Participation Options

The W3C wants broad participation in the development of guidelines and standards. The Silver Task Force is committed to broad participation in developing Silver. There are many ways to participate, which mostly vary by the level of time commitment. Some people may choose to participate on multiple levels, e.g. be a stakeholder and a research partner.

Task Force Participant

Task Force Participant is the most time-consuming level of participation. Members of the Task Force attend most teleconference meetings and lead sub-project. The time commitment is estimated to be 6-10 hours per week. To join the Silver Task Force, individuals must be participants of the Accessibility Guidelines Working Group (formerly the WCAG Working Group). Participants are expected to actively contribute to the work of the Task Force. If you are interested in participating in the Silver TF, please send an e-mail to: Jeanne Spellman and Shawn Lauriat and include a little bit about what you’re interested in and how you think that you may be able to contribute to the Task Force. Then follow the participation procedures of the Accessibility Guidelines Working Group, and once you have joined ask Michael Cooper to add you to the task force. Current participants in the Silver TF.

Silver Community Group

The Silver Community Group provides a venue to participate in this work without joining the Accessibility Guidelines Working Group. This is intended for people who do not represent W3C Member organizations or people who wish to be involved but cannot make the larger time commitment expected of Task Force participants. Silver Community Group participants are invited to attend teleconferences and to contribute at the amount of time that is convenient for them. The Silver Community Group is open to the public, and only requires a (free) W3C account and agreeing to the intellectual property commitment for W3C Community Groups. Joining the Silver Community Group enrolls you in the Silver email lists. To Join the Silver Community Group:

Create a W3C account if you haven't already at https://www.w3.org/accounts/request. If you have an account but have lost the password, use this link to recover it. https://www.w3.org/accounts/recover
Select the "Join" link (styled like an orange button) near the bottom of the page, under the heading of Participants

https://www.w3.org/community/silver/

Research Partner

The Silver Task Force seeks qualified researchers in accessibility fields to assist with user research and background research on Silver and WCAG 2.

More information is on the Research_Projects wiki page.

Silver Stakeholder

The W3C seeks a broad range of input on Silver. The Silver Task Force has asked for public input of names of people who would provide valuable perspective on a new design of accessibility guidelines. The Stakeholder Survey (Google doc) is a form that anyone can complete recommending a name. The contact information is not made public. People can submit multiple names. While most of the names have already been submitted, the form is still open and will be monitored as more people become interested in participating.

Stakeholders will be asked to complete surveys and provide feedback on ideas and designs. Some will be interviewed for their detailed thoughts on future accessibility guidelines. Some will be asked to participate in self-reporting research on their use of WCAG 2.0.

The Silver Task Force expects this to be a large group in excess of 200 people. For more information on becoming a Silver Stakeholder, see the Silver Stakeholder email announcement from the WAI-IG list. If you would like to nominate yourself as a stakeholder, please complete the Silver Stakeholder Google form.

Comment on Publications

The W3C relies heavily on public comment. The Silver Task Force invites the public to comment on its work. Announcements on Silver Task Force work will be announced on the Silver Email list (public-silver@w3.org)] which the public is welcome to subscribe, on the WCAG Working Group public email list, and on the WAI-IG email list. All are publicly archived email lists. Publications will be also be tweeted with the #a11y and #wcag hashtags. Silver publications use the #a11ySilver hashtag. All publications include instructions for comments.

Note that these are active email lists, particularly the WCAG and WAI-IG email lists.