Policy exploration

[iadawn]

Background

Previous work within the Accessibility Guidelines Working Group (AGWG) explored aspects of the guidelines that blur into policy or regulations. The intent was to identify points of overlap and create separate information that could help policy makers. The key aim of any information was to provide policy makers with a better understanding on how to integrate WCAG with any policy and an appreciation of the questions that need to be explored when doing so.

This work was not completed before the acceptance of the 2023 Working Group Charter. At that time the view from Team was that this did not form part of the agreed Charter.

The aim is to return to this work with a view to including this as a specific deliverable in the upcoming charter rework.

Goals

Develop material that can help policy makers effectively incorporate WCAG 3 into policies, regulations or legislation.
For our next charter, we would create a Note that would provide information to help policy makers understand how to effectively incorporate WCAG 3 into policies, regulations or legislation.

Important considerations and questions that need to be explored as part of their process include:

• Use cases that might affect how policies might apply the standards (ex: bugs, small organizations, rapidly changing content, etc.);
• Possible ways to use the conformance model to address certain use cases;
• Tradeoffs for different approaches; and
• Explanations of technical details that may not be obvious.

The Note would:

• Be written in a technical advisory capacity and tone,
• Clearly articulate who this is for and what policies it relates to,
• Be usable by anyone involved in the policy making process,
• Be applicable within organizations and as part of regulatory policies,
• Recognize the broad variety of policies and policy making contexts,
• Explore and finalize the Use Cases for WCAG 3.0 Conformance which outlines key considerations for policy makers,
• Supplement WCAG, and
• Be non-normative

The Note would not:

• Add, remove, or otherwise modify any WCAG criteria,
• Prescribe or dictate how policies should be written, and
• Prescribe policy, specific wording, or approaches,

This work should align with the AGWG activity on WCAG 3, most particularly work on the conformance model.

Questions for group

• Do you agree that this is an important activity for the Group to undertake?
• What objections exist?
  • If so, what changes would be needed to take this forward for our next charter?