Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI)

Announcements

Open position: Web Accessibility Specialist (Europe)
Open position: Web Accessibility Engineer
WAI-ACT Project
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Events, Meetings, Presentations

At AccessU at CSUN in San Diego, CA, USA on 27 February 2012: "Building the Business Case in your Organization" tutorial with Shawn
At CSUN International Technology and Persons with Disabilities Conference in San Diego, CA, USA, around 27 February - 3 March 2012:
- Making New Web Technologies Accessible panel lead by Judy
- Website Evaluation and Testing with WCAG 2 by Shadi
- Lack of Access and Skills Limiting Careers? panel
- Web Accessibility Community Collaboration panel lead by Shawn

Documents in Progress

The WAI Interest Group (WAI IG) page lists documents in progress, such as accessibility guidelines WAI-ARIA 1.0, UAAG 2.0, and ATAG 2.0.

Highlights

More WCAG 2.0 Techniques Published

WAI continues to develop techniques for Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0 and expand guidance on understanding and implementing WCAG 2.0. To learn about WCAG Techniques and about contributing to on-going work on WCAG support material, see the WCAG Techniques Updated - Learn about the informative guidance blog post. (2012-Jan-03)

First Draft of Media Accessibility User Requirements

We invite you to comment on the First Public Working Draft of Media Accessibility User Requirements that describes the accessibility requirements of people with disabilities with respect to audio and video on the Web, particularly in the context of HTML5. See Call for Review: Media Accessibility User Requirements email. Please send comments by 10 February 2012. (2012-Jan-03)

WAI-ACT: Cooperation, Implementation, Evaluation, Research

WAI invites you to participate in the new WAI-ACT Project to help develop:

An expanded framework for open cooperation among individuals and organizations,
Technical guidance on implementing web accessibility,
A harmonized methodology for evaluating website accessibility,
Coordinated contribution to an eAccessibility research agenda.

See WAI-ACT Project: Accessibility Cooperation, Implementation, Evaluation, and Research e-mail and WAI-ACT Project page to learn about this European Commission (EC)-funded project. (2011-Nov-16)

BAD to Good: Demo shows web accessibility barriers fixed

The Before and After Demonstration (BAD) shows an inaccessible website and a retrofitted version of the same website with the accessibility barriers fixed. BAD is especially useful for presentations. See more in the Call for Review: Before and After Demonstration (BAD) e-mail. (2011-Oct-13)

For Review: ATAG 2.0 and Implementing ATAG 2.0 Working Drafts

Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines (ATAG) 2.0 is relevant to you if you use tools to produce web content — tools such as blogs, wikis, social networking websites, content management systems (CMS), HTML editors, or others. ATAG defines how these tools should help you make your blog posts, websites, and other web content accessible — and how the tools themselves should be accessible so that people with disabilities can use them. See:

Please send comments by 15 September 2011. (2011-July-21)

For Review: UAAG 2.0 and Implementing UAAG 2.0 Working Drafts

WAI has published updated Working Drafts of User Agent Accessibility Guidelines (UAAG) 2.0 and Implementing UAAG 2.0. UAAG defines how browsers, media players, and other "user agents" should support accessibility for people with disabilities and work with assistive technologies. Updates in this draft include: organization of the principles, focus behaviour and indication, and requirements for media. See:

Please send comments by 19 August 2011. (2011-July-19)

Eval Task Force: Guidance on evaluating web accessibility

WAI is starting a WCAG 2.0 Evaluation Methodology Task Force to develop more comprehensive guidance on evaluating web accessibility. The Evaluation Task Force will develop an internationally harmonized methodology for evaluating websites' conformance to WCAG 2.0. Learn more about it from the Web Accessibility Evaluation and Testing e-mail. (2011-July-13)

RDWG Update: Research and Development Working Group

W3C WAI's Research and Development Working Group (RDWG) will soon resume work to help identify new trends in web accessibility and inform the development of solutions. See the RDWG Update: Research and Development Working Group e-mail and RDWG home page. (2011-May-20)

For Review: EARL 1.0 Last Call Working Draft

The Last Call Working Draft of Evaluation and Report Language (EARL) 1.0 Schema is ready for your review, along with updated Working Drafts of the EARL Developer Guide and related documents. EARL supports combining test results from different software tools, for example, to compare results from web accessibility evaluation tools. See:

Call for Review: EARL 1.0 Last Call Working Draft e-mail
Evaluation and Report Language (EARL) Overview
How WAI Develops Accessibility Guidelines through the W3C Process: Milestones and Opportunities to Contribute

Please send any comments on this Last Call Working Draft by 10 June 2011. (2011-May-10)

Look around: Updated WAI website navigation

The WAI website navigation is updated, and points to some new drafts in development. We'll be doing more testing and working out some aspects throughout March. We look forward to your input! Please send any feedback to:

wai-eo-editors@w3.org if you want your message publicly archived.
wai@w3.org if you want your message to go only to WAI staff. Please indicate if we may forward it to a public list anonymously, with your name and contact information removed.

(2011-Mar-11)

WAI-ARIA On the Move: Implementation Testing Underway

We are excited to announce that Accessible Rich Internet Applications (WAI-ARIA) 1.0 was published as a W3C Candidate Recommendation on 18 January 2011. The Candidate Recommendation stage means that there is broad consensus on the technical content, and we are gathering WAI-ARIA implementations. Please see additional information in:

If you are interested in sharing implementation experience, please let us know before 25 February 2011. (2011-Jan-18)

Reach your audience: Make your presentations accessible to all

How to Make Presentations Accessible to All helps you make presentations, talks, meetings, and training accessible to all of your potential audience, including people with disabilities and others. WAI would like to know how this resource works for you and how we can improve it. See the blog post: Make Your Presentations Accessible to All. Please send comments by 19 July 2010. (2010-June-16)

Working Together for Better Accessibility

To help and encourage developers and users working together, WAI has updated the following documents:

Contacting Organizations about Inaccessible Websites (primarily for users)
Involving Users in Web Projects for Better, Easier Accessibility (primarily for project managers, designers, developers, editors, and others involved in all types of web projects)
Involving Users in Evaluating Web Accessibility (for those evaluating accessibility)

See Updated Resources Encourage Working Together for Better Accessibility e-mail for more information. (2010-April-22)

See additional highlights in the Highlights Archive.
WAI home page Highlights are edited by Shawn Henry, WAI's Education and Outreach Working Group, and other WAI Team and Working Groups.

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