Authoring Tools Guidelines Working Group Charter (Code Name: WAI-AU)
Purpose:
Compose W3C guidelines, related to Web content authoring tools, which
address the following two goals:
- to make authoring tools accessible to authors with disabilities
- to provide author support for creating accessible Web documents.
WAI-AU Working group tasks
- Create guidelines for making authoring tools accessible to users with
disabilities. Guidelines can be divided into two areas (we intend to concentrate on developing the latter):
- general accessible interface guidelines and
- guidelines specific to HTML or structured document authoring (XML, style sheet)
- Create guidelines, documents and prototype utilities for authoring tools
which provide author support for creating accessible documents.
- Recommendations and guidelines produced by the PF (Protocols &
Formats), GL (Markup Guidelins) and HC (HTML & CSS review) will be
reviewed to determine which guidelines can be supported within the
authoring tool and recommended mechanisms for doing so.
- Guidelines for developing authoring tools which support the creation of
accessible documents will be created. These will include priority levels
and example implementations.
- Example help files will be authored which can be included in authoring
tool help files to instruct authors on the need and mechanisms for creating
accessible Web documents
- Tools for partially automating such processes as linking d-links,
reusing alt-text, creating accessible style sheets, etc. will be prototyped
or specified.
- Provide information and guidance to the WAI Education group related to
educating, negotiating with and lobbying authoring tool developers to adopt
recommendations.
WAI-AU Timeline
Duration: 9 months (Which should put us around Fall 98 for first deliverable)
WAI-AU Communication
A mailing list (w3c-wai-au@w3.org), a web area (www.w3.org/WAI/AU), and
conference calls, will be the normal way of communicating within the group.
Meeting mechanisms and Schedules:
- ongoing discussion via email
- live chat meetings over the web on a weekly basis
- strategically scheduled conference calls
- quarterly face to face meetings appropriately distributed geographically
and exploiting events participants may be attending
Working Group People
We encourage people whose area of competence are HTML, CSS, authoring
tools and accessibility to join this group.
For the work group to accomplish the stated objectives the membership must
include representatives from disability groups, as well as browser, authoring
tool and assistive technology developers. The group must represent the needs
of a wide range of disabilities and computer skill levels of persons with
disabilities.
Jutta Treviranus, from the
Adaptive Technology Resource Centre University of Toronto will be the chair of
this group.
Participation Level
Employees of W3C members and other invited technical experts are
welcome and encouraged to participate in our listserv discussions
(auto-subscription is not available, please contact the chair for
subscription).
If you want to join the WAI-AU working group and participate actively,
please fill out the following form and send it to wai-au-call@w3.org.
========================================
WAI-AU working group participation form
First Name:
Last Name:
Email Address:
Telephone Number:
Employer:
Specific area of interest:
========================================