Minutes for Meeting #12 of the
Accessible Information and Communications Standards Development Committee (IC-SDC)
April 1st and April 2nd, 2009
89 Chestnut Street, Second Floor
Toronto, Ontario M5G 1R1
Day 1: 9:30 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.
Day 2: 9:30 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.
Present
- Mary Kardos Burton, IC-SDC Chair
- Kelly MacKenzie, Canadian Hearing Society
- Karen Taylor, Canadian National Institute for the Blind
- Rozalyn Werner-Arcé, 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 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
- Michelle Saunders, Ontario Restaurant, Hotel and Motel Association
- Anna Sheehan, TD Bank Financial Group
- Bill Munson, Information Technology Association of Canada for Ontario
- George Elliott, The Anglican Diocese of Toronto & Provincial Synod of Ontario
- Lari Langford, Ontario Library Association
- Sherrill McCall, Cambrian College of Applied Arts & Technology
- Don Halpert, Ontario Hospital Association
- Beth Cooper, Ontario Public School Boards Association
- Jeanette Parsons, Council of Ontario Universities
- Jane Wright, City of Ottawa/ Association of Municipalities of Ontario
- Elizabeth Daly Association of Municipal Managers, Clerks and Treasurers of Ontario (AMTCO)
- Patricia MacDonell, City of Toronto
- Marla Krakower, Ministry of Government Services
- Nicole Hamacher, Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care
- Israel Lyon, Ministry of Economic Development and Trade/Ministry of Small Business and Entrepreneurship
- Peggy Bram, Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities
- Marcia Cummings, Alliance for Equality of Blind Canadians (AEBC)
- Fran Odette, Springtide Resources
- Nicole Rioux, Table provinciale francophone pour la personne handicapée
- Susan Brunet, Individual
- Darren Cooper
- Sharlyn Ayotte, T-Base Communications Inc
- Barbara Collier, Augmentative Communications Partnerships Canada
- Teresa Colangelo Ontario Federation of Labour
Absent
- Giuseppina (Pina) D'Intino, Bank of Nova Scotia/ Scotia Bank
- Kurt Lynn, Canadian Hard of Hearing Association
- Lynn Shaw, University of Western
- Neita (Dr.) Israelite, York University
Guests
- Jutta Treviranus University of Toronto – ATRC
Support Unit
Leslie Warren, ADO
Hari Viswanathan, ADO
Sheila Mawji, ADO
Ben Somers, ADO
David Dilks, Lura Consulting
Patricia Halajski, Lura Consulting
Marsha Cheddi, Canadian Standards Association
SUMMARY OF MEETING 12 ACTION ITEMS
ACTION 1: Support Unit to circulate a revised standard to Committee by April 9th.
ACTION 2: Committee members to provide comments on standard by April 16th.
ACTION 3: Support Unit to compile and review comments and circulate an updated standard to the Committee prior to the vote meeting by April 21st.
M12.1 Chair’s opening remarks and meeting objectives
- Mary Kardos Burton, IC-SDC Chair opened Meeting 12.
- In her opening remarks, the Chair noted:
- that the vote on the final proposed standard is scheduled for April 28th;
- the objective of IC-SDC Meeting 12 is to refine the draft standard; and
- the activities that occurred since the last IC-SDC meeting:
- the Support Unit completed an additional summary of public review comments which was sent to the committee at the end of March;
- the Support Unit revised the standard based on the comments from public review as well as committee comments from IC-SDC Meeting 11; and
- the Support Unit convened the Editorial Sub-Committee to review the standard.
M12.2 Approval of the Agenda and Minutes to the last meeting
Action items from Meeting 11 were reviewed, all action items were complete and the minutes from Meeting 11 were approved.
The draft Meeting 12 agenda was approved.
M12.3 Clause by clause review of the draft standard
- The Committee participated in a clause by clause review of the revised standard.
- Key discussion points included proposed information and communications accessibility requirements, organizational classes, and timelines as noted below:
Section 0 – Introduction
- The Committee generally agreed that the standard should address French translation of alternate formats, communication supports and services.
Section 2 – Classes
- The Committee agreed that the class structure should be simple and generally agreed to the following class structure:
Small: 1-19
Med: 20-99
Large: 100+
Section 3 – Policies and procedures
The Committee generally agreed that additional guidance on providing information and communications in plain language should be included.
The Committee generally agreed that the clause on “Notification” should be further clarified to indicate that the expectation is for organizations to convey to the public that they have the means to provide accessible information and communications.
The Committee generally agreed that small businesses may not need to document their policies.
Section 6 – Technical requirements
- The Committee generally agreed that the standard needs to have a better linkage to requirements in the Customer Service Standard (e.g., “when communicating with a person with a disability, the organization shall do so in a manner that takes into account the person’s disability”).
- The Committee generally agreed to further clarify what is meant by “organizations shall have the capacity to provide”, by inserting “organizations shall have the means to provide”.
- A committee member requested that intervenors be incorporated into the information and communication choices listed in Appendix A.
- With respect to timelines, the Committee generally agreed that organizations need to satisfy the training requirements by ensuring training to their employees before being required to make their websites accessible.
- The Committee generally agreed the requirement for accessible websites should include internal and external organizational websites, and organizations should only be responsible for the content they develop and for which they are responsible.
- J. Treviranus and D. Shire led a small group of individuals to re-write proposed requirements for web accessibility. The Committee generally agreed to the revised requirements proposed by the group.
Section 7- Priority Areas
Educational Libraries: The Committee generally agreed to have extended timelines (potentially to 2025) for this requirement.
Public Libraries: The Committee generally agreed that public libraries should have the means to include accessible materials in their holdings.
Legal / Justice and Financial: The Committee suggested that accessible information and communications should be provided upon request.
Section 8 – Provincial Elections
The Committee generally agreed to focus on parties and the voting process and to insert these requirements into Section 7 as a priority area.
Definitions
- The Chair asked Committee members to review the definitions and provide additional or enhanced definitions where required.
Timelines
The Committee generally agreed that the public sector and large organizations should have earlier compliance dates than small private sector organizations.
Some committee members expressed concern over small organizations.
M12.4 Overview of the voting process
M. Cheddi provided the IC-SDC with an overview of the committee voting process and referred the Committee to IC-SDC document N110 for detailed information.
M12.5 Next steps
The IC-SDC directed the Support Unit to prepare an updated standard incorporating the IC-SDC’s feedback.
The Committee agreed to the key next steps:
- Support Unit to circulate a revised standard to Committee by April 9th;
- Committee members to provide comments on standard by April 16th; and
- Support Unit to compile and review comments and circulate an updated standard to the Committee prior to the vote meeting by April 21st.
M12.6 Meeting adjournment
The Chair expressed her gratitude to committee members for their continued commitment and hard work.
IC-SDC Meeting 12 was adjourned at 4:00 PM.