RE: Change to introductory paragraphs

+1
Sarah
 
From: Andrew Kirkpatrick [mailto:akirkpat@adobe.com] 
Sent: Tuesday, February 02, 2016 12:23 PM
To: WCAG <w3c-wai-gl@w3.org>
Subject: CfC: Change to introductory paragraphs
Importance: High
 
CALL FOR CONSENSUS – ends Thursday February 4 at 12:01pm Boston time.
 
The WG discussed comments made about the introductory paragraphs in the Extension Requirements Document (https://www.w3.org/TR/wcag2-ext-req/).  Concern was expressed about use of the term ‘optional’ with regard to the extensions. The Working Group discussed alternative language which is believed to address the concern, while at the same time not changing that the extensions will need to be explicitly required.  Authors who are required to conform with WCAG 2.0 will not need to conform to the requirements in the extensions unless they are also required to meet one or more extensions.  
 
You can view the changes here:
https://github.com/w3c/wcag/commit/aeb3d4947490b1b026a229102fa73db12001be19?diff=split
 
The rationale for this is that this is what is allowed under the WCAG WG charter.  Specifically, the charter allows the WG to "Develop normative WCAG 2.0 extensions and support materials to address special topic areas as needed without changing the meaning of conformance to WCAG 2.0 on its own”, and that is what this language is intended to convey. The Working Group will be exploring features needed in future versions of guidelines, again from the charter "Determine features needed in future WAI accessibility guidelines and publish requirements”, and we expect that the extension work will inform that effort.
 
If you have concerns about this change in the document that have not been discussed already and feel that those concerns result in you “not being able to live with” this decision, please let the group know before the CfC deadline.
 
Thanks,
AWK
 
Andrew Kirkpatrick
Group Product Manager, Accessibility
Adobe 
 
akirkpat@adobe.com <mailto:akirkpat@adobe.com> 
http://twitter.com/awkawk
http://blogs.adobe.com/accessibility