Framework for Accessible Specification of Technologies (FAST)

Introduction

World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) Accessible Platform Architectures Working Group (APA WG)

W3C wants specifications to address all users
APA reviews for ability to meet needs of users with disabilities, and not create barriers
Review requires expertise on a growing number of technologies
Early review could be incomplete, later review could be too late

Provides information to technology developers about accessibility needs
Currently structured as a draft standard and checklist
- Full framework: w3c.github.io/apa/fast/
- Checklist: w3c.github.io/apa/fast/checklist

In many guidelines, user needs are implicit, not explicit
Many guidelines only address subset of user needs related to their audience
FAST attempts comprehensive documentation of user needs across all potential web technologies
User needs drawn from existing sources, like WCAG 2.0, JTC 1 User Needs, ISO/IEC 30071-1, various gap analyses
Primary research outside of scope for FAST, but Research Questions Task Force identifies some research needs

Above needs are higher-level than seen in other guidelines, but do have more detailed break-downs, such as for first one above:

FAST desribes 3 approaches to meet user needs:

User need: user needs higher than average contrast between foreground and background colors

Browser: Provide a "high contrast" mode that overrides author colors
Author: Provide a feature to allow users to define their own color preferences
Technology plus author plus user agent:
- Technology provides color definition semantics that allow colors of common object types to be globally remapped easily
- Author uses these semantically defined color mappings to allow user global preferences to be easily applied
- Browser supports semantically defined color mappings to allow users to define global preferences that are easily applied across a range of content

The most optimal approach to meet a user need varies by circumstance
Any of the approaches in the example are sufficient if supported
The third approach in the example requires different parties working together
- Technology provides a feature
- Authors use the feature
- Browsers expose the feature

FAST attempts to identify the various potential ways to meet each user need
Some of the ways to meet user needs depend on technology features
The set of technology features needed is the guidance FAST provides to technology developers

Provide up-front guidance to technology developers about user requirements for accessibility
Support and legitimize accessibility review of technology draft specifications
Broaden the accessibility knowledge base beyond the accessibility community in W3C
Identify gaps in current technologies and spawn research and development
Help ensure accessibility is "on the ground floor" of new technologies

Extracts just the technology guidance from FAST
Intended to support self-review by technology developers
Categorized by types of technology features to help focus on ones relevant to the particular technology
- If technology allows visual rendering of content
- If technology provides author control over color
- If technology provides features to accept user input
- …

w3.org/2019/Talks/0516_FAST_MC