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Revised Charter: Web Content Guidelines Working Group

(GL WG)

Previously known as "WAI Markup Guidelines Working Group" and "WAI Page Author Guidelines Working Group"

  1. Mission statement
  2. Scope
  3. Duration of work items
  4. Deliverables to be produced
  5. Dependencies of this group on other groups
  6. Dependencies of other groups on this
  7. Intended degree of Confidentiality
  8. Relation to other groups
  9. Milestones for work items & deliverables
  10. Meeting mechanisms & schedules
  11. Communication mechanisms
  12. Level of involvement of Team
  13. Estimate of time commitment a group member would have to make in order to participate.

1. Mission statement

This revised charter extends the duration of the Web Content Guidelines Working Group (GL WG) to allow it to complete the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines and to do initial post-Recommendation analysis of implementation issues and appropriate next steps in this area. The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines focus on HTML, CSS, and XML, and provide guidance to Web content developers on how to make Web sites accessible to users with disabilities. This Working Group was originally chartered and a Call for Participation issued in October, 1997, and the group is within the duration, scope and resources of the WAI Activity Proposal and announcement. The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines Working Draft completed Last Call on March 19, 1999.

2. Scope

2.1 Scope of work items:

2.2 Criteria for success:

3. Duration of work items

The expected duration of the renewed Web Content Guidelines Working Group is eight months, through November 30, 1999.

4. Deliverables to be produced

  1. Web Content Accessibility Guidelines: A set of guidelines that clearly outlines the major principles for creating accessible Web content, and includes verifiable checkpoints for each guideline.
  2. List of Checkpoints from the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines: A list of the verifiable checkpoints, arranged as a checklist.
  3. Techniques for Web Content Accessibility Guidelines: A set of specific techniques, coordinated with the guidelines, which explain how to satisfy each checkpoint. The Techniques document will be an on-going compilation, to be published as a Note rather than a Recommendation.

5. Dependencies of this group on other groups

This group develops guidelines which address how to implement HTML 4.0, CSS1 and CSS2, XML, SMIL, etc., in a manner that results in Web sites that are accessible. Coordination with W3C groups producing these specifications is through the WAI CG and through the WAI's participation in the Hypertext CG.

6. Dependencies of other groups on this

7. Intended degree of Confidentiality

Group procedings, e-mail list, archives, charter, and deliverables are all public, as are the other WAI guidelines working groups.

8. Relation to other groups

The GL WG is related to other W3C groups as described in (5) and (6) above. In addition, external organizations such as ISO, IEEE, national governments, corporations, etc., may reference the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines; and externally developed tools such as CAST's "Bobby" may use the guidelines as the basis for their site evaluation protocols. Coordination with external groups referencing the guidelines is primarily through the WAI International Program Office. Coordination with CAST around implementation of the guidelines in site evaluation protocols is shared between this group and the WAI Evaluation and Repair Interest and Working Groups.

9. Milestones for work items & deliverables

10. Meeting mechanisms & schedules

11. Communication mechanisms

12. Level of involvement of Team

13. Estimated time commitment a group member would have to make in order to participate


March 22, Judy Brewer, Wendy Chisholm

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