The Accessibility Guidelines Working Group wants to commit to a) improving equity of all types in our processes and participation and b) improving equity for the full spectrum of users with disabilities in content authored using WCAG3. Exactly what that will encompass and how it can be measured is under exploration and discussion.
+The primary scope for equity in WCAG 3 is to address equity for persons with disabilities, including users with more than one disability. Work is under way in the Framework for Accessible Specification of Technologies (FAST) to categorize functional needs, including the intersection between different functional categories, to help achieve this. Efforts towards equity must also consider the spectrum of human experience and how it intersects with disability. This includes but is not limited to socio-economic status, sexual orientation, religion, race, physical appearance, neurotype, nationality, mental health, language, indigeneity, immigration status, gender, gender identity and gender expression, ethnicity, disability (both visible and invisible), caste, body, or age. This list draws from the W3C's Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct (CEPC), and we intend to stay aligned with the CEPC.
+The term “equity” refers to the ability of people with diverse characteristics to access and understand content and to participate effectively in processes. Web accessibility guidelines seek to increase equity for people with disabilities by ensuring supports are provided for people with different functional needs. Work towards equity considers three layers:
+“Equity” as a noun is a hypothetical or target state, not one that will necessarily be fully reached in practice. It is also a lens through which to analyze practices or outcomes. Equity is distinct from equality, in that equity focuses on equivalent results, whereas equality only provides similar opportunities. An equitable practice may provide minimal supports for many users, moderate for others, and extensive for some, in order for all of them to be able to complete a task with comparable facility. Requirements for equity are informed by the nature of inequities that exist.
+An “equity-centered process” aims to make meaningful progress towards the goal of reducing inequity. The Accessibility Guidelines Working Group’s participatory design approach requires involvement from people across the spectrum of functional needs, with appropriate supports for ongoing building of awareness, trust in each other, and ownership of personal responsibility in the process. It also requires accountability to the process and results, in the form of cyclical progress reviews and goal updates.
+Outstanding questions that need to be addressed include:
+