The  Accessible Rich Internet Applications Working Group  has published  Accessible Name and Description Computation 1.1  (Accname) as a W3C Recommendation. Accname describes how user agents determine the names and descriptions of accessible objects from web content languages. The name is a simple label for the object, and the description provides additional information. These are both standard features of accessibility APIs, which allow assistive technologies to identify these objects and present their names or descriptions to users. Documenting the algorithm through which names and descriptions are to be determined promotes interoperable exposure of these properties among different accessibility APIs and helps to ensure that this information appears in a manner consistent with author intent. Separate accessibility API mapping (AAM) specifications define the actual way these features are exposed to accessibility APIs; Accname just describes how the name and descrip...

30 November 2018 The WAI Education and Outreach Working Group ( EOWG ) has published  Developing an Accessibility Statement . The resource helps you create an accessibility statement for your website, mobile app, or other digital content. It includes guidance, examples, and a free generator tool. The tool helps you collect and enter relevant information to create an accessibility statement for your particular content and situation. See more information in  How to Create Accessibility Statements blog post . Learn more about the  Web Accessibility Initiative  (WAI).

9 November 2018 The WAI Education and Outreach Working Group ( EOWG ) has published  The Business Case for Digital Accessibility . It describes how accessibility can drive innovation, enhance your brand, extend market reach, and minimize legal risk. It includes direct and indirect benefits of accessibility and the risks of not addressing accessibility adequately. It provides case studies and examples that demonstrate how investment in accessibility is good for your organization. Learn more about the  Web Accessibility Initiative  (WAI).

The  Accessible Rich Internet Applications Working Group  has published First Public Working Drafts of  Accessible Rich Internet Applications 1.2  (WAI-ARIA),  Core Accessibility API Mappings 1.2  (Core-AAM), and  WAI-ARIA Authoring Practices 1.2  (ARIA APG). WAI-ARIA 1.2 continues development of the technology after ARIA 1.1 was completed in December 2017. This version focuses primarily on providing roles to match features of HTML, which is needed by technologies such as  Web Components  and  Accessible Object Model . Core-AAM 1.2 provides accessibility API mappings for these new roles, and ARIA Practices 1.2 describes recommended authoring patterns for these new roles. For more information, see the blog post  Accessible Rich Internet Applications 1.2 . Read about the  Accessible Rich Internet Applications Working Group  and the  Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) .

An updated Working Draft of  Accessibility Conformance Testing (ACT) Rules Format  was published today by the  Accessibility Guidelines Working Group (AG WG) . This draft addresses all comments received on the previous draft. Most importantly, the “Selector” approach was replaced with “Applicability” and “Expectation” pairs, to make ACT Rules less procedural. This draft is accompanied by  sample ACT Rules  that implement this rules format. Read about the the  Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) .

The European Commission (EC) recently launched the   Web Accessibility Directive Expert Group (WADEX) . This group has the mission “ to advise the Commission in relation to the preparation of delegated acts, and in the early stages of the preparation of implementing acts ” in relation to the  EU Directive on the accessibility of the websites and mobile applications of public sector bodies . More specifically, the focus of this group is to advise the EC on the development of: methodologies for monitoring and reporting of compliance of accessibility requirements for websites and mobile apps; technical specifications for accessibility requirements for mobile apps (and websites); statements of accessibility; user experience / user experience design. This relates closely to the development of the  W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 , which is expected to provide improvements for  mobile accessibility . It also relates to several other W...

6 February 2014 The Protocols and Formats Working Group (PFWG) today published Accessible Rich Internet Applications (WAI-ARIA) 1.0 and the WAI-ARIA 1.0 User Agent Implementation Guide as Proposed Recommendations. WAI-ARIA is a technical specification for making dynamic, interactive Web content accessible to people with disabilities. WAI-ARIA and supporting documents are described in the WAI-ARIA Overview . Comments are welcome by 7 March 2014 . More information is provided in the WAI-ARIA 1.0 is Proposed Recommendation e-mail . Read about the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) .

02 July 2013 The Education and Outreach Working Group (EOWG) invites comments on the updated draft of Easy Checks - A First Review of Web Accessibility , which has new sections on Forms and Plain Content View. Easy Checks helps you assess if a Web page addresses accessibility. It provides simple steps for anyone who can use the Web; no accessibility knowledge or skill is required. The checks cover just a few accessibility issues and are designed to be quick and easy, rather than definitive. Learn more about the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) .

02 July 2013 Registration is now open for the online symposium on User Modeling for Accessibility to be held on 15 July 2013. Researchers, practitioners, designers, application developers, users with disabilities, and others are invited to participate. The symposium will analyze different methods and implementations of user modeling and their potential usage for improving accessibility. This includes the design, creation, storage, and usage of user models, in particular in web browsers, applications, authoring tools, and other aspects of the Web. For details and registration, see User Modeling for Accessibility - Online Symposium . Learn more about the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) .

21 November 2012 Registration is now open for the online symposium on Easy-to-Read on the Web to be held on 3 December 2012. Researchers, practitioners, content authors, designers, developers, users with disabilities, and others are invited to participate. The symposium will address how to make information on the Web easier to understand, particularly by people with cognitive disabilities and people with low language skills. The symposium will explore user needs and the state of the art in research, development, and practice to contribute to a common understanding of easy-to-read on the Web. For details and registration, see Easy-to-Read on the Web - Online Symposium . Learn more about the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) .

The Web Accessibility Initiative ( WAI ) Education and Outreach Working Group ( EOWG ) has updated the Before and After Demonstration (BAD) . BAD shows an inaccessible website and a retrofitted version of the same website with the accessibility barriers fixed. Read the call for review e-mail , learn about Accessibility , and visit the WAI home page .