I had a chance to volunteer for this conference today which was about e-learning and accessibility to information with a strong focus on users with perceptual or physical impairments although other marginalized user groups were also discussed (e.g. language and economic barriers).

Some interesting presentations and discussions were held in terms of envisioning advocacy goals for the next five years, and what steps are necessary to achieve them. Summaries of these meetings will be posted to the conference website on a wiki, and you can keep track of the site's latest content here. (I sat with group four, facilitated by my prof, Steve Hockema.)

One point of particular interest to those working in the library industry addressed the shift from librarians as the traditional gatekeepers, organizers and preservers of information towards more user focused practices and the need for librarians to become involved in advocacy and lobbying for user rights. Currently, WIPO presents a major concern in terms of changing Canadian copyright laws (which would affect accessibility issues in terms of reproducing content) - something for librarians and information studies students to get a move on.

In terms of TIG, I began thinking about our own design challenges in attempting to make our site accessible to users with such different backgrounds in terms of technologies, languages and information literacy. There was a strong consensus that there is a need for strong user input in designing accessible interfaces with a regional focus, and yet, there also needs to be a certain level of standardization to avoid wasteful replication of efforts (e.g. having to transcribe a text multiple times for different systems that all serve the same purpose) and to shorten learning curves of different interfaces (e.g. to close the window, you click the upper right "x" button no matter which program you use) etc. I think that tension b/w standardization and regionalizing applies to the TIG community. What we don't want at TIG are little internet islands based on language or region that never interact like Amazon or Wikipedia; ultimately, our site should help TIG members network with people they normally wouldn't be able to. Jutta Treviranus spoke of focusing on standardizing a "human layer" below the interface, while the interface itself would be completely customizable. This idea resonated with my group, but I wish I had a good, practical example of it rather than a vague theory. Perhaps I'll see her tomorrow and ask for examples.

Other than that, I met a bunch of interesting people and got to play with a $100 laptop (pictured above)! They are so adorable!