[Irl-dean] Future of Irl-DeAN mailing list

[Dónal Rice]

All,
On 31 March 20008 the Irish National Contact Centre for EDeAN will move from
the Central Remedial Clinic  to Centre for Excellence in Universal Design.
This means that the NCC and Irl-DeAN are effectively splitting.  It was
agreed at the Irl-DeAN EGM on 17 January 2008 to put to the members as to
what direction they see for Irl-DeAN in the future. As per the minutes of
that meeting "The two most obvious options are: moving to CEUD, or becoming
an independent organisation. This is something that the members of Irl-Dean
need to decide."

We agreed to post our position on this to the mailing list by 15 Feb for
members to decide.
Here is our suggested position.

The CEUD is currently embarking on a programme of work as part of its
statutory remit to disseminate information, raise awareness of and develop
standards relating to Universal Design.  It is our intention to develop a
network of educators, practitioners, researchers, government bodies and
representative bodies to support and participate in this work. As with all
such networks we will need to have a forum by which to disseminate
information we get about events and projects at European and international
level and to allow interested parties to share ideas and ask questions.
This is also part of our remit as the NCC for EDeAN.

We are therefore open to taking over responsibility for the support and
development of this mailing list. We would build on the CRC's work in
developing the mailing list.  Main priorities for the future of the list
would be:
- Disseminate to members of the list, information from Europe and elsewhere
on Universal Design in ICT and related fields
- Build links between practitioners and researchers working in the field and
policy makers within government
- Assist with our statutory remit in collecting input from stakeholders such
as practitioners, researchers, disability groups to inform government
policy, codes of practice, guidelines and standards development.

We propose to work with Barry McMullin in DCU on any handover of the mailing
list and would potentially be in a position to transfer hosting to coincide
with us becoming the new NCC for EDEAN on April 1.
We have recently seen some simple and effective guidelines being output in
place for the running of the list and we would commit to ensuring these are
implemented.  Some simple rebranding may be required, such as the list being
renamed the Universal Design ICT mailing list (I envision other mailing
lists will be developed for the built environment and product designed as
required).

In summation should people on the list choose that the list be transferred
to CEUD we would build on the good work that has been done by CRC and
promote participation in the list further and use it to involve its
participants in our work at CEUD and to disseminate information.

Regards,
Dónal Rice

Senior ICT Advisor
Centre for Excellence in Universal Design
National Disability Authority
email: drice at nda.ie, drice.nda at gmail.com
Tel: + 353 (0)1 608 0430
http://www.universaldesign.ie
http://www.accessIT.nda.ie
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