Diversity

As part of our commitment and continued focus on diversity and inclusion, since 2018 we annually report on gender and geographic diversity at W3C.

The need for greater diversity

There is increasing awareness of the need for greater diversity in the tech field. We would like W3C to be a model of supporting diversity and inclusion. As an international organization, we can see the immense value we gain from having greater gender diversity, and expertise from across multiple countries and cultures. The diversity of the whole world needs to be reflected, as 60% of the world is now online and as more people continue to access and use the Web that we develop the standards of, here together at the Web Consortium.

We believe that more diversity means better representation, which leads to better and more inclusive design. Indeed, more background, more use cases, more edge cases, lead to a better Web. More diversity also brings higher quality results. 

Diversity of W3C's governance bodies

Because we do not collect participants’ data, to preserve privacy, it is difficult to gather data for different characterizations of diversity.

We are able to focus on gender and geography for several of our governance bodies: 

Annual reports

Diversity efforts at W3C

TPAC Inclusion Fund

Spurred by a W3C Member in 2018 during a semiyearly meeting of the W3C Member representatives, the TPAC Inclusion Fund, sponsored by W3C Members and individuals, aims to financially help people from a group that is under-represented in the web community, who are unable to attend TPAC (the annual W3C conference) without financial help, and who want to attend or contribute to TPAC in a meaningful way, for example through covering meeting travel costs, assistive technology or caring support.

  • TPAC 2018 sponsors Samsung Electronics, Consensys, Microsoft and The Paciello Group were able to financially help 2 of our attendees.
  • TPAC 2019 sponsors Siteimprove, The Paciello Group, Microsoft, Samsung Electronics, TetraLogical,  Dyno Mapper, Adobe, Coil, Marcos Cacéres, chaals, Google were able to financially help 7 of our attendees.
  • TPAC 2020 sponsors W3C, Adobe, Samsung Electronics, Coil, chaals, Microsoft, TetraLogical, Siteimprove, and an anonymous donor were able to financially help 8 of our attendees.
  • TPAC 2021 sponsors W3C, Coil, Microsoft, Siteimprove, Igalia, and an anonymous donor were able to financially help 2 of our attendees.
  • TPAC 2022 sponsors W3C, Igalia, and an anonymous donor were able to financially help 3 of our attendees.
  • TPAC 2023 sponsors W3C, Tetralogical, Igalia, University of Illinois Chicago, and an anonymous donor were able to financially help 3 of our attendees.

Member nominations

Since 2021, recognizing the unique position W3C Members are in and the role of champion they play to drive greater diversity, when nominating individuals from their organizations to participate in W3C work groups, and as candidates in elections for the W3C Advisory Board, Technical Architecture Group and Board of Directors, we include specific guidance:

"Please consider diversity when proposing people to participate in W3C groups. Representation from a wider group of people, especially people from under-represented groups, is vital for creating web standards that meet the needs of the wider web community."

Page maintained by Coralie Mercier, Head of W3C Communications.

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