DRAFT text for the ATAG 2.0 Public Draft IG Announcement

Hi Tim,

Here is the DRAFT text for the ATAG 2.0 IG announcement as you 
requested. If anything needs modification please let me know.

Cheers,
Jan


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Dear WAI Interest Group Participants:

The Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 (ATAG 2.0) is being
published as a Public Working Draft. It will be under review until DD
MMM 2005. Information on the document and how to comment follows. The
document is available at:

@@

WHAT IS ATAG 2.0?

The Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 (ATAG 2.0) is part of a
series of accessibility guidelines published by the W3C Web
Accessibility Initiative (WAI). The other guidelines in this series
include the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) and the User
Agent Accessibility Guidelines (UAAG).

ATAG 2.0 provides guidelines for designing authoring tools that lower
barriers to Web accessibility for people with disabilities. An authoring
  tool that conforms to these guidelines will promote accessibility by
providing an accessible user interface to authors with disabilities, as
well as enabling, supporting, and promoting the production of accessible
Web content by all authors.

WHY A PUBLIC WORKING DRAFT INSTEAD OF A LAST CALL WORKING DRAFT?

The previous call for review of the ATAG 2.0 document was a Last Call
Working Draft announcement on 7 December 2005.

However, the nature of the comments received on that draft were such
that a major overhaul of the document was necessary. In particular, it
was clear that relying on an external ISO document ("Ergonomics of
human-system interaction - Guidance on accessibility for human-computer
interfaces (ISO TS 16071:2003)") to provide a benchmark for accessible
software user interfaces was not acceptable. As a result, the Working
Group has spent much of the last year removing the normative reference
to the ISO document and replacing it with new requirements, many adapted
from WCAG 2.0 and UAAG 1.0.

Since the resulting document is substantially different from the last
call draft from the last call for review, the Working Group has decided
to downgrade the status of the draft to Public Working Draft.

HOW CAN I COMMENT?

Please send comments by email to the following address by DD MM 2005:

   w3c-wai-au@w3.org

A public record of comments is available at:

   http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/w3c-wai-au/

You may find the following overview helpful for context:

   http://www.w3.org/WAI/intro/atag

In addition, a Implementation Techniques for ATAG 2.0, is available
though it is not a Public Working Draft at the current time:

   http://www.w3.org/WAI/AU/2005/11/techs.html

QUESTIONS FOR COMMENT:

The Working Group is particularly interested in discussion of the
following questions:

1. Do the new authoring tool user interface requirements in "PART A:
Make the user interface accessible" adequate? Are the priorities of the
checkpoints appropriate?

2. Does the updated conformance section, with its concept of "Content
Type-Specific WCAG Benchmark" documents seem like a workable mechanism?

3. Are the requirements for checking and repair a reasonable compromise
given both the advantages of automation to the author and the complexity
for development in these areas?

WHAT CHANGES WERE MADE SINCE THE LAST CALL WORKING DRAFT?

Since the last Working Draft of ATAG 2.0, the following changes have
been made:

- "PART A: Make the user interface accessible" has been added to replace
the ISO document reference.
- The conformance section has been moved ahead of the checkpoints in the
document and revised.
- The requirements for Checking (Checkpoint B.2.2) and Repair
(Checkpoint B.2.3) have been clarified.
- The glossary has been updated and a number of editorial changes made.

NOTE: This message may be circulated to other lists, but please be
careful to avoid cross-postings.

Thank you in advance for your review.

Regards,

Jan Richards, Interim Team Contact for the Authoring Tool Accessibility
Guidelines Working Group
Judy Brewer, Director, Web Accessibility Initiative, W3C

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Received on Tuesday, 8 November 2005 18:33:58 UTC