What We're Working On
Accessibility Activities and Publications, April 2023

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). Information about the groups 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 are refining the new WCAG 2.2 success criteria. We plan to publish the completed standard in 2023. Get the latest up-to-date information from What’s New in WCAG 2.2 Working Draft. [AG WG]

• W3C Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 3 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 1.3 — We’re working on additional support for Braille and other new features for ARIA 1.3. [ARIA WG]

Developing New Standards

• WAI-Adapt enables users to adapt (or ‘personalize’) how content is presented to meet their needs and preferences. WAI-Adapt Overview [APA WG, WAI-Adapt 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]

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

Updating Guidance on EPUB Accessibility and on Applying WCAG to ICT

• 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]

• WCAG2ICT describes how Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2 can be applied to non-web information and communications technologies (ICT). We are updating it to include WCAG 2.1 and WCAG 2.2. WCAG2ICT Overview [AG WG, WCAG2ICT 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]

• 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]

Testing Accessibility, Evaluation Tools

• ACT Rules (Accessibility Conformance Testing (ACT), also known as “WCAG 2 Test Rules”) describe ways 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]
• ACT Rules implementation reports list which ACT Rules the evaluation tool or methodology addresses. We invite evaluation tool developers to submit implementation reports. [AG WG, ACT TF]

Upcoming Publications

We plan to publish the following documents in “Q2”, which 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.

• WCAG 2.2 to CR and PR
• ARIA 1.2 to Recommendation
• EPUB Accessibility 1.1 to PR
• Digital Publishing WAI-ARIA Module 1.1 and Digital Publishing Accessibility API Mappings 1.1 to CR
• WCAG 3 Working Draft update

Recent publications and other announcements are listed on the News page.

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 - Accessible Rich Internet Applications (ARIA) Working Group
  • ARIA Working Drafts
  • ARIA Authoring Practices Guide (APG)
• 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 WAI website has: videos, tips, tutorials, tools (for generating reports and accessibility statements), translations (over 35 languages), training (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.

Discover accessibility resources that you didn’t even know existed from the annotated list of WAI Resources. When you find helpful information, would you share it 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 offer 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: Shawn Lawton Henry, Michael Cooper, Roy Ran, Daniel Montalvo, Kevin White, and several WAI Alumni
• Participants of: AG, APA, ARIA, EPUB, EO, and other W3C groups

Updates to this page (changelog)

• 31 March 2023
  • Updated Upcoming Publications list and minor update to WCAG 2.2 current work highlights bullet.
• 28 February 2023
  • No substantive updates.
• 31 January 2023
  • Updated Upcoming Publications list.
• 21 December 2022
  • Updated Testing Accessibility, Evaluation Tools section: updated ACT Rules wording and added invitation for evaluation tool vendors to submit implementation reports.
  • Updated Upcoming Publications list.
• 1 December 2022
  • Updated Upcoming Publications list.
• 9 November 2022
  • We’re in the process of updating our Mastodon account w3c.social/@wai.
• 1 November 2022
  • Updated WCAG 2.2 final publication to early 2023.
• 19 October 2022
  • Updated Upcoming Publications list.
• 29 September 2022
  • Updated Upcoming Publications list.
  • Under Current Work Highlights section, deleted “Teaching Accessibility. Curricula on Web Accessibility…”, since we published it today
• 12 September 2022
  • Updated Upcoming Publications list.
  • Updated WCAG 2.2 bullet under Current Work Highlights.
  • Deleted “ARIA 1.2…” from Current Work Highlights because we completed documenting immplementations and are ready to go from CR to PR.
  • GitHub diff 12 Sept, rich text diff 12 Sept
• 31 August 2022 — Updated Upcoming Publications list.
• 24 August 2022 — Added ARIA Authoring Practices Guide (APG). Updated Upcoming Publications list. GitHub diff 24 Aug, rich text diff 24 Aug
• 1 August 2022 — Updated Upcoming Publications list.
• 12 July 2022 — added: WCAG2ICT describes how Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2 can be applied to non-web information and communications technologies (ICT). We are updating it to include WCAG 2.1 and WCAG 2.2. WCAG2ICT Overview [AG WG, WCAG2ICT TF]
• 30 June 2022 — Updated Upcoming Publications list. Updated ‘Personalization’ to ‘WAI-Adapt’.
• 5 May 2022 — Just a few little language edits.
• 30 April 2022 — Minor updates shown in GitHub diff 30 Apr, rich text diff 30 Apr