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Re: W3C Guidelines

for

From: Geof Collis
Date: Jan 29, 2010 5:48AM

Hi Shadi

Thanks!

I had an inkling of the process as I sent in feedback on WCAG 2.0 by
that process.

cheers

Geof

At 02:53 AM 1/29/2010, you wrote:
>Hi Geof,
>
>You may also be interested in an introductory resource on "How WAI
>Develops Accessibility Guidelines through the W3C Process":
> - <http://www.w3.org/WAI/intro/w3c-process.php>;
>
>The full details on W3C processes and its involvement with the web
>community are available in the "W3C Process Document":
> - <http://www.w3.org/Consortium/Process/>;
>
>Note that not only WCAG but all W3C technical specifications are
>developed with opportunity for community input. Most of the W3C/WAI
>educational resources are developed by multi-stakeholder input too.
>
>Best,
> Shadi
>
>
>John Foliot wrote:
> > Geof Collis wrote:
> >> Hi All
> >>
> >> I'm having a bit of a debate where someone says that the members of
> >> the W3c at the time wrote the guidelines for WCAG 1.0 and I'm
> >> wondering if this is true. I thought that they got input from the web
> >> community and based them on their feedback. Can anyone shed some
> >> light on the process?
> >
> > Both statements are actually correct - the WCAG 1 Guidelines were written
> > by members of the WAI within W3C, based upon feedback and input from
> > affected community members (some of the early work however was initiated
> > at the Trace Center via Gregg Vanderheiden). This is actually how most
> > W3C Recommendations are developed, but back in 1997 - 1999 there were
> > fewer voices involved in the discussions. (It's interesting to note some
> > of those early voices, including Gregg Vanderheiden [Trace], TV Raman [now
> > at Google], Mike Paciello, Phill Jenkins [IBM], Jon Gunderson
> > [Urbana-Champaign], and Chuck Letourneau [one of the original Co-Chairs,
> > and my mentor in the early days].
> >
> > Going back over the W3C email archives of the time will show the relative
> > progress path that WCAG 1 took, and actually makes for interesting reading
> > if you like history. The archives can be found at:
> > http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/w3c-wai-gl/
> >
> > Also related to that list was the WAI Interest Group, whos archive can be
> > found at:
> > http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/w3c-wai-ig/
> >
> > Cheers!
> >
> > JF
> >