[AFRI-Discuss] Additional Volunteers: Draft Statement: Enhancing Accountability - Recommendations for Diversity

[Judith Hellerstein]

HI Bastiaan,

I have read the report and from reading it I can clearly see that ALAC is the 
most diverse because of our geographic diversity.  The other constituencies do 
not have geographic diversity so this is a plus for at large. We are also a big 
supporter of language diversity by allowing individual end users get involved 
and engaged with ICANN in the 6 UN languages. Other constituencies do not have 
the importance of using multiple languages to get people engaged.  We put much 
money onto language support, but I think we need to put equal money into 
captioning so we can get more people engaged. Captioning helps people whose 
native language is not English, for people with low bandwidth and for people 
with disabilities. This is in the recommendations but I think we could mention 
that we hope this will be adopted and that ICANN should be funding captioning 
for all instead of just transcripts at a much later date.

Only the GAC has language support and they also have live captioning which we do 
not. We should all be able to have this and I think all constituencies should 
have this option.

It also talks about the need to increase and change the culture in ICANN as 
regards captioning.  While in At large we have language support but in 
additional to language support we should have live captioning for all meetings. 
We should also make every effort to welcome people with disabilities into the 
sessions. ICANN is very late to the game. Many of their videos are not captioned 
making it hard for people with impairments to use them. Hopefully the new ICANN 
learn platform will be more accessible but many of the videos are not captioned, 
especially the older ones

So I think there is a lot to say of good steps going forward but need for more 
emphasis on these issues

Hope this helps

Best,

Judith

_________________________________________________________________________
Judith Hellerstein, Founder & CEO
Hellerstein & Associates
3001 Veazey Terrace NW, Washington DC 20008
Phone: (202) 362-5139  Skype ID: judithhellerstein
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E-mail: Judith at jhellerstein.com   Website: www.jhellerstein.com
Linked In: www.linkedin.com/in/jhellerstein/
Opening Telecom & Technology Opportunities Worldwide

On 12/4/2017 2:37 AM, Bastiaan Goslings wrote:
> Thanks, Ariel!
>
> @those who volunteered:
>
> Any suggestions how to move this forward? Fyi I read the first 12 pages of the draft recommendations last week, will try to finish rest of it later, but to be honest it is going to be very hard for me to suggest positive comments for ALAC/At-Large here.
>
> I too am convinced ‘diversity’ is a good and important thing to strive for. But it is not a goal in itself as far as I am concerned - I could not care less whether someone is black or blue or what her/his sexual orientation might be. Without going into detail, (the first half of) this draft is the most political correct piece of windowdressing material I have come across in a long time. Simply put, IMO, its reads as a plea for ‘diversity for the sake of diversity and let’s focus on that in stead of what ICANN’s missions tells us to’. Emphasised by a large amount of supposedly ‘factual’ statements without basis/underlying sources etc.
>
> I am aware that is a personal impression, and others will definitely disagree. Great, and maybe rightly so. No sweat. Assuming this is a topic (some?) people within ALAC/At-Large have a strong opinion about, I think it is better if they come up with text while I stay neutral…
>
> -Bastiaan
>
>
>
>> On 29 Nov 2017, at 00:41, Ariel Liang <ariel.liang at icann.org> wrote:
>>
>> Hello All,
>>   
>> Just want to let you know that Judith and Beran have volunteered to help draft a Statement on this public comment.
>>   
>> Thank you for your collaboration.
>>   
>> Best,
>> Ariel
>>   
>> From: Ariel Liang <ariel.liang at icann.org>
>> Date: Wednesday, November 22, 2017 at 2:48 PM
>> To: "sebastien at bachollet.com" <sebastien at bachollet.com>, Yrjö Länsipuro <yrjo_lansipuro at hotmail.com>, Bastiaan Goslings <bastiaan.goslings at ams-ix.net>
>> Cc: Alan Greenberg <alan.greenberg at mcgill.ca>
>> Subject: Draft Statement: Enhancing Accountability - Recommendations for Diversity
>>   
>> Hello Sebastien, Yrjo, and Bastiaan,
>>   
>> During the ALT Call today, the public comment on the Enhancing Accountability - Recommendations for Diversity has been discussed.
>>   
>> Sebastian and Yrjo, please be so kind to collaborate on the drafting of the statement. Bastiaan has volunteered to do a ‘sanity check’ after the draft is done.
>>   
>> Please note that the public comment will close on 15 Dec. It is recommended that you complete the first draft by 29 Nov, so that it leaves one week for the community to comment, and the ALAC to ratify the statement before the public comment deadline.
>>   
>> Once ready, please post the first draft on the wiki here: https://community.icann.org/x/Z5tEB
>>   
>> Thank you,
>> Ariel Liang
>>   
>> Ariel Xinyue Liang
>> Policy Analyst | Washington, DC
>> Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN)
>>   
>>   
>>   
>