WCAG2ICT Task Force Work Statement

The WCAG2ICT Task Force is a task force of the Accessibility Guidelines Working Group (AG WG). It assists this Working Group with the work identified below.

Status

This work statement was approved by the AG WG on 26 October 2022. The task force is active.

NOTE: This work is mentioned in the Other Deliverables section of the current AG WG Charter. The continuation of the work is also included in the current AG WG Charter.

Objective

The objective of the WCAG2ICT Task Force is to develop documentation describing how WCAG 2.x and its principles, guidelines, and success criteria could apply to non-Web Information and Communications Technologies (ICT).

This Task Force was formed to update the 2013 “Guidance on Applying WCAG 2.0 to Non-Web Information and Communications Technologies (WCAG2ICT)” Working Group Note published on 5 September 2013. Updates are needed to include new guidelines and success criteria added in the WCAG 2.1 Recommendation as well as new requirements added in WCAG 2.2. WCAG2ICT was developed to describe how to apply WCAG 2.0 and its principles, guidelines, and success criteria to non-web ICT (Information and Communications Technologies). WCAG2ICT also plans to add new content that identifies problematic WCAG provisions when applied to non-Web ICT.

Scope of Work

The work of the task force includes:

Explicitly out of scope for the WCAG2ICT Task Force work are:

Approach

WCAG2ICT is a Task Force of the AG WG, which has oversight over the Task Force to ensure accurate interpretation and representation of WCAG 2.x. The AG WG decision process applies within the group. We have an AG WG co-chair liaison to ensure draft content is taken to the AG WG for review as it progresses.

The primary effort of this Task Force is to describe how to interpret WCAG 2.x and its principles, guidelines, success criteria and conformance requirements when applying them to non-web ICT; and evaluating what WCAG Conformance means in the context of non-Web ICT. The resulting Working Group Note will include a discussion of the application of each of the criteria in WCAG 2.x to non-Web ICT, including their interface components and platforms, and the extent to which WCAG Conformance is meaningful to non-Web ICT.

To efficiently develop the Working Group Note, work may be broken down into sub-groups, under the coordination of the Task Force facilitator(s) following established AG WG procedures for sub-groups.

The work will be focused in stages to ensure WCAG2ICT content is available in time for use in upcoming updates to regulations and standards (like the EN 301 549) that apply WCAG to non-web technology. This means prioritizing Level A and AA criteria and known issues in the existing Note. WCAG2ICT could potentially need to be published before addressing Level AAA due to regulatory schedule needs. If publication is needed prior to addressing Level AAA criteria, another update to the WCAG2ICT Note may be necessary.

The work will be carried out through a series of document drafts, all publicly visible, with opportunities for public comment through publicly available comment lists. In particular, key stakeholders such as developers, evaluators, accessibility experts, researchers, procurement experts, and end users will be regularly involved in the development process. Key participants will be drawn from people with expertise not only in Web technologies, but also those with specific accessibility expertise, including the development of accessible frameworks, platforms, user interface components, and software covering a broad variety of computing environments.

Timeline

The following sections contain rough timelines for the WCAG2ICT work. Actual timelines and project management will be handled outside of this work statement, and will not be maintained herein.

As previously mentioned, a phased delivery of the WCAG2ICT Working Group Note will likely be necessary to provide timely guidance for upcoming regulatory and standards updates.

Phase 1

Goals are to incorporate new WCAG 2.1 and 2.2 Level A and AA success criteria, and make other necessary updates to the other content in the WCAG2ICT document to align with WCAG 2.2. In addition, this phase will address known documented issues.

Note: To include WCAG 2.2, the Recommendation version standard must be published with sufficient time to update the draft WCAG2ICT Note with finalized requirements verbiage.

Phase 2

The next phase of updates would include any other in-scope work, including Level AAA, that was not addressed in Phase 1. Details of the Phase 2 timeline will be developed outside of this document when more is known about the scope of work left to do.

Liaisons

While there are no direct dependencies at the Task Force level (please see deliverables section of the AG WG Charter for more information). The following proposed participating liaisons may change pending confirmation, and/or be expanded:

The list of liaisons will be updated to show official organization representation of the participants in the task force, once known.

Communication

WCAG2ICT Task Force communications are publicly visible. Communication mechanisms for the WCAG2ICT Task Force include:

  1. WCAG2ICT Task Force public mailing list, mailing list archive, and GitHub issue tracker;
  2. WCAG2ICT subpage off of the AG Working Group home page;
  3. Weekly (and at times twice-weekly) teleconferences, with teleconference minutes sent to AG WG mailing list and linked from the WCAG2ICT TF minutes page;
  4. Regular updates and feedback to AG WG, and to the WAI Coordination Group (WAI CG) as needed;
  5. Regular submission of deliverables to the AG WG for approval;
  6. Management of project information and schedule in the WCAG2ICT wiki;
  7. Summary of current status and progress on the WCAG2ICT Task Force home page.

Participation

WCAG2ICT Task Force participants must join the Task Force through the AG WG, which includes representatives of W3C Member Organizations as well as Invited Experts (agreement for Invited Experts). Task Force participants must agree to actively contribute to the work of WCAG2ICT Task Force, including:

Current WCAG2ICT Task Force participants

Contact Daniel Montalvo to become a participant of the WCAG2ICT Task Force or with questions.

Facilitation

Staff contacts from the Accessibility Guidelines Working Group oversee attention to W3C Process with respect to the chartered requirements of the Working Group. The facilitators set agenda, lead meetings, determine consensus, and are the primary liaison to the Working Group.

Patent Policy

This Task Force is part of the AG Working Group Charter, which operates under the W3C Patent Policy (15 September 2020 Version). W3C maintains a public list of any patent disclosures made in connection with the deliverables of the AG Working Group.

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