WAI Research and Development Symposia
Introduction
WAI Research and Development symposia bring together researchers, practitioners, and users with disabilities interested in a particular aspect of web accessibility to advance research and development in that area.
The online symposia typically include a panel with the authors of accepted papers, and provide an opportunity for participants to ask questions.
Symposia proceedings, transcript, and a report are available publicly online afterward (listed below).
To get notification of future symposia and publications, see Getting WAI Announcements.
Past and Upcoming Symposia
- User Modeling for Accessibility - User Modeling Symposium information

- July 2013 symposium to explore user modeling approaches for generating and adapting user interfaces to address particular user needs and preferences. The goal is to analyze different methods and implementations of user modeling and their potential usage for improving accessibility for people with disabilities.
- Easy-to-Read on the Web - Easy-to-Read Symposium Proceedings
(Easy-to-Read Research Report expected 2013) - December 2012 symposium to explore how to make information on the Web easier to understand, particularly by people with cognitive disabilities and people with low language skills. It explores user needs and the state of the art in research, development, and practice to contribute to a common understanding of easy-to-read on the Web.
- Text Customization for Readability - Text Symposium Proceedings
, (Text Customization Research Report expected 2013) - November 2012 symposium to explore the needs of people with low vision, dyslexia, and other conditions that impact reading. It focuses specifically on text customization requirements and functionality, that is, providing users the ability to change (or personalize) various aspects of text display to improve readability for their particular needs.
- Mobile Accessibility - Mobile Proceedings
, (Mobile Research Report expected 2013) - June 2012 symposium to explore mobile accessibility challenges and solutions, and to develop a roadmap for future research and development.
- Website Accessibility Metrics - Metrics Research Report
, Metrics Proceedings 
- December 2011 symposium to scope the extent and magnitude of existing website accessibility metrics, and to develop a roadmap for future research and development in the field.
- Making Collaboration Technologies Accessible - Collaboration Proceedings
- April 2003 symposium on making collaboration technologies accessible to people with disabilities.
About RDWG
The symposia are organized by the W3C Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) Research and Development Working Group (RDWG).
RDWG helps:
- increase accessibility considerations in research on web technologies, including mainstream research
- suggest research questions that may contribute to web accessibility research projects
- inform development of web accessibility solutions
- decrease potential barriers in future web-related technologies
For more information, see the RDWG FAQ.
To submit ideas for future RWDG work, send e-mail to the publicly-archived mailing list: public-wai-rd@w3.org