Call for Implementation: User Agent Accessibility Guidelines 1.0 Becomes a W3C Candidate Recommendation

Dear W3C Advisory Committee Representative,

I am pleased to advance the User Agent Accessibility Guidelines
1.0 (UAAG 1.0) to Candidate Recommendation status in response to
the Working Group Chair's request, archived in W3C member space at:

   http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Member/chairs/2000JanMar/0086.html

The User Agent Guidelines Working Group will use this review
period to study a particular implementation issue: to what
extent the W3C DOM can ensure communication between general purpose
user agents (graphical browsers, text browsers, media players, etc.)
and assistive technologies (screen readers, screen magnifiers,
speech recognition software, alternative keyboards, etc.).
Implementation experience for other checkpoints has been documented.

Review comments should be sent to w3c-wai-ua@w3.org before 18
February 2000. This is a public mailing list.

Advancement of a document to Candidate Recommendation is an
explicit call for implementation experience and technical
feedback from W3C members and the developer community at large.
More information about Candidate Recommendation is available in
the 11 November 2000 Process Document.
http://www.w3.org/Consortium/Process/Process-19991111/tr.html#RecsCR

=================
About the UAAG 1.0 Candidate Recommendation

  Title: User Agent Accessibility Guidelines 1.0
  Date:  28 January 2000
  URI:   http://www.w3.org/TR/2000/CR-UAAG10-20000128/
  Last Call Working Draft:
         http://www.w3.org/TR/1999/WD-WAI-USERAGENT-19991105/
  Editors: 
         Jon Gunderson, U. of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Chair
         Ian Jacobs, W3C

  Abstract:

  The guidelines in this document explain to developers how to
  design user agents that are accessible to people with
  disabilities. User agents include graphical desktop browsers,
  multimedia players, text browsers, voice browsers, plug-ins,
  and other assistive technologies that give full access to Web
  content. While these guidelines primarily address the
  accessibility of general-purpose graphical user agents 
  (including communication with assistive technologies), the
  principles presented apply to other types of user agents as
  well. Following these principles will make the Web
  accessible to users with disabilities and will benefit 
  all users. 

  Status of This Document:

  This is the Candidate Recommendation of User Agent Accessibility
  Guidelines 1.0. The User Agent Guidelines Working Group does not
  anticipate making any significant changes to this document and
  therefore encourages implementation experience and comment from
  developers during this Candidate Recommendation review. However, this
  is still a draft document and may be updated, replaced or obsoleted by
  other documents at any time.

  The Candidate Recommendation review period ends on 18 February
  2000. Please send comments about this document to the public mailing
  list w3c-wai-ua@w3.org (public archives).

  During the Candidate Recommendation review, the Working Group will
  study how the requirements of this document are satisfied by deployed
  user agents and with what level of success or difficulty. The Working
  Group anticipates asking the W3C Director to advance this document to
  Proposed Recommendation and will present its findings at that time.

=================
Minority Opinions

  Some Working Group participants dissented on the resolution to
  one issue: whether the priority of documenting active
  user-preferences for input configurations (such as keyboard
  bindings) should be the same priority as for author-specified
  configurations. The Working Group welcomes feedback on this
  issue. The minority opinion is available at:
  http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/w3c-wai-ua/2000JanMar/0178.html

=================
Candidate Recommendation Support Materials

  Techniques Document. This document suggests some 
    techniques for satisfying the checkpoints in the 
    guidelines document. 
    http://www.w3.org/TR/2000/WD-UAAG10-TECHS-20000128

  Implementation Report. This is a preliminary report of how
    deployed user agents satisfy the checkpoints.
    http://www.w3.org/WAI/UA/WD-UAAG10-IMP-20000126/

  List of document changes: 
    http://www.w3.org/WAI/UA/wai-ua-wd-changes.html

  Resolved Issues list: 
    http://www.w3.org/WAI/UA/2000/01/issues-linear-20000127

  User Agent Responsibilities. This document explains how
    Working Group decided that the requirements in the guidelines
    were appropriate for general purpose user agents.
    http://www.w3.org/WAI/UA/2000/01/ua-resp-20000125

  Impact Matrix. This document explains which audiences are
    most likely to benefit from each checkpoint. 
    http://www.w3.org/WAI/UA/2000/01/WD-UAGL-impact-matrix-20000121

=================
Working Group Goals During Candidate Recommendation

  1) Demonstrate that the W3C DOM can ensure communication
     between general purpose user agents and assistive technologies
     Assistive technologies provide full access to the Web
     by providing specialized services. To do so, they 
     require information about content and user interface 
     from general purpose user agents.

  2) Complete the implementation report based on vendor reviews
     of their own products.

  3) Refine and improve the Techniques Document.

=================
About the User Agent Guidelines Working Group

  Working Group Home Page: http://www.w3.org/WAI/UA/
  Working Group Charter:   http://www.w3.org/WAI/UA/wai-ua-charter
  WAI Home Page:           http://www.w3.org/WAI/


A list of current W3C Recommendations and other technical
documents can be found at http://www.w3.org/TR.

=================
Janet Daly, Head of Public Relations
for Tim Berners-Lee, Director

Received on Friday, 28 January 2000 17:33:01 UTC