User Agent Guidelines Working Group (UAWG)

1. Mission statement
2. Scope
3. Duration of work items
4. Deliverables to be produced
5. Dependencies and relations with other groups
6. Intended degree of confidentiality
7. Projected milestones for work items & deliverables
8. Communication mechanisms & meeting schedules
9. Voting mechanisms
10. Level of involvement of Team
11. Participation in working group

Note. Although this is a public charter, some of the links in this document refer to resources that require W3C Member access.

1.0 Mission statement

To complete the development of User Agent Accessibility Guidelines addressing accessibility of graphical, voice, and text browsers, multimedia players, and third-party assistive technologies which work in conjunction with browsers and multimedia players; and to perform an initial assessment of implementation of these guidelines by user agent developers.

The User Agent Guidelines Working Group (UAWG) was originally chartered in December, 1997. A previous charter is available as well as a briefing package for the WAI. The UAWG has produced several Working Drafts. Due to the complexity of developing comprehensive and stable guidelines for accessibility of user agents, the UAWG needs additional time to bring the document to Proposed Recommendation, and to assess implementation after the document becomes a Recommendation.

2.0 Scope

1. Accessibility and usability of the user agent interface by persons with disabilities;
2. Implementation of features supporting accessibility in W3C specifications;
3. Compatibility with features supporting accessibility in non-W3C specifications;
4. Implementation of guidelines in post-Recommendation stage;
5. Initial requirements for any subsequent work in this area.

3.0 Duration of work items

The expected duration of the User Agent WG is through April 2000, at which time the group should be re-chartered if additional work on user agent accessibility is needed.

4.0 Deliverables

4.1 Deliverables to be produced

1. Minutes of UAWG meetings.
2. User Agent Accessibility Guidelines, as Working Drafts, Last-Call Working Draft, Proposed Recommendation, and W3C Recommendation.
   • Guidelines must address cross-disability considerations, be consensus-based, technically sound, and reflect the most current technology.
   • Guidelines should contain general or abstracted principles, followed by a rationale or explanation, followed by verifiable checkpoints.
   • Guidelines should be coordinated with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines and Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines.
3. Techniques for User Agent Accessibility Guidelines, as a W3C Note.
   • Techniques should consist of implementation detail for implementation of checkpoints in the guidelines.
4. Report on implementation progress and assessment of need for subsequent work in this area.

4.2 Success criteria

• Production of deliverables listed in 4.1.
• Commitments from significant percentage of user agent developers to implement User Agent Accessibility Guidelines in future product releases.

5.0 Dependencies and relations with other groups

5.1 Communication about dependencies within WAI

• 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 PFWG, and only groups with which the UAWG requires direct discussions on dependencies are listed here.
• The User Agent Working Group will interact with the following W3C Working Groups via the Protocols and Formats Working Group:
  • 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.

5.2 W3C Groups with which UAWG has dependencies

• (WAI) Protocols & Formats WG (PFWG public page): UAWG provides input on accessibility requirements with regard to W3C technologies for which PFWG manages dependencies;
• (WAI) Web Content Accessibility Guidelines WG: UAWG ensures that the "until user agent" clauses in WCAG are addressed in user agents;
• (WAI) Authoring Tool Guidelines WG -- UAWG coordinates on common component of user interface accessibility;
• (WAI) Education & Outreach WG -- EOWG will assist in promoting awareness & implementation of User Agent Accessibility Guidelines;

6.0 Intended degree of Confidentiality

Group proceedings, e-mail list & archives, charter, and deliverables are public.

7.0 Projected milestones for work items & deliverables

NOTE! All milestones are estimated, and conditional on progress of the working group and review by W3C.

• December, 1999 -- Publish Guidelines as Proposed Recommendation;
• February, 1999 -- Publish Guidelines as Recommendation;
• April, 2000 -- release initial report on implementation progress;
• May, 2000 -- recharter the Working Group if necessary.

8.0 Communication mechanisms & meeting schedules

• Communication within UAWG through w3c-wai-ua list and UAWG home page;
• Meetings via weekly phone meetings and quarterly (roughly) face-to-face meetings. As of the publication of this charter, the next face-to-face is scheduled for December 1999 with another expected in the first quarter of 2000; check UAWG home page for specifics;
• 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;
• Communication with the public through working draft releases and EOWG outreach.

9.0 Voting mechanisms

The Working Group will follow the W3C Process for consensus and votes (as described in the 8 June version). In case the Working Group is required to vote on a particular issue, each Member organization or technical expert's organization will have one vote, via e-mail.

10.0 Level of involvement of Team

• 40% Ian Jacobs -- staff contact and guidelines editor
• 5% Daniel Dardailler -- technical issues and coordination
• 5% Judy Brewer -- coordination with other WAI groups with W3C management

11.0 Participation in Working Group

11.1 Estimated time commitment to be considered a UAWG member in good standing

Participants are expected to observe the requirements of the W3C Process for Working Groups. The following is an excerpt from the 8 June 1999 Process Document:

Participation on an ongoing basis implies a serious commitment to the Working Group charter. Participation includes:

• 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 w3c-wai-ua list & respond in 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.

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

11.2 IPR (Intellectual Property Rights)

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 User Agent Accessibility Guidelines 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.