Translations

Announcements

• Open position: Web Accessibility Engineer (China)
• Get WAI Announcements

Events, Meetings, Presentations

• At TechAccessOK Conference in Oklahoma, USA on 17 October 2017: presentation byShawn
• At W3C TPAC in California, USA in November 2017: several Groups will meet face-to-face

[WAI Presentations]
[Past WAI Events]

Highlights

Wide review draft of WCAG 2.1

A new Working Draft of Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.1 has been published. This draft has all the new Success Criteria that the Working Group plans to add to WCAG 2.1. After this publication, the Working Group will work to optimize the structure of the WCAG 2.1 requirements. To support this work, the Working Group requests wide review of this draft as soon as possible or by 10 October 2017. The Working Group plans to publish another Working Draft in November that incorporates the above work plus addresses remaining public comments received on this and earlier drafts. (2017-Sept-12)

For Review: ACT Rules Format 1.0 Working Draft

An updated Working Draft of Accessibility Conformance Testing (ACT) Rules Format is available for review. This draft addresses all comments received on the previous draft, and is accompanied by fully- and semi-automated sample ACT Rules that implement this rules format. Please submit any comments, especially comments related to implementation experience, as soon as possible, before 10 October 2017. (2017-Sept-12)

Updated: Web Accessibility Laws and Policies Listing

The Web Accessibility Laws and Policies list has been updated and now includes an overview table with filters and sortable columns. Additional information is available in the Web Accessibility Laws and Policies Listing Updated e-mail. (2017-June-07)

Digital Publishing Accessibility API Mappings 1.0 is a Candidate Recommendation

Digital Publishing Accessibility API Mappings (DPub-AAM) 1.0 has been published as a Candidate Recommendation and is now undergoing implementation finalization and testing. DPub-AAM describes how roles in the Digital Publishing WAI-ARIA Module 1.0 should be exposed to accessibility APIs. Implementation of this specification makes it possible for assistive technologies to provide enhanced navigation among landmarks unique to digitally-published documents, and to identify document-specific features which should be presented to the user, such as crossing a page boundary. These mappings will also be used in part for verifying implementation success of Digital Publishing WAI-ARIA Module 1.0 which is already a Candidate Recommendation. The draft implementation report shows the progress of testing. Please send implementation information or comments by 7 July 2017. (2017-June-06)

Personalization Semantics 1.0 First Public Working Draft

Personalization Semantics 1.0 has been published as a First Public Working Draft. Personalization involves tailoring aspects of the user experience to meet the needs and prefences of the user. The introduction of standardized semantics allows web applications to customize the exposure of that content to one that is familiar to individuals based on their needs and preferences. This specification was initially developed in a task force to provide technology features needed to meet needs of users with cognitive or learning disabilities, but is intended to support a wide variety of personalization use cases. Please comment by filing GitHub issues in the personalization semantics repository or, if this is not feasible, by email to public-aria@w3.org, by 30 June 2017. Read about the Accessible Rich Internet Applications Working Group and the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI). (2017-June-06)

Updated: Tutorials on Web Accessibility

Web Accessibility Tutorials on Menus, Page Structure, Forms, Images, Tables, and Carousels have been updated. These tutorials show you how to create web content that is accessible to people with disabilities and that improves the user experience for all users. They include general guidance, and specific examples for HTML5 and WAI-ARIA.  (2017-Apr-18)

WCAG 2.1 Working Draft - April 2017

Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 Working Draft is updated. This draft includes only the success criteria that have been formally accepted by the Working Group, and not the "proposed" success criteria that were in the previous draft. The Working Group has not addressed all comments yet; they are in queue for upcoming work. We plan to publish updated drafts monthly, to encourage timely review of the success criteria that the Working Group has approved. More information is in the WCAG 2.1 April 2017 announcement and WCAG 2.1 status. Please comment by 9 May 2017. (2017-Apr-19)

Accessibility Conformance Testing (ACT) Rules Format 1.0 First Public Working Draft

Accessibility Conformance Testing (ACT) Rules Format 1.0 has been published as a First Public Working Draft. It specifies a common format for accessibility test rules, and how to write test procedures for quality assurance. It facilitates harmonization of automated, semi-automated, and manual accessibility testing approaches, and helps organizations to better document and share their testing methods. Please comment by 5 May 2017. More information is in the blog post WCAG Accessibility Conformance Testing (ACT); Read about the Accessibility Guidelines Working Group and the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) (2017-Apr-06)

Updated: Easy Checks - A First Review of Web Accessibility

WAI's Education and Outreach Working Group (EOWG) has updated Easy Checks - A First Review of Web Accessibility. This resource helps you start to assess the accessibility of a web page. With these simple steps, you can get an idea whether or not accessibility is addressed in even the most basic way. These checks cover just a few accessibility issues and are designed to be quick and easy, rather than definitive. This update includes a new check on Moving, Flashing, or Blinking Content and instructions for the Web Developer Toolbar for multiple browsers. (2016-Dec-16)

Updated Resources: Planning and Managing Web Accessibility

WAI's Education and Outreach Working Group (EOWG) has updated these three resources:

• Web Accessibility First Aid: Approaches for Interim Repairs is intended to help with the situation: "I need to make my website accessible and I don't even know where to start!" It provides guidance on addressing short-term accessibility fixes.
• Developing Organizational Policies on Web Accessibility helps you develop a simple or comprehensive web accessibility policy for an organization.
• Planning and Managing Web Accessibility helps you integrate accessibility throughout the web production process. It applies to individual projects and at the organizational level.

(2016-Dec-15)

Video Pages Updated: Perspectives on Web Accessibility — Essential for Some, Useful for All

Web Accessibility Perspectives explores the impact of accessibility for people with disabilities and the benefits for everyone. This resource introduces 10 web accessibility topics with short videos, brief descriptions, and links to learn more. The videos relate the benefits of accessibility to everyone in different situations, and encourage viewers to learn more about web accessibility.

For links to playlists, request for specific feedback, and more information, see the Updated Video Pages e-mail. (2016-09-20)

User Agent Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 and UAAG 2.0 Reference published as Working Group Notes

The User Agent Accessibility Guidelines Working Group (UAWG) has published User Agent Accessibility Guidelines (UAAG 2.0) and UAAG 2.0 Reference as W3C Working Group Notes. UAAG 2.0 defines how browsers, media players, and other “user agents” should support accessibility for people with disabilities and work with assistive technologies. Although W3C does not currently have plans to advance UAAG 2.0 to Recommendation, the need and opportunity to improve accessibility in user agents still exists. We hope that this work will be continued in future combined Guidelines group. UAAG 2.0 provides specific accessibility guidance for user agent developers who want to build a better user experience for all users. See the UAAG Published as Notes e-mail for additional info. (2015-Dec-15)

Media Accessibility User Requirements Working Group Note

Media Accessibility User Requirements has been published as a Working Group Note. For information on this publication, see the MAUR Note announcement e-mail and MAUR Note blog post. (2015-Dec-03)

Tips for Getting Started with Web Accessibility

Tips for Getting Started with Web Accessibility are designed to meet the needs of web developers, designers, writers, and others who want practical starting points for implementing web accessibility and WCAG 2.0 in their work. Three Tips pages are available now:

• Tips on Designing for Web Accessibility - Tips for user interface and visual design
• Tips on Writing for Web Accessibility - Tips for writing and presenting content
• Tips on Developing for Web Accessibility - Tips for markup and coding

We welcome your input on improving these pages. Near the bottom of each page are links to GitHub and e-mail for comments. (2015-Oct-01)

ATAG 2.0 is a W3C Recommendation

The Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines (ATAG) 2.0 was published today as a completed web standard. ATAG provides guidelines for designing web content authoring tools that are both more accessible to authors with disabilities (Part A) and designed to enable, support, and promote the production of more accessible web content by all authors (Part B). Selecting authoring tools that conform to ATAG 2.0 can facilitate the process of creating accessible Web content, and can also remove barriers to content creation by people with disabilities. Implementing ATAG 2.0 has been published as a Working Group Note to provide additional explanation, examples and resources for the ATAG 2.0 success criteria. (2015-Sept-24)