Call for Review: Working Draft of Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines 2.0

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 21 
December 2005. Please read the following for information on the document 
and how to comment. The document is available at:

http://www.w3.org/TR/2005/WD-ATAG20-20051123/

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?

This is a Working Draft that succeeds a Last Call Working Draft originally 
published on 22 November 2004. This change in status was requested by the 
Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines Working Group (AUWG) because the 
issues raised by reviewers during the Last Call period led the working 
group to make substantial modifications that may require further refinement 
before proceeding again to Last Call. In particular, the requirements for 
accessibility of the authoring interface, which in the Last Call Working 
Draft strongly depended on an ISO document, have been updated and expanded 
to remove that dependency. The new authoring interface accessibility 
requirements (Part A) that have resulted draw instead from the concepts in 
WCAG 2.0 and UAAG 1.0.

Since the resulting document is substantially different from the previous 
Last Call Working Draft, the Working Group is issuing this draft as a 
regular Public Working Draft, and will re-issue an updated Last Call 
Working Draft at a later date.

HOW CAN I COMMENT?

Please send comments by email to the following address by 21 December 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, 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. Are 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" 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 
of 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


-- 
Judy Brewer    +1.617.258.9741    http://www.w3.org/WAI
Director, Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI), World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)
MIT/CSAIL Building 32-G530
32 Vassar Street
Cambridge, MA,  02139,  USA

Received on Wednesday, 23 November 2005 21:47:41 UTC