[games_access] Welcome New Members! SIG Meeting!

[hinn at illinois.edu]

Hi all!

We've had a sudden surge in new member subscriptions over the weekend and I just wanted to say "hello" and encourage them, if they feel comfortable, to introduce themselves. Welcome all new members! :)

I'm trying to find a good time to have an online meeting. Given that we have so many international members, this has always been a trick! But I'm gonna throw out a few times and days of the week and see if we can at least accommodate as many people as possible who are interested.

Use World Clock to help interpret the time for your time zone: http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/

Here are time/day ideas (note: these aren't specific dates, just days of the week and times that would work better for people). Please feel free to respond off list about this to hinn at uiuc.edu so that we don't have a lot of emails with times and dates!):

Put an "x" next to Days/Times that generally work for you:

Tuesdays
___ 8am/08:00 (US Pacific); 11am/11:00 (US Eastern); 4pm/16:00 (London)
___ 9am/09:00 (US Pacific); 12noon/12:00 (US Eastern); 5pm/17:00 (London)
___ 10am/10:00 (US Pacific); 1pm/13:00 (US Eastern); 6pm/18:00 (London)
___ 11am/11:00 (US Pacific); 2pm/14:00 (US Eastern); 7pm/19:00 (London)
___ 12noon/12:00 (US Pacific); 3pm/15:00 (US Eastern); 8pm/20:00 (London)

Wednesdays
___ 8am/08:00 (US Pacific); 11am/11:00 (US Eastern); 4pm/16:00 (London)
___ 9am/09:00 (US Pacific); 12noon/12:00 (US Eastern); 5pm/17:00 (London)
___ 10am/10:00 (US Pacific); 1pm/13:00 (US Eastern); 6pm/18:00 (London)
___ 11am/11:00 (US Pacific); 2pm/14:00 (US Eastern); 7pm/19:00 (London)
___ 12noon/12:00 (US Pacific); 3pm/15:00 (US Eastern); 8pm/20:00 (London)

Thursdays
___ 8am/08:00 (US Pacific); 11am/11:00 (US Eastern); 4pm/16:00 (London)
___ 9am/09:00 (US Pacific); 12noon/12:00 (US Eastern); 5pm/17:00 (London)
___ 10am/10:00 (US Pacific); 1pm/13:00 (US Eastern); 6pm/18:00 (London)
___ 11am/11:00 (US Pacific); 2pm/14:00 (US Eastern); 7pm/19:00 (London)
___ 12noon/12:00 (US Pacific); 3pm/15:00 (US Eastern); 8pm/20:00 (London)

Items up on the agenda include (Note: the meeting will take an hour max and hopefully we can return to having meeting regularly again):

- IGDA Questions and Answers -- many of you, I know, were upset over some of the recent bad press and I want to help answer questions and/or get new questions to the board for answers

- A fall project now that everyone is back from holiday, etc. I'd like us to work on a database of game accessibility resources online with descriptions (and if they are still active -- this might take a few emails and such to find out). But I'm open to other ideas. I think that by tackling a small and defined project like this that we can then move to a more ambitious project for the spring. A database (or just a list broken down by disability type or types of games, controllers etc) would help. It would be an alphabetical list and not, say, a top 10 or 20 list -- it's just more of a "state of game accessibility groups in the world" list.

- A chance to mingle for an hour with others in a "live" setting.

- A chance to help reshape the SIG. Like other SIGs, this SIG is comprised of members who work in other accessibility companies/groups/etc and I think that there's no reason why we can't return to being a group that has representatives from other groups (kind of a UN of Game Accessibility) so that we can all learn from and support one another.

BTW, the meetings have traditionally happened on MSN (add me vrgrrl at hotmail.com -- the hotmail account is entirely spam so don't send messages there! Sorry if that's confusing!)

Hope to get a lot of responses -- again email me at hinn at uiuc.edu with times that work for you and your MSN Live/Messenger account. Then add my MSN account (vrgrrl at hotmail.com) to your own Messenger account name so that I know who you are so I can find you once we have a meeting time set up. I'll remind everyone of this when I send out a date and time for the meeting!

Thanks everyone!
Michelle
Chair, IGDA Game Accessibility SIG
.......................................
these are mediocre times and people are 
losing hope. it's hard for many people 
to believe that there are extraordinary 
things inside themselves, as well as 
others. i hope you can keep an open 
mind.
 -- "unbreakable"
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