The Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines Working Group develops guidelines, techniques and supporting resources for tools that create web content, ranging from desktop HTML editors to content management systems.
The accessibility requirements apply to two types of things: the user interface on the one hand, and the content produced by the tool on the other.
The working group consists of representatives from organizations that produce authoring tools, researchers, and other accessibility experts.
This project published a document that reviews literature about the needs of older users and compares these needs with those of people with disabilities as already addressed in WAI guidelines.
It also maintains a database of tools for evaluating Web sites and for making them more accessible ("repair", "retrofitting").
In 2006, the working group started development of a set of document and specifications for accessible rich internet applications: WAI-ARIA.
The working group consists mainly of organizations that develop user agents, researchers, and other accessibility experts.
W3C staff post announcements of new WAI documents to this mailing list to invite reviews and comments.
Members of the list also post announcements of relevant events and publications, and ask advice on issues related to web accessibility.
Web content refers to any information you may find on a Web site: text, images, forms, sound, video, etcetera, regardless whether these were produced on the server side or on the client side (with a client-side scripting language such as JavaScript).
The working group published the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0 (WCAG 1.0) as W3C Recommendation in 1999, followed by techniques documents in 2000.
A supporting document, Techniques for Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0[35] was published as a W3C Note on 6 November 2000.
WCAG 1.0 is a set of guidelines for making web content more accessible to persons with disabilities.
The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0 are recognized as a de facto standard and have served as a basis for legislation and evaluation methodologies in many countries.
Developed by the User Agent Accessibility Guidelines Working Group, the UAAG 1.0 became a W3C Recommendation on 17 December 2002.