By: Jennie Delisi, Office of Accessibility

This is the second of a two-part article.

Intro

In Part 1, we discussed the reasons for starting an accessibility champions group and how to identify specific qualities that can help you gather the right people for your champions group. We spoke to leaders of accessibility champion programs and accessibility task forces at State of Minnesota agencies. Their groups have been meeting between 6 months and seven years! They shared key tips for expanding your accessibility community. Want to get a few interested colleagues together or start a more formal group? Their tips will help.

Thank you to the accessibility coordinators and accessibility champion group leaders who contributed to these articles.

• Tamara Sawyer, Accessibility Coordinator, Minnesota Management and Budget
• JoAnn Rautio, CSM, DHS Certified Trusted Tester v5, Quality Assurance / Digital Accessibility Coordinator, Minnesota IT Services Partnering with the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development 
• David Andrews, Chief Technology Officer, State Services for the Blind
• Samantha Fischer, ADS, CPACC, Accessibility Coordinator, Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED)
• Kim Wee, CPWA, DHS Certified Trusted Tester v5, Webmaster and Digital Accessibility Coordinator, Minnesota IT Services Partnering with the Minnesota Department of Education
• Allison Loomis, CPACC, State Program Administrative Tech Specialist, Minnesota Department of Education (MDE)
• Jackie Stiehl, CPACC (Certified Professional in Accessibility Core Competencies), Minnesota Department of Education
• Rebecca Oestreich, Electronic Information Accessibility Coordinator, Department of Natural Resources

In Part 2, they share tips to plan, organize and support your efforts. 

Write Clear Objectives

Well-crafted objectives tell group members how participation will improve their skills. They share how group efforts will benefit the organization. And, they will help managers and supervisors approve participation. Know what the group will achieve. Pick meaningful and measurable objectives based on your group’s “why.” Your group’s time commitment and resources will impact what you will get done. Rautio advises to create achievable goals “that the group can meet within a year.” 

Add objectives that address participation. This is important for both new and existing groups. Fischer shares that “before launching the program, I wish we would have developed ways to maintain champion participation in the program. We were able to recruit many people to become a champion, but not everyone has the ability in their schedule to maintain monthly meetings.” Active participation will be key to achieving the objectives for groups of all:

• Sizes.
• Level of experiences.
• Goals.

Organize Your Effort

Take those objectives and think about how best to organize/scope your efforts. Work with your champions to develop a plan. There is no “one size fits all” for this work. Rautio shares that DEED divides roles over multiple people and groups because “one person can’t do it all.” The core team’s work is to “increase awareness and eliminate digital barriers for employees.” The document champions group focuses on increasing “document accessibility across the agency. The Senior Leadership sponsor helps validate that accessibility is everyone’s responsibility and gives accessibility a seat at the table. The champions are the first point of reference.”

Other groups may change their structure over time. Wee says, “We initially had an accessibility advisory group that consisted of both MDE and Minnesota IT Services (MNIT) staff. Eventually, this group morphed into a larger idea, the Accessibility Community of Interest group with Accessibility Champions that informed the advisory group. The advisory group is no longer meeting.”

Power Your Program

Our contributors highlighted the value of engagement with senior leadership. This can be essential for objectives that address larger needs such as: 

• Improving the digital accessibility culture of an organization. 
• Training larger groups.
• Impacting more systemic changes. 

Andrews shared, “The core group initially lobbied DEED’s Senior Leadership Team to make some accessibility training mandatory for all employees. They agreed, and ultimately everyone was required to take Modules 1 and 2 of the Word Accessibility Training developed by the Office of Accessibility. Accessibility Champions are required to take all seven modules.”

For those new to this type of engagement, here are a few first steps. Rautio advises to “first network with those already a leader in accessibility in different areas of the agency to gain interest.” Then speak with members of your senior leadership. Oestreich said, “We started with upper management support. When we wrote our agency's digital accessibility operational order, we included the requirement that each division has at least one champion.”

Support Learning and Questions

Having a safe place to learn and ask questions can be key for accessibility champions. For formal groups, a charter can help establish expectations of behavior. Wee shares that their charter includes the statement, “As we share experiences and knowledge, we will learn from each other, giving us the opportunity to develop both personally and professionally…This will be a safe space for open dialogue, where research, practice and innovation are encouraged and welcomed.” 

This can mean meeting in smaller groups as well as larger. For trainings, the topic may help determine the best size of group to support the learners. You can base group meeting size on the tasks and needs of the group. And the needs may change as your group evolves. Sawyer shares that “the accessibility task force started out meeting weekly to determine our agency’s level of accessibility in multiple areas (we adapted an existing program that fit our needs). Once we found our ‘low hanging fruit’ we created a plan for improvement. At this point, we are meeting monthly. The entire Diversity, Equity, Accessibility, and Inclusion group also meets monthly, where we give updates.”

Meeting topics shared by contributors included:

• Open issues/problem solving.
• Supporting each other.
• Best practices.
• New ideas (tips and tricks).
• Focused topics for presentation/training.
• Planning.

These groups did not stop interacting because of people working from home. All contributors reported using Microsoft Teams for meetings. Many discussed the benefits of the online meetings. Some members of their groups work in different buildings, or different parts of the state. When recorded, champions unable to attend meetings can review content when they are available. Others experiencing extra work duties during COVID find the ability to meet online helpful even when they are working in the office.

Some contributors’ groups also have:

• Office hours where Champions and others can ask questions.
• Microsoft Teams channels for their Champions. This is where they have discussions between meetings, share documents.
• A place on their agency intranet for sharing information.
• Open meetings open to everyone, not limited to identified “Champions.”

Chat With Other Accessibility Champions

As we stated in Part 1, a great way to work on challenges is to talk about them with other people. While many of us cannot get together at conferences right now, there are still many ways to connect. People use #a11y on social media for conversations and postings about digital accessibility. This is one way to find others that have accessibility champion groups. Tell them your goals and ask about theirs. Together we can greatly increase the amount of digital accessibility know-how. Your goal is a great step!