Play 6: Build Your Community

You’re ready to officially launch your effort. This step is a hefty one and will take a bit of time to work through. It’s where you build your community, reach out to key stakeholders, and prepare participants who agree to join to help carry out your vision. A successful initiative will require the commitment, expertise, and support of a diverse, cross-sector group of people who act as advisors for and champions of your initiative.

To achieve your vision, you should think carefully about developing a community-driven approach as the foundation of your initiative. Start small and be realistic about your initial goals. As your initiative unfolds and it begins to get traction, you may find it helpful to convene a community of practice (CoP) to provide ideas and brainpower. This CoP might come together as a large group periodically or as smaller working groups composed of experts focused on achieving specific goals.^[1]Remember, there is no ‘right’ approach. Find the approach that works for you and your team.

The XR Access Approach

XR Access created a volunteer-driven community of practice (CoP) made up of six working groups coalescing around key issues to foster the development of accessible XR.

The CoP was designed to help raise awareness of the importance of XR accessibility, create a space where like-minded innovators and advocates could collaborate, develop a shared set of resources to communicate the importance of accessibility to networks and the public, and help industry leaders and developers consider ways to design accessible XR.

The Teach Access Approach

Teach Access: Teach Access formed six task forces to help achieve its mission of embedding accessibility throughout higher education and expand educational experiences for college students. Teach Access later revamped these six task forces into three to better focus on their core audiences of universities, students, and industry. This approach enabled Teach Access to harness the valuable expertise and time of its 80+ members rather than relying on only a handful of executive committee members to conduct most project activities.

TIPS

Shape Your Community: Chances are having others involved in your initiative will be a boon to your effort to bake accessibility into your emerging technology. Determine what your community will look like. Will you create a single think tank that focuses on one big issue or do you need several working groups that drive change on a variety of issues impacting the accessibility of your emerging technology?
Start Small: If you decide to create a CoP, start small. Try to avoid creating too many groups or focusing on too many issues. Prioritize the key issues you want your participants to focus on.
Consider Participation: Consider what participation in your community looks like. How do people join? Will your community be closed to new participants after a certain time? Will there be an application process?
Identify the Who: Identify the stakeholders you want involved in your community. It may not be everyone you’ve listed in Play #4. For instance, you may want to include those that could add expertise to developing resources and help expand your messages to their networks. Don’t forget to include a diverse, cross-sector group of stakeholders with diverse abilities.
Prioritize: There are likely to be people on your list that you consider essential to your success. Prioritize who you should focus on, spending extra effort on trying to get them on board.
Get Buy-in: Before connecting with potential participants think through what’s in it for them. For instance, how will they benefit from participating in your initiative? What you come up with can help shape how you reach out to them.
Reach Out: Refer to the messages you’ve written down in your communications plan to identify the key information you should communicate. Craft an invitation that discusses the purpose of your effort, why people should join, and what’s in it for them. Consider including a survey to collect information to shape your next steps.
Bring Your Community Together: Determine the best way to bring together your community members to build a shared understanding of your effort, answer questions about your initiative, and motivate them to Get to Work (Play #7).
Identify Channels: Select communication channels for your initiative that people already use to make it easier for participants to engage. But, remember to select platforms that have accessibility features enabling people with disabilities to collaborate with other participants and participate in community activities.
Brainstorm: Create a space where participants can provide input into how the community will be structured and discuss the activities that will be carried out to achieve the group’s shared goals.
Create Shared Goals and Objectives: Come together with participants to establish short and long-term goals for what your community hopes to achieve and set objectives. Be sure they align with the overarching scope of work you outlined in Play #3.
Set Norms: Consider setting norms that will help streamline collaboration. For instance, you might set expectations for participation and let participants know that the community may evolve over time.
Expect Participation to Fluctuate: The size of your community will fluctuate over time. People who commit to joining may drop off due to time constraints or conflicting priorities; others may be brought in by existing community members.
Stay on the Lookout: If you decide to allow people to sign-up on a rolling basis, stay on the lookout for others who could be key contributors and ask participants to do the same.

Guiding Questions to Get You Started:

Why should people participate in your initiative? What’s in it for them?
Who are the experts you want to recruit to join your community—the experts who will be key to your success?
What information do you need to communicate in your invite and when you eventually meet with participants?
How will you bring your community together? Will some participants already know each other?
Which accessible communication channels will you use for collaboration?
How can you create a set of shared goals and objectives with your community?
What do you need to communicate with your community in your first meeting?
How often will you meet with your community and which participation norms do you want to set?

Footnotes

^[1] Another approach to community building is to implement a Champions Program to help organically grow engagement inside an organization. Champions Programs offer a low barrier of entry and have been shown to work well in technology companies such as IntuitRead more about Intuit’s Champion Program: “Intuit’s Accessibility Champions Program,” by Ted Drake for more information.

Continue to Play 7: Get to Work