Draft Minutes for Meeting 6 of the
Accessible Information and Communications Standards
Development Committee (IC-SDC)

Wednesday December 12th, 2007 and
Thursday December 13th, 2007

  Canadian Standards Association
5060 Spectrum Way, Suite 100
Mississauga, ON  L4W 5N6

Present 

• Laura Talbot (Chair), Talbotallan Consulting Group
• Kelly MacKenzie, Canadian Hearing Society
• Karen Taylor, Canadian National Institute for the Blind
• Rozalyn Werner-Arce, Community Living Ontario
• Tara Jeji, Association for Persons with Physical Disabilities of Windsor and Essex County
• Diane Wagner, Learning Disabilities of Ontario
• Sue Morgan, Independent Living Resource Centre of Waterloo Region
• Geoff Eden, (Individual) (Consumer)
• Francine Drouin, Regroupement des Parents et Amis des Enfants Sourds et Malentendants Franco-Ontarien (RESO)
• Dan Shire, IBM Canada
• Robert Pearson, Sun Life Financial
• Doug Jure, Bloor-Yorkville BIA, Ontario Restaurant, Hotel and Motel Association
• Martha Johnson, TD Bank/Trust Companies
• Bill Munson, Information Technology Association of Canada for Ontario
• Rt. Rev. George Elliott, The Anglican Diocese of Toronto & Provincial Synod of Ontario
• Lari Langford, Ontario Library Association
• Sherrill McCall, Cambrian College of Applied Arts & Technology Ontario Federation of Labour/ Elementary Teachers Federation of Ontario
• Don Halpert, Ontario Hospital Association
• Beth Cooper, Ontario Public School Boards Association
• Jeanette Parsons, Council of Ontario Universities
• Mary Reid, City of Ottawa/ Association of Municipalities of Ontario
• Elizabeth Daly, Association of Municipal Managers, Clerks and Treasurers of Ontario (AMTCO)
• Patricia McDonell, City of Toronto
• Rose Langhout, Ministry of Government Services
• Eileen Mahood, Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care
• Israel Lyon, Ministry of Economic Development and Trade/Ministry of Small Business and Entrepreneurship
• Stacey Young, Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities

Guests

• Ellen Passmore, ADO
• Jelena Payne, ADO
• Patrick Parent, KPMG
• Jutta Treviranus, ATRC, University of Toronto

Support Unit

• Scot Weers, ADO
• Nelly Tion, ADO
• Sheila Mawji, ADO
• David Dilks, Lura Consulting
• Marsha Cheddi, Canadian Standards Association
• David Zimmerman, Canadian Standards Association

Format of Committee Minutes and References:

For the purposes of referencing committee documents and items in the minutes, CSA has adopted the reference system used by ISO (International Organization of Standardization):

• N represents documents / presentations; and
• M represents the minute items / sections

IC-SDC Meeting 6 Documents and Presentation Material

SUMMARY OF ACTIONS

ACTION 1:  M. Cheddi to provide the committee with a compilation of the comments received and how they were addressed by the committee.

ACTION 2: R. Werner-Arcé to provide M. Cheddi with material concerning the use of “plain language” for distribution to the IC-SDC.

ACTION 3:  Support Unit to include requirements for signage in Section 7 of the draft standard in coordination with the Accessible Built Environment SDC.

ACTION 4:  IC-SDC members to provide comments to M. Cheddi on the Treasury Board personas by February 1st.

ACTION 5: J. Treviranus to provide M. Cheddi with the URL for the Fluid Project and their templates for personas.

ACTION 6:  A subcommittee on Sections 8 and 9 to meet and propose recommended wording for these sections to the IC-SDC.

ACTION 7:  A subcommittee on Costing to meet and provide advice to the costing consultants (KPMG).

ACTION 8: Support Unit to update the draft standard in consideration of the discussions at IC-SDC Meeting 6 and include guidance notes throughout the draft standard. J. Treviranus to update Section 7.

M6.1 Call to Order

• L. Talbot, IC-SDC Chair convened IC-SDC Meeting 6 at 9:30 AM.

M6.2 Housekeeping and Facility Safety

• M. Cheddi reviewed the facility safety and housekeeping procedures with the committee.

M6.3 Opening Remarks

• L. Talbot, IC-SDC Chair welcomed committee members to IC-SDC Meeting 6.  The Chair stated the purpose of this meeting is to consider the comments received on the current draft.  She thanked members for their efforts in consulting with their respective constituencies.   She noted that several comments on the draft were received late and the committee will need to see how they can be considered.  She asked members to focus on constructive suggestions on improving the draft. 

M6.4 Approval of the Agenda

• The Committee approved the draft agenda (N91) with a minor reordering of items.

M6.5 Approval of the Minutes to the Last Meeting

• The Committee approved the minutes from IC-SDC Meeting 5 (N90) as prepared.

M6.6 Review of Action Items from the Last Meeting

• M. Cheddi reviewed action items (N90) from last meeting.  All actions were completed, with the exception of Action Item 5 – M. Cheddi reported that this work is partially complete and more effort will be required prior to the next committee meeting.

M6.7 SDC update to Accessibility Standards Advisory Council (ASAC) 

• The Chair reported on the recent ASAC meeting (N93), where she briefed the Council on the IC-SDC’s progress to date. ASAC members provided suggestions for the IC-SDC to consider as it continues to develop a proposed standard.
  
• In general, ASAC was supportive of the IC-SDC’s work to date, and offered to provide further feedback prior to public review.

M6.8 Discussion on Constituent Review

• The Chair led the committee in their review of comments received on Draft 1.0A of the “Initial Proposed Information and Communication Accessibility Standard (A Work in Progress)”.  This informal review from IC-SDC members’ networks and constituents was undertaken by members in order to strengthen the draft at an early stage in its development.  The IC-SDC considered a series of key themes emerging from feedback received, including:
• Acceptable solutions – whether organizations need to offer all options listed in the draft standard or just one;
• Timeliness – how quickly organizations would be required to make options available;
• Inclusiveness – addressing the full range of disabilities;
• Guidance – how to communicate to organizations what information will be available to support implementation of the standard;
• Organizational classes – who will need to comply with the standard and by when; and
• Definitions and terms.
• Members expressed their views on the comments; the committee’s decision on the review comments and the identification of areas for improvement in the Draft were recorded.

• It was agreed that where possible, the future standard could reference existing standards and related publications.  Consideration should be given to internationally accepted standards as well as regional or other national standards.  This could allow local initiatives in improving accessibility that can be marketed abroad leading to improved economic opportunity for Ontario companies.
  
• In its review of detail comments on Section 7 Technical Requirements and Acceptable Solutions, the Committee accepted a proposal on the nesting of content in section 7.1.1 on acceptable solutions for printed text; generic requirements would be displayed with detailed requirements for use by technical specialists found inside. 
  
• J. Treviranus provided some comments on the use of alternative formats in printed text.  She indicated that publishers and government officials have been meeting on the issue of alternative formats to deal with serious delays in the current system.  The long term approach would see electronic material created by publishers that could be read by assistive devices.  To accomplish this goal there is a need for a single trusted source to ensure security of material; the current source has issues and needs improvement in its operations. 

M6.9 Presentation on Signage

• M. Cheddi provided a presentation on signage requirements established by the City of London, Ontario which build upon the CSA B651-04 standard (see N92).
  
• Members agreed that signage could be included in section 7 to cover material not covered in the Ontario building code or related standards.  Introduction of signage requirements would need to be in concert with the Accessible Built Environment SDC for coordination purposes. 

M6.10 Presentation by Subgroup on User Cases and Personas

• D. Shire reported on a meeting of the Subgroup on User Cases and Personas, which met on November 30, 2007.  The Subgroup’s objective was to test user scenarios for the draft standards (see N99).
• There are 10 personas used by the Treasury Board of Canada’s Accessibility Domain Architecture for modeling activities. Members can view this information at
  http://www.tbs-sct.gc.ca/fap-paf/documents/accessibility/access11_e.asp#_Toc56226747
• The group underwent eight simulation transactions and tracked specific issues for five personas.
• Some committee members cautioned on the use of personas as they often cannot fully match the real life experience of persons with disabilities.

M6.11 Discussion on Section 8 – Implementation Schedules

• The Chair opened the discussion on Section 8 concerning the creation of classes of organizations and types of information.
  
• Members discussed several alternatives for a table that would depict the various classes on one axis and the various information types on the other axis.

M6.12 Discussion on Section 9 – Special Requirements

• Members discussed potential special requirements that are above and beyond the requirements in other sections of the Draft. 
  
• Although time did not permit a full review of Section 9, the Chair requested that Section 9 be redrafted based on the constituent review comments as well as subcommittee recommendations.

M6.10 Next Steps

• Prior to the next IC-SDC meeting, the Support Unit to consolidate all constituent comments received and provide recommendations on how they will be addressed in the next version of the draft standard.  The consolidated list of comments and recommendations will be provided to IC-SDC members for review.
  
• The Support Unit will update the draft standard based on the outcomes of Meeting 6 for IC-SDC members to review prior to Meeting 7.

M6.11 Communiqué Preparation

• The committee prepared the IC-SDC Meeting 6 Communiqué (N100).

Adjournment

• IC-SDC Meeting 6 was adjourned at 4:00 PM.  The Chair thanked the members for their attendance and active participation.

*** Next meeting: February 25-26, 2008 ***

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