Open Accessibility (A11y) Workgroup
Open A11y Workgroup's Mission Statement
First chartered in 2004 as the Linux Foundation Accessibility Workgroup (LFA), the Open Accessibility (A11y) Group functions today within the Linux Foundation to establish free and open standards that enable comprehensive universal access to various computing platforms, applications, and services. Open A11y makes it easier for developers, ISVs, and distributions to support assistive technologies (AT). Assistive technologies enable individuals to make full use of computer-based technology despite variability in physical or sensory abilities due to illness, aging or disability.
AT enables individuals who are blind or visually impaired to read online text, for example, and provides the means for individuals who do not have the use of their arms and hands to write and correspond. AT also enable individuals who cannot speak or hear to participate on the telephony interfaces of today -- and will support their participation on the multimodal computer interfaces of tomorrow.
- AT-SPI2 2.0.1 Available for Download (2011-04-27) [1]
- IAccessible2 1.2.0 released under BSD License [2]
- Linux Foundation Announces New Licensing Terms, Testing Tools for Accessibility Interfaces [3]
- news from Open A11y [5]
Open A11y Workgroup Resources
- Email Lists: Archives & List Services [6]
- Meetings: Agendas & Minutes [7]
- Specifications: Drafts & Recommendations [8]
irc.a11y.org(on the#a11yor#ia2channel) [9]- Open A11y Workgroup Participants [10]
- Open A11y's Executive Officers [11]
- Open Accessibility BZR Repository [12]
- Open Accessibility GForge Projects [13]
- Bugzilla [14]
For Developers
Interested in writing cross-platform accessible applications?
- AT-SPI Interfaces [15] and Subinterfaces
- Learn more about the IAccessible2 interfaces for Windows [21].
- IAccessible2, version 1.2.0 [2]
- AccProbe: The Accessibility Probe [4] is a standaloneapplication that provides a view of the Microsoft Active Accessibility (MSAA) or IAccessible2 hierarchy of a currently running application or rendered document and of the properties of the accessible objects of that application or document
- Get support or ask a question either on the Accessibility mailing list [6] or via irc.a11y.org [22], in channels #a11y and #ia2 -- or, create your own channel and get others involved!
A11y Special Interest Groups
- ATK/AT-SPI SIG [23]
- Expert Handlers SIG [25]
- IAccessible2 SIG [21]
- Input/Output (I/O) SIG [30]
- Keyboard Accessibility SIG [32]
Archival References & Resources
handlers/draftpages/csun2008/proposal/finaldraft [38]
Expert Markup Handlers for AT: A Proposal From Open A11y (FINAL Draft)
- Title:
- Open A11y Proposal: A Standard to Enable AT Interaction with Specialized Content
- Read more [38]
handlers/draftpages/csun2008/proposal/draft4 [40]
Expert Markup Handlers for AT: A Proposal From Open A11y (Draft 4)
- Title:
- Open A11y Proposal: A Standard to Enable AT Interaction with Specialized Content
- Read more [40]
handlers/presentations/csun2008 [41]
Expert Markup Handlers for AT: A Proposal From Open A11y
- Title:
- Open A11y Proposal: A Standard to Enable AT Interaction with Specialized Content
- Read more [41]
handlers/draftpages/missionstatement6 [44]
Expert Accessibility Handlers Mission Statement, Draft 6
Note: The following text is identical to that in Draft 5 and on the Expert Handlers SIG's front page; only the markup has been changed to point to internal, rather than external resources.
- Read more [44]
handlers/draftpages/csun2008 [45]
Open A11y Expert Handlers SIG CSUN 2008 Planning Page
Submission Deadline for CSUN 2008: 15 October 2007
Original Submission Deadline: 21 September 2007
- Read more [45]
handlers/draftpages/missionstatement1 [48]
Expert Handlers Workgroup Proposed Mission Statement, Draft 1
The world of generalized content markup (such as HTML) is complimented by markup specifications that provide more precise and explicit markup for particular knowledge domains (such as MathML [49] in the domain of mathematics).
- Read more [48]
handlers/draftpages/csun2008/proposal/draft3 [52]
Expert Markup Handlers for AT: A Proposal From Open A11y (Draft 3)
- Title:
- Expert Markup Handlers for AT: A Proposal From Open A11y
- Read more [52]
handlers/usecases/flowcontrol/draft1 [54]
Expert Handlers and the Flow of Control
author: Neil Soiffer (chair, Expert Handlers SIG
- Read more [54]
handlers/usecases/navigation/navdraft1b [55]
Draft 1b: Navigability Use Cases
Gregory J. Rosmaita, editor/annotator; Pete Brunet, Draft 1a author
- Read more [55]
handlers/usecases/navigation/navdraft1a [56]
Draft 1a: Navigability Use Cases (Pete Brunet, author)
Note: Navigability will, perhaps, need to address multiple levels of navigability
- Read more [56]
handlers/usecases/magnification [57]
Draft 1: Magnification Use Cases (Neil Soiffer, author)
- Read more [57]
handlers/draftpages/missionstatement3 [58]
Expert Handlers SIG Mission Statement Draft 3
The world of generalized content markup (such as HTML) is complimented by
markup specifications that facilitate more semantically precise content markup
in particular knowledge domains (such as MathML in the domain of mathematics).
Similarly, users who rely on assistive technologies (AT) require content
access that properly exposes the more complex structures delineated by
knowledge domain markup in order to use this content effectively.
- Read more [58]
handlers/usecases/unified/uuc1 [59]
Unified Use Cases for Expert Handlers (UUC 1.0)
document status: public working draft (approved by the working group 2008-02-05) [60]
revision date: 2008-02-04
- Read more [59]