RSEAA24 - A research software community event for Asia and Australia

Accessibility Report

2024-09-20

Information Name: Sanchit Jagannath Ghule Age: 28 Occupation: Researcher / Engineer Location: Pune, India Website: https://sanchit-ghule.github.io/

About me

At age 14, I was diagnosed with Retinitis Pigmentosa, a rare eye disease that causes legal blindness but left me with some peripheral vision. Despite my passion for science and mathematics, my school denied me the opportunity to pursue STEM courses, believing that visually impaired individuals are incapable of succeeding in these fields. Fortunately, my parents stepped in to help me, with my father and sister reading and recording my textbooks and helping me understand the visual diagrams. Owing to unwavering support from my family, friends, and faculties, I managed to complete my STEM education and eventually earned B. Tech. in Metallurgical and Materials Engineering (MME) from the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IITM) in 2021. I now work as an N-HTRA under the guidance of Prof. Tiju Thomas on the project "Audio-tactile Interactive Graphics Technology Solutions to Support Blind and Visually Impaired" which is backed by the IITM Alumni Association. My life's goal is to make STEM education accessible and positively impact the lives of those who have a passion for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM disciplines), but are currently held back due to their disability or non-inclusive environments.

Background

During August 2024, I became aware of the RSEAA24 Accessibility Fellowship through an acquaintance connected to an NGO network and associated mailing list where the announcement was shared.
Initially, I was quite hesitant to apply (possibly due to my introverted nature); I submitted an application with encouragement from my friend. The Google Forms application was compatible with screen reader technology, however, enabling Braille functionality necessitated navigating through the Braille line display using a specific tool menu.
Shortly thereafter, I received an email from the unconference organizer informing me of my selection for a partial RSEAA24 Accessibility Fellowship. This news filled me with excitement and enthusiasm, particularly at the prospect to work alongside with another visually impaired participant and learn from the experience. I quickly confirmed my acceptance of the offer.

Before the event

A few days later, the organizers sent an email about the fellowship introductions, which exuded warmth and enthusiasm. I had the opportunity to meet Mr. Harsh Kalra, a fellow accessibility participant, and we were able to engage in an open conversation about work-life balance and employability prospects for blind and visually impaired individuals. The organizers also set up casual meetings in which they could address any questions that we might have.

• ●We discuss topics such as accessibility, diversity, equity, and inclusion.
• ●We came across the last year's posters and the RSEAUNZ Accessibility Report by Liz Hare, which were informative and excellent reference materials for any online conference.
• ●We have also been introduced to Figshare and Zenodo, where participants can create a DOI to help register their research work as an alt-metric research output and can be made open access.
• ●As a blind and visually impaired participants, it was our natural expectation to receive accessible material beforehand.
• ●Much to our surprise, the event organizers had already rolled up their sleeves to create accessible versions of the keynote presentations.
• ●This remarkable effort to create high-quality accessible documents is an extraordinary task on its own, making our involvement much easier in unconference keynote talks.
• ●Before the unconference
• ○Participants received full RSEAA24 schedule.
• ○The RSEAA website featured this information, along with a downloadable `.ics` calendar file which were accessible and easyer to download and add to our personal calendars.
• ○Participants received event's Code of Conduct to review and become acquainted with its contents.
• ○Participants received slack invitation to introduce and interact with their fellow members.

Two weeks before the RSEAA24 conference, participant information was collated on a webpage and shared with us to obtain our view from an accessibility standpoint.

During the event

Organizers shared important information about the unconference all ahead of the event to help us prepare and know what to expect and how to make the most of RSEAA24.

• ●On the day
• ○The same Zoom Meeting link shared for all three days, facilitating easy access to the sessions.
• ○RSEAA24 presentation before every event, making it an inclusive and welcoming experience for all!
• ○An accessible version of the RSEAA24 Welcome Slides was shared with participants.
• ○The Crowdpurr platform (live voting) was accessible. The results of the polls were shared.
• ●(Poster submission and voting instructions)
• ○There was little confusion about how do we vote on what we talk about in our sessions?
• ●Accessible Keynotes Received
• ○A/Prof Sarinder Kaur keynote accessible ✓
• ○Dr Arianna Ciula keynote accessible ✓
• ○Javier Sanchez Gonzalez keynote accessible ✓
• ●General
• ○Providing accessible keynotes beforehand has proven beneficial. It can be difficult to simultaneously listen to the keynote and follow an accessible document, as assistive technology may interfere with the presentation session.
• ○The main RSEAA24 website is quite accessible, and a detailed accessibility check was performed by Mr. Harsh Kalra and is reported in his document.

Observations

The The RSEAA24 unconference was a vibrant event characterized by mutual respect, inclusiveness, strong ethical principles, appreciation, and openness to diverse perspectives. RSE celebrates diversity and strives to foster an inclusive, welcoming environment where both innovative ideas and people thrive.

Acknowledgements

I would like to express my sincere gratitude to Research Software Engineering Asia Australia (RSEAA24) for their generous support, which enabled Accessibility Felloship for this event. The Society of RSE's accessibility micro-grant played a crucial role in enabling our involvement, and I am profoundly thankful for their continued support throughout this unconference. My sincere thanks go to the distinguished conference chairs and committed organizing committee of the RSEAA. Their leadership, encouragement, and provision of essential resources were vital to the success of the unconference. We recognize the significant contributions of the reviewer. Their thoughtful feedback and insightful recommendations substantially enhance the clarity and impact of this report. I am genuinely grateful for the time and expertise they invested in, which helped improve the quality and rigour of this work. Finally, I want to express my heartfelt gratitude to everyone who remained directly or indirectly involved with RSEs. Their unwavering support, motivation, teamwork, and invaluable help have been crucial in shaping my understanding and improving the RSEs unconference experience for all participants.