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Web Content Accessibility Guidelines Working Group (WCAG WG) Charter

This charter is written in accordance with Section 6.2.6 of the 5 February 2004 W3C Process Document.

  1. Mission
  2. Scope
  3. Duration
  4. Deliverables
  5. Milestones
  6. Dependencies
  7. Confidentiality
  8. Meetings
  9. Communication
  10. Voting
  11. Patent Policy
  12. Participation

Information about participation in the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines Working Group is available.

1. Mission

The mission of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines Working Group (WCAG WG) is to develop guidelines to make Web content accessible for people with disabilities. In particular, the WCAG WG will publish the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 as a W3C Recommendation.

This mission is complementary to the work of other Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) groups within the WAI Technical Activity and the WAI International Program Office Activity. The WCAG WG is part of the WAI Technical Activity.

The WCAG WG was first chartered in August 1997 (charter) to produce WCAG 1.0 which became a W3C Recommendation in May 1999. The WCAG WG was rechartered in November 2000 (charter) to continue W3C's work on guidelines for creating accessible Web content.The early history of this group is documented in the "End of Charter Report for the Web Content Guidelines Working Group." The group is being rechartered to allow additional time for development of WCAG 2.0.

2. Scope

The WCAG WG's scope of work includes:

  1. Advance WCAG 2.0 to a W3C Recommendation
  2. Develop techniques for implementing the WCAG 2.0 in W3C Recommendations (such as XHTML, SMIL, SVG, and MathML) as well as ECMAScript
  3. Develop a test suite for WCAG 2.0 in coordination with other WAI Working Groups
  4. Document implementation testing experience of WCAG 2.0

Consistent with W3C Process requirements on Task Forces, the WCAG WG may form task forces composed of WCAG WG participants or join other W3C task forces to carry out assignments when under the chartered scope of WCAG WG. Any such task force must have a work statement (including objectives, communication, participation, and leadership) that has been announced on the WCAG WG mailing list, approved by the WCAG WG, and is available from the WCAG WG home page. WCAG WG task forces should produce requirements documents that outline the scope and expectations for work. Task forces may set up separate teleconferences and hold face-to-face meetings per the W3C process and with the approval of the WCAG WG.

3. Duration

The Working Group is scheduled for 24 months, from 1 January 2005 through 31 December 2006.

In January 2008, the duration of this charter was extended to 30 June 2008 (Member-only link). In November 2008, the duration of this charter was extended to 31 December 2008 (Member-only link). In April 2009, the duration of this charter was extended to 30 June 2009 (Member-only link). In June 2010, the duration of this charter was extended to 9 August 2010 (Member-only link).

4. Deliverables

4.1 Planned deliverables

The WCAG WG will produce the following deliverables:

  1. Requirements for Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0, to be published as a W3C Working Group Note
  2. Requirements for WCAG 2.0 Checklists and Techniques, to be published as a W3C Working Group Note
  3. Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0, to be published as a W3C Recommendation
  4. Techniques for Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0, a package of documents to be published as W3C Working Group Notes. The WCAG WG will produce these documents to demonstrate applicability of WCAG 2.0 to a variety of technologies. The WCAG WG does not expect them to be a comprehensive list of all techniques and anticipates these documents will evolve over time.
  5. Technology-specific checklists, to be published either as a W3C Working Group Note or as a W3C Recommendation
  6. WCAG 2.0 test suite
  7. Documentation of open issues, resolutions, responses to comments, and implementation reports and other artifacts of the W3C Process as described in section 7.2 General Requirements for Advancement of the W3C Process document.
  8. Meeting minutes

4.2 QA Framework

The WCAG WG intends to produce deliverables conforming to the Quality Assurance (QA) Framework developed by W3C's QA Activity.

5. Milestones

All publishing milestones are approximate. (Note: The Techniques documents are being prepared by the Techniques Task Force of the WCAG WG)

6. Dependencies

WCAG WG dependencies with WAI Working Groups and other W3C Groups include:

7. Confidentiality

The WCAG WG is a public Working Group as defined by Section 4.1 of the W3C Process Document. The Working Group maintains a public mailing list at w3c-wai-gl@w3.org.

8. Meetings

9. Communication

9.1 Communication within group

9.2 Communication within W3C

9.3 Communication with public

10. Voting

The primary means of decision-making in the WCAG WG is consensus. This charter is written in accordance with Section 3.4, Votes of the 5 February 2004 W3C Process Document. The Chair decides whether a quorum is present for any Working Group meeting.

11. Patent Policy

This Working Group operates under the 5 February 2004 W3C Patent Policy. To promote the widest adoption of Web standards, W3C seeks to issue Recommendations that can be implemented, according to this policy, on a Royalty-Free basis.

12. Participation

12.1 Member and Invited Expert participation

The WCAG WG welcomes participation from W3C Member Organizations, and also invites experts from disability organizations, accessibility researchers, assistive technology developers, government organizations, and others interested in promoting accessibility of Web content, subject to the W3C Invited Expert policy.

Participants are expected to observe individual participation criteria and maintain Good Standing as defined in the W3C Process Document to ensure effective consensus-building of the WCAG WG. For the WCAG WG, the following commitment is expected to qualify for Good Standing:

12.2 Subscribing to the mailing list or joining the group

Information about participation in the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines Working Group is available.

12.3 W3C Team participation

Last updated by Wendy Chisholm, $Date: 2010/07/07 21:12:43 $

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