How To Work With COGA

And help COGA work better with you

TPAC 2021

Permission to record?

Speaker introductions

Jennie Delisi, MA, CPWA

Accessibility analyst �in Minnesota's �Office of Accessibility

John Kirkwood

Digital inclusion �and enterprise accessibility expert

Lisa Seeman-Horwitz

COGA Task Force co-facilitator & �Athena ICT co-founder

What is COGA?

Our full name:

Cognitive and Learning Disabilities Accessibility Task Force (COGA) �

Our goal:

Improve Web accessibility for �people with cognitive and learning disabilities

​

What is COGA (Continued)

Examples of conditions covered:

• Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)
• Dyslexia
• Dyscalculia
• Intellectual disabilities
• Age-related memory loss
• Neurodiversity
• Mental health impairments

Examples of skills affected:

• Attention
• Focus
• Memory
• Learning
• Reading
• Math
• Writing
• Communication

Today’s Session Goals

Best practices for working with COGA:

• Getting feedback from COGA on your specification
• Helping people with cognitive disabilities join your groups

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We will answer some questions about working with COGA:

• Why
• When
• How

Have questions during this session?

• You can submit your questions in IRC Chat: #CogaInclusion�(channel name to be added into Zoom chat)�
• Questions will be answered at the end of the slides

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Why your team should work more with COGA

You are making a specification for everyone.�We can help you incorporate cognitive design thinking.

• Include use cases
• Include user needs
• Optimize processes
• Get user feedback on specification

When to start meeting with COGA

• Early!
• User needs stage
• Review stage

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See https://www.w3.org/TR/coga-usable/#user_needs

How to work with COGA

The rest of this deck covers common challenges �and how to address them, including:

• Managing many information streams
• Email etiquette
• Meeting etiquette
• Recognizing the difference between being accessible and being inclusive

Removing common barriers to collaboration

• Need: Persistent place to follow along
• Lacking “one source of truth”
• Need: Way to follow threads from multiple sources
• Each conversation place doesn’t necessarily reference the others
• Headings, labels, titles and subjects do not summarize the content
• Need: To be fully able to participate
• Inability to use one or more of the methods = you are behind
• Some may be left out of the conversation and decisions

Keeping track of many kinds of interactions

Often challenging:

• IRC + meeting interface + documents shared during meeting
• Multiple information sources (Wikis, Git, Google docs, etc)
• Email (full groups, subgroups, contact details, surveys)
• Github docs

Usually preferred:

• Send agendas and documents �to review before meetings
• Create information hub with all links and instructions
• Add task to COGA’s action requests page and CC COGA facilitators �(and task leader) on all emails

Using Github

Often challenging:�

• Finding Github comments is challenging for many people�
• Involves a lot of jargon and steps�—threads are hard to follow�
• Too many Github alerts
• Many don’t seem necessary
• Some get overlooked

Usually preferred:�

• Instead of using Github:
• COGA prefers �Google docs and emails�
• If your team prefers Github:
• Ask COGA which team member to tag so they can pass notifications on �in an easier-to-use form

Remembering acronyms and processes

Often challenging:�

• AG, APA, CFC, RGTF, SAUR, TPAC, UTC, Issue 1875b etc�
• IRC (learning each channel code, shorthand like q+, and other rules)�
• Notes, Public Working Drafts, Recommendations, Parent Groups�
• Invited Expert vs Member

Usually preferred:�

• Explain acronyms in agendas�
• Share explanatory links �that can be reviewed �prior to meetings or votes

Tracking tasks, responsibilities, dates

Often challenging:�

• Having trouble locating a task and related materials�
• Making sense of how documents are structured

Usually preferred:�

• Provide digital “wayfinding”
• Where are things kept?
• How easy is it to find what you need?�
• Make sure your task is on �COGA’s action requests page and that the dates are correct�

Using good email etiquette

Often challenging:�

• When email threads change topics but don’t change subject line�
• Expecting people to read and remember long threads or emails

​

• Subject lines that are not a short summary of the email

​

Usually preferred:�

• Use clear, unique subject lines�
• Put important information first�
• Provide short summary�
• Use formatting to:
• Identify section headings
• List separate thoughts

Scheduling a time to meet

Often challenging:�

• It can be very difficult �to follow lengthy email threads about scheduling a meeting�

​

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Usually preferred:�

• Try to schedule a meeting:
• During a call
• Or with spreadsheets, �like COGA + Silver Meeting Times �
• Send calendar invites and �use calendar API to send reminders

Sending agendas in advance

Often challenging:�

• Not enough time or information for attendees to help prepare for meetings�
• Meetings that get stuck on one topic or that move on too quickly

Usually preferred:�

• Aim to send agenda at least a day before a meeting�
• Include time boxes on agendas
• Helps set expectations about complexity/importance�
• Be flexible if more time is needed

Following along during meetings

Often challenging:�

• Many information streams during meetings (audio, visual, text chat)�
• Hard for some people to keep up and to organize their thoughts�
• Too many modes can contribute to cognitive fatigue

Usually preferred:�

• Support multiple modes, but streamline to avoid overwhelm�
• Provide way to add a thought so it’s not forgotten while waiting to speak�
• Ask if people prefer shared screen or to follow on their own
• Read out key items

Encouraging active participation in meetings

Often challenging:�

• Some people are uncomfortable being called on by name �
• Others may prefer to be called on by name to help them know when you would like their feedback�
• Some members may be less active at times due to mental health

Usually preferred:�

• Ask for feedback
• “Is this working for you?”
• “What else might you need?” �
• Be flexible about communication styles—some prefer speaking, some prefer typing into chat �
• Ask if more time is needed

Providing summaries

Often challenging:�

• Expecting people to: �
• Remember details �from previous meetings�
• Read and remember �long email threads

Usually preferred:�

• Provide summaries �before and during meetings�
• Make sure summaries include:
• Context: �Why is this being discussed?
• Recent actions/results
• Expectations for today

Providing feedback and achieving consensus

Often challenging:�

• Some people have trouble providing feedback in large group setting�
• Consensus process can be confusing/hard to participate in �
• Not always clear what vote is about

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• Issues are often referred to �just by their issue number

Usually preferred:�

• Give time to review before meeting�
• Allow asynchronous responses �after a meeting�
• Issues are fully described
• Clear heading and summary
• No unexplained jargon

Mentoring new members

Often challenging:�

• Gaining comfort within a new group�
• Not knowing:
• Who to ask questions�
• What accommodations are available�
• How to get feedback

Usually preferred:�

• Develop relationships via smaller-group conversations�
• Provide opportunities to interact with cameras on or off�
• Onboard new members and invite them to ask questions

Reduce cognitive fatigue

Often challenging:�

• Long meetings can be a barrier �for some people to participate

Usually preferred:�

• Keep meetings/forms as short as possible

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• If long meetings are required, build in break time
• Help people know when the topic changes

Alerting attendees about possible triggers

Examples of types of triggers:�

• Emotional triggers
• Memory triggers
• Symptom triggers

Best practices:�

• Use agendas to alert attendees about potential triggers

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• During meeting, alert attendees just before the potential trigger�
• Time-box the discussion to help people plan when to leave and return, if needed

Developing and sharing meeting etiquette

When teams are meeting with COGA for the first time:

• Discuss meeting etiquette before the first meeting
• Include meeting-etiquette details in meeting invite

Reviewing meeting etiquette

• At beginning of meetings when:
• New group forms
• New members join
• Changes are made to the meeting etiquette
• Privately or as a group when people forget

Discussion Time

More questions that don’t get answered today?

Please reach out to the COGA chairs:

• Lisa Seeman: lisa.seeman@zoho.com
• Rain Michaels: rainb@google.com