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WAI: Strategies, guidelines, resources to make the Web accessible to people with disabilities

[Draft] Notes on EOWG participation & WAI Editing

Note: This page has informal notes only. It is not an approved formal document.

First, please read:

WAI documents are developed through consensus of Working Groups. The later stages of technical reports are described in How WAI Develops Accessibility Guidelines through the W3C Process: Milestones and Opportunities to Contribute. Most EOWG documents are "WAI Resources".

Options for participating in EOWG

Basically, there are two options for participating in EOWG:

  1. Comment via e-mail on documents that you are interested in. You can watch the EOWG mailing list for draft documents that are ready for review and comment. <Subscribing to the EOWG mailing list> You can comment on documents in development; however, it is usually best to wait to comment until there is a stable draft, which will be announced on the EOWG list with "Ready for Review" or "Call for Review".
  2. Be an active participant, which means spending about 4 hours per week reviewing drafts and participating in the teleconference. Read the Becoming a Participant in Good Standing section for other requirements. EOWG meets by teleconference Fridays 8:30am - 10:30am Eastern Time (EST/EDT).

After reading through the information on this page, if you would like to learn more about participating in WAI, contact Shawn at +1-617-395-7664 or shawn@w3.org

How EOWG develops material

Basically, the process is usually like this:

  1. One person is the primary editor of a document (web page, slide show, etc.).
  2. Editor starts by drafting an analysis/requirements doc that covers things like goals, objectives, purpose, audience, key messages; e.g., Analysis and Changelog for Web Accessibility - Usability Document
  3. EOWG discusses the analysis in a teleconference.
  4. Editor makes changes.
  5. Editor drafts a rough conceptual draft of what the document would include.
  6. EOWG discusses the draft in a teleconference.
  7. Editor makes changes. EOWG discusses it. Editor makes changes. EOWG discusses it. etc. This often takes several weeks or months.
  8. When document is nearing completion we often send a Ready for Review e-mail (e.g., ready for review e-mail) to the EOWG mailing list encouraging a bit broader review, as there are more people on the EOWG list that don't participate in the teleconferences. (Note that we are not announcing it publicly at this stage.)
  9. EOWG discusses any comments.
  10. When the content is complete, we send a Call for Review e-mail (e.g., call for review e-mail) to the EOWG mailing list. All active participants approve publication. (Active participants are called "Participants in Good Standing".) Sometimes there are additional comments that EOWG discusses.
  11. After EOWG and WAI staff agree it's done, we publish it and announce it. (At this point we welcome people to spread the WAI announcement through twitter, blogs, etc.)

Notes:

For Potential Volunteer W3C WAI Editors

WAI is looking for skilled technical editors to help with accessibility technical specifications and support material on a volunteer basis. Depending on the Group and the document, editors' tasks range from taking general guidance from the Group and drafting initial wording for the Group to discuss, to copyediting existing drafts. "While the Working Groups at large are responsible for building consensus on the technical decisions, the editors have the heavy responsibility of transforming these decisions into actual specifications." (from W3C guidance on editing)

WAI editors need to be:

Document editors may be acknowledge in the footer, top matter, acknowledgments section, or other places based on the document.

If you might be interested in volunteering, please:

  1. Skim through the WAI home page and some of the resources linked from there
  2. Briefly skim any resources that interest you linked from About W3C
  3. Read carefully through Participating in WAI

After reading through this information, if you would like to learn more about editing opportunities with WAI, contact Shawn at +1-617-395-7664 or shawn@w3.org

Q&A / Orientation Session

[contact Shawn to schedule another one]

We use the Zakim Teleconference Bridge, IRC, and Zakim IRC "bot".

More Notes

Teleconferences: