EOWG Charter 2023 Additional Information
Links to EOWG 2023 Charter Drafts
- Stable version for AC Review (TBD)
- Draft with latest edits
W3C Member Statements
(The following are posted to this public page with permission.)
- W3C Member: AbleDocs - Amanda Mace , VP of AbleDocs Australasia
We value and regularly utilise EOWG resources as part of the educational pieces we do in the community, helping us to continue to inform people on the importance of digital accessibility and how to go about becoming more accessible. Guidelines such as WCAG can be intimidating for some and the work EOWG does is integral to help bridge the gap between Technical Specifications and Guidelines and the everyday audience.
- W3C Member: Ministry of Digital Affairs, Taiwan - Jedi Lin, Head of Accessibility Design, Taiwan
We see EOWG resources connecting W3C Recommendations with human life. For a governmental body like ours, MODA, these EOWG resources help us make accessibility meaningful in the development of policy strategies, rather than merely imposing legal restrictions.
- W3C Member: TPGi - Steve Faulkner, Chief Accessibility Officer
TPGi values highly the resources provided by the WAI including those developed and maintained by the Education and Outreach Working Group. We reference many of these resources in our client deliverables and internal and external articles. Having useful and varied documentation and guidance on accessibility from a recognised and trusted source is an important part of the value proposition for TPGi’s participation at the W3C.
- W3C Member: Intopia - Sarah Pulis, Director of Accessibility Services, Australia
The easy-to-understand explanatory and informative resources that WAI’s EOWG produces to help people get started with digital accessibility make our work of ‘creating an inclusive digital world’ much easier than it might otherwise be. We particularly value resources like the Business Case, WCAG-EM, the Organizational Policies page, and all the Design & Develop pages. These are used in our training, consulting and outreach work and often provided to our clients as support materials.
- W3C Member: The Open University - Jade Matos Carew, Head of Digital Accessibility and Usability, United Kingdom
The Open University (OU) makes use of WAI resources a great deal in its digital accessibility guidance and training offering. This is done by directly linking to WAI resources or incorporating links or content within OU-produced material. In addition, the WAI Curricula Developer Modules have acted as the foundation of the OU’s in-house developer training programme, allowing for the creation of a bespoke and holistic course syllabus that aims to upskill developers in a meaningful and relevant way. WAI resources offer a credible, reliable and authoritative reference which demonstrates to staff and senior management that the gold standard of digital accessibility content is being referred to in their professional development.
- W3C Member: AbleDocs - Yi-Jen Hsu, Digital Accessibility Specialist
People hear about digital accessibility often. However, what is it, and how to apply to digital products? The EOWG provides many resources from the introduction of disabilities to understanding Web Content Accessibility Guidelines. No matter whether an individual who wants to learn accessibility or an Accessibility Engineer who needs to dig deeper. The EOWG creates useful resources for everyone, and their efforts make the world inclusive.
Q & A
Analysis of Working Group, Interest Group, Community Group
Summary: Current EOWG Co-Chairs, participants, and staff contact have determined it is best to continue accessibility education and outreach work in a W3C Working Group and not change to an Interest Group or Community Group
W3C Process
Process 2023 describes WGs and IGs as:
- Working Groups. Working Groups typically produce deliverables (e.g., Recommendation Track technical reports, software, test suites, and reviews of the deliverables of other groups). There are additional participation requirements described in the W3C Patent Policy.
- Interest Groups. The primary goal of an Interest Group is to bring together people who wish to evaluate potential Web technologies and policies. An Interest Group is a forum for the exchange of ideas.
The Education and Outreach group continues to focus on producing deliverables and updating existing EOWG deliverables through the W3C consensus process, rather than exchanging ideas of potential Web technologies, and thus fits the W3C Process doc's description of a Working Group.
EOWG resources need the W3C process and staff contribution (beyond typical Community Groups) to ensure quality of deliverables that are published as WAI Resources.
Overview
Partly based on AC feedback in previous EOWG re-chartering discussions, the Co-Chairs, Team, and EOWG participants have carefully considered the options of work being done in a Community Group, Interest Group, or Working Group. EOWG participants have previous done some work through a Community Group (WAI-Engage), but it got limited contributions and uptake. Over the last few years, there has been some effort to get more involvement from the existing WAI Interest Group participants into EOWG Resources. That has resulted in a little more input (usually 0-2 comments per resource), but not sufficient review and contribution.
Based on these experiences and analysis (more details below), EOWG Co-Chairs and participants find that a Working Group is important for:
- the purpose of the group to develop vetted deliverables by W3C consensus process
- credibility and authority of deliverables
- participant support and motivation to contribute
- leveraging the momentum and positive public reputation of the existing productive working group
Accessibility education and outreach materials with the authority and credibility of being developed in a Working Group can better support other Working Groups and W3C's accessibility goals, as discussed in the charter Introduction.
One perspective is that there is little risk to continue W3C accessibility education and outreach work through the established Working Group, whose productivity and quality of deliverables is at a high level over the last few years.
Pros and Cons
| EOWG (continue) |
EO-IG (rename) |
WAI IG (merge, no separate EO group) |
CG (existing WAI-Engage?) |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Authority and credibility of deliverables | PRO: highest | CON: lower | CON: lower | CON: lowest |
| Member support for participation (& participant motivation to contribute) |
PRO: highest | CON: little (a) | CON: little (a) | CON: lowest |
| Leveraging existing productive group | PRO: highest | CON: less (a) | CON: non-existant | CON: non-existant |
(a) Participant Contribution Perspectives
EOWG participants (most of whom are W3C Members) have repeatedly said that if the group was an Interest Group instead of a Working Group, they expect that their organization would not support their time on it. Some said they would be removed from the group, others said that they wouldn't have much time to contribute to the work, since it would be all outside of their work time. This was mentioned at the February 2017 face-to-face (participant list) as well as other times when the topic was brought up.
Most EOWG participants get permission to spend time contributing to EOWG from their immediate manager. Most of those managers know little or nothing about W3C's distinctions of Working Groups, Interest Groups, and Community Groups. They hear "W3C Working Group" and that sounds like worth investing some time into. However, if they hear "Interest Group" or "Community Group", that sounds less important and not something worth spending employee time on.
Some EOWG participants know that the WAI-Engage Community Group has gotten no traction, and the content they put there gets little attention. Some associate "Interest Group" with the existing WAI Interest Group, which is primarily a mailing list, and not a group that produces deliverables. Thus, some of these individuals feel that it is not worth investing their time and talents in a Community Group or Interest Group.
Staff Support and External Funding
As of January 2024, W3C Staff Contact (Shawn Lawton Henry) is funded by HHS/NIDILRR for the WAI-Core Project. Other funding information is available in the Thank You, W3C Funders page.