Web Accessibility Initiative Interest Group

Charter

The WAI Interest Group is chartered until December 2024.

To learn about the group’s scope, participants and deliverables, see the WAI Interest Group’s Charter.

Participate in digital accessibility discussions

W3C and the WAI Interest Group welcome input on W3C’s digital accessibility work from the global accessibility community.

The WAI Interest Group is open to the public with no minimum requirements for participation in the group.

The group provides frequent opportunities for you to give input on digital accessibility work at W3C:

Comment on WAI publications: During development, the group publishes working drafts of WAI working groups’ deliverables, with options for public comment — these are announced on the WAI Interest Group mailing lists.
Contribute to digital accessibility discussions: Contribute your views to the WAI Interest Group’s mailing list discussions.

WAI Interest Group mailing lists

The WAI Interest Group has two mailing lists.

Announcements List

The Announcements List is for WAI announcements only — see the Announcement List Mail Archive.

If you want to send a message to this list, you must send it from an email address that is subscribed to the list.

Note: Emails to the Announcement List will also go to the Discussion List.

To subscribe, send an email to with the subject line ‘Subscribe’ to public-wai-announce-request@w3.org.
To unsubscribe, send an email with the subject line ‘Unsubscribe’ to public-wai-announce-request@w3.org.

Discussion List

The Discussion List is for public discussion as well as WAI announcements — see the Discussion List Mail Archive.

If you want to send a message to this list, you must send it from an email address that is subscribed to the list.

To subscribe to the list, send an email with the subject line ’Subscribe’ to w3c-wai-ig-request@w3.org.
To unsubscribe from the list, send an email with the subject line ‘Unsubscribe’ to w3c-wai-ig-request@w3.org.

Using the Discussion List

Find discussion topics

You can use the Discussion List Mail Archive to search for accessibility topics that participants have raised for discussion.

Email the Discussion List

Once you are subscribed, you can message the Discussion List by emailing w3c-wai-ig@w3.org.

Note: The first time you email this public W3C mailing list, you will get an email asking you to give permission for your message to be sent to the group and be listed in the public mail archive.

When emailing the Discussion List:

Use a Subject line that describes the topic well.
If you change topics, change the Subject line to include both the new and old topics, as follows: ‘[New Topic] was: [Old Topic]’.

Code of conduct for discussions

Make sure your email is related to digital accessibility and is appropriate for the WAI Interest Group. Your message should contribute to a comfortable, constructive exchange of ideas to advance digital accessibility.

If you have questions about whether a message is appropriate for the Discussion List, email the W3C Staff Contact for the WAI Interest Group.
No soliciting.
Be respectful, positive, and open to different perspectives.
Focus on ideas, not people — avoid personal attacks.
Explain the issue clearly and provide sufficient contextual information.

In summary, before you send an email, think about how it will come across to the people around the world who are on the list and who can read your publicly archived message.

See additional guidance in Positive Work Environment at W3C: Code of Conduct.

Asking about vendors or products

W3C is vendor neutral and therefore we do not recommend specific vendors or products.

Important: If asking about vendors or products, include the following wording in your message:

‘Please reply to me directly and not to the whole list, so that specific vendor or product information is not discussed on the list.’

Receiving messages from the Discussion List

If you use auto-reply (out of office), exclude your automatic responses to emails from w3c-wai-ig@w3.org.

Replying to a message in the Discussion List

When your comments are not useful for all participants in the Discussion List, reply directly to the sender.
Keep your reply comments near the top of your email.
Quote the previous content in the email chain that you are commenting on, so that readers can quickly and easily understand what your reply is referring to.

Contact the chairs

If you have a question about the WAI Interest Group, email the chair or the W3C staff contact.