WAI INTEREST GROUP UPDATE, December 31, 1998

WAI INTEREST GROUP UPDATE, December 31, 1998

1. Cross-Disability Review of Guidelines Extended
2. User Agent Guidelines WG's Cambridge Meeting Minutes Available 
3. Authoring Tool Guidelines Working Group Building Issues List
4. Education & Outreach WG Responds to "AIEE, it's HUGE"
5. Evaluation & Repair Tools Groups' Current Tools Projects
6. QuickTips Pilot Version Available by Mail

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1. Cross-Disability Review of Guidelines Extended:

We have extended the period for cross-disability review of all three WAI
guidelines. As described in a previous WAI IG Update
<http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/w3c-wai-ig/1998OctDec/0423.html>, this
review provides critical feedback to ensure WAI is addressing requirements
of Web users with a variety of disabilities, including hearing, physical,
cognitive and visual. Two of the three guidelines are close to being
finalized. Please help spread the word on this. Additional information is
available at <http://www.w3.org/WAI/EO/X-Disability-Review>.

2. User Agent Guidelines WG's Cambridge Meeting Minutes Available:

The WAI UA Working Group met in Cambridge, Mass. on December 11 & 12. An
agenda and minutes
<http://www.w3.org/WAI/UA/1998/12/wai-ua-f2f-19981211.html> are available.
Among other issues considered, the Working Group resolved to maintain a
single document even though it must address a range of user agents
including traditional desktop browsers, multi-media players, and assistive
technologies such as screen readers. Rather than describing conformance to
an overall expectation of accessibility, the UA Guidelines will specify the
level of functionality expected according to media type.

3. Authoring Tool Guidelines Working Group Building Issues List:

The AU Working Group is building an issues list to help focus discussion.
The current draft is at <http://www.w3.org/WAI/AU/issues.html> and feedback
is appreciated to <w3c-wai-au@w3.org>. A new AU Guidelines Working Draft
and Charter will be available for WAI IG review shortly.

4. Education & Outreach WG Responds to "AIEE, it's HUGE":

Following the "AIEE, it's HUGE" thread on this mailing list (archives are
at <http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/w3c-wai-ig/>), which started in
response to an updated version of the Page Author Guidelines, the WAI
Education & Outreach Working Group (EOWG) discussed whether "short &
friendly" guidelines were needed instead or in addition to the full set.
EOWG sent a request to the Page Author Guidelines Working Group to add back
in the checklist which was present in earlier versions of the guidelines,
since many people find this the easiest way to approach the guidelines.
People agreed, however that detailed guidelines are needed to provide a
comprehensive reference on accessibility. Discussion is at
<http://www.w3.org/WAI/EO/981211_EOWG_Min.html#short&friendly>.

5. Evaluation & Repair Tools Groups' Current Tools Projects:

The Evaluation & Repair Tools Working Group (ERWG) and Interest Group
(ERIG) have been working on a series of tools to facilitate accessibility.
One of these tools is an "Altifier"
<http://www.w3.org/WAI/ER/text-equiv.htm> which should help extract
meaningful textual information out of otherwise incomplete markup. Another
tool is "A-Prompt" to be integrated into an authoring tool environment to
assist in generating accessible content, by providing ready-to-use checking
and user interface components as a DLL. A third tool is a table linearizer
Java program, usable through a web server gateway or as a stand-alone
script integrated into, for instance, a Lynx environment. The ERIG mailing
list <http://www.w3.org/WAI/ER/IG/#mailing-list> provides a good forum for
discussion of the requirements and development of these and other tools.

6. QuickTips Pilot Version Available by Mail:

A limited supply of hard-copy business-card sized "pilot" (trial) versions
of the QuickTips are available by surface mail, if you want to try them out
in January 1999 and give feedback. The QuickTips were announced in a
previous WAI IG Update
<http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/w3c-wai-ig/1998OctDec/0423.html>. More
information is available at <http://www.w3.org/WAI/References/QuickTips>. 

Best wishes for the New Year,

Judy
_________________________________________________________________________
Judy Brewer    jbrewer@w3.org    +1.617.258.9741    http://www.w3.org/WAI
Director,Web Accessibility Initiative(WAI), World Wide Web Consortium(W3C)

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Received on Thursday, 31 December 1998 14:53:46 UTC