Current Standards Work at W3C

People regularly ask me what I am working on at the W3C, here is a run down of standards/guidance documents I am editing/co-editing, contributing to (note: I am only 1 of the people at TPGi involved directly in standards development at the W3C)

HTML 5.2

This specification defines the 5th major version, second minor revision of the core language of the World Wide Web: the Hypertext Markup Language (HTML). Editing updates to and maintenance of (mainly) accessibility related advice and requirements, with an emphasis on information for web developers.

ARIA in HTML

HTML5.2 specification module defining the web developer rules  for the use of ARIA attributes on HTML 5.2 elements. It also defines requirements for Conformance Checking tools. In HTML 5.2 this spec replaces the web developer (author) conformance requirements in section 3.2.7 WAI-ARIA of the HTML5 spec (titled 3.2.7 WAI-ARIA and HTML Accessibility API Mappings in HTML 5.1).

HTML Accessibility API Mappings 1.0

Defines how user agents map HTML 5.2 elements and attributes to platform accessibility application programming interfaces (APIs).  this spec replaces (and extends to all HTML elements/attributes) the user agent implementation requirements in section 3.2.7 WAI-ARIA of the HTML5 Recommendation (titled 3.2.7 WAI-ARIA and HTML Accessibility API Mappings in HTML 5.1).

HTML5: Techniques for providing useful text alternatives

This document contains best practice guidance for authors of HTML documents on providing text alternatives for images.  Edited until October 2014, the bulk of this document is  included in the HTML5 and HTML 5.2 specifications under section 4.7.5.1 Requirements for providing text to act as an alternative for images where I continue to update and maintain.

Using ARIA

This document is a practical guide for developers on how to add accessibility information to HTML elements using the Accessible Rich Internet Applications (ARIA) specification.

 

 

Categories: Technical

About Steve Faulkner

Steve was the Chief Accessibility Officer at TPGi before he left in October 2023. He joined TPGi in 2006 and was previously a Senior Web Accessibility Consultant at vision australia. Steve is a member of several groups, including the W3C Web Platforms Working Group and the W3C ARIA Working Group. He is an editor of several specifications at the W3C including ARIA in HTML and HTML Accessibility API Mappings 1.0. He also develops and maintains HTML5accessibility and the JAWS bug tracker/standards support.