An overview of activity and outputs from the W3C Web Accessibility Initiative during 2014

1. Web Accessibility Initiative
2014 Update
Andrew Arch - @amja
Digital Government Strategy, Department of Finance
Member, WAI Education & Outreach Working Group

2. Integrated Accessibility Standards

3. Who knows about:
 HTML 5.0 release?
 UAAG 2.0 status?
 Indie UI progress?
 WAI-ARIA release?
 WebVTT?

4. Who knows about:
 HTML 5.0 release?
 UAAG 2.0 status?
 Indie UI progress?
 WAI-ARIA release?
 WebVTT?

5. 2012-14 activity
What has WAI been working on
this past year?

6. HTML5
 Became a Technical Recommendation in
October 2014
 Includes MathML – Browser support is
increasing
 HTML 5.1 and 5.2 under active development
Developed with material from W3C Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) www.w3.org/WAI/

7. HTML5 accessibility
 Using WAI-ARIA in HTML (June 2014)
 HTML5: Techniques for providing useful text
alternatives - draft updated (Oct 2014)
 HTML5 Image Description extension
(longdesc) – Proposed Rec (Dec 2014)
 HTML5 feature accessibility support in
Windows Browsers
Developed with material from W3C Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) www.w3.org/WAI/

8. WCAG 2.0 clarifications
 Techniques for WCAG 2.0
 Understanding WCAG 2.0
• Both updated March & September 2014
• Understanding Techniques for WCAG
Success Criteria
• “Techniques are informative — that means
they are not required.” However, many
organisations require them, and most tools
use them as the basis for testing.
Developed with material from W3C Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) www.w3.org/WAI/

9. WCAG 2.0 internationalisation
 Additional authorised translations released
• Estonian – December 2013
• Portuguese (PT & BR) – October 2014
• Simplified Chinese – October 2014
 WCAG 2.0 Translations has a list of other
completed and planned translations
Developed with material from W3C Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) www.w3.org/WAI/

10. UAAG 2.0
 User Agent Accessibility Guidelines 2.0
 UAAG 2.0 Reference: Explanations,
Examples, and Resources
• Updated working drafts released for both
in September 2014
Developed with material from W3C Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) www.w3.org/WAI/

11. ATAG 2.0
 Implementation testing – Candidate
Recommendation
• Ongoing since November 2013
Developed with material from W3C Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) www.w3.org/WAI/

12. W3C process
 How WAI Develops Accessibility Guidelines
through the W3C Process
• Working Draft(s)
• Last Call Working Draft
• Candidate Recommendation
• Proposed Recommendation
• W3C Recommendation (Web Standard)
Developed with material from W3C Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) www.w3.org/WAI/

13. IndieUI
 Independent User
Interface (IndieUI)
• A way for user actions to be
communicated to web
applications independently of
the device
• Events for User Interface
Independence (updated May
2014)
• User Context for web interface
preferences (updated June
2014)
• Being adopted by WebApps
Working Group
Developed with material from W3C Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) www.w3.org/WAI/

14. WAI-ARIA
 WAI-ARIA 1.0 finalised as Technical
Recommendation (March 2014)
 WAI-ARIA 1.0 User Agent Implementation
Guide (March 2014)
 WAI-ARIA 1.0 Authoring Practices (Editors'
Draft - April 2014)
 WAI-ARIA 1.1 commenced drafting (June
2014)
Developed with material from W3C Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) www.w3.org/WAI/

15. Video
 Timed Text Working Group
• Part of the Video in the Web Activity
• WebVTT: The Web Video Text Tracks Format - First
Public Working Draft published (Nov 2014)
• WebVTT files provide captions or subtitles for video
content
• Used for marking up external text track resources in
connection with the HTML5 <track> element
• Web Media Text Tracks community group
Developed with material from W3C Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) www.w3.org/WAI/

16. Web Accessibility Testing
 Website Accessibility Conformance
Methodology (WCAG-EM)
• Finalised – August 2014
• Five steps:
1. Define the scope
2. Explore the target website
3. Select a representative sample
4. Audit the selected sample
5. Report the evaluation findings
Developed with material from W3C Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) www.w3.org/WAI/

17. Testing cont …
 Easy Checks – A first review of web
accessibility
• Finalised December 2014
• Nine easy things for non-experts to check
 Web Accessibility Evaluation Tools List
• Updated database of tools
•Coming real soon 
Developed with material from W3C Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) www.w3.org/WAI/

18. Training resources
 Tutorials for developers
• Published
• Images
• Tables
• Forms
• In development
• Carousels
• Menus
• Page Structure
Developed with material from W3C Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) www.w3.org/WAI/

19. WAI groups
 Digital Publishing interest group
• part of the Digital Publishing Activity
• Bridging the Web and Digital Publishing -
presentation (October 2014)
• Bridging the Web and Digital Publishing:
EPUBWEB (November 2014)
Developed with material from W3C Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) www.w3.org/WAI/

20. WAI groups cont …
 Mobile Accessibility Task Force
• Develop specific mobile guidance related to
WCAG and UAAG
• Mobile a11y resources
 Cognitive Accessibility Task Force
• Develop specific guidance related to cognitive
and learning disabilities
• Cognitive Accessibility Task Force work, including
outputs and draft documents
Developed with material from W3C Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) www.w3.org/WAI/

21. WAI groups cont …
 W3C Community Groups
• open forums … to connect with W3C's
international community of Web experts
• Colour blind community gp (new)
• Existing accessibility groups:
• Accessible Infographics
• Accessible SVG
• CSS Accessibility
• Mobile Accessibility
• WAI-Engage: Web Accessibility
Developed with material from W3C Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) www.w3.org/WAI/

22. R&D Symposiums
 Accessible e-Learning
• 16 December 2013
 Accessible Way-Finding Using Web
Technologies
• 3 December 2014
 Previous Symposia Reports
• WAI Research and Development Working Group
Developed with material from W3C Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) www.w3.org/WAI/

23. Keeping up-to-date
 WAI home page
 WAI Highlights Archives
 WAI Interest Group
• A public group with a mailing list for
general discussion on Web accessibility
• WAI-IG mailing list archives and
subscription information
 Participate in WAI groups
Developed with material from W3C Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) www.w3.org/WAI/