DRAFT Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) Interest Group Charter
The mission of the WAI Interest Group (IG) is to promote awareness of and engagement in W3C accessibility work. This includes augmenting wide review of accessibility aspects of W3C specifications, Group Notes, research topics, implementation support, and educational resources.
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 (0.08 FTE) |
Meeting Schedule | Teleconferences: Teleconferences are currently not planned. Face-to-face: In-person meetings maybe held, usually no more than 1 per year. |
Motivation and Background
WAI IG is a well-established Interest Group with over 2,500 participants in the email lists. WAI IG contributes to a comprehensive accessibility approach at W3C.
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 contributions to W3C deliverables from industry, government, research, academia, people with disabilities, and others interested in accessibility.
WAI IG connects those who want to be informed of W3C accessibility work and share input on accessibility issues. Some subscribed to the mailing lists participate in one W3C working group and want to be informed of work in other groups; most do not participate in other W3C groups.
Reaching beyond those active in other W3C work to increase awareness of W3C accessibility materials and soliciting input on developing materials is a key aspect of W3C's mission related to accessibility. The WAI IG mailing lists historically served as a 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.
Scope
The WAI Interest Group's scope includes:
- Promoting awareness of and engagement in accessibility work throughout W3C groups
- Augmenting review and discussion 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 Interest Group does not develop 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)
- Accessible Platform Architectures Working Group (APA WG)
- ARIA Working Group (ARIA WG)
- Internationalization Working Group
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 message 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
This Interest Group does not produce deliverables. 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. There are no substantively modified or important changes from the previous charter, per the W3C Process Document (section 4.3, Advisory Committee Review of a Charter).
@@OPEN: if we need to have a charter history table, can it be generated from the data in list of previous charters and presented like I18n IG charter history?
Change log
Changes to this document will be documented in this section.