Cost 219ter

W3C and WAI Overview

Daniel Dardailler
W3C Director for Europe

www.w3.org/2005/03/dd-cost/all.htm

W3C Exec Summary

The International Web Standardization Organization, creator of HTML, XML, HTTP, Web Services, Semantic Web technologies, WAI Guidelines, etc.

• Mission: Lead the Web to its full potential
  
• Goals: Interoperability, Universality, Functionalities
  
• How: Industry driven + Grants, Neutral/nonforprofit, consensus based, Open participation, open results
  
• ~360 members (120 in Europe), ~70 staff (25 in Europe)
  
• Based at MIT, ERCIM (Europe) and Keio University (Japan) + 14 Offices
  
• Liaisons with 40+ other standards bodies, Accountable to the global Public

Web technologies

• Work
  
• 4 Domains, 20+ Activities, 50+ Groups
  
• Results: 80+ Web Standards, from http, HTML and XML to Web Services and Semantic Web

How does W3C work ?

• Provide a neutral forum for meeting
  
• Technical expert doing specification editing
  
• Achieve consensus
  
• Reference open source code where appropriate

End results: Working Drafts and Recommendations

WAI in Brief

• Started in 1997
  
• Develops accessibility solutions for the Web
  
• addresses functional requirements across different disabilities
  
• ensures solutions in core Web technologies
  
• develops guidelines, tools, education
  
• Brings multiple stakeholders together
  
• industry, disability, research, government
  
• Receives sponsorship for activities
  
• USA - NIDRR, European Commission - IST, Canada - ADIO
  
• Fundación ONCE, HP, IBM, Microsoft, SAP, Verizon, Wells FargoCross

Disability Design

• Visual, Auditory, Physical, Speech, Cognitive
  
• Important Design Principles:
  
• Separate presentation from structure and semantics
  
• Establish a clear & consistent navigation pattern
  
• Ensure interoperability between mainstream applications and assistive technologies
  
• Design for All Benefits:
  
• Multi-modality (visual/auditory/tactile)
  
• Style sheets (maintenance, bandwidth)
  
• Captioning (indexing, search)

Essential Components of Web Accessibility

Activitites and Groups

AREAS	GROUPS
1. Technology	Protocols and Formats WG
2. Guidelines	Web Content Accessibility Guidelines WG (2.0 in last call)
	Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines WG (2.0 in last call)
	User Agent Accessibility Guidelines WG
3. Tools	Evaluation and Repair Tools WG
4. Education and Outreach	WAI Interest Group
	Education and Outreach WG
5. Research and Development	Research and Devleopment IG

Benefits of Web Accessibility Standard Harmonization

• Create a unified market demand / drive development
  
• Better authoring tools and more interoperable AT
  
• Reuse of training and education materials/technical assistance
  
• Guarantee of vendor independence (both software/hardware)
  
• Guarantee of universality (across language, culture)
  
• Guarantee of durability

How do we address fragmentation ?

• Increase participation from regional groups in guidelines development
  
• Increase officialness of W3C standards
  
• Adding a new process for Authorized translations
  
• Foster local support/outreach vs. duplication of technical work
  
• Explain the responsibility: continued evolution means continued obligation
  
• Focusing on the importance of Harmonization

Public Resources

• W3C Home Page: www.w3.org/
  
• WAI Home Page: www.w3.org/WAI
  
• WAI Resources www.w3.org/WAI/Resources/
  
• WAI Introduction www.w3.org/WAI/intro/components
  
• Standard Harmonization www.w3.org/WAI/EO/Drafts/standard-harmon.html
  
• W3C Spec (Technical Reports): www.w3.org/TR
  
• W3C Process: www.w3.org/Consortium/Process

 

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