W3C

The Verifiable Claims Working Group has published a First Public Working Group Note of Verifiable Credentials Implementation Guidelines 1.0 along with an Updated Working Group Note of Verifiable Credentials Use Cases. The Implementation Guidelines document provides implementation guidance for the Verifiable Credentials Data Model 1.0 specification, while the Use Cases document provides use cases for the specification in order to make progress toward possible future standardization and interoperability of both low- and high-stakes claims with the goals of storing, transmitting, and receiving digitally verifiable proof of attributes such as qualifications and achievements.

The Chinese Web Interest Group has published a First Public Working Draft of MiniApp Standardization White Paper. This document introduces a new format for mobile application, named MiniApp, which is a very popular hybrid solution relies on Web technologies (especially CSS and Javascript) but also integrates with capabilities of Native Apps.

The Browser Testing and Tools Working Group has published a First Public Working Draft of WebDriver Level 2. WebDriver is a remote control interface that enables introspection and control of user agents. It provides a platform- and language-neutral wire protocol as a way for out-of-process programs to remotely instruct the behavior of web browsers. This new version contains corrections from the previous Recommendation and introduces the New window command.

The WAI Education and Outreach Working Group (EOWG) has published Making Audio and Video Media Accessible. This resource helps you understand and create captions/subtitles, audio description of visual information, descriptive transcripts, and sign language for media. It includes guidance for creating new videos, and on media player accessibility. The planning and project management sections address considerations for outsourcing or in-house development. The resource starts by introducing user experiences and benefits to organizations — illustrating how accessibility is essential for some and useful for all.

The Accessible Platform Architectures Working Group has published three First Public Working Drafts from the Pronunciation Task Force: Pronunciation User Scenarios, Pronunciation Use Cases, and Pronunciation Gap Analysis. These documents are a first step in defining normative specifications and best practices guidance for text to speech (TTS) synthesis to provide proper pronunciation of HTML content.

The Pronunciation User Scenarios and the Pronunciation Use Cases provide examples of the need for standardization of pronunciation markup to ensure consistent and accurate representation of content. The requirements from the user scenarios will provide the basis for the technical specifications.

The Pronunciation Gap Analysis presents required features of spoken text pronunciation and presentation along with existing specifications that may support (or enable support) of those features. Gaps are defined when a required feature does not have a corresponding method by which it can be authored in HTML.

Comments are requested by 14 October 2019.

The Verifiable Claims Working Group has published a Proposed Recommendation of Verifiable Credentials Data Model 1.0. Credentials are a part of our daily lives; driver’s licenses are used to assert that we are capable of operating a motor vehicle, university degrees can be used to assert our level of education, and government-issued passports enable us to travel between countries. This specification provides a mechanism to express these sorts of credentials on the Web in a way that is cryptographically secure, privacy respecting, and machine-verifiable.

Comments are welcome through 3 October 2019.

The CSS Working Group invites implementations of an updated Candidate Recommendation of CSS Writing Modes Level 3. CSS Writing Modes Level 3 defines CSS support for various writing modes and their combinations, including left-to-right and right-to-left text ordering as well as horizontal and vertical orientations. Comments are requested by 2 October 2019.

CSS is a language for describing the rendering of structured documents (such as HTML and XML) on screen, on paper, in speech, etc.

W3C announced today a Workshop on Inclusive Design for Immersive Web Standards, 5-6 November 2019, in Seattle, WA, USA. The event is hosted by PlutoVR.

The goals of the workshop are to:

• Share existing inclusive XR solutions that will help us create new standards for inclusive XR on the web.
• Identify accessibility gaps in existing web XR technologies, and consider solutions for closing those gaps.
• Explore ways to use existing technologies and standards to create innovative solutions for inclusive XR on the web.

Expected topics of discussion include:

• Standards that already exist or are in development that may impact inclusive XR on the web
• Solutions that are already being used to create inclusive XR on the web
• Lessons from other areas like location-based VR, gaming, and 360 video
• Accessibility limitations of existing web XR technologies
• Extensions to existing web XR technologies to enable more inclusive XR on the web
• Role of AI in providing real-time audio description or text captions
• Using existing APIs to provide alternative modes of interaction (like the Vibration API for tactile feedback, the Gamepad API for alternative input devices)

Attendance is free for all invited participants and is open to the public, whether or not W3C members. For more information on the workshop, please see the workshop details and submission instructions.

Expressions of interest and position statements are due by 5 October 2019.