Contributing to the ARIA and Assistive Technologies Project

Community Group Workstreams

The work of the ARIA-AT community group is divided into the following workstreams.

Developing draft test plans.
Reviewing and running draft test plans. Volunteer community group members who are experienced screen reader users run draft tests to validate them and generate reports for screen reader developers.
Building industry consensus. This is the process of reviewing reports with screen reader developers and incorporating their input into the test plans.
Developing the standards and infrastructure for automating regression testing. This workstream involves developing an industry standard protocol for driving assistive technologies when testing web content, supporting implementation of the protocol in assistive technologies, and integrating automation into the ARIA-AT reporting process.
Developing the ARIA-AT app for managing tests, test data, and reports. This workstream develops the aria-at.w3.org web site and its back-end.

The community group process for developing test plans and building industry consensus is defined in its working mode.

One valuable way anyone can support the ARIA-AT community group without even becoming a member is to spread awareness of its work and needs.

Some opportunities for people who join the community group are:

Experienced screen reader users, especially those with knowledge of ARIA, can help run and review tests.
As progress is made on automation driver implementation, engineers interested in automated testing can help exercise early implementations and provide feedback.
If you have background in accessibility and skills in communications, technical writing, or training development, you could help develop the community group’s member support programs.