WAI-ARIA 1.1, Core-AAM 1.1, DPub-ARIA 1.0, DPub-AAM 1.0 are Recommendations; WAI-ARIA Authoring Practices is Note

The Accessible Rich Internet Applications Working Group has finalized 
several documents:

  * Accessible Rich Internet Applications (WAI-ARIA) 1.1 is a W3C
    Recommendation - https://www.w3.org/TR/wai-aria/
  * Core Accessibility API Mappings 1.1 is a W3C Recommendation -
    https://www.w3.org/TR/core-aam/
  * Digital Publishing WAI-ARIA Module 1.0 is a W3C Recommendation -
    https://www.w3.org/TR/dpub-aria/
  * Digital Publishing Accessibility API Mappings 1.0 is a W3C
    Recommendation - https://www.w3.org/TR/dpub-aam/
  * WAI-ARIA Authoring Practices 1.1 is a Working Group Note -
    https://www.w3.org/TR/wai-aria-practices/

The Digital Publishing WAI-ARIA specifications were co-developed with 
the Digital Publishing Interest Group, which has since become the 
Publishing Working Group.

WAI-ARIA 1.1 adds a variety of new features that were identified as 
needs since WAI-ARIA 1.0 was completed. These include a static table 
model to complement the dynamic grid model provided in WAI-ARIA 1.0, 
supporting news feeds and modal dialog boxes, better supporting labeling 
and extended descriptions, allowing authors to indicate keyboard 
shortcuts and custom role types, and refining the owned roles model and 
set of properties for many ARIA features. Digital Publishing WAI-ARIA 
Roles takes this further to provide roles for types of content that 
often appears in digital publications. Accessibility API Mappings 
describe how these features should be mapped to the features of 
Accessibility APIs specific to various platforms that user use to access 
web content.

WAI-ARIA Authoring Practices 1.1 has undergone major enhancements to 
reflect this work and provide web content authors with practical 
guidance about how to use WAI-ARIA in web content, including steps they 
need to take beyond WAI-ARIA itself to provide full accessibility 
support. A major part of the document is a set of design patterns for 
various types of widgets that explain how to create the widget using 
ARIA features and recommended keyboard interaction to achieve a familiar 
and predictable user experience; these design patterns are complemented 
by a comprehensive set of examples with working code that demonstrate 
the design pattern in action and provide authors a starting point for 
coding their own versions. The document provides comprehensive guidance 
about how to make content accessible to keyboard users, and also 
provides information about when *not* to use WAI-ARIA in preference to 
native features. Further information about this is available in the blog 
post:
https://www.w3.org/blog/2017/12/wai-aria-authoring-practices-note

Following the completion of WAI-ARIA 1.1, the Working Group will begin 
work on WAI-ARIA 1.2, which will focus on defining features that 
correspond to existing HTML 5 features. This reflects convergence of an 
accessibility taxonomy for the web across various technologies and will 
support future scripting and automation of accessibility features. More 
information about the Accessible Rich Internet Applications Working 
Group is available from its home page:
https://www.w3.org/WAI/ARIA/

Regards,
Joanmarie Diggs, Accessible Rich Internet Applications WG Chair,
Michael Cooper, Accessibility Guidelines WG W3C Staff Contact