PAS 78: Update
The draft of the Publicly Available Specification document, PAS 78, is about to enter the third and final phase of its development. The initial draft, having been collated by the Steering Panel, has now been circulated to all members of the Review Panel for comment. Review Panel comments are to be returned to the British Standards Institute by July 22nd for consideration by the Steering Panel.
The PAS draft has taken slightly longer than expected to reach this stage. The delay has been almost certainly caused by a change in the document’s focus. The document’s original title was:
Guide to good practice in designing accessible websites
This now been changed to:
Guide to good practice in commissioning accessible websites
During the collation of the original draft, it became obvious that it would be almost impossible to address the needs of technical web developers and non-technical web site commissioners/owners at the same time within a single document. After consideration, it was decided that the group most in need of clear support were web site commissioners/owners. Whilst no one can deny that there are some web developers who seem to be in desperate need of both education and support when it comes to designing accessible websites, there are already organisations which exist to do just this. The Guild of Accessible Web Designers is just one such organisation.
Having decided to concentrate on site commissioners/owners, the document was then redrafted in line with its new focus, and title, and copies issued to all Review Panel members. Black Widow, having been invited to join the Review Panel by the Disability Rights Commission in early March, undertook to collate feedback on the PAS draft document from GAWDS members. This feedback has now been returned to be British Standards Institute.
The final Publicly Available Specification document is due to be released in autumn 2005.