Call for implementations: Accessibility Conformance Testing (ACT) Rules Format 1.1 — Candidate Recommendation

Dear WAI Interest Group,

W3C WAI invites implementations of the Candidate Recommendation snapshot 
of
Accessibility Conformance Testing (ACT) Rules Format 1.1 [1].

OVERVIEW

ACT Rules Format defines a format for writing accessibility test rules 
that can be used for developing automated testing tools and manual 
testing methodologies.

For an introduction to Accessibility Conformance Testing, see the ACT 
Overview [2].

CHANGES

Major changes from ACT Rules Format 1.1 First Public Working Draft 
include:

  	* ACT Rules Format 1.1 is not fully backwards compatible with 1.0
  	* input rule test cases must be consistent with conformance 
requirements
  	* a secondary requirements explanation is no longer required in the 
background section
  	* 'cantTell' and 'Untested' definitions have been updated

Major changes since ACT Rules Format 1.0 include:

  	* accessibility requirements can now be conformance requirements or 
secondary requirements
  	* subjective applicability statements are now allowed
  	* the structure of test rules has been reorganized

For a full list of changes, see Change History -- ACT Rules Format 1.1 
[3].

CANDIDATE RECOMMENDATION

The main purpose of a Candidate Recommendation is to ensure that the 
standard can be implemented. More about Candidate Recommendation and the 
process for completing standards is in How WAI Develops Accessibility 
Standards through the W3C Process [4].

IMPLEMENTATIONS

We welcome your implementations any time.

To provide an implementation, please open a new issue in the ACT GitHub 
repository [5].

COMMENTS

To comment, please open a new issue in the ACT GitHub repository [5]. 
Create a separate GitHub issue for each topic, rather than commenting on 
multiple topics in a single issue.

If it's not feasible for you to use GitHub, email your comments to 
public-wcag-act@w3.org. Please put your comments in the body of the 
message, not as an attachment.

Please send comments by 20 October 2025.

THANKS

W3C thanks everyone who contributed to this document -- see the lists of 
editors at the top of the document and contributors in the Appendix 2: 
Acknowledgements [6] section.

Regards,
Tamsin Ewing, Senior Accessibility Content Specialist, on behalf of:

Katherine Eng and Wilco Fiers, ACT Task Force facilitators
Daniel Montalvo, W3C Team Contact for the ACT Task Force
Kevin White, Senior Principal Accessibility Specialist
Shawn Lawton Henry, Director Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI)

-- 
Tamsin Ewing (she/her)
Senior Accessibility Content Specialist
Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI)
World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)
W3C/People/Tamsin [7]

Links:
------
[1] https://www.w3.org/TR/act-rules-format-1.1/
[2] https://www.w3.org/WAI/standards-guidelines/act/
[3] https://www.w3.org/TR/act-rules-format-1.1/#Change_History
[4] https://www.w3.org/WAI/standards-guidelines/w3c-process/
[5] https://github.com/w3c/wcag-act/issues/
[6] https://w3c.github.io/wcag-act/act-rules-format.html#Acknowledgments
[7] https://www.w3.org/staff/#tamsin