W3C WAI Website and Resources Redesigned

11 May 2018

The redesigned W3C WAI website makes it easier to get information to help you improve web accessibility. The visual design, information architecture, navigation, and overall user experience is all new. Much of the content is revised, and we plan to revise more in the coming months. The redesign makes it easier to skim pages, read content, find specific information, and discover new resources. It’s also easier for the community to be involved in improving resources. Please see W3C WAI Website Redesign Information for:

• Planned Changes and Known Issues
• Acknowledgements
• How to comment

W3C Invites Implementations of WebVTT: The Web Video Text Tracks Format

11 May 2018

The Timed Text Working Group invites implementations of WebVTT: The Web Video Text Tracks Format Candidate Recommendation. This specification defines WebVTT, the Web Video Text Tracks format. Its main use is for marking up external text track resources in connection with the HTML element. WebVTT files provide captions or subtitles for video content, and also text video descriptions [MAUR], chapters for content navigation, and more generally any form of metadata that is time-aligned with audio or video content.

This specification is based on the Draft Community Group Report of the Web Media Text Tracks Community Group.

W3C Invites Implementations of Pointer Events – Level 2

11 May 2018

The Pointer Events Working Group invites implementations of Pointer Events – Level 2 Candidate Recommendation. The features in this specification extend or modify those found in Pointer Events, a W3C Recommendation that describes events and related interfaces for handling hardware agnostic pointer input from devices including a mouse, pen, touchscreen, etc. For compatibility with existing mouse based content, this specification also describes a mapping to fire Mouse Events for other pointer device types.

First Public Working Draft: Data Catalog Vocabulary (DCAT) – revised edition

9 May 2018

The Dataset Exchange Working Group has published a First Public Working Draft of Data Catalog Vocabulary (DCAT) – revised edition. DCAT is an RDF vocabulary designed to facilitate interoperability between data catalogs published on the Web. This document defines the schema and provides examples for its use. By using DCAT to describe datasets in data catalogs, publishers are using a standard model and vocabulary that facilitates the consumption and aggregation of metadata from multiple catalogs, and in doing so can increase the discoverability of datasets. It also makes it possible to have a decentralized approach to publishing data catalogs and makes federated search for datasets across catalogs in multiple sites possible using the same query mechanism and structure. Aggregated DCAT metadata can serve as a manifest file as part of the digital preservation process.

New version of the Roadmap of Web Applications on Mobile

4 May 2018

W3C has published a new version of its Roadmap of Web Applications on Mobile, an overview of the various technologies developed in W3C that increase the capabilities of Web applications, and how they apply more specifically to the mobile context.

The contents of the roadmap have been updated to follow the evolution of the Web platform in the past few months, as well as to address feedback received on the January 2018 version. See the Change history for details. Among other changes, the new roadmap describes on-going exploratory work on:

• The Web Share API and Web Share Target API in Application Lifecycle,
• Requesting/Revoking permissions and Feature Policy in Security and Privacy, and
• Element Queries in Device Adaptation.

It also features useful technologies for mobile devices that were missing from the previous version, such as:

• CSS Grid Layout and the CSS font-display property in Graphics and Layout,
• the Streams specification in Network and Communications, and
• the passive flag for event listeners in Performance and Tuning.

Last but not least, accessibility aspects are better covered in the User Interaction section.

Implementation information now describes status on mobile browsers when known, and warns when a prefix is required or when a flag must be set to use a feature. The implementation info also links to the Web Platform status source from which it was gathered (Can I use?, Chrome Platform Status, Microsoft Edge web platform features status and roadmap, WebKit Feature Status).

Sponsored by Beihang University, this project is part of a set of roadmaps under development in a GitHub repository to document existing standards, highlight ongoing standardization efforts, point out topics under incubation, and discuss technical gaps that may need to be addressed in the future. New versions will be published on a quarterly basis, or as needed depending on progress of key technologies of the Web platform. We encourage the community to review them and raise comments, or suggest new ones, in the repository’s issue tracker.

W3C Invites Implementations of TTML Profiles for Internet Media Subtitles and Captions 1.1

3 May 2018

The Timed Text Working Group invites implementations of TTML Profiles for Internet Media Subtitles and Captions 1.1 Candidate Recommendation. This specification defines two profiles of [TTML2]: a text-only profile and an image-only profile. These profiles are intended to be used across subtitle and caption delivery applications worldwide, thereby simplifying interoperability, consistent rendering and conversion to other subtitling and captioning formats.

W3C opens Advisory Board (AB) election

The W3C Advisory Committee having nominated seven individuals, is invited today to vote until 30 May 2018 for five seats in the 2018 election of the W3C Advisory Board (AB). Please, read the statements of the nominees.

Created in March 1998, the Advisory Board provides ongoing guidance to the W3C Team on issues of strategy, management, legal matters, process, and conflict resolution. The Advisory Board also serves the W3C Members by tracking issues raised between Advisory Committee meetings, soliciting Member comments on such issues, and proposing actions to resolve these issues. The Advisory Board manages the evolution of the Process Document. The Advisory Board hears appeals of Member Submission requests that are rejected for reasons unrelated to Web architecture. For several years, the AB has conducted its work in a public wiki.

The elected Members of the Advisory Board participate as individual contributors and not representatives of their organizations. Advisory Board participants use their best judgment to find the best solutions for the Web, not just for any particular network, technology, vendor, or user.