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This page highlights some current work at the W3C Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI). It points out how you can contribute to making digital technology more accessible to people with disabilities.

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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're addressing public comments, and plan to publish the completed standard by December 2022. Note that these links have information that will likely change with the updates: What's New in WCAG 2.2 Working Draft, WCAG 2.2 Editor's 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 1.2 — We're documenting "implementations"; that is, how browsers support ARIA. [ARIA 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]

Teaching Accessibility

Curricula on Web Accessibility is a framework to build your own courses. It currently includes modules for foundations for everyone, for developers, and for designers. We're currently working on modules for content authors. Existing Curricula, Content Authors in-progress draft [EOWG]

Testing Accessibility

WCAG 2 Test Rules (also known as ACT Rules) describe how 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]

Upcoming Publications

We plan to publish the following documents in "Q3", which is July, August, September. 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.

Recent publications and other announcements are 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:

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 {#participate}

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: Judy Brewer, Shawn Lawton Henry, Michael Cooper, Roy Ran, Steve Lee, Daniel Montalvo, and several WAI Alumni
• Participants of: AG, APA, ARIA, EPUB, EO, and other W3C groups

Updates to this page (changelog)