Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI)
Announcements
- Open position: Web Accessibility Specialist (Europe)
- Open position: Web Accessibility Engineer
- WAI-ACT Project
- Get WAI Announcements
Events, Meetings, Presentations
- EOWG Face-to-Face Meeting 25-26 February in San Diego, CA, USA.
- At CSUN Conference in San Diego, CA, USA, on 27-28 February:
- "Training Resource Suite for Web Accessibility" (Wed 8:00am) presentation with Shawn
- "Open Web Platform: Mobile Accessible HTML5" (Wed 9:20am) presentation by Judy
- "Web Accessibility 2013 – A W3C WAI Tour" (Wed 3:10pm) presentation by Shawn
- "Managing Website Accessibility Conformance" (Thur 10:40am) presentation by Shadi
[WAI
Presentations]
[Past WAI Events]
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
For Review: IndieUI Events for Mobile and More
IndieUI defines a way for different user interactions to be translated into simple events and communicated to web applications. (For example, if a user wants to scroll down a page, they might use their finger on a touch screen, or click a scroll bar with a mouse, or use a scroll wheel, or say "scroll down" with a voice command. With IndieUI, these are all sent to the web app as simply: scroll down.)
IndieUI will make it easier for web applications to work in a wide range of contexts — different devices (such as mobile phones and tablets), different assistive technologies (AT), different user needs. With IndieUI, web application developers will have a uniform way to design applications that work for multiple devices and contexts.
We published the First Public Working Draft of IndieUI: Events today. See:
- IndieUI Overview for a short introduction
- IndieUI: Events expands user interface interactions blog post (also invites participation)
- IndieUI: Events 1.0 - Events for User Interface Independence - technical specification
- Mobile Accessibility to learn about related work
Please send comments on this Draft by 22 February 2013. (2013-Jan-22)
Guidance on Applying WCAG 2.0 to Non-Web ICT: Updated Draft Published
An updated Working Draft of Guidance on Applying WCAG 2.0 to Non-Web Information and Communications Technologies (WCAG2ICT) is now available for review. Please see important information in the Call for Review: Guidance on Applying WCAG 2.0 to Non-Web ICT e-mail. Comments are welcome through 15 February 2013. (2012-Dec-13)
Role Attribute is a Proposed Recommendation
Role Attribute 1.0 is published as a Proposed Recommendation. The next stage is final publication, as explained in How WAI Develops Accessibility Guidelines through the W3C Process. Role Attribute allows authors to add semantic information to documents, which is a requirement of WAI-ARIA. For additional information, see the Role Attribute 1.0 is a Propose Recommendation e-mail. (2012-Dec-13)
WCAG 2.0 is ISO/IEC 40500
Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0 is now also an ISO/IEC International Standard, ISO/IEC 40500:2012. ISO/IEC 40500 is exactly the same as the original WCAG 2.0 standard from the W3C Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI). It remains freely available along with supporting resources from the WCAG Overview. Read the full press release and comment on the blog post. (2012-Oct-15)
Mobile Accessibility: Resources Updated
See the Mobile Accessibility Resources e-mail for links to updated information on how mobile web accessibility is addressed in existing W3C standards/guidelines, and how the overlap between mobile web design/development and accessibility strengthens the business case. (2012-Sept-10)
Indie UI: New Independent User Interface Working Group
Today W3C WAI launched the new Independent User Interface (Indie UI) Working Group to develop a way for user actions to be communicated to web applications. This will make it easier for web applications to work with a wide range of devices, including assistive technologies (AT). To learn more, see the Indie UI e-mail. (2012-May-22)
Share the news: How to Make Your Presentations Accessible to All is updated
How to Make Presentations Accessible to All helps you make presentations, meetings, conferences, etc. accessible to all of your potential audience, including people with disabilities and others. We welcome your help telling others about this resource. See more in the blog post: Make Your Presentations Accessible to All updated - share the news. (2012-Feb-20)
BAD to Good Updated: 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 BAD accessibility demo updated - share the news e-mail. (2012-Jan-31)
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)
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.
Sponsors
WAI is supported in part by:
- IBM Corporation
- Hewlett Packard Development Company
- European Commission Information Society Technologies Programme, project IST 287725 (WAI-ACT)
- US Department of Education, National Institute for Disability and Rehabilitation Research, contract ED-OSE-10-C-0067