This charter is written in accordance with section 4.2.2 of the W3C Process Document.
Information on how to join this group is available on the Web.
The mission of the Education and Outreach Working Group (EOWG) is to develop strategies, and awareness and training resources, to educate the Web community regarding the need for Web accessibility and approaches to implementing Web accessibility.
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 EOWG is part of the WAI International Program Office.
The EOWG was originally chartered in March, 1998, and has developed a variety of resources since then. It is renewing its charter in order to develop additional resources.
The scope of EOWG work includes:
In general, EOWG deliverables have the status of "WAI Resources" when completed; in some cases they become W3C Notes. EOWG members and/or WAI staff develop most deliverables; some are produced under subcontract but with the guidance of this group. EOWG deliverables must address cross-disability considerations, be consensus-based, technically sound, and reflect the most current W3C specifications.
EOWG deliverables include but are not limited to the following types of materials and events. Previously completed EOWG deliverables are also included here as these will periodically need updating:
The EOWG coordinates with the following W3C/WAI groups:
The EOWG is scheduled to last for 24 months, from November 2000 through October 2002, with the intent to re-charter for another 24 months as appropriate.
Criteria for success of EOWG include:
Communication mechanisms for EOWG include:
EOWG communications, home page, and charter are public. The majority of EOWG deliverables are public, except deliverables where there is a specific confidentiality requirement during development, such as in preparation of a fact sheet for use as part of press package to accompany an as-yet unreleased W3C Recommendation, or deliverables where there is a privacy concern continuing after development, such as in the case of a compilation of addresses of product managers willing to be contacted regarding accessibility resources, but not wanting their contact information available to the general public.
The EOWG works by consensus. In the event of failure to reach consensus, the EOWG may resort to a vote as described in the W3C Process document. Invited experts are allowed to vote. Appeals from Working Group decisions may be made first to the WAI Coordination Group (through its chair) and then to the W3C team following the procedures established by the W3C Process document (first the domain leader, and then the W3C director).
The EOWG welcomes participation from representatives of W3C Member organizations, and also from invited experts from disability organizations, accessibility research projects, government organizations, and others interested in promoting Web accessibility, particularly those who have expertise in preparation of promotional materials and online educational resources around Web technologies.
EOWG participants are expected to observe the requirements of the W3C Process for Working Groups. For EOWG, the following commitment is expected of members in good standing:
The purpose of the EOWG is to produce public documents available royalty-free to everyone, following W3C standard IPR terms. Therefore, anyone commenting in the EOWG will be considered to offer these ideas as contributions to the EOWG documents. Organizations with IPR in areas related to the Education and Outreach Working Group must disclose IPR as described in the W3C Process regarding IPR and W3C's IPR fact sheet. Invited experts are required to disclose IPR claims in the same manner as individuals from W3C Member organizations.
Information about how to join the EOWG is available on the Web.
Last updated 18 June 2001 by Judy Brewer (jbrewer@w3.org)
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