W3C

The Accessible Platform Architectures Working Group has published a First Public Working Draft of XR Accessibility User Requirements. This document lists user needs and requirements for people with disabilities when using virtual reality or immersive environments, augmented or mixed reality and other related technologies (XR). This document is most explicitly not a collection of baseline requirements. It is also important to note that some of the requirements may be implemented at a system or platform level, and some may be authoring requirements.

The CSS Working Group has published two First Public Working Drafts today:

• Resize Observer: This specification describes an API for observing changes to Element’s size.
• CSS Scroll Anchoring Module Level 1: Changes in DOM elements above the visible region of a scrolling box can result in the page moving while the user is in the middle of consuming the content. This spec proposes a mechanism to mitigate this jarring user experience by keeping track of the position of an anchor node and adjusting the scroll offset accordingly.

CSS is a language for describing the rendering of structured documents (such as HTML and XML) on screen, on paper, etc.

The Distributed Tracing Working Group has published Trace Context as a W3C Recommendation. This specification defines standard HTTP headers and a value format to propagate context information that enables distributed tracing scenarios. The specification standardizes how context information is sent and modified between services. Context information uniquely identifies individual requests in a distributed system and also defines a means to add and propagate provider-specific context information.

The W3C Dataset Exchange Working Group has published Data Catalog Vocabulary (DCAT) – Version 2 as a W3C Recommendation. DCAT defines an RDF vocabulary designed to facilitate interoperability between data catalogs published on the Web. The specification defines the schema and provides examples for its use. Version 2 extends the original DCAT standard in line with community practice while supporting diverse approaches to data description and dataset exchange.

The Media Working Group has published First Public Working Drafts of three specifications that enhance media user experiences on the Web:

• Media Capabilities defines APIs to allow websites to make an optimal decision for decoding, encoding, and rendering when picking media content for the user.
• Picture-in-Picture allows websites to create a floating video window always on top of other windows so that users may continue consuming media while they interact with other content sites or applications on their device.
• The Media Session Standard enables web developers to show customized media metadata on platform UI, customize available platform media controls, and access platform media keys such as hardware keys found on keyboards, headsets, remote controls, and software keys found in notification areas and on lock screens of mobile devices.

2020-02-13 Update: Given the current challenges and restrictions around international travel, the Program Committee has made the decision to postpone the workshop to a later date.

W3C announced today a Workshop on Web & Machine Learning, 24-25 March 2020, in Berlin, Germany. The event is hosted by Microsoft.

The primary goal of the workshop is to bring together providers of Machine Learning tools and frameworks with Web platform practitioners to enrich the Open Web Platform with better foundations for machine learning.

The secondary goals of the workshop are as follows:

• Understand how machine learning fits into the Web technology stack,
• Understand how browser-based machine learning fits into the machine learning ecosystem,
• Explore the impact of machine learning technologies on Web browsers and Web applications,
• Evaluate the opportunities for standardization around machine learning APIs and formats.

Expected topics of discussion include:

• Dedicated machine learning APIs for browsers as explored by the Machine Learning for the Web Community Group
• Integration of browser-provided data sources in machine learning workflows
• Layering and interoperability of machine learning APIs with other computing APIs (e.g. WebGPU, WebAssembly)
• Domain-specific machine learning APIs
• Interchange format for machine learning models on the Web
• Client- and cloud-based machine learning interactions
• On-device machine learning training in browsers
• Risks and benefits of browser-based machine learning on privacy, security, accessibility
• Using machine learning primitives to help improve accessibility of Web pages and applications
• Machine learning frameworks for the Web
• Machine learning hardware accelerators

Attendance is free for all invited participants and is open to the public, whether or not W3C members. For more information on the workshop, please see the workshop details and submission instructions.

Registration is available online due by 21 February 2020.