Accessible Platform Architectures Working Group Charter

This charter has been replaced by a newer version.

The mission of the Accessible Platform Architectures 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 new specifications and technical support materials, collaboration with other Working Groups, and coordination of harmonized accessibility strategies within W3C.

Join the Accessible Platform Architectures Working Group.

Start date 08 August 2018
End date 31 July 2021
Chairs
  • Becky Gibson
  • Janina Sajka
Team Contacts Michael Cooper (0.30 FTE Primary TC), Ruoxi Ran (0.25 FTE for COGA Task Force, Personalization Semantics, and AHR), Joshue O Connor (0.05 FTE for RQTF), Judy Brewer (0.10 FTE for RQTF)
Meeting Schedule Teleconferences: The Working Group and its Task Forces generally each hold weekly teleconferences, but this may vary over time according to agenda and preferences.
Face-to-face: The Working Group generally meets during the W3C's annual Technical Plenary week; additional face-to-face meetings may be scheduled by consent of the participants, usually no more than 3 per year.

Scope

Success Criteria

  • Advancement of personalization support on the web via specifications published by this group and features incorporated into other work.
  • Improved accessibility of web 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

Draft state indicates the state of the deliverable at the time of the charter approval. Expected completion indicates when the deliverable is projected to become a Recommendation, or otherwise reach a stable state.

Normative Specifications

The Working Group will deliver the following W3C normative specifications:

Personalization Semantics Content Module

This specification will assist specification developers in ensuring technologies address accessibility user requirements.

Draft state: Working Draft

Expected completion: Q3 2019

Adopted Working Draft: Personalization Semantics Content Module 1.0, https://www.w3.org/TR/2018/WD-personalization-semantics-content-1.0-20180316/, 16 March 2018

Reference Draft: Personalization Semantics Content Module 1.0, https://www.w3.org/TR/2018/WD-personalization-semantics-content-1.0-20180316/, 16 March 2018. Exclusion period began 13 February 2018; Exclusion period ended 13 July 2018.

Produced under Working Group Charter: https://www.w3.org/2015/10/aria-charter.html. This deliverable was initially published by the Accessible Rich Internet Applications Working Group and is being moved to the Accessible Platform Architectures Working Group.

Personalization Semantics Help and Support Module

This specification will assist specification developers in ensuring technologies address accessibility user requirements.

Draft state: Editor's Draft

Expected completion: Q2 2020

Personalization Semantics Tools Module

This specification will assist specification developers in ensuring technologies address accessibility user requirements.

Draft state: Editor's Draft

Expected completion: Q2 2021

The Working Group may publish additional Personalization Semantics modules during the course of this charter, and may work with other groups to incorporate personalization features into the native features of web technologies, instead of or in addition to the above work.

Other Deliverables

Other non-normative documents may be created such as:

  • Personalization Semantics Explainer to explain the use cases for Personalization Semantics, structure of the vocabulary, and how to use the technology in content;
  • Framework for Accessible Specification of Technologies (FAST) to assist specification developers in ensuring technologies address accessibility user requirements;
  • FAST checklist to help Working Groups self-review against the FAST;
  • Inaccessibility of CAPTCHA to explain problems and solutions for people with disabilities in human vesus bot differentiation techniques;
  • Media Accessibility User Requirements to describe features needed in audio-visual media for content to be accessible for users with disabilities;
  • Reviews of web technology specifications sent to maintaining entities;
  • Working Group Notes to formalize accessibility knowledge on specific topics as the need arises;
  • 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;
  • Use case and requirement documents;
  • Test suite and implementation report for the specification;
  • Primer or Best Practice documents to support web developers when designing applications.

Timeline

Detailed milestones and updated publication schedules are available on the group publication status page.

  • October 2018: FPWD of Personalization Semantics Help and Support Module
  • October 2018: FPWD of Personalization Semantics Tools Module
  • July 2019: Rec of Personalization Semantics Content Module
  • May 2020: Rec of Personalization Semantics Help and Support Module
  • May 2021: Rec of Personalization Semantics Tools Module

Coordination

For all specifications, this Working Group will seek horizontal review for accessibility, internationalization, performance, privacy, and security with the relevant Working and Interest Groups, and with the TAG. Invitation for review must be issued during each major standards-track document transition, including FPWD and at least 3 months before CR, and should be issued when major changes occur in a specification.

Additional technical coordination with the following Groups will be made, per the W3C Process Document:

W3C Groups

Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) Working Group
Coordinate on development of techniques and general content accessibility issues.
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 Working Group
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.
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 Payments Working Group
Coordinate on accessibility of payments.
Web Platform Working Group
Coordinate on general HTML and web API accessibility topics.

External Organizations

IETF
Coordinate on protocols that impact accessibility of web content.
ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 35 User interfaces
Coordinate user interface requirements and applicability to web content.
WHATWG
Coordinate on accessibility of web technologies.

Participation

To be successful, the Accessible Platform Architectures Working Group is expected to have 6 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. The Chairs, specification Editors, and Test Leads are expected to contribute half of a working day per week towards the Working Group. There is no minimum requirement for other Participants.

The group encourages questions, comments and issues on its public mailing lists and document repositories, as described in Communication.

The group also welcomes non-Members to contribute technical submissions for consideration upon their agreement to the terms of the W3C Patent Policy.

Communication

Technical discussions for this Working Group are conducted in public: the meeting minutes from teleconference and face-to-face meetings will be archived for public review, and technical discussions and issue tracking will be conducted in a manner that can be both read and written to by the general public. Working Drafts and Editor's Drafts of specifications will be developed on a public repository, and may permit direct public contribution requests. The meetings themselves are not open to public participation, however, except by explicit one-time invitation from the chair(s).

Information about the group (including details about deliverables, issues, actions, status, participants, and meetings) will be available from the Accessible Platform Architectures Working Group home page.

This group uses the public mailing list public-apa@w3.org (archive) and GitHub. Additional communication channels are also used. The public is invited to review, discuss and contribute to this work.

The group may use a confidential mailing list for administrative purposes and, at the discretion of the Chairs and members of the group, for member-only discussions in special cases when a participant requests such a discussion.

Decision Policy

This group will seek to make decisions through consensus and due process, per the W3C Process Document (section 3.3). The Working Group maintains specific procedures to establish and measure consensus and address objections in the Accessible Platform Architectures Working Group Decision Policy. All decisions made by the group should be considered resolved unless and until new information becomes available, or unless reopened at the discretion of the Chairs or the Director.

This charter is written in accordance with the W3C Process Document (Section 3.4, Votes), and includes no voting procedures beyond what the Process Document requires.

Patent Policy

This Working Group operates under the W3C Patent Policy (Version of 5 February 2004 updated 1 August 2017). 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.

Licensing

This Working Group will use the W3C Document license for Recommendation-track deliverables and the W3C Software and Document license for Note-track deliverables and licensed non-TR publications.

About this Charter

This charter 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.

Charter History

The following table lists details of important changes from the initial charter, per the W3C Process Document (section 5.2.3):

Charter Period Start Date End Date Changes
Initial Charter 22 October 2015 31 July 2018 none
Rechartered 08 August 2018 31 July 2021

Changes from the previous charter (diff from previous charter):

  • Added Personalization Semantics as a Rec-track deliverable, transferred from the ARIA Working Group;
  • Increased work on non-normative resources to support accessibility horizontal review;
  • Clarified participation and communication procedures;
  • Added licensing section to specify the W3C Document license for Recommendation-track deliverables and the W3C Software and Document license for others;
  • Increased staff effort from .4 FTE to .7 FTE to provide additional support for Research Questions Task Force and accessibility horizontal review, and because of the new Personalization Semantics deliverable.
Staff change 19 April 2019 Joshue O Connor replaced Shadi Abou-Zahra with .05 FTE staff support.
New Co-Chair 25 June 2020 Becky Gibson joined Janina Sajka as co-chair of the Working Group.

Work in the scope of this group was, before the previous charter, carried out by the Protocols and Formats Working Group.