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First Draft of the ATAG CG Charter #28

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First Draft of the ATAG CG Charter #28

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first draft of the ATAG CG charter
reidmore-online Feb 20, 2026
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fix modified date
reidmore-online Feb 20, 2026
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Apply suggestion from @hidde
reidmore-online Mar 4, 2026
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124 changes: 64 additions & 60 deletions ATAG_Charter.html
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Expand Up @@ -28,19 +28,6 @@
</style>
</head>
<body>
<p class="remove">
{TBD: This is a draft template that Community or Business Groups MAY
choose to use for their Group Charter. You may edit your charter to
remove or change the text provided here. Community Groups SHOULD have
charters as a way to build shared understanding within a group about
activities, and to attract new participants who appreciate a clear
description of the group's scope and deliverables.}
</p>
<p class="remove">
{TBD: The charter sections below include notes (marked with �{TBD�) on
what to include and recommended text. Please remember to remove the notes
in your specific charter.}
</p>
<h1>
[DRAFT] Authoring Tools Accessibility Guidelines Community Group Charter
</h1>
Expand All @@ -56,81 +43,106 @@ <h1>
estimate if not known. Update this if the charter is revised and include
a link to the previous version of the charter.}</span>
</li>
<li>Last Modifed: <span class="remove">{TBD: If the system does not
automatically provide information about the date of the last
modification, it can be useful to include that in the charter.}</span>
<li>Last Modified: February 20, 2026
</li>
</ul>
<h2 id="goals">
Goals
</h2>
<p>
<span class="remove">{TBD: describe the mission and goals of the
Community Group. This should be a brief description describing the reason
the group has been formed.}</span>
The Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines (ATAG CG) will explore
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@ewightman ewightman Feb 27, 2026

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Add "Community Guidelines" after "Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines"?

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@hidde hidde Mar 4, 2026

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can you elaborate?

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@patrickhlauke patrickhlauke Mar 4, 2026

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going to assume they misunderstood "CG" as meaning "Community Guidelines" ...

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@hidde hidde Mar 4, 2026

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Aahh I see… we might just say “This Community Group will explore”

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@ewightman ewightman Mar 4, 2026

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Whoops, yes I meant "Community Group".
"The Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines Community Group (ATAG CG)" to fully introduce the acronym.

updating ATAG and addressing the role of AI in accessible authoring
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@hidde hidde Feb 23, 2026

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We're saying “AI” a lot in this paragraph.

Maybe we can leave it out in this first paragraph, as we're explaining the focus on emerging technologies in the next:

Suggested change
updating ATAG and addressing the role of AI in accessible authoring
The Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines (ATAG CG) will explore
updating ATAG.

for web content. The ATAG CG will incubate updates to ATAG relating
to the creation of accessible web content and authoring tool
accessibility, with a focus on emerging technologies like AI. This
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@hidde hidde Feb 23, 2026

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This is not me being pedantic, but “AI” isn't very well defined, and a term that looks specific but isn't. I think that's a problem for us today, as it makes the charter less easy to grasp as it is, but also a problem in the future, when the word may start to mean other things.

My preference would be to talk about “LLMs” or “generative AI” here, as that's more specific.

If I'm alone in that, I'd also be happy for us to define what we mean by AI on the first instance.

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@mgifford mgifford Feb 27, 2026

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“generative AI” would be my preference. I do think folks will look more for "AI" than "LLM"

But would could also put that in brackets afterwards (Large Language Models (LLMs))

But that all gets even wordier.

community group will explore the challenges relating to current AI authoring
tools and develop requirements and guidance for building AI authoring
tools that are accessible and produce accessible content.
</p>
<h2 id="scope-of-work">
Scope of Work
</h2>
<p class="remove">
{TBD: Describe topics that are in scope. For specifications that the CLA
patent section applies to, it is helpful to describe the scope in a way
that it is clear what types of technologies will be defined in
specifications, as opposed to adoption by reference or underlying
technology not defined in the proposed spec. Key use cases are often
helpful in describing scope. If no specifications will be defined in the
group that the CLA patent section applies to, the charter should clearly
state that. A clear scope is particularly important where patent
licensing obligations may apply.}
<p>
The Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines Community Group (ATAG CG) plans to
explore the following topics with the goal of enhancing the guidance in ATAG 2.0
and incubating ideas for the next version of ATAG:
</p>
<ul>
<li>Review ATAG 2.0 and identify areas for improvement and updating, including
references to WCAG 2.2, areas needing clarification, and any outdated references.</li>
<li>Explore developments in authoring tools and platforms since the release of ATAG 2.0,
including the rise of AI and LLMs in content creation, the increased use of web-based
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@hidde hidde Feb 23, 2026

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maybe another development we could add here is the rise in headless CMSes (or CMSes that strictly separate content and presentation), and the major change in content types (TikToks just weren't as much of a thing back then… there's a lot more multimedia, more 'social' media too).

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@simonrjones simonrjones Feb 27, 2026

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Agree this is a good point. How about something like:

... including the rise of AI and LLMs in content creation, API-driven or headless authoring tools, ...

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@hidde hidde Mar 4, 2026 •
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I like it. Would suggest we update line 74 to include it like this:

Suggested change
including the rise of AI and LLMs in content creation, the increased use of web-based
including the rise of AI and LLMs in content creation, and the increased use of API-driven, headless, and web-based

(in this suggestion I disambiguated 'rise of AI/LLMS' from 'rise of increased use' etc)

platforms for content development and consumption, and the changing needs of end users.</li>
<li>Identify any challenges or gaps in the current ATAG 2.0 guidance, both in the specification
and accompanying documentation.</li>
<li>Incubate requirements and guidance for accessible AI authoring tools, including both the
accessibility of the tools themselves and the accessibility of the content they produce.</li>
</ul>
<h3 id="out-of-scope">
Out of Scope
</h3>
<p class="remove">
{TBD: Identify topics known in advance to be out of scope}
<p>
The ATAG CG will not work on any of the following topics:
</p>
<ul>
<li>Accessibility standards for content, this is the domain of WCAG. ATAG will reference
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@hidde hidde Feb 23, 2026 •
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to disambiguate what a standard for content could be:

Suggested change
<li>Accessibility standards for content, this is the domain of WCAG. ATAG will reference
<li>Standards for the accessibility of content, this is the domain of WCAG. ATAG will reference

WCAG in its guidance.</li>
</ul>
<h2 id="deliverables">
Deliverables
</h2>
<h3 id="specifications">
Specifications
</h3>
<p class="remove">
{TBD: Provide a brief description of each specification the group plans
to produce. Where an estimate is possible, it can be useful to provide an
estimated schedule for key deliverables. As described below, the group
may later modify the charter deliverables. if no specifications, include:
"No Specifications will be produced under the current charter."}
<p>
The ATAG CG will work on updates to the Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines (ATAG)
2.0 specification, with a focus on ensuring references to other specifications like WCAG
are up to date.
</p>
<p>
The ATAG CG will also begin to incubate ideas for the next versino of ATAG, with a focus on
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Suggested change
The ATAG CG will also begin to incubate ideas for the next versino of ATAG, with a focus on
The ATAG CG will also begin to incubate ideas for the next version of ATAG, with a focus on

guidance for authoring tools using a variety of technologies including AI and LLMs.
</p>
<h3 id="non-normative-reports">
Non-Normative Reports
</h3>
<p>
The group may produce other Community Group Reports within the scope of
this charter but that are not Specifications, for instance use cases,
requirements, or white papers.
The ATAG CG will produce non-normative reports to support the development of specifications.
This may include the following:
</p>
<ul>
<li>Use Cases and Requirements Report: A report that identifies the key use cases and
requirements for both authoring tools and the content they produce.</li>
<li>Gap Analysis Report: A report examining the current ATAG 2.0 specification and its
impact since publication. This report will look at implementation and adoption, including
any barriers or challenges that have been identified since.</li>
<li>Research Report: A report summarizing research findings relevant to the development
of ATAG.</li>
</ul>
<h3 id="test-suites">
Test Suites and Other Software
</h3>
<p class="remove">
{TBD: If there are no plans to create a test suite or other software,
please state that and remove the following paragraph. If Github is not
being used, then indicate where the license information is. If GitHub is
being used link to your LICENSE.md file in the next paragraph.}
</p>
<p>
The group MAY produce test suites to support the Specifications. Please
see the GitHub LICENSE file for test suite contribution licensing
information.
The ATAG CG does not plan to produce any test suites or software.
</p>
<h2 id="liaisons">
Dependencies or Liaisons
</h2>
<p class="remove">
{TBD: List any significant dependencies on other groups (inside or
outside W3C) or materials. }
<p>
The ATAG CG will liaise with or has dependencies onthe following groups:
</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://w3.org/WAI">W3C Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI)</a>:
The ATAG CG will liaise with WAI to ensure that the guidance in ATAG is
consistent with the latest developments in web accessibility and to
coordinate on any topics that impact other groups.</li>
<li><a href="https://www.w3.org/WAI/about/groups/agwg/">Accessibility
Guidelines Working Group (AGWG)</a>: The ATAG CG will liaise with AGWG to ensure that
the guidance in ATAG is consistent with the latest developments in WCAG 2 and WCAG 3.</li>
<li><a href="https://accessible.canada.ca/">Accessibility Standards Canada (ASC)</a>: The
ATAG CG will liaise with ASC on the development of accessibility standards for authoring
tools.</li>
</ul>
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I think it would be helpful to liaise with other SDOs (I'm thinking exploring if we could work with ETSI/CEN/CENELEC to have a better authoring section in EN 301 549 to maximise impact; I'm in that group and happy to help).

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@hidde hidde Feb 23, 2026

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Should we liaise with policy makers on this too? To make sure they understand what we're doing and how they can reference it should they want to?

<h2 id="process">
Community and Business Group Process
</h2>
Expand Down Expand Up @@ -183,11 +195,6 @@ <h2 id="contrib">
W3C Software and Document License</a>. All other documents produced by
the group should use that License where possible.
</p>
<p class="remove">
{TBD: if CG doesn't use GitHub replace the remaining paragraphs in this
section with: "All Contributions are made on the groups public mail list
or public contrib list"}
</p>
<p>
Community Group participants agree to make all contributions in the
GitHub repo the group is using for the particular document. This may be
Expand Down Expand Up @@ -219,9 +226,6 @@ <h2 id="transparency">
<h2 id="decision">
Decision Process
</h2>
<p class="remove">
If the decision policy is documented somewhere, update this section accordingly to link to it.
</p>
<p>
This group will seek to make decisions where there is consensus. Groups
are free to decide how to make decisions (e.g. Participants who have
Expand Down