Accessible Platform Architectures Working Group Charter
The mission of the Accessible Platform Architectures Working Group (APA WG, formerly part of the Protocols and Formats Working Group) is to ensure W3C specifications provide support for accessibility to people with disabilities. The group advances this mission through review of W3C specifications, development of technical support materials, collaboration with other Working Groups, and coordination of harmonized accessibility strategies within W3C.
This mission is complementary to the work of other Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) groups.
| Start date | 22 October 2015 |
|---|---|
| End date | 31 July 2018 |
| Charter extension | The charter extension history is documented in "About this charter" |
| Confidentiality | Proceedings are public. |
| Initial Chairs | Janina Sajka |
| Initial Team Contacts (FTE %: 40) |
Michael Cooper (25%) Shadi Abou-Zahra (5%) Liam Quin (10%) |
| Usual Meeting Schedule | Teleconferences: Weekly Face-to-face: approximately 2 per year |
Scope
- Support W3C Working Groups to create technical specifications that provide features needed for accessibility to people with disabilities:
- Provide expertise to the W3C about the needs of users with disabilities, including both serving as a resource base and providing educational in-reach to the W3C community as needed;
- Review W3C requirements and specifications as needed to identify accessibility issues and make recommendations to the appropriate Working Group, particularly at the First Public Working Draft and Last Call or Candidate Recommendation stages and when explicit milestone review readiness is signaled;
- Work closely with Working Groups when needed to help them architect their specifications to support, and not unknowingly interfere with, accessibility;
- Develop and publish explanatory information about accessibility of web technology:
- Document concrete guidance about how to ensure technical specifications appropriately support accessibility;
- 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.;
- Explore new technologies and accessibility challenges and begin to develop remediation approaches:
- Identify gaps in the technical foundation of W3C technologies and propose solutions with other Working Groups or via new technical work;
- Determine accessibility considerations for new devices and technologies, such as e-books, mobile communications devices, tablets, automotive interfaces, Web-enabled television, etc.;
- Identify gaps and questions from accessibility specification reviews that may need research, and articulate specific questions for discussion in various fora (this work is expected to be performed in a task force);
- Coordinate with other accessibility stakeholders (including other WAI groups, accessibility proponents in other groups, and external accessibility organizations) to develop harmonized accessibility guidance across W3C:
- Coordinate with accessibility proponents in W3C technical groups to help ensure accessibility solutions are developed in a consistent manner across technologies and to ensure that accessibility needs are addressed at an appropriate part of the technology stack;
- Involve accessibility proponents in other fora - such as the WAI Interest Group, community groups, coordination activities, and other centers of expertise - to maximize the knowledge and impact brought to the group's activities;
- Advocate creation and reuse of common implementations of functions that are required by accessibility;
- Review non-W3C technologies that impact the accessibility of W3C technologies;
- Strategize solutions within W3C and via liaisons with external organizations.
Success Criteria
- Improved accessibility of W3C technologies as measured by the activity of accessibility proponents in coordination with APA, accepted comments on specifications, and other tracked Working Group dialog;
- Release of Web Technology Accessibility Guidelines as Working Group Note and indications of its use by other Working Groups;
- Documentation of new accessibility issues and solutions, potentially with spin-off work begun;
- Record of active and sustained coordination between APA and other stakeholders.
Deliverables
The following deliverables will be published as W3C Technical Reports and supporting resources.
- Web Technology Accessibility Guidelines (Note) to assist specification developers in ensuring technologies address accessibility user requirements (see WTAG unofficial editors' draft);
- Inaccessibility of CAPTCHA (Note) to explain problems and solutions for people with disabilities in human vesus bot differentiation techniques (see earlier version of CAPTCHA note);
- Media Accessibility User Requirements (Note) to describe features needed in audio-visual media for content to be accessible for users with disabilities;
- Working Group Notes to formalize accessibility knowledge on specific topics as the need arises (Note);
Other Deliverables
- Research reports addressing, as needed, gaps identified during accessibility reviews of draft specifications, and/or technical questions emerging through other aspects of accessibility reviews;
- Gap analysis and roadmap for inclusion of people with cognitive disabilities..
Milestones
| Note: The group will document significant changes from this initial schedule on the group home page. | ||
| Specification | FPWD | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Web Technology Accessibility Guidelines | Apr 2016 | Jul 2017 |
| Inaccessibility of CAPTCHA | Apr 2016 | Sep 2016 |
| Media Accessibility User Requirements |
|
Dec 2015 |
A detailed plan to achieve these milestones is documented in the APA WG Project Management Plan.
Dependencies
Dependencies on W3C Groups
- ARIA Working Group
- Coordinate on resolution of architectural issues identified by ARIA and meeting user needs identified by APA.
- CSS Working Group
- Coordinate on general CSS accessibility topics.
- Internationalization Activity
- Coordinate how to address accessibility and internationalization in W3C specs.
- SVG Working Group
- Coordinate on general graphics accessibility topics.
- Timed Text Working Group
- Ensure Media Accessibility User Requirements are met in TTML and WebVTT.
- Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) Working Group
- Coordinate on development of techniques and general content accessibility issues.
- WAI Interest Group
- Engage in specification review and research activity.
- Web Real-Time Communications Working Group
- Ensure Media Accessibility User Requirements are met in WebRTC.
- Web Platform Working Group
- Coordinate on general HTML and web API accessibility topics.
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;
- IETF (where protocols impact accessibility).
- ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 35 User interfaces
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 two to four hours per week for each participant; twice as much per week for chairs and editors.
Communication
The Working Group communicates by regular teleconferences, email, IRC, Web-Based Survey, issue tracker comments, and occasional face to face meetings. At charter time, the group uses the following mailing lists:
- public-apa@w3.org: ordinary Working Group discussion;
- public-apa-comments@w3.org: public comments on publication;
- wai-xtech@w3.org: Working Group discussions involving a wider audience than the WG membership, and where specification review announcements and submissions are copied;
- w3c-wai-ig@w3.org: announcements of Working Group activities including publications, key events, and specification reviews.
The Working Group may form task forces, which may conduct work using separate teleconferences, email lists, and other tools. At time of charter, task forces include: Cognitive and Learning Disabilities Accessibility Task Force (jointly with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines WG), HTML Accessibility Task Force (jointly with the HTML Working Group), Research and Development Task Force, and Specification Accessibility Task Force.
Details about available communication mechanisms, as well as other information about the group (deliverables, participants, face-to-face meetings, teleconferences, etc.) is available from the Accessible Platform Architectures Working Group home page as well as the WAI home page.
This group coordinates with other WAI groups to ensure a common approach to addressing accessibility requirements.
Decision Policy
At charter time, the decision policy is under review within the group in order to develop a decision process that supports greater asynchronous participation and minimize dependence on weekly teleconferences. Until completed, the Working Group decision policy is as explained in Process Document section 3.3 of the W3C Process Document.
The Working Group maintains specific procedures to establish and measure consensus and address objections in the Accessible Platform Architectures Working Group Decision Policy.
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 5.2 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.
This Working Group is one of two split from the former Protocols and Formats Working Group. This group focuses on technology review while the ARIA Working Group focuses on technology development. A diff version between this charter and the previous PFWG charter is available. Primary changes in this charter:
- 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.
- Added scope and deliverables to incorporate efforts previously carried out by the Research and Development Working Group.
- Split the specification development function from the specification review function in the previous Protocols and Formats Working Group. Specification review is in this group, and specification development is in the ARIA Working Group. Recommendation-track deliverables were moved to the other group.
- Moved from Member visibility to Public visibility.
Michael Cooper, APA WG Team Contact
Janina Sajka, APA WG Chair
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