Stages and Topics
Organization setup and strategies
Outreach, recruiting and registering participants
Preparing for participation
Collectively drafting the standard
Publishing, feedback and maintenance
Barriers
- Closed-door technical committees
- Communication style defaults to Western norms
- Consultation fatigue in D/deaf and D/disabled communities
- Default meeting language is English
- Difficulty receiving and communicating information
- Dominant “expert” culture
- Inaccessible digital collaboration tools
- Inaccessible digital documents
- Inaccessible feedback mechanisms
- Inaccessible hybrid meetings
- Inaccessible in-person meetings
- Inaccessible online meetings
- Inaccessible registration systems
- Lack of awareness or accessibility of standards
- Lack of clarity about committee member roles and responsibilities
- Lack of clear and accessible onboarding process
- Lack of financial support or payment
- Lack of inclusive recruitment
- Lack of organizational support for inclusion
- Lack of public awareness of the standards feedback process
- Lack of supportive onboarding process
- Lack of training and support for chairpersons and facilitators
- Lack of training and support for committee members
- Lack of transparency in how feedback is processed
- Limited meeting times and time zone exclusion
- New member information overload
- No clear or inclusive process for retiring standards
- No clear way to report problems or get help
- No funding for accessibility accommodations
- No transition support for standards withdrawal
- No way to track the impact of a standard
- Travel barriers for D/deaf and D/disabled people
- Underestimated workloads
Actions
- Allocate a dedicated accessibility budget
- Allow for anonymous feedback
- Allow for worldwide participation in meetings
- Allow outside participation in committee meetings
- Be fair and transparent when making decisions
- Be flexible with meeting times and timelines
- Be transparent in the application process
- Build organizational commitment to inclusion
- Check and improve accessibility
- Choose accessible meeting spaces
- Co-develop criteria for standards withdrawal
- Come to shared agreement for committee work
- Create a broad support system
- Create an opportunity for public feedback before withdrawal
- Empower chairpersons and facilitators to manage conflict
- Ensure all documents are accessible
- Ensure websites are accessible
- Establish continuous feedback loops
- Host onboarding meetings before committee work begins
- Make communications multi-modal and consistent
- Make hybrid meetings accessible
- Make online meetings accessible
- Make published standards free and easy to access
- Manage accessibility conflicts
- Measure impact with affected communities
- Offer opportunities to request revisions rather than withdrawal
- Plan for diverse participation
- Plan for regular check-ins with new members
- Promote standards in the communities they affect
- Provide a welcome package for new members
- Provide chairpersons with practical support and tools for accessibility
- Provide diverse, accessible knowledge-building opportunities
- Provide guidance and ongoing support to new members
- Provide monetary compensation and financial support
- Provide more than one way to give feedback
- Provide ongoing accessibility training
- Provide support for information management
- Provide support for travel planning
- Provide transition guidance when withdrawing a standard
- Provide translation and interpretation for everyone
- Provide travel funding
- Recruit across disabilities and intersectional identities
- Set appropriate meeting language captions
- Set clear and realistic timelines for reviews, drafts, or revisions
- Show accountability and build trust with D/deaf and D/disabled people
- Support inclusive decision making
- Use clear language in withdrawal notices