Part innovation lab. Part think tank. Through an action-oriented approach, Ruminate combines the science of quantitative data and measurable impact with the qualitative wisdom of the food community and lived experiences. We break down tough problems to find effective solutions through in-person engagements, social innovation, and digital interactions.

Building connections between producers and plates

Our Ripe for Discussion sessions offer a chance to join other food leaders to discuss, debate, and ideate how to increase distribution and access to good food in local communities. Our second session took place in Santa Fe. Together, we diagnose the barriers to expanding access to value-focused, local food in restaurants, schools, and grocery and brainstorm solutions to these obstacles. They give a chance to leave with renewed and new networks and concepts that we will move forward together.

It goes a bit like this…

Our Ripe for Discussion series consists of micro-think tanks where everyday leaders roll their sleeves up and build change we can start making tomorrow through discussions and design-thinking inspired brainstorming sessions.

• First, we start with a contextual framework—an introduction of empirical data and evidence-based context for the session.

• Next, we hear from community and subject matter experts, learning from their lived and worked experience and expertise.

• Finally, we break out into groups and concept inventive solutions—participants bring their own knowledge and synthesize the content of the session.

• Afterward, attendees head home with new insights and Ruminate digs in deeper—the work products are made publicly available and the innovation process continues.

Read more about our Santa Fe session

“The solutions we are going for are social innovations—programs and
projects and even digital solutions such as apps that help connect farmers and consumers,” says Sascha Anderson, Ruminate’s education director. “We try to be agile in figuring out solutions, and with these workshops we hope the working groups can identify an idea to move forward with that we can help support.”

Zibby Wilder, a writer specializing in food, wine, travel/tourism, personalities and histories of place, wrote about our session for the Santa Fe Reporter. Check her article to read more about about what we did:

Farming a Movement

Part innovation lab. Part think tank. Through an action-oriented approach, Ruminate combines the science of quantitative data and measurable impact with the qualitative wisdom of the food community and lived experiences. We break down tough problems to find effective solutions through in-person engagements, social innovation, and digital interactions.

Building connections between producers and plates

Our Ripe for Discussion sessions offer a chance to join other food leaders to discuss, debate, and ideate how to increase distribution and access to good food in local communities. Our inaugural session took place in Western Michigan. Together, we diagnose the barriers to expanding access to value-focused, local food in restaurants, schools, and grocery and brainstorm solutions to these obstacles. They give a chance to leave with renewed and new networks and concepts that we will move forward together.

It goes a bit like this…

Our Ripe for Discussion series consists of micro-think tanks where everyday leaders roll their sleeves up and build change we can start making tomorrow through discussions and design-thinking inspired brainstorming sessions.

• First, we start with a contextual framework—an introduction of empirical data and evidence-based context for the session.

• Next, we hear from community and subject matter experts, learning from their lived and worked experience and expertise.

• Finally, we break out into groups and concept inventive solutions—participants bring their own knowledge and synthesize the content of the session.

• Afterward, attendees head home with new insights and Ruminate digs in deeper—the work products are made publicly available and the innovation process continues.

Learn more about our Grand Rapids session

“The unique part of what we’re doing at Ruminate with Ripe for Discussion is that we’re co-creating with food communities to concept solutions that are built off of all of our expertise and lived experience, not just how that experience is viewed through the lens of the researcher,” she says. Their main goal of the nonprofit is to start and facilitate conversations among local food leaders in organized settings that eventually lead to tangible solutions and changed minds.”

Lauren Fay Carlson of Rapid Growth covered our first session. Check her article to read more about about what we did:

New nonprofit Ruminate gathers food leaders around the table

Accessibility Resources

Use the links listed on this page to learn more about accessibility, government regulations concerning it, access checklists to use while creating apps, and find tools and other resources to help you meet compliance.

This list is by no ways exhaustive, and there are plenty of other tools and resources you can use to learn more about this topics and to build your products inclusively to meet accessibility regulations.

Introduction to Accessibility and Inclusive Design

• Designing for accessibility is not that hard, UX Collective
  Seven easy-to-implement guidelines to design a more accessible web

•  What is Accessibility? Penn State
  Some regulatory information is outdated, but overall a good summary on the topic

•  Designing For Accessibility And Inclusion, Smashing Magazine
  A closer look at the different lenses of accessibility through which you can refine your designs

•  Introduction to Web Accessibility, W3C
  Overview of the topic from the group that maintains WCAG and ATAG

• The A11Y Project
  Resources and explanation geared towards developers

• WebAIM Intro to Web Accessibility Standards
  Course to introduce you to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines

Government Regulation Information

• USA: Section 508

•  USA: ADA

•  UK: GOV.UK Digital Marketplace

• EU: EN 301 549

Accessibility Checklists

• WUHCAG Checklist
  Divided by compliance and includes how to meet criteria, exceptions, and tips in easy-to-understand language

• WebAIM WCAG 2 Checklist
  Contains WebAIM’s interpretation of WCAG guidelines and success criteria and our own recommended techniques for satisfying those success criteria

• W3C Checklist
  Lists all of the success criteria from WCAG 2.0 in a checkable list. The level of each success criterion is provided as well as a link to WCAG 2.0 for more information for each success criterion

• W3C: How to Meet WCAG 2 Quick Reference
  A customizable quick reference to Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2 requirements (success criteria) and techniques

Testing Tools

• For Text and Color Ratios: Accessible Colors

•  For Text and Color Ratios: WebAIM Color Contrast Checker
  Shows ratios and acceptance for AA and AAA levels

• Overall Evaluation: WAVE Web Accessibility Tool
  Javascript Required. WAVE 5.0 requires a modern web browser with Javascript enabled. If you are using noscript or other javascript blocking software, please add wave.webaim.org to your script whitelist.

• Overall Evaluation:AATT (Automated Accessibility Testing Tool)
  AATT (Automated Accessibility Testing Tool) is a product offered by PayPal. This platform provides an accessibility API as well as other custom web applications for HTML CodeSniffer. Version 1.0.0 was released in April 2015.

• Overall Evaluation: Axe Chrome Plugin
  Axe Chrome Plugin by Deque Systems is a program that evaluates the web accessibility of sites and applications from within the Chrome developer tools, specifically. The plugin assists by generating reports of web accessibility evaluation results and automatically checks single pages, password protected or restricted pages included.

• Overall Evaluation: Accessibility Viewer
  Accessibility Viewer is provided through The Paciello Group. Also known as aViewer, it is a Windows’ inspection tool that displays accessibility API information exposed by web browsers to the operating system. The accessibility information includes IAccessible2, MSAA, UI Automation, HTML DOM, and ARIA. AViewer was released in April 2015, and it covers the guidelines WCAG 2.0 – W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0, Section 508, and U.S. federal procurement standards.

• Overall Evaluation: DYNO Mapper
  DYNO Mapper is a sitemap generator that checks the web accessibility of websites and online applications. DYNO Mapper also includes content inventory and audit, as well as daily keyword tracking. Results are displayed within visual sitemaps to allow for easy and efficient project discovery and planning.

Other Resources

• Intro to Color Accessibility & Best Practices

•  ARIA Screen-Reader Specific Guidelines

•  Microsoft Inclusive Design