User:DrMel/WikiBlind

Place to brainstorm content for proposed WP:WikiProject Visual impairment

WikiBlind logo. The iconic Wikipedia puzzle piece, with a white W on a black background, and black Braille spelling “wiki” on the left side of the W, then two big dots for K on the next section. K represents the word Knowledge in English Grade 2 Braille.

WikiBlind User Group is an international online group in which our members, blind, low vision and sighted, can connect and discover the options we most enjoy for participating in the free and open knowledge movement.

Our group of volunteers started forming as a Facebook group called WikiBlind, starting on 24 April 2019. If you are on Facebook, please come join our group! WikiBlind group on Facebook

Everyone is welcome to join in the adventures, all ages, abilities and cultures. We strive to be radically welcoming and inclusive, and want to identify and overcome the barriers that stop people from being able to participate in this wild wiki world!

We are very grateful for AFB for supporting the work we've been doing to get to here.

Getting started as a blind editor

The steps below assume that you are using a desktop screen reader on either Windows, Linux, or Mac OS. For now the links go to the English Wikipedia, where relevant.

1. The account creation process, along with other editing actions as a new user such as adding links to external websites, require solving a visual CAPTCHA for which there is no audio alternative. For now either contact Graham87, a blind admin, at grahamwpgmail.com, or use the SurveyMonkey link to get in contact with us and we will be happy to help you create an account and bypass all CAPTCHAs, given a desired username and an email address (a temporary password will be emailed to you). Also note the information in the following sub-items:
   1. To check whether your username is available, type it in at the global account information page. if there are no matches, your username is available for use.
   2. The temporary password will expire within seven days, so please log in within that time. Either use the log in link from a Wikipedia page or use this link directly to log in.
2. Wikipedia has several themes or skins. The default skin is good for reading but not as optimised for editing, especially for blind users, as it uses drop-down boxes to hide less-used content. You can change your theme to the older MonoBook skin in the appearance section of your preferences; you may also want to uncheck the box that says " Enable responsive MonoBook design" for a more consistent layout. There is also a box in the editing section of your preferences that you might want to check: " Temporarily disable the visual editor while it is in beta". Make sure you use the save button to save your changes.
3. If you are active on Facebook, you can join the WikiBlind group there. If not, we can communicate with you by email or whichever method you prefer (see the above SurveyMonkey link)
4. It's a good idea to create a user page to introduce yourself to the community and let other Wikipedia editors know that you are blind, as screen reader users can have unusual editing quirks not normally found in the sighted population. The link to your user page is in the personal tools section under the MonoBook skin; your user page can also be accessed by typing "Special:MyPage" in the search box or following this link.
   1. Wikipedia uses wiki-markup to format text (e.g. adding headings and links). For a guide to what various symbols do, the cheatsheet is useful.
   2. To note your affiliation with WikiBlind, type this on your user page, without the quotes: "{{User WikiBlind}}". This uses a template to display your membership of WikiBlind and categorise you as a member. It's possible to add codes to note languages you understand and many, many other things, from the sublime to the ridiculous.

How to Thank Wikipedians

If you want to help thank the thousands of volunteers who have made Wikipedia and the other projects what they are today, with long hours and almost no recognition, here are three options:

1. Leave a note through us: You can leave a simple "Thank You Wikipedians" message through this survey link or going to www.surveymonkey.com/r/wikiBlind1 - if you can share your email address we can send you details about what happens next.

2. On your own social media: Please post any Thank You and Happy Birthday messages on any social media - just add hashtags #wikiKind #wikiLove #wikipedia20 so we can find it!

3. Learn how to communicate with Wikipedians directly! We want to help everyone learn how to not just read Wikipedia article but be able to leave a note on the discussion pages about articles. Let us show you how! If you give us your email on the survey we will followup with more details.

4. Share some wikiLove - You can paste this message with your own words on any talk page. People around here appreciate kind messages on Talk Pages - they’re rare!

	It’s a maze of twisty passages all around here. Sometimes, it’s hard to feel appreciated, and you deserve some love! This Heart-shaped Labyrinth is to say Thank YOU for all your hard work. I appreciate you being here - I really do - and so do these peeps!
	You can also share some wikiKind wikiLove (on English Wikipedia) by adding {{subst:Heart Labyrinth}} to any talk page with your own message. Or grab this code and remix to post anywhere!

some of Thank Yous to Wikipedians people have posted so far

As part of our work, especially during Wikipedia's 20th anniversary, we're collecting Thank Yous for our fellow Wikipedians. Here are some of the Thank Yous we have collected so far:

• Thank you wikipedians for all your hard work. It's been a great to be part of it with you.
• Thank you so much for caring so much about free information that is not pushed by advertisement. It gives me a hope for my children's future.
• Thanks for protecting public access to reliable information.
• Thank you for increasing credibility of knowledge shared worldwide.
• Thank you for creating an amazing resource we use every day!
• Thank you! Wikipedia has been a valuable resource in my work.
• Dear wikipedians, thank you so much for all your constant and consistent efforts. I cannot begin to fathom what i'd done without this free encyclopedia at hand.
• I want to say first of all thank you for inviting me to this a big happy birthday to everyone involved with Wikipedia for the last 20 years.
• Happy 20th birthday to All the wikipedians out there. Thank you. And I hope you continue to make the world a more accessible and easy to find place of information.
• Thank you wikipedians for all of your great work. 20 years of providing the world all of the resource information that you can think of. I love you. Keep shattering the large gates elitist gate-keepers keep making.

History and Activities of wikiBlind and members

WikiBlind was first conceived of in 2006, by Drs. Kirk Adams, president of American Foundation for the Blind and Mel Ganus, cofounder of wikiSoCal, with an intention not just to improve articles related to blindness, but to engage members of our blind, visually impaired and sighted communities in the incredible work of building the future of human knowledge on wikis around the world.

On May 15, 2019, we submitted our first Rapid Grant proposal to Wikimedia. The grant was approved, and three of WikiBlind's members attended the National Federation of the Blind convention in July 2019 to promote the project, including meetings with leaders of the National Federation of the Blind and the American Foundation for the Blind.

In May 2020, we became an official user group with approval by the Wikimedia Foundation's Affiliations Committee!

If you are interested in learning how you might be able to qualify for your own funding from the Wikimedia Foundation, please take a look at WMF Rapid Grants and message us to learn more.

We are also now set up as @wikiBlind on Twitter and we are looking for tweeters!

Members

If you would like to be a part of the Blind Wikimedians User Group, you can add your username to this list. This is done by typing a number sign (#) below the list of names already here, then four tildes ("~~~~"), then clicking on Publish Changes. Try it!

1. Graham87 (talk) 02:31, 26 April 2019 (UTC)
2. DrMel (talk) 02:36, 26 April 2019 (UTC)
3. Shabab Mustafa (talk) 21:18, 27 April 2019 (UTC)
4. Ehollig (talk) 00:21, 28 April 2019 (UTC)
5. Kayusyussuf (talk) 13:44, 28 April 2019 (UTC)
6. WittiePenguin (talk) 07:44, 30 April 2019 (UTC)
7. Rforrejin (talk) 13:20, 30 April 2019 (UTC)
8. RexxS (talk) 17:51, 1 May 2019 (UTC)
9. This is Paul (talk) 17:53, 1 May 2019 (UTC)
10. Quiddity (talk) 19:29, 1 May 2019 (UTC)
11. DrKirkAdams (talk) 20:18, 1 May 2019 (UTC)
12. MatTheMusician (talk) 03:17, 15 May 2019 (UTC)MatTheMusician
13. Blue Rasberry (talk) 15:00, 18 May 2019 (UTC)
14. Academic Challenger (talk) 06:25, 19 May 2019 (UTC)
15. Comp1089 (talk) 15:24, 18 August 2019 (UTC)
16. Vid2vid (talk) 21:24, 28 August 2019 (UTC)!
17. KaraLG84 (talk) 19:43, 2 September 2019 (UTC)
18. Checkingfax (talk) 04:31, 28 December 2019 (UTC)
19. B20180 (talk) 05:09, 11 May 2020 (UTC)
20. Rajeeb (talk) 15:17, 24 September 2020 (UTC)
21. GiFontenelle (talk) 17:21, 3 December 2020 (UTC)
22. KH32 (talk) 11:46, 8 December 2020 (UTC)
23. WDfam (talk) 20:50, 22 December 2020 (UTC)
24. NellieKadare (talk) 22:15, 22 December 2020 (UTC)

Supporters and Allies

1. --RightCowLeftCoast (talk) 23:16, 9 May 2019 (UTC)
2. --Vahidmasrour (talk) 20:45, 12 July 2019 (UTC)
3. --DannyS712 (talk) 22:07, 28 August 2019 (UTC)
4. --Rotideypoc41352 (talk) 20:30, 2 September 2019 (UTC)
5. --Filipinayzd (talk) 18:14, 17 October 2019 (UTC)
6. —TheDJ (talk • contribs) 10:55, 4 November 2019 (UTC)
7. --Reda Kerbouche (talk) 17:50, 8 November 2019 (UTC)
8. --Emna (talk) 21:34, 9 December 2019 (UTC)
9. --Volker E. (talk) 23:10, 3 January 2020 (UTC)
10. --Peter in San Diego, CA, USA, a.k.a. the sighted but be-spectacled Vid2vid (talk). In the 1990s, I was really proud and happy to work as chief tech support for a Westchester County NY USA -based I.S.P. (internet service provider, dialup at the time) that provided a free website to Guiding Eyes for the Blind .. website here, .. a non-profit that gives trained dogs to vision-impaired or sightless folk. 03:58, 12 January 2020 (UTC)
11. I studied the issue a little bit years ago, total support.--Alexmar983 (talk) 14:07, 14 May 2020 (UTC)
12. --· · · Peter (Southwood) ^(talk): 12:31, 15 May 2020 (UTC)
13. Wwwhatsup (talk) 16:15, 1 July 2020 (UTC) (Internet Society Accessibility SIG)
14. --Yamen (talk) 20:43, 11 September 2020 (UTC)
15. Conny (talk)
16. -- Nehaoua (talk) 23:53, 6 December 2020 (UTC)
17. Praxidicae (talk) 20:24, 15 February 2021 (UTC)

Activities

• Launching wikiKind adventures in wikiWonderland and beginning to collect Thank Yous for Wikipedians on 15 January 2021 as our gift on the 20th birthday of Wikipedia.
• Participating in the Wikimedia Global Conversations that beginning online in November 2020 and continuing into 2021. As part of Dr Mel's participation, she is inviting all attendees to be part of wikiBlind, to help us connect and engage people of all abilities across our communities and around the world.
• Skylar Covich (User:Academic Challenger) attended the National Federation of the Blind of California convention from November 7–10, 2019, in Milpitas, California. He handed out WikiBlind cards and explained the process of editing Wikipedia.
• WikiBlind's experienced Wikipedians plans to hold monthly office hours for training of blind editors. Recruitment for training sessions will occur on Twitter, through WikiBlind's Facebook group, and through various Facebook groups and organizations for the blind.
• Two of WikiBlind's three leaders are in southern California. A focus group of blind individuals will meet in southern California for an editathon.

Assessment

WikiProject article quality grading scheme

Class	Criteria	Reader's experience	Editing suggestions	Example
FA	The article has attained featured article status by passing an in-depth examination by impartial reviewers from WP:Featured article candidates. More detailed criteria The article meets the featured article criteria: A featured article exemplifies Wikipedia's very best work and is distinguished by professional standards of writing, presentation, and sourcing. In addition to meeting the policies regarding content for all Wikipedia articles, it has the following attributes. It is: well-written: its prose is engaging and of a professional standard; comprehensive: it neglects no major facts or details and places the subject in context; well-researched: it is a thorough and representative survey of the relevant literature; claims are verifiable against high-quality reliable sources and are supported by inline citations where appropriate; neutral: it presents views fairly and without bias; stable: it is not subject to ongoing edit wars and its content does not change significantly from day to day, except in response to the featured article process; and compliant with Wikipedia's copyright policy and free of plagiarism or too-close paraphrasing. It follows the style guidelines, including the provision of: a lead: a concise lead section that summarizes the topic and prepares the reader for the detail in the subsequent sections; appropriate structure: a substantial but not overwhelming system of hierarchical section headings; and consistent citations: where required by criterion 1c, consistently formatted inline citations using footnotes—see citing sources for suggestions on formatting references. Citation templates are not required. Media. It has images and other media, where appropriate, with succinct captions and acceptable copyright status. Images follow the image use policy. Non-free images or media must satisfy the criteria for inclusion of non-free content and be labeled accordingly. Length. It stays focused on the main topic without going into unnecessary detail and uses summary style where appropriate.	Professional, outstanding, and thorough; a definitive source for encyclopedic information.	No further content additions should be necessary unless new information becomes available; further improvements to the prose quality are often possible.[under discussion]	Cleopatra (as of June 2018)
FL	The article has attained featured list status by passing an in-depth examination by impartial reviewers from WP:Featured list candidates. More detailed criteria The article meets the featured list criteria: Prose. It features professional standards of writing. Lead. It has an engaging lead that introduces the subject and defines the scope and inclusion criteria. Comprehensiveness. (a) It comprehensively covers the defined scope, providing at least all of the major items and, where practical, a complete set of items; where appropriate, it has annotations that provide useful and appropriate information about the items. (b) statements are sourced where they appear, and they provide inline citations if they contain any of the four kinds of material absolutely required to have citations. (c) In length and/or topic, it meets all of the requirements for stand-alone lists; does not violate the content-forking guideline, does not largely duplicate material from another article, and could not reasonably be included as part of a related article. Structure. It is easy to navigate and includes, where helpful, section headings and table sort facilities. Style. It complies with the Manual of Style and its supplementary pages. (a) Visual appeal. It makes suitable use of text layout, formatting, tables, and colour; and a minimal proportion of items are redlinked. (b) Media files. It has images and other media, if appropriate to the topic, that follow Wikipedia's usage policies, with succinct captions. Non-free images and other media satisfy the criteria for the inclusion of non-free content and are labeled accordingly. (c) Accessibility. It uses proper formating to be accessible to all readers. Bulleted and unbulleted lists and tables are structured correctly. Visual media, if included, utilize alternative (alt) text. Stability. It is not the subject of ongoing edit wars and its content does not change significantly from day to day, except in response to the featured list process.	Professional standard; it comprehensively covers the defined scope, usually providing a complete set of items, and has annotations that provide useful and appropriate information about those items.	No further content additions should be necessary unless new information becomes available.	List of dates predicted for apocalyptic events (as of May 2018)
A	The article is well organized and essentially complete, having been examined by impartial reviewers from a WikiProject or elsewhere. Good article status is not a requirement for A-Class. More detailed criteria The article meets the A-Class criteria: Provides a well-written, clear and complete description of the topic, as described in Wikipedia:Article development. It should be of a length suitable for the subject, appropriately structured, and be well referenced by a broad array of reliable sources. It should be well illustrated, with no copyright problems. Only minor style issues and other details need to be addressed before submission as a featured article candidate. See the A-Class assessment departments of some of the larger WikiProjects (e.g. WikiProject Military history).	Very useful to readers. A fairly complete treatment of the subject. A non-expert in the subject would typically find nothing wanting.	Expert knowledge may be needed to tweak the article, and style problems may need solving. WP:Peer review may help.	Battle of Nam River (as of June 2014)
GA	The article meets all of the good article criteria, and has been examined by one or more impartial reviewers from WP:Good article nominations. More detailed criteria A good article is: Well-written: the prose is clear, concise, and understandable to an appropriately broad audience; spelling and grammar are correct; and it complies with the Manual of Style guidelines for lead sections, layout, words to watch, fiction, and list incorporation. Verifiable with no original research: it contains a list of all references (sources of information), presented in accordance with the layout style guideline; reliable sources are cited inline. All content that could reasonably be challenged, except for plot summaries and that which summarizes cited content elsewhere in the article, must be cited no later than the end of the paragraph (or line if the content is not in prose); it contains no original research; and it contains no copyright violations or plagiarism. Broad in its coverage: it addresses the main aspects of the topic; and it stays focused on the topic without going into unnecessary detail (see summary style). Neutral: it represents viewpoints fairly and without editorial bias, giving due weight to each. Stable: it does not change significantly from day to day because of an ongoing edit war or content dispute. Illustrated, if possible, by media such as images, video, or audio: media are tagged with their copyright statuses, and valid non-free use rationales are provided for non-free content; and media are relevant to the topic, and have suitable captions.	Useful to nearly all readers, with no obvious problems; approaching (though not necessarily equalling) the quality of a professional publication.	Some editing by subject and style experts is helpful; comparison with an existing featured article on a similar topic may highlight areas where content is weak or missing.	Discovery of the neutron (as of April 2019)
B	The article meets all of the B-Class criteria. It is mostly complete and does not have major problems, but requires some further work to reach good article standards. More detailed criteria The article is suitably referenced, with inline citations. It has reliable sources, and any important or controversial material which is likely to be challenged is cited. Any format of inline citation is acceptable: the use of <ref> tags and citation templates such as {{cite web}} is optional. The article reasonably covers the topic, and does not contain obvious omissions or inaccuracies. It contains a large proportion of the material necessary for an A-Class article, although some sections may need expansion, and some less important topics may be missing. The article has a defined structure. Content should be organized into groups of related material, including a lead section and all the sections that can reasonably be included in an article of its kind. The article is reasonably well-written. The prose contains no major grammatical errors and flows sensibly, but it does not need to be "brilliant". The Manual of Style does not need to be followed rigorously. The article contains supporting materials where appropriate. Illustrations are encouraged, though not required. Diagrams, an infobox etc. should be included where they are relevant and useful to the content. The article presents its content in an appropriately understandable way. It is written with as broad an audience in mind as possible. The article should not assume unnecessary technical background and technical terms should be explained or avoided where possible.	Readers are not left wanting, although the content may not be complete enough to satisfy a serious student or researcher.	A few aspects of content and style need to be addressed. Expert knowledge may be needed. The inclusion of supporting materials should be considered if practical, and the article checked for general compliance with the Manual of Style and related style guidelines.	Psychology (as of January 2024)
C	The article is substantial but is still missing important content or contains irrelevant material. The article should have some references to reliable sources, but may still have significant problems or require substantial cleanup. More detailed criteria The article cites more than one reliable source and is better developed in style, structure, and quality than Start-Class, but it fails one or more of the criteria for B-Class. It may have some gaps or missing elements, or need editing for clarity, balance, or flow.	Useful to a casual reader, but would not provide a complete picture for even a moderately detailed study.	Considerable editing is needed to close gaps in content and solve cleanup problems.	Wing (as of June 2018)
Start	An article that is developing but still quite incomplete. It may or may not cite adequate reliable sources. More detailed criteria The article has a meaningful amount of good content, but it is still weak in many areas. The article has one or more of the following: A useful picture or graphic Multiple links that help explain or illustrate the topic A subheading that fully treats an element of the topic Multiple subheadings that indicate material that could be added to complete the article	Provides some meaningful content, but most readers will need more.	Providing references to reliable sources should come first; the article also needs substantial improvement in content and organisation. Also improve the grammar, spelling, writing style and improve the jargon use.	Ball (as of September 2014)
Stub	A very basic description of the topic. Meets none of the Start-Class criteria.	Provides very little meaningful content; may be little more than a dictionary definition. Readers probably see insufficiently developed features of the topic and may not see how the features of the topic are significant.	Any editing or additional material can be helpful. The provision of meaningful content should be a priority. The best solution for a Stub-class Article to step up to a Start-class Article is to add in referenced reasons of why the topic is significant.	Lineage (anthropology) (as of December 2014)
List	Meets the criteria of a stand-alone list or set index article, which is an article that contains primarily a list, usually consisting of links to articles in a particular subject area.	There is no set format for a list, but its organization should be logical and useful to the reader.	Lists should be lists of live links to Wikipedia articles, appropriately named and organized.	List of literary movements

Biography articles by quality and importance
Quality	Importance
	Core	Other	???	Total
FA	34	1,591		1,625
FL		192		192
A	1	103		104
GA	41	8,071		8,112
B	91	37,242		37,333
C	37	159,503		159,540
Start	3	735,262		735,265
Stub		1,031,897	1	1,031,898
List		7,478		7,478
Category	2	206,370		206,372
Disambig		8,071		8,071
File		29,533		29,533
Project	1	197		198
Redirect	3	41,939		41,942
Template		12,674		12,674
NA		238		238
Assessed	213	2,280,361	1	2,280,575
Unassessed		32,681		32,681
Total	213	2,313,042	1	2,313,256
WikiWork factors (?)		ω = 10,634,173			Ω = 5.39