DRAFT: WAI Bulletin October XX, 1998

!!!! THIS IS A (VERY) ROUGH DRAFT, NOT FOR CIRCULATION!!!!

W3C Web Accessibility Initiative Bulletin, October XX, 1998
VOL 1, No. 1

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This is a monthly publication of the World Wide Web Consortium Web
Accessibility Initiative. You are receiving this bulletin because you have
expressed an interest in Web accessibility. If you do not wish to receive
this newsletter in the future, please send mail to
w3c-wai-bulletin-request@w3.org with UNSUBSCRIBE in the subject line.
******

IN THIS ISSUE:
                                                        
1. Introduction to W3C's Web Accessibility Initiative
2. New WAI Page Author Guidelines Working Draft available, seeking comments
3. WAI Resources available or upcoming
4. Meetings WAI User Agent Guidelines Working Group meeting October 25-26
5. How to subscribe/unsubscribe from the WAI Bulletin

Welcome to the first issue of the W3C Web Accessibility Initiative Monthly
Bulletin.

1. Introduction to W3C's Web Accessibility Initiative:

The Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) is hosted by the World Wide Web
Consortium with the goal of making the Web accessible for people with
disabilities. Web accessibility solutions also benefit other users, such as
those with mobile devices, low bandwidth, or with no audio output.  W3C's
Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI), in coordination with industry,
disability organizations, research centers and government, is pursuing
accessibility of the Web through five complementary activities:

*  Ensuring that Web technologies support accessibility
*  Developing guidelines for accessibility
*  Developing tools to evaluate & facilitate accessibility
*  Conducting education and outreach
*  Monitoring and engaging in research and development

The WAI has eight working and interest groups, with many opportunities for
participation. To learn more about the WAI, visit our home page at
http://www.w3.org/WAI.

2. New Version of WAI Page Author Guidelines Working Draft available, WAI
seeks comment

On September 18, the WAI Page Author Guidelines Working Group published a
substantially updated Working Draft <http://www.w3.org/TR/WD-WAI-PAGEAUTH>.
This document provides guidance on making a Web site accessible. In
developing these guidelines the working group reviewed all available Web
accessibility guidelines, and made them more comprehensive, technically
updated, and easier to use. The appendices now include a listing by
priority. A draft "techniques" document is also available linked from the
top of the guidelines.

WAI invites those who have been using other Web accessibility guidelines,
whether formal or informal documents, to review and comment on this working
draft before it goes to a W3C Proposed Recommendation status in the next
few months, and to update their links to this version. All comments should
go to w3c-wai-gl@w3.org.

In addition, the WAI particulary invites comments from different disability
organizations and specialists in the access accommodations. The WAI Page
Author Guidelines are intended to be fully cross-disability, and it is our
hope that the guidelines will reflect accommodation needs of people with
cognitive, hearing, physical and visual disabilities.

3. WAI Resources available or upcoming

The WAI publishes a number of resources to assist in developing Web
accessibility. Resources available to date include descriptions of
accessibility improvements in HTML4 and CSS2; WAI Page Author Guidelines
Working Draft and WAI User Agent Guidelines Working Draft, and additional
reference materials linked from the WAI site
<http://www.w3.org/WAI/#Resources>.

The WAI Education and Outreach Working Group is developing a number of
curriculum materials which will become available in the coming months.

4. WAI meetings

WAI will hold a two-day face-to-face meeting of the User Agent Guidelines
WG immediately following the Closing the Gap Conference in Minneapolis. The
meeting is open to active members of the WAI User Agent Guidelines Working
Group. Additional information is available at
http://www.w3.org/WAI/1998/10/agenda-ua. This meeting will be key in moving
the UA Guidelines Working Draft towards a Proposed Recommendation.

Additional WAI meetings will be announced in conjunction with the CSUN
Conference in Los Angeles in March, and the WWW8 Conference in Toronto in
April. Information on past meetings is available at
<http://www.w3.org/WAI/#News> to date. 

5. How to subscribe/unsubscribe to the WAI Bulletin:

For back issues and to learn more about us, go to the WAI Bulletin home
page at http://www.w3.org/WAI/Bulletin. To subscribe, send mail to
w3c-wai-bulletin-request@w3.org with "subscribe" in the subject line. To
unsubscribe, put "unsubscribe" in the subject line of a message to the same
address.

You may distribute or re-post this bulletin; please avoid duplicate
re-postings to mailing lists. We also encourage translations into languages
other than English. Please see the W3C translation policy at
http://www.w3.org/Consortium/Legal/IPR-FAQ.html#translate.
________
The W3C Web Accessibility Initiative International Program Office is
supported in part by funding from the U.S. National Science Foundation,
U.S. Department of Education's National Institute on Disability and
Rehabilitation Research, European Commission's TIDE Programme, Microsoft
Corporation, IBM/Lotus, and NCR.

Received on Thursday, 1 October 1998 11:00:08 UTC