Merge pull request #6823 from natdecker/main

Nat Decker and Bobby Joe Smith III updated access.md

contributor_docs/access.md

@@ -1,40 +1,59 @@
 # Our Focus on Access
 
-At the [2019 Contributors Conference](https://p5js.org/community/contributors-conference-2019.html), we made a commitment to only add features to p5.js that increase access (meaning inclusion and/or accessibility). This means considering the vectors of diversity (e.g. gender, social, economic, race, ethnicity, language, disability, etc.) that can impact access/participation; and taking action to acknowledge, dismantle, and prevent barriers. We prioritize the needs of historically marginalized groups over the continued comfort of more privileged groups with p5.js.
+At the [2019 Contributors Conference](https://p5js.org/community/contributors-conference-2019.html), p5.js made the commitment to only add new features that increase access (inclusion and accessibility). We will not accept feature requests that don't support these efforts. We commit to the work of acknowledging, dismantling, and preventing barriers. This means considering intersecting[^1] experiences of diversity that can impact access and participation. These include alignments of gender, race, ethnicity, sexuality, language, location, et cetera. We center the needs of marginalized groups over the continued comfort of those privileged within the p5.js community. We are collectively exploring the meaning of access. We are learning how to practice and teach access. We choose to think of access through expansive, intersectional, and coalitionary frameworks. This commitment is part of the core values of p5.js outlined in our [Community Statement](https://p5js.org/community/).
 
-We will not accept feature requests that don't support our effort to increase access. You'll see this criteria reflected in our issue and pull request templates.
 
-This is part of an ongoing conversation about access and inclusion within p5.js. Our intention to hold these as core values from which p5.js is built is laid out in our [Community Statement](../CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md), which was written at the [2015 Contributors Conference](https://p5js.org/community/contributors-conference-2015.html).
 
-**Please consider this a starting point.** We want to invite more conversations about what access means and how we can prioritize it.
+# Kinds of access
 
-## Kinds of access
+Increasing access is not focused on expanding the raw number of people in the p5.js community. Instead, we want to make p5.js available for people who get left out of the community. This is often a consequence of structural bias. This commitment extends to the tools and platforms p5.js offers. It also includes the makeup, decision-making, and actions of p5.js leadership. We resist a technological culture of speed, growth and competition. We prioritize intentionality, slowness, accommodation, and accountability as acts of collective care.
 
-Increasing access is not a focus on expanding the raw number of people in the p5.js community. It is a focus on making p5.js available to and approachable for people who are excluded from the p5.js community (intentionally or not) and from similar tools and communities.
 
-Access here means making p5.js better for:
+Access here means making p5.js equitable for:
 
 - People who speak languages other than English
-- Black people, Indigenous peoples, and People of Color
-- People who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, or queer
-- People with marginalized genders
-- People with disabilities or illness
-- People who lack opportunities and/or resources to engage with creative coding due to class or income
+- People of color and people of marginalized ethnic identities
+- Lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, queer, questioning, intersex, pansexual, two-spirit, and asexual people
+- Women and people with other marginalized gender expressions
+- Disabled people/people with disabilities, neurodivergent people/people with neurodivergence, and chronically ill people/people with chronic illness[^2]
+- People who have lower income, or lack access to financial or cultural capital
 - People with little or no prior experience in open source and creative coding
-- and other people who are systemically excluded and historically underrepresented
+- People from diverse educational backgrounds
+- People across all age groups, including children and elders
+- People with a variety of technological skill, tools and internet access
+- People from diverse religious backgrounds
+- Other people who are systematically excluded and historically underrepresented
+- And all intersections thereof
 
-### Examples
+We recognize the complexity of the terms used to describe our respective identities. Language is nuanced, evolving and contested. This is not an exhaustive list. We provide an attempt to name and be accountable to our commitments and to the diverse needs of the p5.js community.
 
-These are examples of efforts we believe to increase access:
 
-- Translating more documentation and other materials into more languages
-- Improving our support for assistive technologies (such as screenreaders)
-- Following Web Content Accessibility Guidelines in our tools and working towards making it easier for users to follow them in their projects
-- Making p5.js error messages more helpful and supportive to people using the tool
+
+# Examples
+These are examples of efforts we believe increase access:
+
+- Translating documentation and other materials into more languages, decentering linguistic imperialism[^3] (e.g., Rolando Vargas’ [Processing in Kuna Language](https://medium.com/@ProcessingOrg/culture-as-translation-processing-in-kuna-language-with-rolando-vargas-and-edinson-izquierdo-8079f14851f7), Felipe Santos Gomes, Julia Brasil, Katherine Finn Zander, and Marcela Mancino’s [Pê Cinco: Internationalization and Popularization for Portuguese Speakers](https://medium.com/processing-foundation/translating-p5-js-into-portuguese-for-the-brazilian-community-14b969e77ab1))
+- Improving our support for assistive technologies, such as screen readers (e.g., Katie Liu’s [Adding Alt Text in p5.js](https://medium.com/processing-foundation/adding-alt-text-e2c7684e44f8), Claire Kearney-Volpe’s [P5 Accessibility Project](https://medium.com/processing-foundation/p5-accessibility-115d84535fa8))
+- Following [Web Content Accessibility Guidelines](https://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG21/) in our tools and working towards making it easier for users to follow them in their projects
+- Making p5.js error messages more helpful and supportive to people using the tool (e.g., the [p5.js Friendly Error System (FES)](https://github.com/processing/p5.js/blob/main/contributor_docs/friendly_error_system.md))
 - Mentoring and supporting learners of p5.js within communities that are historically excluded from and marginalized in creative coding and the digital arts
+- Hosting community events (e.g., [p5.js Access Day 2022](https://p5js.org/community/p5js-access-day-2022.html), [The Web We Want: p5.js x W3C TPAC 2020)](https://medium.com/processing-foundation/p5-js-x-w3c-tpac-bee4c621a053) with access-centered organizing tactics (e.g., ASL interpretation, live captioning, accessible venues)
+- Supporting the creation of educational resources (e.g., Adekemi Sijuwade-Ukadike’s [A11y Syllabus](http://a11ysyllabus.site/))
+- Publishing documentation and reports of our work that follow WCAG guidelines, use plain language, and focus on beginners from diverse experiences (e.g., [OSACC p5.js Access Report](https://github.com/processing/OSACC-p5.js-Access-Report))
+
+
+
+# Maintenance
+We are not accepting feature requests that do not support our effort to increase access. You'll see this criteria reflected in our issue and pull request templates. We also affirm our intention to maintain the existing feature set of p5.js. We'd like to fix bugs regardless of which area of the codebase they're in. We believe consistency of the tool makes it more accessible for beginners. Examples of feature requests that improve accessibility include:
+Performance increases for people using less powerful hardware (e.g., Support for drawing to/reading from framebuffers)
+Consistency in the API (e.g, Add arcVertex() for creating arcs with beginShape()/endShape())
+
+___
 
-There are other things we haven't thought of yet and we're excited to figure out what they are together. If you have an idea, please [share it as an issue](https://github.com/processing/p5.js/issues/new/choose).
+Please consider this a ‘living document.' We will continue the conversation about what it means to prioritize access. We invite our community to engage with this document and the values it describes. If you have ideas or suggestions, we invite you to share them as an issue on Github or by emailing [email protected].
 
-## Maintenance
+This version of the p5.js Access Statement was revised in collaboration with Evelyn Masso, Nat Decker, Bobby Joe Smith III, Sammie Veeler, Sonia (Suhyun) Choi, Xin Xin, Kate Hollenbach, Lauren Lee McCarthy, Caroline Sinders, Qianqian Ye, Tristan Jovani Magno Espinoza, Tanvi Sharma, Tsige Tafesse, and Sarah Ciston at the 2023 Open Source Arts Contributors Conference. It was finalized and published by Bobby Joe Smith III and Nat Decker through the support of the Processing Foundation Fellowship. 
 
-We also affirm our intention to maintain the existing feature set of p5.js. We'd like to fix bugs regardless of which area of the codebase they're in because we believe consistency of the tool makes it more accessible for beginners.
+[^1]: Crenshaw, Kimberlé (1989). "Demarginalizing the intersection of race and sex: a black feminist critique of antidiscrimination doctrine, feminist theory and antiracist politics". University of Chicago Legal Forum. 1989 (1): 139–167. ISSN 0892-5593. Full text at Archive.org.
+[^2]: There are differing preferences between ‘person-first’ vs. ‘identity-first’ language within the disability community. Read [Unpacking the debate over person-first vs. identity-first language in the autism community](https://news.northeastern.edu/2018/07/12/unpacking-the-debate-over-person-first-vs-identity-first-language-in-the-autism-community/) and [I am Disabled: On Identity-First Versus People-First Language](https://thebodyisnotanapology.com/magazine/i-am-disabled-on-identity-first-versus-people-first-language/).
+[^3]: Linguistic Imperialism, or Language Imperialism, refers to the ongoing domination/prioritization/imposition of certain languages such as English at the expense of native languages due to imperial expansion and globalization.