December 13, 2007
Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 Last Call Working Draft Released
A second Last Call Working Draft of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 (WCAG 2.0) and updated working drafts of Understanding WCAG 2.0 and Techniques for WCAG 2.0 were released by the W3C for broad community review and comment. WCAG 2.0 addresses accessibility of web content for people with disabilities. It will apply to a wider range of web technologies than WCAG 1.0, and is intended to be understandable to a wider audience.
A good place to start a review of the WCAG 2.0 draft is with the Overview of WCAG 2.0 Documents. The Overview explains the relationships between WCAG 2.0 and the documents developed to support it:
- WCAG 2.0 Quick Reference Working Draft is a customizable list of the WCAG 2.0 requirements and techniques to meet them.
- Understanding WCAG 2.0 Working Draft has additional guidance on learning and implementing WCAG 2.0 for people who want to understand the guidelines more thoroughly.
- Techniques for WCAG 2.0 Working Draft gives you specific details on how to develop accessible Web content, such as HTML code examples.
These supporting documents will be released as Working Group Notes when WCAG 2.0 becomes a Recommendation.
Publication as a Last Call Working Draft indicates that the WCAG Working Group believes it has addressed all substantive issues and that the document is stable. The Working Group believes that after Last Call, WCAG 2.0 will be ready to move on to the next stages of the W3C Recommendation Track Process. Until WCAG 2.0 becomes a W3C Recommendation, WCAG 1.0 will continue to be the current and stable document to use.
The Trace Center has been a leader and key contributor in the development of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines. Trace Center Director Gregg Vanderheiden has been the co-chair of the WCAG Working Group since its inception. Vanderheiden, co-chair Loretta Guarino Reid, Google, Inc., Trace Web Accessibility Specialist Ben Caldwell and Michael Cooper, W3C, are co-editors of the guidelines.
For more information, visit the home page of the Web Accessibility Initiative.
Posted at 12:45 PM on December 13, 2007.
December 4, 2007
International Universal Remote Console Standards Approved
(updated) The national bodies of ISO/IEC JTC1 voted in January 2008 to adopt international standards for universal remote console technology. No negative votes or comments were received on this round, and the standards will therefore proceed directly to publication. This is a key step towards enabling the use of URC technology with mainstream consumer electronics, which is a goal the Trace Center has worked toward for the past ten years.
The newly approved standard ISO/IEC 24752 is in five parts, including an overview and detailed descriptions of the components of the URC framework. These components are: user interface socket description, presentation template, target description, and resource description. If approved, the international standard will be published in 2008.
The Trace Center has been instrumental in the development and standardization of URC technology from its inception. Trace is a member of the INCITS Technical Committee V2, the U.S. mirror group of JTC1 SC35, where the international version of the URC standard has been developed. Trace is also a founding member of the URC Consortium.
For further information about URC technology, please visit the URC Consortium's website.
Posted at 8:57 AM on December 4, 2007.