[Accessibility_sig] WCAG 2.0 moves to next stage...Proposed Recommendation

[Sharron Rush]

It's been a long hard road, but looks quite like it was worth it as 
noted by the Education and Outreach Working Group of the Web Content 
Accessibility Initiative of the W3C:


The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) Working Group 
announces the publication of WCAG 2.0 as a W3C Proposed 
Recommendation on 3 November 2008. WCAG 2.0 explains how to make Web 
sites, applications, and other content accessible to people with 
disabilities, and older users. See:
   Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0
   http://www.w3.org/TR/2008/PR-WCAG20-20081103/

"Proposed Recommendation" means that the technical material of WCAG 
2.0 is complete and it has been implemented in real sites. 
Information about implementations and changes since the last 
publications is available in the:
   "Status of this Document" section
   http://www.w3.org/TR/2008/PR-WCAG20-20081103/#status

During this stage, WCAG 2.0 is submitted to the W3C membership for 
final review and endorsement. The W3C Process stages are described in:
   How WAI Develops Accessibility Guidelines through the W3C Process
   http://www.w3.org/WAI/intro/w3c-process
*The next step is the final publication; which we expect in December 2008.*

W3C WAI encourages you to start implementing WCAG 2.0 now; see:
   "What are the benefits of using WCAG 2.0?" in the WCAG 2 FAQ
   http://www.w3.org/WAI/WCAG20/wcag2faq-update.html#start

The different WCAG 2.0 documents that the WCAG Working Group updated 
with this publication are introduced in:
   Overview of WCAG 2.0 Documents
   http://www.w3.org/WAI/intro/wcag20.php

A key tool for using WCAG 2.0 documents, which was previously called 
the "Quick Reference", is:
   How to Meet WCAG 2.0: A customizable quick reference to WCAG 2.0 
requirements...
   http://www.w3.org/WAI/WCAG20/quickref/

While the focus of this stage is review by W3C Members, anyone can 
submit comments using the form or email address provided in:
   Instructions for Commenting on WCAG 2.0 Documents
   http://www.w3.org/WAI/WCAG20/comments/

WCAG 2.0 is part of a series of accessibility guidelines/standards 
developed by WAI, which are listed in:
   WAI Guidelines and Techniques
   http://www.w3.org/WAI/guid-tech.html

Feel free to circulate this message to other lists; please avoid 
cross-postings where possible.

Please let us know if you have any questions.

Regards,
~Shawn Henry and Judy Brewer
On behalf of:
Loretta Guarino Reid, Co-chair of WCAG WG, and Computer Scientist, Google Inc.
Gregg Vanderheiden, Co-chair of WCAG WG, and Director of Trace R&D 
Center, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Michael Cooper, W3C Team Contact for WCAG WG