Web Content Accessibility Guidelines Working Group Charter

The mission of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines Working Group, part of the WAI Technical Activity, is to support the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 W3C Recommendation, which aims to make Web content accessible for people with disabilities. In particular, the WCAG WG will:

Maintain errata for WCAG 2.0;
Maintain Understanding WCAG 2.0 for editorial issues and additional clarifications;
Develop, vet, and refine techniques for WCAG 2.0 Techniques, including new techniques and new technologies;
Coordinate with other Working Groups to support public awareness of WCAG 2.0 and how to use it;
Coordinate with other Working Groups to address dependencies on WCAG 2.0;
Coordinate with other Working Groups to address new accessibility issues from an authoring perspective;
Coordinate with other entities adopting and using WCAG 2.0;
Support the development of accessibility support documentation.

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 provide ongoing support for WCAG 2.0.

Join the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines Working Group.

End date	31 December 2010
Confidentiality	Proceedings are Public. Some communications between editors may be member-confidential.
Initial Chairs	Loretta Guarino Reid, Gregg Vanderheiden
Initial Team Contacts (FTE %: 50)	Michael Cooper
Usual Meeting Schedule	Teleconferences: Weekly Face-to-face: 1-2 per year

Scope

The WCAG WG's scope of work includes:

Maintaining errata for WCAG 2.0;
Expanding techniques for implementing the WCAG 2.0 in W3C and non-W3C technologies;
Developing support materials that explain the application of WCAG 2.0 to particular situations, e.g., cognitive accessibility, accessibility support;
Continuing to work with documentation of accessibility support;
Supporting the public in submitting support materials and techniques;
Respond to public comments on WCAG 2.0.
Collaborating with the ERT WG to expand the set of test samples for WCAG 2.0 techniques;
Creating alternate format versions of WCAG 2.0 to meet particular needs.

Some of this may be achieved by collaborating with others.

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.

Success Criteria

Publication of Understanding WCAG 2.0 and WCAG 2.0 Techniques as updated Working Group Notes.

Out of Scope

Additional normative versions of Web Content Accessibility Guidelines.
Being the central repository for accessibility support data.
Conformance evaluations and reviews.

Deliverables

The following deliverables would be published as W3C Technical Reports:

Understanding WCAG 2.0, to be published as a W3C Working Group Note. Understanding WCAG 2.0 explains the intent of each SC and links to known sufficient techniques, both general and technology-specific.
Techniques for WCAG 2.0 , to be published as a W3C Working Group Note. 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. Techniques will include HTML, CSS, SMIL and other W3C technologies as well as general techniques that apply across technologies.

Other Deliverables

Errata for WCAG 2.0;
How to Meet WCAG 2.0 (Quick Reference);
Meeting minutes.

The WCAG Working Group may also address the following. Some of this may be done in collaboration with others.

Application Notes about particular areas of application of WCAG 2.0, as needed;
Policy and procedures regarding sufficient techniques from third parties;
Alternate versions of WCAG 2.0.

ERT WG needs a deliverable to accommodate output of TSDTF, because WCAG WG doesn't want it as a deliverable.

Milestones

The Working Group is not publishing materials on the Recommendation track, so there are no formal milestones. The Working Group plans to publish updated Working Group Notes of Understanding WCAG 2.0 and WCAG 2.0 Techniques one or more times per year.

Timeline View Summary

2009
- Updated Working Draft for Understanding WCAG 2.0 document(s).
- Updated Working Draft for Techniques documents, including tests.
- Update Understanding WCAG 2.0 / Quick Reference.
2010
- Same as above; priorities for 2010 will be set as needs emerge.

Dependencies

W3C Groups

Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines Working Group: Ensure that WCAG 2.0 reflects correct interpretation and integration with ATAG 1.0 and ATAG 2.0, coordinate on development of test files and test procedures.
User Agent Accessibility Guidelines Working Group: Ensure that WCAG 2.0 reflects correct interpretation and integration with UAAG 1.0, coordinate on development of tests.
Protocols and Formats Working Group: Provide input into other W3C groups on accessibility requirements and to review WCAG 2.0 Techniques.
Evaluation and Repair Tools Working Group: Interpret and coordinate development of techniques for developers of testing methodologies and tools, coordinate on development of test files and test procedures.
Education and Outreach Working Group: Coordinate on making WCAG 2.0 usable by a wider audience, on developing strategies and materials to increase awareness and to educate Web community about WCAG 2.0, ensure WCAG 2.0 uses terms from WAI Glossary properly, Historically, the EOWG has created business case information, evaluation processes, curriculum, quick tips and other resources to clarify the work of the WCAG WG.
WAI Interest Group: Send deliverables for review
WAI Coordination Group: Address questions on dependencies
Internationalization Activity: Ensure that references to internationalization techniques are correct, and to ensure that language can be translated successfully.
Mobile Web Initiative: Explore relationship between Mobile Web best practices and WCAG 2.0, and applicability of WCAG 2.0 to content displayed on mobile devices.

Furthermore, Web Content Accessibility Guidelines Working Group expects to follow these W3C Recommendations:

External Groups

U.S. Access Board
ETSI
CEN
European Commission
RERC for the Advancement of Cognitive Technologies
RERC on Universal Interface and Information Technology Access

Does the WCAG WG coordinate, or just WAI? WCAG WG is ok for any of these to be move to WAI level.

Participation

To be successful, the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines Working Group is expected to have 10 or more active participants. Effective participation to Web Content Accessibility Guidelines Working Group is expected to consume 4 to 8 hours per week most weeks for each participant. Editors may contribute more time.

Participants are reminded of the Good Standing requirements of the W3C Process.

Communication

This group conducts its work on the publicly archived mailing list w3c-wai-gl@w3.org (archive). The Working Group relies heavily on Web-Based Surveys to collect opinions prior to meetings, and makes official decisions at weekly teleconferences. As inputs to Working Group deliberations these materials are often visible only to members of the Working Group. Chairs and editors may conduct planning discussions in private.

Information about the group (deliverables, participants, face-to-face meetings, teleconferences, etc.) is available from the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines Working Group home page.

Decision Policy

As explained in the Process Document (section 3.3), this group will seek to make decisions when there is consensus. When the Chair puts a question and observes dissent, after due consideration of different opinions, the Chair should record a decision (possibly after a formal vote) and any objections, and move on.

When deciding a substantive technical issue, the Chair may put a question before the group. The Chair must only do so during a group meeting, and at least two-thirds of participants in Good Standing must be in attendance. When the Chair conducts a formal vote to reach a decision on a substantive technical issue, eligible voters may vote on a proposal one of three ways: for a proposal, against a proposal, or abstain. For the proposal to pass there must be more votes for the proposal than against. In case of a tie, the Chair will decide the outcome of the proposal.

This charter is written in accordance with Section 3.4, Votes of the W3C Process Document and includes no voting procedures beyond what the Process Document requires. The Chair decides whether a quorum is present for any Working Group meeting.

Patent Policy

This Working Group operates under the W3C Patent Policy (5 February 2004 Version). 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. @@Check if we still have a patent policy statement since we don't have Rec-track

For more information about disclosure obligations for this group, please see the W3C Patent Policy Implementation.

About this Charter

This charter for the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines Working Group has been created according to section 6.2 of the Process Document. In the event of a conflict between this document or the provisions of any charter and the W3C Process, the W3C Process shall take precedence.

Please also see the previous charter for this group.

Gregg Vanderheiden, Co-chair
Loretta Guarino Reid, Co-chair
Michael Cooper, Team Contact

$Date: 2009/02/05 22:25:08 $