[in-progress draft, in discussion] Accessibility Education and Outreach Working Group (EOWG) Charter

Important status information: W3C Team is assessing support for re-chartering EOWG, including if there are sufficient Member contributions and support to continue work under a Working Group.
We are seeking input by 31 January 2024.
You can open new GitHub issues, send e-mail to the publicly-archived list public-eo-plan@w3.org, or e-mail the existing EOWG Co-Chairs and W3C Staff directly.

The mission of the Accessibility Education and Outreach Working Group is to develop strategies and resources to promote awareness, understanding, implementation, and conformance testing for W3C accessibility standards; and to support the accessibility work of other W3C Groups.

Join the Accessibility Education and Outreach Working Group (EOWG).

This draft charter is available on GitHub. Feel free to raise issues.

Charter Status In group status page and detailed change history.
Start date [00 Month 202x] (date of the "Call for Participation", when the charter is approved)
End date [00 Month 202x] (Start date + 2 years)
Chairs Kris Anne Kinney (Educational Testing Service), Brian Elton (TPGi)
Team Contacts Shawn Lawton Henry (0.X@@ FTE [external funds])
Information on staff support and external funds
Meeting Schedule Teleconferences: Topic-specific teleconferences are usually once per week.
Face-to-face: We will usually meet 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 2 per year.

Motivation and Background

Accessibility is a key aspect of W3C's commitment to a Web for All. W3C standards include accessibility guidelines and technical specifications. However, accessibility is not as widely known and understood as many areas of W3C work. Understanding and implementing W3C's accessibility standards is quite complex. The Accessibility Education and Outreach Working Group addresses these challenges and supports W3C's mission by:

EOWG resources have proven valuable to promoting understanding, implementing, and testing conformance to W3C accessibility standards. The community relies on authoritative support from EOWG resources, for example:

This charter proposes continuing the Accessibility Education and Outreach Working Group to maintain continuity of established W3C Member engagement in successfully developing deliverables consistent with W3C Process definition of a Working Group.

For additional information, including analysis of group options, list of external funds, and answers to questions that come up during charter review, see EOWG Charter 2023 Additional Information.

Scope

Activities within the scope of this Accessibility Education and Outreach Working Group charter include:

  1. Develop resources that support understanding, implementing, and testing conformance to W3C accessibility standards.
  2. Update, revise, and redesign existing EOWG resources to better meet users' needs in the current environment.
  3. Conduct direct outreach activities to promote W3C accessibility standards and resources. Encourage and support other's outreach activities.
  4. Support accessibility education and outreach throughout W3C, including in Accessibility Guidelines (AG) Working Group, Accessible Rich Internet Applications (ARIA) Working Group, Accessible Platform Architectures (APA) Working Group, and other Groups.

Out of Scope

EOWG will not develop W3C Recommendations.

Deliverables

EOWG primarily develops "WAI Resources" that are stable, vetted pages on the WAI website. EOWG may publish W3C Working Group Notes during this charter period.

For this charter, EOWG is focusing on:

  1. Completing in-progress deliverables.
  2. Updating existing deliverables.

EOWG may develop new resources within the charter scope.

The Working Group will contribute to and deliver the resources listed below. Updated document status is available on the EOWG Current Projects page.

Planned Deliverables

Web Accessibility Tutorials

Tutorials helps implement W3C accessibility standards for specific user interface components.

  • Address open issues
  • Update content for WCAG 2.1, WCAG 2.2, and changes in technology, such as browser and assistive technology support
  • Potentially develop additional tutorial topics, as prioritized

Expected Completion: Ongoing.

How People with Disabilities Use the Web

How People with Disabilities Use the Web helps developers understand the purpose of W3C accessibility standards and implement them more effectively.

  • Update existing content
  • Redesign the resource to improve usability
  • Add videos

Expected Completion: March 2024.

Easy Checks - A First Review of Web Accessibility

Easy Checks provides simple steps to help assess if a web page addresses accessibility. Information on the next iteration is in the Easy Checks Next Generation definition/requirements. Revision includes:

  • Evaluate which checks to include based on criteria such as impact on people with disabilities and difficulty to understand and check. Include new WCAG 2.1 and 2.2 success criteria in the evaluation.
  • Update content.
  • Redesign the resource to provide specific guidance that is easier to follow, and does not become outdated as much.

Expected Completion: July 2024.

Web Accessibility Laws and Policies Database

Web Accessibility Laws and Policies lists governmental policies related to web accessibility.

  • Update existing listings after vetting
  • Actively research additional listings

Expected completion: By December 2023, we expect to get European countries updated. We will continue to add and update listings for the whole world.

Accessibility Evaluation Support Resources

WAI has several resources to help evaluate web accessibility. Accessibility evaluation is also called “assessment”, “audit”, and “testing”.

Expected completion: WCAG-EM Report Tool: February 2024, Tools List: June 2024.

Resource Updates

Several EOWG resources need to be updated to address:

  • submitted comments
  • WCAG 2.1 and WCAG 2.2
  • changes in technology, such as browser and assistive technology support
  • usability improvements

Example resources that need updating: Introduction to Web Accessibility; Tips for Getting Started Developing, Designing, Writing.

EOWG will prioritize which updates to address first, and potentially retire some resources.

Expected completion: Ongoing.

Potential EOWG Deliverables and Contribution to Other Deliverables

Accessibility Roles and Responsibilities Mapping (ARRM)

ARRM guides project managers and others to know which roles (e.g., front-end developer, visual designer, content author) are responsible for which aspects of accessibility. (It is a much more robust and vetted version of this Accessibility Responsibility Breakdown.) Background is in the ARRM Project page. In-progress drafts: ARRM starting page, Roles , Success Criteria Mapping , Decision Tree placeholder.

EOWG will re-consider how this fits in W3C work priorities, including the review needed from other Working Groups.

Training on W3C Accessibility Standards

W3C's Introduction to Web Accessibility / Digital Accessibility Foundations Free Online Course helps individuals and organization understand and begin implementing W3C accessibility standards. It needs to be updated for WCAG 2.1, WCAG 2.2, and improved quality. EOWG will contribute to updating this course.

Expected completion: 2024.

Other

EOWG will contribute to accessibility education and outreach related efforts throughout W3C, such as:

Timeline

Expected completion dates are in the section above.

  • December 2023: Publish updated Web Accessibility Laws and Policies Database for European countries
  • February 2024: Publish updated WCAG-EM Report Tool (WCAG 2.2)
  • March 2024: Publish How People with Disabilities Use the Web
  • April 2024: Address all open issues for Web Accessibility Tutorials
  • June 2024: Publish redesigned Web Accessibility Evaluation Tools List
  • July 2024: Publish updated Easy Checks - A First Review of Web Accessibility
  • October 2024: Complete updates on top priority resources
  • April 2025: Complete updates on second priority resources
  • December 2025: Complete updates on third priority resources
  • Ongoing: Update Web Accessibility Laws and Policies Database for all countries
  • Ongoing: Web Accessibility Tutorials updates

Success Criteria

Testing and interoperability are not applicable to EOWG deliverables. EOWG deliverables success criteria includes:

This Working Group expects to follow the TAG Web Platform Design Principles.

Coordination

EOWG does not develop specifications.

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

W3C Groups

Accessibility Guidelines Working Group
Coordination on resources directly related to Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG).
Accessible Platform Architectures Working Group (APA)
Coordination on resources that are in APA's scope.
Accessible Rich Internet Applications (ARIA) Working Group
Coordination on resources related to ARIA.
Internationalization Working Groups
Coordination on internationalization issues in EOWG deliverables.
EPUB Working Groups and Task Forces
Coordination on integrating EPUB information in EOWG deliverables.

Participation

To be successful, this Working Group is expected to have 6 or more active participants for its duration. Active participants are expected to contribute 2-4 hours per week towards the Working Group. The Chairs and editors are expected to contribute at least 4 hours per week towards the Working Group.

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 content for consideration upon their agreement to the terms of the W3C Patent Policy.

Participants in the group are required (by the W3C Process) to follow the W3C Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct.

Communication

Discussions for this Working Group are publicly archived: the meeting minutes from teleconference and face-to-face meetings will be archived for public review, and discussions and issue tracking will be conducted in a manner that can be both read and written to by the general public. Drafts of resources will be developed in public repositories and that allow direct public contribution. The meetings themselves are not open to public participation.

Information about the group (including links to details about deliverables, issues, actions, status, participants, and meetings) will be available from the EOWG home page.

This group primarily conducts its work through GitHub issues. The public is invited to review, discuss, and contribute to this work.

The group may use a Member-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 5.2.1, Consensus). Typically, an editor or other participant makes an initial proposal, which is then refined in discussion with members of the group and other reviewers, and consensus emerges with little formal voting being required.

However, if a decision is necessary for timely progress and consensus is not achieved after careful consideration of the range of views presented, the Chairs may call for a group vote and record a decision along with any objections.

To afford asynchronous decisions and organizational deliberation, any resolution (including publication decisions) taken in a face-to-face meeting or teleconference will be considered provisional. Group participants can comment on provisional decisions within 7 working days. Approvals to publish are conducted by web-based survey, usually with a response period of at least 7 working days, depending on the chair's evaluation of the group consensus on the issue. If no objections are raised by the end of the response period, the resolution will be considered to have consensus as a resolution of the Working Group.

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 5.2.3, Deciding by Vote) and includes no voting procedures beyond what the Process Document requires.

Patent Disclosures

The Working Group provides an opportunity to share perspectives on the topic addressed by this charter. W3C reminds Interest Group participants of their obligation to comply with patent disclosure obligations as set out in Section 6 of the W3C Patent Policy. While the Interest Group does not produce Recommendation-track documents, when Interest Group participants review Recommendation-track specifications from Working Groups, the patent disclosure obligations do apply. For more information about disclosure obligations for this group, please see the licensing information.

Licensing

This Working Group will use the W3C Document license for many of its deliverables. Some deliverables use a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

About this Charter

This charter has been created according to section 3.4 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

EOWG previous charters: 1998, 2000, 2002, 2005, 2010, 2015, 2017, 2020; charter extension history.

This section lists substantive changes from the previous charter, per the W3C Process Document (section 4.3, Advisory Committee Review of a Charter).

  • For this charter, EOWG is focusing on: 1. Completing in-progress deliverables. 2. Updating existing deliverables. Rational: Several existing deliverable need updating, and that will take a fair bit of effort.
  • The following are added to the Deliverables:
    • Web Accessibility Tutorials
    • How People with Disabilities Use the Web
    • Resource Updates
    • Contributing to Training on W3C Accessibility Standards
  • The following are removed from the Deliverables:
    • Curricula on Web Accessibility — Rational: Curricula work is completed.
    • Video Resources — Rational: Planned video work is complete. Additional work may be defined within EOWG's scope.
    • Authoring Tool Accessibility Support Resources — Rational: Defined deliverables completed. Additional work may be defined within EOWG's scope.
    • WCAG Support Materials — Rational: EOWG's defined work in complete. Additional work may be defined within EOWG's scope.
    • Before and After Demonstration (BAD) — Rational: This is a large project beyond current and expected EOWG resources for this charter period. EOWG prioritized other work higher.
  • Accessibility Roles and Responsibilities Mapping (ARRM) moved from Planned Deliverables to Potential EOWG Deliverables. Rational: Previous work has been slow and we are not confident that we can complete it in this charter period. There are open issues on what EOWG would publish and the potential review burden on other Working Groups.

Change log

Changes to this document are documented in this section.