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Re: WCAG work public [wasThe future of WCAG ...]

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From: Shawn Henry
Date: Jan 14, 2013 10:02PM

Hi all,

I wanted to add a bit more clarification to Loretta's.

WCAG in-progress work is publicly available. (For example, the in-progress HTML5 and WAI-ARIA Techniques that Josh mentioned are linked from the wiki page <http://www.w3.org/WAI/GL/wiki/Techniques>;) If you want to look at work in development, keep in mind that in-progress drafts can include early ideas that are not well developed, not vetted or approved, and are likely to change. You can find in-progress work from the WCAG Working Group page: <http://www.w3.org/WAI/GL/>;

When drafts are in a good state for review, we send out announcements specifically asking for review. You can get these announcements via e-mail, Twitter, or RSS feed -- see <http://www.w3.org/WAI/about/announcements.php>;.

We welcome input at any time. The best way to share your comments and suggestions is by following the instructions at <http://www.w3.org/WAI/WCAG20/comments/>; so they are logged and archived at [1].

If you have other questions on WAI work, you can e-mail WAI staff at: < <EMAIL REMOVED> >

Best,
~Shawn


[1] WCAG 20 Public Comments Archive: <http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-comments-wcag20/>;

-----
Shawn Lawton Henry
W3C Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI)
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
e-mail: <EMAIL REMOVED>
phone: +1.617.395.7664
about: http://www.w3.org/People/Shawn/


On 1/9/2013 9:17 AM, Loretta Guarino Reid wrote:
> On Wed, Jan 9, 2013 at 2:22 AM, Joshue O Connor< <EMAIL REMOVED> >wrote:
>
>> Dr Jonathan Hassell wrote:
>>> Thanks for this, Joshue.
>>>
>>> Good to see something's happening - I felt sure it must be.
>>>
>>> Is there a way that people outside the drafting committee can see the
>> work you're doing?
>>
>> Unfortunately, right now no. This isn't for any conspiratorial reason I
>> can assure you, its just that with any new techniques, to effectively
>> provide guidance on using HTML5 and ARIA, they need to be pretty bullet
>> proof before anything is released. If we did this prematurely, then
>> something may get incorrectly codified as best practice or indeed be
>> seen to have be given some kind of imprimatur from the W3C, when it's
>> actually a work in progress. So this work is currently ongoing and has
>> been for over a year, by members of both Protocols and Formats (PFWG)
>> and the WCAG group itself.
>>
> Note that the WCAG group publishes a draft for public review before
> incorporating changes or new techniques, so you will have an opportunity to
> review and provide feedback before the Understanding and Techniques
> documents are updated.
>
>> Within the HTML5/ARIA Techniques task force, where we are creating these
>> techniques, and to be clear our job isn't to update the core WCAG SC or
>> anything like that (so apologies for any confusion), we are developing a
>> current point of reference and guidance to give devs a much needed steer
>> in the right direction. To do this, we need to provide robust useful
>> examples, and also attempt to indicate any user agent support issues for
>> various element/attribute/states/properties etc. To call it a moveable
>> feast, would be an understatement but as specifications become more
>> stable, and user agent support improves, I see things ramping up.
>>
>> As Gregg pointed out, WCAG itself is stable and needs to be for obvious
>> reasons but in terms of creating fresh techniques - we are making progress.
>>
>> Cheers
>>
>> Josh

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