This charter is written in accordance with Section 6.2.6 of the 5 February 2004 W3C Process Document.
Information on how to participate in PFWG is available.
The mission of the (Member Confidential) Protocols and Formats Working Group (Member Confidential PFWG) (Public PFWG) is to increase the support for accessibility in Web specifications. This mission flows from the W3C mission of promoting universal access and interoperability across the Web.
Through its relationships with other Working Groups, and with the assistance of the Hypertext and WAI Coordination Groups, the PFWG will work to coordinate plans of action across working groups to improve the level of accessibility support in Web technology as it evolves and is implemented.
Where the approach is novel or not obvious from the charters of the affected groups, the PFWG will work to explain the strategies and their implications for the evolution of best practice.
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 PFWG is part of the WAI Technical Activity.
The PFWG was chartered in December 1997. It was re-chartered in November 2000.
The PFWG's scope of work includes:
PFWG strives to promote accessibility solutions which meet the following criteria:
Consistent with W3C
Process requirements on Task Forces, the PFWG may
form task forces composed of PFWG participants or join other W3C task
forces to carry out assignments when under the
chartered scope of PFWG. Any such task force must have a work statement
(including objectives, communication, participation, and
leadership) that has been announced on the PFWG mailing list, approved
by the PFWG, and is available from the PFWG home page. PFWG 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 PFWG.
This Working Group is scheduled to last for 36 months, from 20 December 2004 through 19 December 2007.
This charter does not include Recommendation-track work, but such
work may be proposed in a modified charter (see 4.2, XAG).
The primary deliverable of PFWG is input to W3C Working Groups on the technologies they are developing. This will include:
The XML Accessibility Guidelines list best practices for creating more accessible XML-based document formats. As this document matures the Working Group will evaluate whether to continue developing this specification as a Working Group Note, or whether to move work to the W3C Recommendation track. If XAG becomes a Recommendation-track document, the PFWG will propose a modified charter for review.
At any time the PFWG may encounter a recurring or ill-understood pattern in the origins of disability barriers or in the successful delivery of disability access. When this happens the group will create a Working Draft discussing the issue and if a clear contribution to Web engineering and accessibility emerges, publish the stable form of the point paper as a Working Group Note.
The Working Draft Inaccessibility of Visually-Oriented Anti-Robot Tests exemplifies this type of output.
Additional topics that may reach Working Draft or Working Group Note status during the duration of this Charter include:
Since the products of the Working Group depend largely on documents produced by others, as well as changes in technology, this charter contains no set milestones.
Access use cases and requirements, and feature/performance relationships affecting usability by people with disabilities are clearly and publicly delineated early in the development cycle for a chartered technology.
Since the mission of PFWG is to detect otherwise unrecognized interactions between technical features of W3C technologies and usability by people with disabilties, it is not possible to enumerate all dependencies in advance.
The accessibility and usability of the Web depends most directly on the protocols and formats that interact most directly with the user. These include formats such as HTML, SVG and SSML, and protocols and algorithms used in presentation adaptation such as content negotiation in HTTP or the cascading algorithm in CSS. These technologies are mostly developed by groups represented in the Hypertext Coordination Group. The PFWG also participates in this group, to maintain awareness of workflow, issues, and to share cross-technology perspectives arising from the broad review of W3C technologies.
The PFWG is also dependent on its fellow groups in the WAI Technical Activity for knowledge of the actual dependencies of functional, usable, and authorable Web experiences on technology factors. This dependency is managed through the regular meetings of the WAI Coordination Group.
Formal relationships outside the W3C are managed by the WAI International Program Office. If an outside group will be best connected with the work of PFWG though a formal relationship, the relationship will be referred to the International Program Office.
On the other hand, PFWG seeks to maintain liaisons with important technical initiatives outside the W3C which:
This is a major source of knowledge as to the true use cases and requirements that should guide technology development. The DAISY/NISO Standard Digital Talking Book, ANSI/NISO Z39.86-2002 and the newly-announced Accessibility activity in the Free Standards Group are examples of this outreach.
The PFWG is a Member-confidential group as defined by Section 4.1 of the W3C Process Document. The Working Group maintains a public mailing list at wai-xtech@w3.org.
The PFWG works primarily by a combination of email and telephone conferences. However face-to-face meetings will be held two to three times a year.
PFWG meets weekly by teleconference.
The PFWG will hold face-to-face meetings
RSVP notices of meetings, instant minutes, and general correspondence concerning the current issues before the group are carried by the archived Member-only mailing list with email address w3c-wai-pf@w3.org.
The group will maintain a list of open issues, and track their progress toward closure. These will be reflected on the Member Confidential PFWG home page and as appropriate as well on the Public Working Group page at <http://www.w3.org/WAI/PF/>.
PFWG will not normally take a Group position on issues within the chartered areas of other groups within the WAI Domain. PFWG will not represent itself as authoritative in interpreting W3C specifications to other WAI Groups but will assist the WAI Groups in obtaining clarification from the W3C Groups that maintain or that originally developed a specification. PFWG will take up and seek Group consensus on issues referred to PFWG for discussion by the WAI CG.
Correspondence of a process planning nature (such as coordinating when issues of joint interest will be on the agenda in what group) flows from Chair to Chair with copies to the affected Team Contacts and if more than two groups are interested the WAI CG.
Communication on behalf of the group to other W3C Groups shall:
PFWG shall maintain a Member Confidential PFWG home page which presents a central point of reference for Advisory Committee Representatives and other Member representatives to find Group information including Participants in Good Standing and IPR Disclosures.
The primary channel for PFWG communication will be through the Notes discussed above in 4 Deliverables above. The development and release of these Notes shall follow the policies in the W3C Process Document effective at the time the work is performed and the procedures established by the W3C Communications Team.
In addition the PFWG shall maintain a Public Working Group page at <http://www.w3.org/WAI/PF/> which presents a central point of reference for members of the public to find Group information including the Charter, published Notes, etc.
PFWG shall not otherwise formally represent W3C or WAI outside the W3C, unless delegated this responsibility from the WAI International Program Office. In the latter case communication will follow whatever protocol is established in the governing memorandum of understanding.
The primary means of decision-making in the PFWG is consensus. This charter is written in accordance with Section 3.4, Votes of the 5 February 2004 W3C Process Document and includes no voting procedures beyond what the Process Document requires.
Participants may appeal Working Group decisions. Decision authority rests with the Director, however appeals should be made first to the WAI Coordination Group (through the CG chair) and then to the W3C team (first the Domain leader and then the Director).
The PFWG provides an opportunity to share perspectives on Web accessibility. W3C reminds PFWG participants of their obligation to comply with patent disclosure obligations as set out in Section 6 of the 5 February 2004 W3C Patent Policy. While the PFWG does not produce Recommendation-track documents, when PFWG participants review Recommendation-track specifications from Working Groups, the patent disclosure obligations do apply.
To be a Participant of the PFWG, an individual must meet all the requirements set out in the Working Group and Interest Group Participation section of the Process Document. In particular, PFWG Participants to remain in Good Standing are expected to:
Information about how to participate in the PFWG is available.
Matthew May spends 35% of his time as Team Contact on PFWG.
The PFWG Chair is Alfred S. Gilman (<Alfred.S.Gilman@IEEE.org>).
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