- From: Ian B. Jacobs <ij@w3.org>
- Date: Thu, 13 Sep 2001 10:35:47 -0400
- To: w3c-wai-ua@w3.org
Dear Working Group,
Congratulations! W3C has advanced UAAG 1.0 to Candidate
Recommendation status. Below is the message sent to the
W3C Advisory Committee.
There is a press release associated with this publication,
and a headline on the W3C home page. The press release is
available at:
http://www.w3.org/2001/09/uaag-cr-pressrelease
Advancement to Candidate Recommendation indicates that:
* The Working Group considers that it has finished
the document, except for changes that result from
implementation experience.
* W3C considers that the document is stable enough
for implementation, and encourages developers to
adopt it.
Our efforts will now turn substantially to documenting
implementations (two of each feature), working with developers,
and producing materials to assist developers and other
consumers of the document.
Thank you all for your hard work so far. I look forward
to meeting with you soon.
- Ian
--------------------------------------------
Dear W3C Advisory Committee Representative,
W3C is pleased to announce the advancement of User Agent
Accessibility Guidelines (UAAG) 1.0 to Candidate Recommendation
status. The document is available at:
http://www.w3.org/TR/2001/CR-UAAG10-20010912/
Editors: I. Jacobs, J. Gunderson, E. Hansen
This email includes the following:
* Request to advance to Candidate Recommendation
* Implementation expectations
* Preliminary implementation report
* Disposition of last call comments and objections
* Support materials
* Document abstract and status section
More information about the UAWG is available from their home page:
http://www.w3.org/WAI/UA/
----------------------------------------------
Request to advance to Candidate Recommendation
----------------------------------------------
On 31 August, the User Agent Accessibility Guidelines Working
Group (UAWG) requested that the Director advance UAAG 1.0 to
Candidate Recommendation [1].
[1] http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Member/chairs/2001JulSep/0056
---------------------------
Implementation expectations
---------------------------
The UAWG intends to demonstrate at least two implementations of
every requirement in UAAG 1.0. The UAWG does not expect that a
single piece of software will implement all UAAG 1.0
requirements. In practice, users will require a number of
different components to work together to provide adequate
accessibility. For example, for access to rich multimedia
content, a user may dispose of a browser, a multimedia player,
documentation on the Web, operating system features, plug-ins,
assistive technologies, and other components. The UAAG 1.0
conformance model has been designed to allow (and expect)
conformance by software used in tandem.
The UAWG, working closely with the developer community, expects
to show these implementations by the end of December 2001. This
estimate is based on the UAWG's initial implementation report
(see below).
Please note that UAAG 1.0 is not format-specified (e.g., it
applies to HTML, SMIL, SVG, etc.). To satisfy CR requirements,
the UAWG intends to show that each checkpoint has been
implemented for at least one (relevant) W3C format.
Note that section 5.2.4 of the 19 July version of the W3C Process
Document [2] states that before advancing a technical report to
Proposed Recommendation, the Director must be satisfied that
(among other things):
"...each feature of the technical report has been
implemented. Preferably, the Working Group should be able to
demonstrate two interoperable implementations of each feature."
[2] http://www.w3.org/Consortium/Process-20010719/tr.html#RecsPR
---------------------------------
Preliminary implementation report
---------------------------------
A preliminary implementation report is available at:
http://www.w3.org/WAI/UA/implementation/report-cr2
At the time of this message, the report approximates (with
limited data) that of the ninety checkpoints:
- For 85% of the checkpoints, there is at least one
reported complete implementation.
- For 71% of the checkpoints, there are at least two
reported complete implementations.
The UAWG expects to revise this report over the course of the
implementation period.
------------------------------------------------
Disposition of last call comments and objections
------------------------------------------------
The UAWG has addressed all comments raised during the
third last call. A snapshot of the issues list is
available at:
http://www.w3.org/WAI/UA/2001/08/issues-20010830
Dispositions of last call comments are available at:
http://www.w3.org/WAI/UA/2001/08/lc3-dispo
That page includes links to the UAWG's response to each
reviewer's issues, and acknowledgments from each reviewer.
Three objections are also listed there:
http://www.w3.org/WAI/UA/2001/08/lc3-dispo#objections
---------------------------------
Support materials
---------------------------------
The UAWG also publishes a supporting document entitled
"Techniques for User Agent Accessibility Guidelines 1.0",
available at:
http://www.w3.org/TR/2001/WD-UAAG10-TECHS-20010622/
This document provides techniques for satisfying the checkpoints
defined in "User Agent Accessibility Guidelines 1.0"
[UAAG10]. These techniques address key aspects of the
accessibility of user interfaces, content rendering, application
programming interfaces (APIs), and languages such as the
Hypertext Markup Language (HTML), Cascading Style Sheets (CSS)
and the Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language.
It is expected that should UAAG 1.0 advance to Recommendation,
the techniques document will be published as a W3C Note.
---------------------------------
Abstract
---------------------------------
This document provides guidelines for designing user agents that
lower barriers to Web accessibility for people with disabilities
(visual, hearing, physical, and cognitive). User agents include
HTML browsers and other types of software that retrieve and
render Web content. A user agent that conforms to these
guidelines will promote accessibility through its own user
interface and through other internal facilities, including its
ability to communicate with other technologies (especially
assistive technologies). Furthermore, all users, not just users
with disabilities, are expected to find conforming user agents
to be more usable.
In addition to helping developers of HTML browsers, media
players, etc., this document will also benefit developers of
assistive technologies because it explains what types of
information and control an assistive technology may expect from
a conforming user agent. Technologies not addressed directly by
this document (e.g., technologies for braille rendering) will be
essential to ensuring Web access for some users with
disabilities.
---------------------------------
Status excerpt
---------------------------------
This is the 12 September 2001 Candidate Recommendation of "User
Agent Accessibility Guidelines 1.0". W3C publishes a technical
report as a Candidate Recommendation to indicate that the
document is believed to be stable, and to encourage
implementation by the developer community. Candidate
Recommendation status is described in section 5.2.3 of the
Process Document. The UAWG resolved to request to advance to
Candidate Recommendation at its 30 August 2001 teleconference.
The User Agent Accessibility Guidelines Working Group (UAWG)
expects to request that the Director advance this document to
Proposed Recommendation once the Working Group has demonstrated
two implementations of each requirement. The UAWG, working
closely with the developer community, expects to show these
implementations by the end of December 2001. This estimate is
based on the UAWG's initial implementation report. The UAWG
expects to revise this report over the course of the
implementation period.
This document incorporates resolutions of the User Agent
Accessibility Guidelines Working Group to all issues raised
during the third last call review of the 9 April 2001 version. A
snapshot of the third last call issues list is available, as is
the disposition of comments (which includes objections).
A list of changes to this document is available.
Publication as a Candidate Recommendation does not imply
endorsement by the W3C Membership. This is a draft document and
may be updated, replaced or obsoleted by other documents at any
time. It is inappropriate to cite this document as other than
"work in progress."
Please send comments about this document to the public mailing
list w3c-wai-ua@w3.org; public archives are available.
This document is part of a series of accessibility documents
published by the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) of the World
Wide Web Consortium (W3C). WAI Accessibility Guidelines are
produced as part of the WAI Technical Activity. The goals of
the User Agent Accessibility Guidelines Working Group are
described in the charter.
A list of current W3C Recommendations and other technical
documents can be found at the W3C Web site.
----------------------------------
for Tim Berners-Lee, W3C Director;
Janet Daly, W3C Head of Communications
Received on Thursday, 13 September 2001 10:38:21 UTC