PROPOSED Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) Interest Group Charter
The mission of the Web Accessibility Initiative Interest Group (WAI IG) is to promote awareness of W3C accessibility work and publications, encourage engagement in W3C accessibility work, and provide an open public forum for sharing information related to web accessibility.
This proposed charter is available on GitHub. Feel free to raise issues.
| Charter Status | See the group status page. |
|---|---|
| Start date | [dd monthname yyyy] (date of the "Call for Participation", when the charter is approved) |
| End date | [dd monthname yyyy] (Start date + 2 years) |
| Chairs | Ashley Abaragu (Knowbility) |
| Team Contacts | Shawn Lawton Henry (0.03 FTE) |
| Meeting Schedule | Teleconferences: Teleconferences are not on a set schedule and may be planned for specific topics. Face-to-face: In-person hybrid meetings maybe held, usually no more than 1 per year. |
Motivation and Background
Reaching stakeholders who are not invovled in other W3C work is a key aspect of W3C's mission related to accessibility — in order to increase awareness of W3C accessibility materials and solicit input on developing materials. The WAI IG mailing lists have served as the primary method for this connection; and while other methods such as social media are now also used, the WAI IG mailing lists continue to be an important method for connection with W3C accessibility work.
WAI IG is a well-established Interest Group with over 2,700 participants in the email lists. WAI IG contributes to a comprehensive accessibility approach at W3C.
WAI IG connects those who want to be informed of W3C accessibility work and share input on accessibility issues. Some who are subscribed to the IG mailing lists participate in a W3C working group and want to be informed of work in other groups; most do not participate in other W3C groups.
WAI IG provides a forum for sharing information on accessibility activities at W3C and around the world, and exploring accessibility issues and solutions. The WAI IG actively encourages participation from industry, government, research, academia, people with disabilities, and others interested in accessibility.
Scope
The WAI Interest Group's scope includes:
- Promoting awareness of accessibility work and publications throughout W3C groups
- Encouraging engagement in accessibility work throughout W3C groups
- Inviting review of accessibility aspects of deliverables being developed by W3C groups
- Exploring web accessibility issues and solutions
- Sharing information and exchanging ideas about web accessibility activities around the world
Out of scope:
- Development of technical specifications
- Consistent with W3C's Antitrust and competition policy, the group will not discuss specific products or implementations
Deliverables
This Group reviews deliverables of other Groups and reviews WAI resources. The Group does not plan to develop additional deliverables.
Success Criteria
- Continued participation via mailing list subscription from a broad range of stakeholders, including disability communities, research organizations, industry, government, and education; from a broad range of roles, including developers, designers, project managers, policy makers, advocates, and web users with disabilities; and from a broad range of levels, from beginners to experts in accessibility
- Posting review invitations for accessibility-related deliverables from W3C groups, and notices of published accessibility standards, resources, and translations
- Constructive exchange of information for increasing understanding of accessibility issues and solutions
This Interest Group expects to follow the W3C Technical Architecture Group (TAG) Web Platform Design Principles.
Coordination
For relevant issues, this Interest Group will seek additional input on accessibility, internationalization, privacy, and security with the relevant Working and Interest Groups, and with the TAG.
Additional coordination with the following Groups may be made, per the W3C Process Document:
W3C Groups
- Accessibility Guidelines Working Group (AG WG) to promore the work and deliverables of the group, and invite review
- Accessible Platform Architectures Working Group (APA WG) to promore the work and deliverables of the group, and invite review
- ARIA Working Group (ARIA WG) to promore the work and deliverables of the group, and invite review
- Internationalization Working Group to explore intersections between accessibility and internationalization
The WAI Interest Group will also coordinate with relevant W3C Community Groups (CG), such as the Accessibility Roles and Responsibilities Mapping (ARRM) CG, Advancing Accessibility Resources CG, and Accessibility Internationalization CG. This includes invitations to review documents developed by a CG that are published on the WAI subsite.
Participation
The WAI Interest Group is open to the public; W3C Membership is not a prerequisite. To participate anyone can:
- subscribe to the Announcements List
- subscribe to and send messages to the Discussion List
Participants in the group are required to follow the W3C Code of Conduct.
Communication
Discussions of this Interest Group are conducted in public. This group primarily conducts its work via the public mailing list w3c-wai-ig@w3.org (archive). The public is invited to review, discuss, and contribute to this Interest Group.
Announcements from W3C staff are communicated through the public mailing list public-wai-announce@w3.org (archive).
Information about the group is available from the WAI Interest Group home page.
Decision Policy
Consistent with its mission, this group is not a decision-making body; rather, it provides a forum for discussion and advice on web accessibility topics.
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 Interest 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
The W3C Software and Document license would apply for all deliverables.
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
A list of previous charters is available.
The following table lists details of all changes from the initial charter, per the W3C Process Document (section 4.3, Advisory Committee Review of a Charter).
| Charter Period | Start Date | End Date | Changes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Initial charter | 18 June 2001 | 31 October 2002 | - |
| Charter extended | 31 October 2002 | 31 August 2004 | - |
| Rechartered | 21 December 2004 | 19 December 2007 | - |
| Charter extended | 20 December 2007 | 30 June 2008 | - |
| Charter extended | 1 July 2008 | 31 December 2008 | - |
| Charter extended | 1 January 2009 | 30 June 2009 | - |
| Charter extended | 1 July 2009 | 9 August 2010 | - |
| Rechartered | 14 September 2010 | 30 June 2013 | - |
| Charter extended | 1 July 2013 | 30 September 2013 | - |
| Charter extended | 1 October 2013 | 18 May 2015 | - |
| Charter extended | 19 May 2015 | 15 July 2015 | - |
| Charter extended | 16 July 2015 | 13 August 2015 | - |
| Rechartered | 18 March 2016 | 31 December 2017 | - |
| Charter extended | 1 January 2018 | 31 March 2018 | - |
| Rechartered | 25 April 2018 | 31 March 2020 | - |
| Charter extended | 1 April 2020 | 30 September 2020 | - |
| Charter extended | 1 October 2020 | 20 November 2020 | - |
| Rechartered | 6 January 2021 | 5 January 2024 | - |
| Charter extended | 6 January 2024 | 30 June 2024 | - |
| Charter extended | 1 July 2024 | 31 December 2024 | - |