Re: [WebAIM] The future of WCAG - maximising its strengths not its weaknesses

On Wed, Jan 9, 2013 at 2:22 AM, Joshue O Connor <joshue.oconnor@ncbi.ie>wrote:

> Dr Jonathan Hassell wrote:
> > Thanks for this, Joshue.
> >
> > Good to see something's happening - I felt sure it must be.
> >
> > Is there a way that people outside the drafting committee can see the
> work you're doing?
>
> Unfortunately, right now no. This isn't for any conspiratorial reason I
> can assure you, its just that with any new techniques, to effectively
> provide guidance on using HTML5 and ARIA, they need to be pretty bullet
> proof before anything is released. If we did this prematurely, then
> something may get incorrectly codified as best practice or indeed be
> seen to have be given some kind of imprimatur from the W3C, when it's
> actually a work in progress. So this work is currently ongoing and has
> been for over a year, by members of both Protocols and Formats (PFWG)
> and the WCAG group itself.
>

Note that the WCAG group publishes a draft for public review before
incorporating changes or new techniques, so you will have an opportunity to
review and provide feedback  before the Understanding and Techniques
documents are updated.

>
> Within the HTML5/ARIA Techniques task force, where we are creating these
> techniques, and to be clear our job isn't to update the core WCAG SC or
> anything like that (so apologies for any confusion), we are developing a
> current point of reference and guidance to give devs a much needed steer
> in the right direction. To do this, we need to provide robust useful
> examples, and also attempt to indicate any user agent support issues for
> various element/attribute/states/properties etc. To call it a moveable
> feast, would be an understatement but as specifications become more
> stable, and user agent support improves, I see things ramping up.
>
> As Gregg pointed out, WCAG itself is stable and needs to be for obvious
> reasons but in terms of creating fresh techniques - we are making progress.
>
> Cheers
>
> Josh
>
>
> Follow us on Facebook:
> https://www.facebook.com/ncbiworkingforpeoplewithsightloss
> Follow us on Twitter: www.twitter.com/ncbi_sightloss
>
> Check-out NCBI's Mícheál Ó Muircheartaigh appeal on the following link.
> http://youtu.be/25P2tiuCi0U
>
> ********************************************************************
> National Council for the Blind of Ireland (NCBI) is a company
> limited by guarantee (registered in Ireland No. 26293) .
> Our registered office is at Whitworth Road, Drumcondra, Dublin 9.
> NCBI is also a registered Charity (chy4626).
>
> NOTICE: The information contained in this email and any attachments
> is confidential and may be privileged.  If you are not the intended
> recipient you should not use, disclose, distribute or copy any of
> the content of it or of any attachment; you are requested to notify
> the sender immediately of your receipt of the email and then to
> delete it and any attachments from your system.
>
> NCBI endeavours to ensure that emails and any attachments generated
> by its staff are free from viruses or other contaminants.  However,
> it cannot accept any responsibility for any such which are
> transmitted.  We therefore recommend you scan all attachments.
>
> Please note that the statements and views expressed in this email
> and any attachments are those of the author and do not necessarily
> represent the views of NCBI
>
>
> ********************************************************************
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> To manage your subscription, visit http://list.webaim.org/
> Address list messages to webaim-forum@list.webaim.org
>