What We're Working On
Accessibility Activities and Publications
W3C WAI, Updated March 2022

Introduction

We hope you’ll find accessibility work on this page that you are interested in contributing to through W3C WAI. After each item is the acronym of the responsible Working Group (WG) and some Task Forces (TF), so you know where to look if you want to participate. That information is later in this page — first, let’s look at some of the work itself.

Current Work Highlights

Updating Core Guidelines and Other Standards

• Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2 — We’re addressing public comments, and will be completed in 2022. Note that these links have information that will likely change with the updates: What’s New in WCAG 2.2 Working Draft, WCAG 2.2 Editor’s Draft [AG WG]

• W3C Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 3.0 is an early draft of a few aspects of a potential new standard. We’re exploring different approaches. It’s years away from being finalized. WCAG 3 Introduction [AG WG]

• ARIA 1.2 — We’re documenting “implementations”; that is, how browsers support ARIA. [ARIA WG]

• ARIA 1.3 — We’re working on additional support for Braille and other new features for ARIA 1.3. [ARIA WG]

Developing New Standards

• Personalization (renaming in progress, maybe Personalized Adaptation) involves tailoring the user experience to meet the needs and preferences of the individual user. Personalization Overview [APA WG, Personalization TF]

• Spoken Pronunciation technical standards will enable screen readers and voice assistants to pronounce words correctly. Pronunciation Overview [APA WG, Spoken Pronunciation TF]

Documenting Additional Guidance for People with Cognitive Disabilities, Low Vision, and Mobile Devices

• Cognitive Accessibility — We’re updating several documents to better address the needs of people with cognitive and learning disabilities. A current topic is mental health. Cognitive Accessibility at W3C. [AG WG, COGA TF]

• Low Vision Accessibility — We’re writing guidance that goes beyond the minimums required by WCAG. It is called “supplemental guidance”. Current topics cover proximity, printing, and alternative themes such as high contrast and dark mode. [AG WG, Low Vision TF]

• EPUB Fixed Layout Accessibility aims to help publishers address challenges for people with cognitive disabilities and low vision. EPUB Fixed Layout Accessibility Editor’s Draft [EPUB3 WG, FXL A11y TF]

• Mobile Accessibility work includes supporting on-going standards development, including supporting WCAG 3 exploration. Mobile Accessibility at W3C [AG WG, Mobile TF]

Defining User Requirements (AUR) and Emerging Technologies

Documenting the user needs of people with disabilities helps develop standards to meet those needs. It also helps designers, developers, and others better understand and meet user needs in order to support accessibility.

• Natural Language Interface Accessibility User Requirements (“NAUR”) is a Working Draft. A natural language interface is a user interface in which the user and the system communicate via a natural (human) language. The user provides input as sentences via speech or other input, and the system generates responses as sentences delivered by speech, text, or another modality. About NAUR, NAUR Draft [APA WG, Research TF]

• XR Accessibility User Requirements (XAUR) is a Working Draft. XAUR describes the needs of people with disabilities in virtual or immersive environments (XR). It includes requirements for XR to be accessible. XAUR is for designers and developers who are involved in creating XR experiences. XAUR Draft [APA WG, Research TF]

• Synchronization Accessibility User Requirements (SAUR) is a Working Draft. Synchronization of multimedia content, especially audio and video, is essential for accessible web-based communication and cooperation. To be understandable, media needs to be synchronized to very specific limits. SAUR Draft [APA WG, Research TF]

• How People with Disabilities Use the Web helps you understand user needs broadly. We’re updating this resource and creating new videos to go along with it. Previous version: How People with Disabilities Use the Web [EOWG]

Teaching Accessibility

Curricula on Web Accessibility is a framework to build your own courses. It currently includes modules for foundations for everyone, for developers, and for designers. We’re currently working on modules for content authors. Existing Curricula, Content Authors rough draft outline [EOWG]

Testing Accessibility

WCAG 2 Test Rules (also known as ACT Rules) describe how to test conformance to WCAG success criteria. They are primarily for developers of evaluation tools and test methodologies. We’re documenting more. About WCAG 2 Test Rules [AG WG, ACT TF]

Upcoming Publications

The following are just a few of the documents that are getting close to publication. Q2 is April, May, June. To learn about “Candidate Recommendation” (CR), “Proposed Recommendation” (PR), and other stages, see How WAI Develops Accessibility Standards through the W3C Process: Milestones and Opportunities to Contribute.

• EPUB 3.3 and EPUB Accessibility 1.1 to CR end of March 2022
• ARIA 1.2 to PR in Q2 2022
• WCAG 2.2 to CR in Q2 2022; finalized in 2022

Get Updated

To get news via e-mail, Twitter, or Atom/RSS feed when these and other accessibility documents are ready for review or published as final, see Get WAI News.

Wait, Wait, There’s More

This page only lists about half of the active work on accessibility at W3C. Much of the work happens in the accessibility groups that are introduced in the W3C Working Groups page.

To learn more about what that the Working Groups are working on right now, see:

• EOWG Current Work - lists over 20 current and upcoming projects of the Accessibility Education and Outreach (EO) Working Group
• APA Current Work - Accessible Platform Architectures (APA) Working Group
• ARIA Working Drafts - Accessible Rich Internet Applications (ARIA) Working Group
• AG WG Current Work - Accessibility Guidelines (AG) Working Group
  • COGA Current Work - Cognitive and Learning Disabilities Accessibility Task Force (COGA)
  • LVTF Current Work - Low Vision Accessibility Task Force (LVTF)
  • Mobile Current Work - Mobile Accessibility Task Force
• EPUB 3 Working Group document publication status and milestones

Surprise! We already have a resource for that

Did you know the W3C WAI website has: videos, tips, tutorials, tools, translations, a free online course, and so much more. There are resources for content authors, designers, developers, evaluators, testers, managers, policy makers, trainers, educators, web users, advocates, and people with disabilities.

To discover existing accessibility resources that you didn’t even know about, see WAI Resources. We encourage you to find resources that you might be interested in reading, contributing to, and sharing with others.

How to Get Involved

To learn about contributing to this work generally, see Participating in WAI.

Links to each Working Group’s “How to Participate” page are in the Participating in Working Groups section.

If you are interested in a Task Force, see participation information for the parent Working Group.

We also have some ideas for Promoting and Implementing Web Accessibility.

We look forward to your contributions to making the web more accessible to people with disabilities!

Who is We

“We” is:

• W3C Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI)
• WAI Staff: Judy Brewer, Shawn Lawton Henry, Michael Cooper, Roy Ran, Steve Lee, Daniel Montalvo, and several WAI Alumni
• Participants of: AG, APA, ARIA, EPUB, EO, and other W3C groups