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User Agent Accessibility Guidelines Working Group (UAWG) Charter

1. Mission
2. Scope
3. Deliverables
4. Dependencies
5. Duration
6. Success
7. Communication
8. Confidentiality
9. Voting
10. Participation

Information about how to join the UAWG is available on the Web.

Note. Although this charter is available publicly, some of the links in this document refer to resources that require W3C Member access. This charter is written in accordance with section 4.2.2 of the W3C Process Document.

1. Mission

The mission of the User Agent Accessibility Guidelines Working Group (UAWG) is to produce guidelines for the development of accessible user agents: software that retrieves and renders Web content, including text, graphics, sounds, video, images, etc. In particular, the UAWG seeks to make the User Agent Accessibility Guidelines 1.0 a W3C Recommendation.

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 UAWG is part of the WAI Technical Activity.

The UAWG was first chartered in December 1997 (December 1997 charter). The UAWG was rechartered on 5 November 1999 (November 1999 charter, expired 30 April 2000).

2. Scope

The scope of the UAWG's work under this charter is to:

• Make the User Agent Accessibility Guidelines 1.0 a W3C Recommendation;
• Develop techniques for implementing the UAAG 1.0 in a range of different types of user agents;
• Track related work in other Working Groups, commenting on and integrating it as appropriate;
• Evaluate user agents for conformance to the guidelines;
• Work with user agent developers in implementation methods and techniques.

3. Deliverables

The UAWG has been working on the User Agent Accessibility Guidelines (UAAG) 1.0 since its original charter. On 10 March 2000, the W3C Director sent a Proposed Recommendation to the Advisory Committee for review. Based on comments received during that review, the UAWG intends to return to last call in early October 2000 with a substantially improved and clarified document. Towards its mission, the Working Group will continue to work on the following deliverables:

1. The UAAG 1.0, which focuses on the accessibility of mainstream graphical user agents intended for use in conjunction with assistive technologies. The UAAG 1.0 must address cross-disability considerations, be consensus-based, technically sound, and reflect the most current technology. The UAWG intends for the (UAAG) 1.0 to become a W3C Recommendation.
2. Techniques for (UAAG) 1.0, which provides implementation details for satisfying the requirements of the Guidelines. The UAWG intends for the Techniques document to become a W3C Note at the same time the Guidelines advances to Recommendation status.
3. A report on the UAWG's experience producing the UAAG 1.0.
4. An initial assessment of implementation of the UAAG 1.0;
5. A report suggesting the next round of deliverables and direction for the next charter. For instance: a requirements document for additional deliverables, implementation tracking, improved guidance in features for orientation and navigation, guidelines for mobile and kiosk technologies, guidelines for accessible scripts and plug-ins, increased support for XML technologies and the W3C DOM, sample code, improved techniques documents, etc.;
6. Minutes of UAWG meetings.

4. Dependencies

The UAWG should ensure consistency between the UAAG 1.0 and other WAI deliverables, including the "Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0" and the "Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines 1.0."

The Protocols and Formats WG (PFWG public page also available) is the primary conduit for describing and resolving dependencies between WAI groups and other W3C Working Groups. Consequently, requirements for dependencies between the UAWG and other W3C WG's are primarily channeled through the Protocols and Formats Working Group.

The UAWG will interact with the following W3C Working Groups via the Protocols and Formats Working Group:

• (WAI) Web Content Accessibility Guidelines WG: UAWG ensures that the "until user agent" clauses in WCAG are addressed in user agents.
• (WAI) Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines Working Group, for coordination on common components of user interface accessibility;
• (WAI) Education and Outreach Working Group, for promoting awareness and implementation of (UAAG) 1.0;
• CSS/FP WG (CSS public page)-- UAWG will provide input on accessibility requirements in CSS;
• DOM WG (DOM public page)-- UAWG will provide input on accessibility requirements for DOM;
• HTML WG (HTML public page)-- UAWG will provide input on potential improvements to XHTML accessibility features.
• Mobile Access IG -- UAWG and Mobile Access IG will coordinate to ensure consistent approaches on guidelines development and on CC/PP (Composite Capability Preferences Profile);
• MathML WG (MathML public page)-- UAWG will provide input on accessibility requirements for MathML;
• SYMM WG (SYMM public page)-- UAWG will provide input on accessibility requirements in SMIL;
• Voice Browsing WG (Voice Browser public page) -- UAWG will provide input on accessibility requirements in Voice Browsing.

5. Duration

The current charter has a duration of twelve months, from November 2000 through October 2001.

6. Success

The success criteria for the UAWG are:

• Production of deliverables;
• Implementations of UAAG 1.0 as well as commitments to implement.

7. Communication

The Working Group will make use of the following communication mechanisms:

• A public mailing list: w3c-wai-ua list;
• A public home page;
• Weekly telephone conferences;
• Quarterly (roughly) face-to-face meetings;
• Coordination through other WAI groups through WAI Coordination Group (WAI CG, Member-only);
• Communication with other W3C groups through Chairs mailing list (Member-only) and meetings as well as the Protocols and Formats Working Group;
• Communication with the public through Working Draft releases and Education and Outreach Working Group outreach.

8. Confidentiality

The Working Groups proceedings, mailing list archives, charter, and deliverables will all be public.

9. Voting

This charter has been written in accordance with Section 3.3.2: W3C Process for consensus and votes of the 11 November 1999 Process Document and includes no voting procedures beyond what the Process Document requires.

10. Participation

The UAWG welcomes participation from W3C Member organizations, and also invites experts from disability organizations, accessibility research projects, government organizations, and others interested in promoting Web accessibility.

10.1 Member and Invited Expert participation

Participants are expected to observe the requirements of the Section 3.3.1: W3C Process for Working Groups. The following is an excerpt from that section:

Participation on an ongoing basis implies a serious commitment to the Working Group charter, including:

• attending most meetings of the Working Group.
• providing deliverables or drafts of deliverables in a timely fashion.
• being familiar with the relevant documents of the Working Group, including minutes of past meetings.

For this Working Group, the following commitment is expected:

• Minimum 4 hours per week, including meeting time and reading/responding to mailing list;
• Remain current on the w3c-wai-ua mailing list (mailing list archive) and respond in a timely manner to postings on mailing list;
• Participate in weekly phone meetings or send regrets to Chair;
• Participate in face-to-face meetings or send regrets to the Chair;
• Remain aware of related work in the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines and the Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines.

10.2 W3C Team participation

• 65% Ian Jacobs -- Team contact and guidelines editor. The percentage involvement is expected to decrease to 20% should the UAAG 1.0 become a W3C Recommendation.
• 5% Judy Brewer -- WAI Domain Lead, coordination with other WAI groups with W3C management

10.3 Intellectual Property Rights (IPR)

The purpose of the UAWG is to produce public documents available royalty-free to everyone, following W3C standard IPR terms. Therefore, anyone commenting in the UAWG will be considered to offer these ideas as contributions to the UAWG documents. Organizations with IPR in areas related to the UAAG 1.0 or Techniques 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.

10.2 Joining the Working Group

Information about how to join the Working Group is available on the Web.