- An OB will walk through with you on Meetup Event Logistics
- If relevant to your role, you may want to read Live Stream Setup, Social Media, Venue Checklist, or A11Y Presentations
- An OB will answer any questions you have
- An OB will walk through with you on Meetup Event Logistics
- An OB will check in with you periodically based on how often you'd like, e.g. once a month, a season, etc.
A11YChi is an environment where one should feel encouraged to share their unique perspectives, leverage their strengths, and act authentically. [Briefly explain more]
- A11YChi interacts with many diverse abilities [Note: Discuss more deeply about consent, phrasing, etc. Basically, how do we as organizers make A11YChi meetups always inclusive]
Note: Dennis wants to ensure the smooth, high quality meetup events continue without interruption. He needs to know if your engagement with the meetup group might or is changing, for whatever reason, whether temporary (1-7 days) or long term (1-12 months or more). Please be proactive as issues arise. There is no problem with change, as long as we know in advance. We are all human beings with lives that create unexpected challenges. We understand and respect your needs.
We use several different communication platforms to communicate with each other.
- Slack: for discussions, bringing up ideas, concerns, challenges (non-urgent)
- Email: for communication between organizers and external individuals or groups. Note: As of Dec. 17, 2018, we have transitioned to using the A11YChi Gmail account ( [email protected] ), so it can be shared between organizers when interacting with external folks.
- Phone/Text: In cases of absolute urgency or emergency, phone calls or texts can be used to communicate between organizers,
As we are a group that is organizing events, it is important that certain expectations for response is met.
- Asynchronous first, real-time second; while in-person meetings as a fallback
- Reasonable expectations to protect the organizers' time and attention for their family, friends and/or other life responsibilities
- Timeframe for responding for feedbacks:
- Slack: 24 hours is a question about a current event, or 48-72 hours if mere discussion
- Email: 24-48 hours
- Phone/Text: 24 hours
- Establish how you would prefer to be addressed and contacted
- What is your pronouns to be identified as when we communicate with you? If you do not want to share, it's totally okay.
- If an urgent matter arises (i.e. personal health, work conflict, family emergency or priority, etc.), do you have a preferred communication channel(s), e.g. Slack, email, text, that we'll contact you?
- [Note: Determine the max amount of contact]
- Notify us that if there is any circumstance that will prevent you from fulfilling your task(s), either between or during meetups. If you are burnt out, need a break, or have other priorities that have taken over, please let us know with as much advance notice as possible, so we can realign who's covering for your actiivites.
- Inform us if you are in need of rest/break from organizing. We all need a break. If you ever need to step away, for what ever reason, please let us know. We want to support you, while hosting quality events.
[Note: When conflicts and disagreements happen, how to handle; check out Project Include on conflicts]
We are all adults, working towards a common cause. Therefore, we should be able to have discussions related to the meetup without issue. We also should be able to debate differing opinions, without issue. You are here because of what you bring. And we want to have your feedback.
Dennis is the meetup organizer. While he does have the final say, he wants the other organizers to feel engaged with the direction of this organization, via their feedback, thoughts and ideas. All are welcomed. The key here is respect.
There should not be any hard feelings over the activities of this group. If there are, they should be discussed, like adults. Acceptance is a possible outcome. However, in many cases, compromise may be the end result. If someone is not satisfied with a compromise, the individual(s) with the conflict or disagreement should contact the organizer, Dennis. If the conflict or disagreement is with Dennis, the organizer(s) should feel free to include a neutral third party, typically another organizer to moderate a discussion.
As much as we love having individuls participate in this groups success, othertimes, individuals need to leave the group, due to a change in life priorities, moving, or possibly an overwhelming, unreconcileable difference. We want to ensure that no one leave with any bad feelings [Briefly explain the purpose behind this section, e.g. just as A11YChi works to ensure good experience joining A11YChi, we also want to ensure that your exit is also a good experience]
- Invite the person to leave a departing comment to the organizing team
- Get their permission to remove them from:
- Meetup
- Slack
- GitHub team
- Dennis Deacon - Organizer (he/him)
- Imelda March - ? ()
- Karen Viado - Event Organizer ()
- Nick Ng - Co-Organizer (he/his)
- Santina Croniser (she/her)
- Mayra Martinez (she/her)
| Role | Description | Delegated |
|---|---|---|
| Social Media | Promote A11YChi and share links about accessibility and inclusive design | N/A (Dennis, as backup) |
| Venue Booking | 1) Find and contact a venue to host a meetup talk; 2) Ensure an accessibility experience at the venue | Karen (Primary); others |
| Speaker Booking | Locate, set up and help speakers become familiar with how A11YChi meetups work, e.g. sharing the guideline on accessible presentations | Karen (Primary); others |
| Live Captions Booking | 1) Set up and coordinate with ACS Captions; 2) Share slidedecks beforehand to help captioner(s) be familiar with the talk | Karen; Nick |
| ASL Interpreter(s) Booking | Set up and coordinate with interpreter(s) for Deaf/Hard-of-Hearing/DeafBlind | Karen; Nick |
| Leads for speaker | Find and contact potential speakers for accessibility and inclusive design talks | Karen, All |
| Leads for sponsorship | Find and contact potential sponsorships for interest in partnership | Dennis (Primary); others |
| Meetup.com | Create a 'Schedule a Meetup' on A11YChi's Meetup page with details for the upcoming event | Karen, Nick, Others |
| Email / Meetup Announcements | Announce and share updates about events, webinars, resources, etc. | Karen, and others |
| Role | Description | Delegated |
|---|---|---|
| Audio/Video Lead | 1) Check/coordinate with venue host for A/V quality; 2) Bring equipments for live-streaming; 3) Ensure A/V quality for live-streaming | Dennis (Primary); Others |
| Emcee Lead | Dennis (Primary); Others | |
| Live-captioning Lead | 1) Ensure live-captioning quality, e.g. check for lagging and typos; 2) Check chatroom for questions/comments | Nick (Primary); Others |
| Live-streaming Lead | 1) Ensure live-streaming quality, e.g. check for lagging and disconnection; 2) Check chatroom for questions/comments | Nick (Primary); Others |
| Online/Social Presence | Check, post and share social media presence regarding #A11YChi | N/A, Dennis (backup); Others |
| Lanyards | Bring lanyards for media policy, i.e. for those who prefer not to be photographed | Nick (Primary); Dennis |
| Event Experience | 1) Maintain comfortable experience for venue host and attendees; 2) Enforce Code of Conduct; 3) Resolve any circumstances that create inaccessible experience, e.g. no reserved areas for those with mobility devices | All |