This year the W4A be running a joint W4A WWW 2012 panel on accessibility and its definition at WWW 2012. This will be on Wednesday the 18th at WWW2012 but will be free entry to W4A Pass holders.

The organizers (of which I’m one) suggest that there are many different views of web accessibility with many questions to be answered: what is the relationship between web accessibility and usability? Is web accessibility for all or is it strictly for disabled people? What kind of evaluation methods, ethos, and rationale are key? How important is context for web accessibility? Investigating these questions is important because they will help us to:

• Guide and help in better teaching web accessibility by solidifying ideas, concepts, and language into a more solid bedrock of understanding;
• Better communicate the meaning of the concept to people who are not in the field, and thereby making communication with the wider community, companies, and governments more harmonious and insightful;
• Advance web accessibility as a research field by providing a shared understanding, grammar, and lexicons; and
• Improve penetration of web accessibility into commercial and industrial settings by harmonizing the language and therefore the expectations of companies with regard to planning, budgeting, enacting policy, or conforming to accessibility requirements and legislation.

They want the views of Web Engineers / Scientists / Developers / Accessibility Specialists.

If you cannot attend then look out for the #w4apanel12 hashtag on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and UStream.

Notice the ’12’ in the hashtag – we’re hoping for more Panels and more Camps.