[DRAFT] Accessible Platform Architectures Working Group Charter

The mission of the Accessible Platform Architectures Working Group (APA WG, formerly the Protocols and Formats Working Group), part of the WAI Technical Activity, is to ensure W3C specifications provide support for accessibility to people with disabilities. The group advances this mission through review of W3C specifications, technical support materials, and specifications that bridge known gaps.

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 APA WG is part of the WAI Technical Activity.

Join the Accessible Platform Architectures Working Group.

End date	31 December 2017
Confidentiality	The group operates primarily in public but conducts some business in Member-only space.
Initial Chairs	Janina Sajka
Initial Team Contacts (FTE %: 35)	Michael Cooper
Usual Meeting Schedule	Teleconferences: Weekly Face-to-face: approximately 2 per year

Scope

Support accessibility of W3C technologies
- On behalf of other WAI groups, provide expertise to the W3C about the needs of users with disabilities. This includes both serving as a resource base and providing educational in-reach to the W3C community as needed;
- Review W3C requirements and specifications as needed, particularly at the First Public Working Draft and Last Call stages, to identify accessibility issues and make recommendations to the appropriate Working Group;
- Work closely with Working Groups when needed to help them architect their specifications to support, and not unknowingly interfere with, accessibility;
- Within W3C coordination activities, advocate creation and reuse of common implementations of functions that are required by access;
- Collect information about technology features, implementation, and usage patterns to institutionalize W3C knowledge about present-day accessibility problems, including for emerging technologies such as social networking, real-time communications, Web-based television viewing, etc.;
- Review non-W3C technologies that impact the accessibility of W3C technologies;
- Determine accessibility considerations for new devices and technologies, such as e-books, mobile communications devices, tablets, automotive interfaces, Web-enabled television, etc.;
- Strategize solutions within W3C and via liaisons with external organizations.
Develop accessibility-specific technical specifications
- Create technology extensions to address accessibility issues in already deployed technologies;
- Build and execute test suites for normative deliverables;
- Help create WCAG 2.0 techniques for technologies that APA WG helps to develop;
- Determine features needed in future versions of ARIA and publish requirements.

Success Criteria

Other W3C specifications have improved accessibility;
Release of WAI-ARIA 1.1 as a W3C Recommendation;
Release of WAI-ARIA 1.1 Implementation Guide as a W3C Recommendation;
Begin work on future versions of WAI-ARIA and supporting specification modules;
Demonstrate successful implementation of WAI-ARIA and the improved accessibility of Rich Web (Web 2.0) content in a broad range of user agents.

Out of Scope

Education and evangelization outside of the W3C.

Deliverables

The following deliverables would be published as W3C Technical Reports and supporting resources. Accessibility API Mapping Guides fill the role previously filled by WAI-ARIA 1.0 User Agent Implementation Guide, modularized and developed on separate timelines to address multiple host languages.

Accessible Rich Internet Applications (WAI-ARIA) modules (Recommendation) versions 1.1 and later including but not limited to:
- Accessible Rich Internet Applications (WAI-ARIA) core module;
- Digital Publishnig Roles module;
Accessibility API Mapping modules (Recommendation) versions 1.0 and later including but not limited to:
- Core Accessibility API Mappings,
- Accessible Name Accessibility API Mappings,
- HTML Accessibility API Mappings (jointly with the HTML Working Group),
- SVG Accessibility API Mappings (Jointly with the SVG Working Group);
WAI-ARIA Authoring Practices (Note);
Inaccessibility of CAPTCHA (Note);
Web Technology Accessibility Guidelines (Note);
Media Accessibility User Requirements (Note);
Working Group Notes to formalize accessibility knowledge on specific topics as the need arises (Note);
Joint deliverables with the HTML Working Group prepared by the HTML Accessibiity Task Force. At charter time, these include:
Test suites for technical specifications.
DTDs, schemata, and other resources to support automated validation of content that uses WAI-ARIA.

Other Deliverables

Feedback to W3C specification developers;
Requirements for normative deliverables including future WAI-ARIA versions;
WAI-ARIA samples;
WAI-ARIA 2.0 Roadmap;
Contribute to WCAG 2.0 Techniques specific techniques for HTML 5 and ARIA (jointly produced with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines Working Group);
Gap analysis and roadmap for inclusion of people with cognitive disabilities.

Milestones

Milestones
Specification	FPWD	CR	PR	Rec
Note: The group will document significant changes from this initial schedule on the group home page.
WAI-ARIA 1.1	Feb 2014	Jul 2015	Jan 2016	Mar 2016
Digital Publishing Roles module	Jun 2015	Dec 2016	Jun 2017	Aug 2017
Core Accessibility API Mappings	Apr 2014	Jul 2015	Jan 2016	Mar 2016
Accessible Name Accessibility API Mappings	Dec 2014	Jul 2015	Jan 2016	Mar 2016
HTML Accessibility API Mappings	Mar 2015	Dec 2015	Jun 2017	Aug 2017
SVG Accessibility API Mappings	Jan 2015	Jan 2016	Oct 2016	Dec 2016

A detailed plan to achieve these milestones, and known deviations from these initially chartered milestones, is documented in the APA WG Project Management Plan.

Dependencies

Dependencies on W3C Groups

CSS Working Group: Coordinate media queries support for context awareness, Provide requirements for future WAI-ARIA support. Coordinate on general CSS accessibiity topics.
Digital Publishing Interest Group: Coordinate development of digital publishing roles.
Internationalization Activity: Coordinate how to address accessibility and internationalization in W3C specs.
HTML WG: Implementation of ARIA and HTML Accessibility API Mappings, and work on other joint deliverables.
Independent User Interface (Indie UI) Working Group: Support for ARIA specification and design patterns, address use cases for Context awareness.
SVG WG: Implementation of ARIA and SVG Accessibility API Mappings..
Timed Text Working Group: Ensure Media Accessibility User Requirements are met in TTML.
WAI Coordination Group: Coordinating the roles of the WAI Working Groups.

Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) Working Group: Work on HTML 5 and ARIA Techniques for WCAG 2.0.

Furthermore, Accessible Platform Architectures Working Group expects to follow these W3C Recommendations:

Liaisons to External Groups

APA WG does not maintain formal liaisons to external groups, but does coordinate on an as-needed basis on topics of mutual relevance. At charter time, these organizations include:

DAISY Consortium;
OpenAjax Alliance Accessibility Task Force;
Linux Foundation Open Accessibility Workgroup;
Accessibility Interoperability Alliance;
IETF (where protocols impact accessibility).

Participation

To be successful, the Accessible Platform Architectures Working Group is expected to have 10 or more active participants for its duration, with participation where possible including representation from industry including browser and assistive technology implementers, disability communities, and accessibility research. Effective participation in the Accessible Platform Architectures Working Group is expected to consume four to eight hours per week for each participant; twice as much per week for chairs and editors. The Accessible Platform Architectures Working Group will allocate also the necessary resources for building Test Suites for each specification.

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

Communication

The work of the Working Group primarily takes place on weekly teleconferences. This group uses the public mailing list public-pfwg@w3.org (public-pfwg archive) as its default for most work activity. Discussions that must be kept Member confidential because of dependencies on other Member-confidential work are on the mailing list w3c-wai-pf@w3.org (w3c-wai-pf archive). Discussions that involve a wider audience than the membership of the Working Group take place on the mailing list wai-xtech@w3.org (wai-xtech archive). Formal comments on APA WG Technical Reports may be sent to public-pfwg-comments@w3.org (public-pfwg-comments archive).

This group participates in the WAI Coordination Group. In the event that Coordination Groups are discontinued under W3C Process, it will continue to coordinate directly with other WAI groups.

Information about the group (deliverables, participants, face-to-face meetings, teleconferences, etc.) is available from the WAI home page as well as the Accessible Platform Architectures 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. 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.

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.

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

About this Charter

This charter for the Accessible Platform Architectures 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. A @@diff version between this charter and the previous charter is available. Primary changes in this charter:

Added WAI-ARIA 1.1 and Accessibility API Mappings as a normative deliverable.
Added requirements and roadmap for WAI-ARIA 2.0.
Moved Web Technology Accessibility Guidelines from Recommendation track to Note track.
Explicitly called out existing Note-track efforts on Inaccessibility of CAPTCHA and Media Accessibility User Requirements; retained option to create new Note-track deliverables as needed when in scope.
Kept group chartered to operate in Member space when needed, but stated that work will now default to public space. Existing projects will be moved to public space, though legacy resources (old minutes, issue tracking, etc.) cannot be moved due to confidentiality change restrictions.

Michael Cooper, APA WG Team Contact
Janina Sajka, APA WG Chair

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