[Draft] Evaluation and Repair Tools Working Group (ERT WG) Charter

Scope

ERT WG's scope of work includes:

• Develop a minimum normative set of rules to which WCAG 2.0 evaluation tools should conform, to ensure consistent and reliable assessment of conformance to WCAG 2.0. These rules should be consumable by WCAG 2.0 testing tools. The group should take into account available rule sets as draft input including Open Ajax Alliance Functional Accessibility Evaluator Rules, and input from the Automated WCAG Monitoring Community Group;
  
• Update the Guide to Features of Web Accessibility Evaluation Tools (WG Note), to provide more granular guidance aligned with individual testing features described in the normative set of rules;
• Update the Website Accessibility Conformance Evaluation Methodology (WCAG-EM) 1.0 (WG Note) jointly with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines Working Group (WCAG WG), to provide point-by-point guidance on implementation of the normative set of rules;
• Publish EARL 1.0 as a Working Group Note, to support comparability of evaluation tool output;
• Update and maintain data in the list of web accessibility evaluation and repair tools, to promote more informed use of web accessibility evaluation tools that support WCAG 2.0 (Note:web page, including filtering functionality and presentation of the data will be maintained by the Education and Outreach Working Group (EOWG);
• Document requirements for enhancement of WebDriver specification to facilitate automated browser platform accessibility API testing;
  
• Work with HTML, SVG, CSS, WAI-ARIA, and WebApps working groups to develop test samples, strategy, procedures, and resources to perform automated accessibility API testing based on WebDriver;
• Develop WCAG 2.0 test samples, to benchmark the support of tools for WCAG 2.0 evaluation and repair, as follow-on work to the accessibility support database;
• Contribute input where appropriate on future development of WAI guidelines and specifications.

Consistent with W3C Process requirements on Task Forces, the ERT WG may form task forces composed of ERT WG participants or join other W3C task forces to carry out assignments when under the chartered scope of ERT WG. Any such task force must have a work statement (including objectives, communication, participation, and leadership) that has been announced on the ERT WG mailing list, approved by the ERT WG, and is available from the ERT WG home page. ERT WG task forces should produce requirements documents that outline the scope and expectations for work. Task forces may set up separate teleconferences and hold face-to-face meetings per the W3C process and with the approval of the ERT WG.

Success Criteria

• Normative set of rules for testing conformance to WCAG 2.0
• Updated Website Accessibility Conformance Evaluation Methodology (WCAG-EM) 1.0 (WG Note) jointly with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines Working Group (WCAG WG), to provide point-by-point guidance on implementation of the normative set of rules;
• Updated Guide to Features of Web Accessibility Evaluation Tools as a W3C Working Group Note;
• Completed EARL 1.0 as a W3C Working Group Note;
• Up-to-date data in the list of web accessibility evaluation and repair tools with information on tools that support WCAG 2.0 and the minimum WCAG rule set compliance criteria, once available;
• Documented requirements for extension to the WebDriver specification to support automated Accessibility API testing for the Core Accessibility API Mapping Specification, Accessibility API Name and Description Computation, SVG2 Accessibility API Mapping specification, and the HTML Accessibility API Mapping specification;
• Implementations of the WebDriver extension specification for the above to facilitate the move these specifications move to Candidate Recommendation and for browser vendor reuse in their automated test procedures;
• Availability of a WCAG 2.0 Test Samples Repository to help benchmark web accessibility evaluation and repair tools for WCAG 2.0;