Charter

Our mission

The mission of The GitHub Enterprise Accessibility Advisory Panel (GAAP) is to enable enterprise customers to fully leverage GitHub’s capabilities to meet their accessibility goals.

Purpose

GAAP is an invitation-only forum for regular exchange between GitHub and enterprise customers working to build accessible software on GitHub. This collaborative community serves as a bridge between real-world accessibility challenges and GitHub’s platform features, with an emphasis on adoption of current capabilities and identification of future needs.

Key objectives

• Foster a knowledge exchange among accessibility leaders
• Drive adoption of best practices in accessibility engineering
• Identify gaps in current accessibility tools and processes

Membership and participation

Who should join

Accessibility leaders from GitHub enterprise customer organizations. Primary focus on accessibility engineers and accessibility engineering managers, with welcome extended to product managers, quality-assurance testers, accessibility consultants, and design professionals.

Member requirements

Members must be employed by an organization that is a GitHub enterprise customer.

Member terms and participation duration

The GAAP is not a formal board, and there are no defined term limits for membership. There is no minimum or maximum participation period. Members are welcome to remain in the panel as long as participation is valuable and relevant to their goals.

Member benefits

• Early updates on GitHub’s product developments that can be leveraged for accessibility
• Insights into emerging accessibility trends and technologies from other members of the panel
• Opportunity to share successes and discuss challenges with the panel

Meeting structure and governance

Ground rules

The GAAP is a welcoming and inclusive forum. Members must follow the GitHub Events Code of Conduct.

We’ve made the GAAP private so we can encourage candid discussion. Privacy is governed by the Chatham House Rule.

The GAAP is a space for practitioners to learn how to accelerate accessibility when building on GitHub. We encourage members to mention third-party products when they share their experiences with the group. However, the GAAP is not a place for third-party vendors to advertise their products or services.

The focus of the GAAP is building accessible experiences on GitHub, not the accessibility of the GitHub UI. While we are always eager to receive feedback about the current accessibility of our products, this is not the appropriate forum for that feedback. Please share that feedback on the accessibility community discussion page.

Launch and cadence

Three virtual meetings per year in fall, winter, and spring.

Sample agenda

Agendas will be managed by GitHub with input from members:

• Welcome message from GitHub’s Head of Accessibility
• GitHub product updates and accessibility initiatives
• Member presentations on industry initiatives, trends, and challenges
• Collaborative discussions on specific accessibility topics
• Action item review and next steps

Success measures

Member engagement and attendance. Member satisfaction will be measured via a survey after every meeting.

Living document commitment

This charter will evolve based on member feedback and GitHub’s strategic direction. Mind the GAAP!