Additional Silver research projects

To the Silver TF

Firstly, thank you for the opportunity to review the research projects and provide input.

After reviewing the current research projects it looks like the Silver TF have done a fantastic job in creating its questions and  I only have one more question for consideration:


-       How flexible are the current web accessibility standards in supporting emerging consumer technology trends?


This is addressed in part by other questions, but IMHO I's worth considering specifically.  With with WCAG 2.0 endeavouring to be technology-neutral, its worth reflecting on some of the recent trends to see how WCAG 2.0 held up in its applicability.  For example, some of the consumer trends since WECAG 2.0 became a standard include the rise and fall of netbooks, the rapid adoption of touchscreen devices such as smartphones and tablets, the rise of social media and most recently the integration of IoT and digital assistants as noted in this year's Consumer Electronics Show where Alexa has appeared in a large number of products.

There'd be an opportunity to pick a few of these past trends and conduct research based on the primary question above with the following objectives:


*         To identify particular consumer technologies or platforms that have relevance to WCAG 2.0 since the standard was formalised in 2008

*         To examine the effectiveness of WCAG 2.0 to the selected consumer technologies and platforms

*         To identify specific areas of WCAG 2.0 which were applicable across the technology trends and the applicability of WCAG 2.0 in those areas.

The idea would be that by looking at past trends, some of the key strengths and weaknesses of WCAG 2.0 that keep reoccurring as new technologies emerge could then feed into Silver development to help prepare it for emerging technology trends in the future.   This is research I'd personally be very excited to be involved in, in addition to supporting all the other Silver work through my role with the RQTF

Thanks again,

Scott.


[Scott Hollier logo]Dr Scott Hollier
Digital Access Specialist
Mobile: +61 (0)430 351 909
Web: www.hollier.info<http://www.hollier.info>

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