News Release: World Wide Web Consortium Issues User Agent Accessibility Guidelines 1.0 as a Candidate Recommendation

For more information, please contact Janet Daly, at +1.617.253.5884 or
+1.617.253.2613.


World Wide Web Consortium Issues User Agent
Accessibility Guidelines 1.0 as a Candidate
Recommendation

Contact America -- 
     Janet Daly, <janet@w3.org>, +1.617.253.5884 or +1.617.253.2613 
Contact Europe -- 
     Marie-Claire Forgue, <mcf@w3.org>, +33.492.38.75.94 
Contact Asia -- 
     Saeko Takeuchi <saeko@w3.org>, +81.466.49.1170 

Web Resources

Press Release:
	http://www.w3.org/2001/09/uaag-cr-pressrelease.html
The User Agent Accessibility Guidelines:
	http://www.w3.org/TR/2001/CR-UAAG10-20010912/
The W3C Web Accessibility Initiative:
	http://www.w3.org/WAI/


http://www.w3.org/ -- 13 September 2001 -- The World Wide Web 
Consortium (W3C) today invited developers to implement Web Accessibility 
Initiative (WAI) guidelines for designing browsers, multimedia players, 
and other Web software that will be more accessible to people with 
disabilities. W3C published the User Agent Accessibility Guidelines 
(UAAG) 1.0 as a Candidate Recommendation to notify developers
that the technical report is considered stable and mature enough for 
implementation.

UAAG 1.0 completes three-pronged Web accessibility solution

UAAG 1.0 explains how keyboard navigation, control over multimedia 
rendering, configuration options, documentation, communication with 
specialized software such as speech synthesizers or screen magnifiers, 
and other user interface features benefit people with visual, hearing, 
physical, cognitive, and neurological disabilities. For instance, 
required keyboard support will benefit people who cannot use a mouse, 
such as those with blindness or a physical disability.

The software features described in UAAG 1.0 complete the accessibility 
solution already described in part in two other guidelines published by 
W3C's WAI:

     +  The W3C's Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 1.0 
	Recommendation explains to authors how to create accessible 
	Web content. 
     +  The W3C's Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines (ATAG) 1.0 
	Recommendation explains to software developers how to design 
	authoring tools that are accessible to authors with 
	disabilities, and that produce accessible Web content. 

Candidate Recommendation status a call to implementors

The W3C Process Document describes how technical reports mature on the 
way to Recommendation status. Advancement of a technical report to 
Candidate Recommendation is an explicit call for implementation 
experience to those outside of the related Working Groups or the W3C 
itself.

"Candidate Recommendation is a critical phase in the life of the UAAG 
1.0," says Jon Gunderson, Ph.D., of the University of Illinois at 
Urbana-Champaign, and Chair of the User Agent Accessibility Guidelines
Working Group (UAWG). "Our Working Group invites developers to 
comprehensively address software accessibility by implementing these 
guidelines. We look forward to helping developers understand and 
implement these guidelines."

Prior to becoming a Candidate Recommendation, UAAG 1.0 received 
extensive public technical review by many developers, including:

     + Software developers: Adobe, AOL, IBM, Microsoft, Netscape, Opera, 
	RealNetworks, and Sun; 
     + Assistive technology developers: Alva, Freedom-Scientific, 
	GW-Micro, and interNext; 

A preliminary implementation report lists which features required by 
UAAG 1.0 have already been implemented in some deployed software.

About the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI)

W3C's Web Accessibility Initiative addresses accessibility of the Web 
through five complementary activities that:

     + Ensure that the technology of the Web supports accessibility 
     + Develop accessibility guidelines 
     + Coordinate tool development to facilitate evaluation and repair
	 of Web sites 
     + Conduct education and outreach 
     + Coordinate with research and development 

WAI's International Program Office enables partnering of industry, 
disability organizations, accessibility research organizations, and 
governments interested in creating an accessible Web. WAI sponsors 
include the US Department of Education's National Institute on 
Disability and Rehabilitation Research; the European Commission's 
Information Society Technologies Programme; Government of Canada, 
Industry Canada's Assistive Devices Industry Office; IBM; Microsoft; 
Verizon; and Wells Fargo. Additional information on WAI is 
available at http://www.w3.org/WAI.

About the World Wide Web Consortium [W3C]

The W3C was created to lead the Web to its full potential by 
developing common protocols that promote its evolution and ensure 
its interoperability. It is an international industry consortium 
jointly run by the MIT Laboratory for Computer Science (MIT LCS) in 
the USA, the National Institute for Research in Computer
Science and Control (INRIA) in France and Keio University in Japan. 
Services provided by the Consortium include: a repository of 
information about the World Wide Web for developers and users, and 
various prototype and sample applications to demonstrate use of new 
technology. To date, over 500 organizations are Members of the 
Consortium. For more information see http://www.w3.org/

Received on Thursday, 13 September 2001 11:28:40 UTC