Last Call Working Draft – Mark II

The WCAG process gathers pace this week with a new call for review. The Last Call Working Draft represents the 2nd stage in the W3C document process.

Call for Review: WCAG 2.0 Last Call Working Draft
http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/w3c-wai-ig/2007OctDec/0060.html

This is the second time the document process has reached the Last Call Working Draft stage. The new deadline for comments is February 2008 and will deal with the following points:

• Are the guidelines and Success Criteria clear?
• Are the Success Criteria implementable and testable?
• Does meeting the Success Criteria improve accessibility?

The successful completion of this step will result in the document process reaching the Candidate Recommendation stage.

WCAG 2.0 Not available until 2008

The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 will not be made available this year.

When will WCAG 2.0 be available to use? The Web Accessibility Initiative predicts early 2008.

It had looked as though WCAG 2.0 would be available this year. However, with delays brought on by the W3C document process, the availability of the document has been pushed back.

 The W3C document process comprises a number of stages:

1. Working Draft
2. Last Call Working Draft
3. Candidate Recommendation
4. Proposed Recommendation
5. W3C Recommendation (Web Standard)

In addition to WCAG 2.0, a number of supporting documents are produced, such as “Working group notes” and “WAI Resources”.

Although the supporting documents are not subject to the scrutiny of the W3C document process, they will offer developers the technical know-how required to provide accessible content.