Concordia is a non-profit organisation dedicated to fostering, elevating, and sustaining cross-sector partnerships for social impact. One of Concordia’s focus areas is combatting disinformation and addressing the global crisis in trust, working with some of the world’s most powerful and critical institutions. Concordia and Digitalis are currently developing sessions at global conventions to present and discuss solutions to this issue.
Concordia’s co-founder & CEO Matthew Swift takes a few minutes to discuss the importance of this topic for all of us, and how we can work together across industries and continents to enable technology to be used in a way that benefits society across the globe.
1. Concordia is an organisation with a unique position – please tell us a little about what you do and why it matters.
We are conveners, and we look at convening as an art form. No issue, regardless of its complexity, can be addressed unless people connect properly to share experiences, best practices, and potential resources. We design and curate spaces aimed at ensuring those critical connection points take place. We are fiercely non-partisan, inclusive, and transparent, to ensure that the institutions and individuals who participate in our summits see the potential in partnerships to solve complex issues.
2. How did Concordia come to be involved in the digital space, and what has it achieved so far?
We became involved in the digital space at the very outset of our founding in 2011. The theme of our inaugural summit was the role of the private sector in combatting extremism. You simply cannot have this discussion without discussing digital platforms. Since that point, our focus on the digital space has only grown significantly, and in September we hosted a major series on the future of digital platforms and the responsibility of the private sector in combatting disinformation.
3. How did you get involved with Digitalis, how are your approaches aligned, and what digital challenges are you trying to solve together?
I was first introduced to Dave King and the important work of Digitalis many years ago through close mutual friends. It is hard not to be immediately taken with the value of the work Digitalis is doing on the frontlines to democratise SEO in a way that leads to more balanced content being presented online.
As an avid follower of news, I have both a personal and professional interest in the content that the major search engines and news sites present to me, and in ensuring issues are presented in a balanced way rather than prioritising content that is dramatic, negative and sometimes inaccurate. The media has such an important role to play in presenting coverage of the most important issues of our time, and with such a significant spread of disinformation in our online interactions, Digitalis is truly on the frontlines trying to level the playing field.
We need to sound the alarm about the state of digital platforms today, and the urgent need to ensure they are held accountable and demonstrate genuine balance and accurate information. In my view, it is truly one of the most important issues of this time.
4. How does collaboration work at Concordia, and what benefits are gained from working with experts from different sectors and in different geographical locations?
Concordia is a membership organisation that offers opportunities for both institutions and individuals to be involved. Through our Global Patron Membership program, in which Digitalis is an active participant, organisations can access our Annual Summit in New York along with our regional series, which includes summits in Europe, the Americas, and Africa. In 2023 we will be hosting major summits in Miami, Madrid, New York and the Amazon. A great example of our 2023 plans is demonstrated through this powerful speech announcing the creation of the Concordia Amazon Initiative.
Connecting is critical, and nothing replaces that human-to-human interaction. Those who join us learn about some of the most complex issues of our time, while networking within a powerful global community and opening up important opportunities. You can find out more about us at www.concordia.net and @concordiasummit.
5. Finally, what digital trends and challenges are emerging that particularly interest you, and what social impact could they have in the future?
Disinformation and the subsequent and significant lack of trust that is spreading around the world pose a clear and present danger to democratic societies. A number of companies are working on the frontlines to combat disinformation, leading exciting ventures that will better inform consumers of information about the balance and accuracy of the content they see. I am also excited to see the important leadership role of the private sector continue to evolve, because the government cannot fully address this issue alone.
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We firmly believe that the internet should be available and accessible to anyone, and are committed to providing a website that is accessible to the widest possible audience, regardless of circumstance and ability.
To fulfill this, we aim to adhere as strictly as possible to the World Wide Web Consortium’s (W3C) Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.1 (WCAG 2.1) at the AA level. These guidelines explain how to make web content accessible to people with a wide array of disabilities. Complying with those guidelines helps us ensure that the website is accessible to all people: blind people, people with motor impairments, visual impairment, cognitive disabilities, and more.
This website utilizes various technologies that are meant to make it as accessible as possible at all times. We utilize an accessibility interface that allows persons with specific disabilities to adjust the website’s UI (user interface) and design it to their personal needs.
Additionally, the website utilizes an AI-based application that runs in the background and optimizes its accessibility level constantly. This application remediates the website’s HTML, adapts Its functionality and behavior for screen-readers used by the blind users, and for keyboard functions used by individuals with motor impairments.
If you’ve found a malfunction or have ideas for improvement, we’ll be happy to hear from you. You can reach out to the website’s operators by using the following email webrequests@digitalis.com
Our website implements the ARIA attributes (Accessible Rich Internet Applications) technique, alongside various different behavioral changes, to ensure blind users visiting with screen-readers are able to read, comprehend, and enjoy the website’s functions. As soon as a user with a screen-reader enters your site, they immediately receive a prompt to enter the Screen-Reader Profile so they can browse and operate your site effectively. Here’s how our website covers some of the most important screen-reader requirements, alongside console screenshots of code examples:
Screen-reader optimization: we run a background process that learns the website’s components from top to bottom, to ensure ongoing compliance even when updating the website. In this process, we provide screen-readers with meaningful data using the ARIA set of attributes. For example, we provide accurate form labels; descriptions for actionable icons (social media icons, search icons, cart icons, etc.); validation guidance for form inputs; element roles such as buttons, menus, modal dialogues (popups), and others. Additionally, the background process scans all of the website’s images and provides an accurate and meaningful image-object-recognition-based description as an ALT (alternate text) tag for images that are not described. It will also extract texts that are embedded within the image, using an OCR (optical character recognition) technology. To turn on screen-reader adjustments at any time, users need only to press the Alt+1 keyboard combination. Screen-reader users also get automatic announcements to turn the Screen-reader mode on as soon as they enter the website.
These adjustments are compatible with all popular screen readers, including JAWS and NVDA.
Keyboard navigation optimization: The background process also adjusts the website’s HTML, and adds various behaviors using JavaScript code to make the website operable by the keyboard. This includes the ability to navigate the website using the Tab and Shift+Tab keys, operate dropdowns with the arrow keys, close them with Esc, trigger buttons and links using the Enter key, navigate between radio and checkbox elements using the arrow keys, and fill them in with the Spacebar or Enter key.Additionally, keyboard users will find quick-navigation and content-skip menus, available at any time by clicking Alt+1, or as the first elements of the site while navigating with the keyboard. The background process also handles triggered popups by moving the keyboard focus towards them as soon as they appear, and not allow the focus drift outside of it.
Users can also use shortcuts such as “M” (menus), “H” (headings), “F” (forms), “B” (buttons), and “G” (graphics) to jump to specific elements.
We aim to support the widest array of browsers and assistive technologies as possible, so our users can choose the best fitting tools for them, with as few limitations as possible. Therefore, we have worked very hard to be able to support all major systems that comprise over 95% of the user market share including Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Apple Safari, Opera and Microsoft Edge, JAWS and NVDA (screen readers), both for Windows and for MAC users.
Despite our very best efforts to allow anybody to adjust the website to their needs, there may still be pages or sections that are not fully accessible, are in the process of becoming accessible, or are lacking an adequate technological solution to make them accessible. Still, we are continually improving our accessibility, adding, updating and improving its options and features, and developing and adopting new technologies. All this is meant to reach the optimal level of accessibility, following technological advancements. For any assistance, please reach out to webrequests@digitalis.com