W3C - News

• Updated W3C Recommendation: ARIA in HTML

  The Accessible Rich Internet Applications Working Group has published ARIA in HTML as an updated W3C Recommendation. This specification defines the authoring rules (author conformance requirements) for the use of Accessible Rich Internet Applications (WAI-ARIA) 1.2 and Digital Publishing WAI-ARIA Module 1.1 attributes on [HTML] elements. This specification's primary objective is to define requirements for use with conformance checking tools used by authors (i.e., web developers). These requirements will aid authors in their development of web content, including custom interfaces and widgets, which make use of ARIA to complement or extend the features of the host language [HTML].

• W3C invites implementations of Decentralized Identifier Resolution (DID Resolution) v1

  The Decentralized Identifier Working Group has published a W3C Candidate Recommendation Snapshot of Decentralized Identifier Resolution (DID Resolution) v1. Decentralized identifier (DID) resolution is the process of obtaining a DID document and accompanying metadata for a specific DID. The process takes a DID and a set of resolution options as its input and returns a DID document and associated metadata about the resolved document and the resolution request. A resolved DID document is a set of information which enables cryptographically verifiable interactions with the DID subject, including mechanisms such as cryptographic public keys.Comments are welcome via GitHub issues by 3 September 2026.

• Group Note: Further Aligning W3C's Program of Technical Work with Human Rights

  The W3C Advisory Board (AB) published a Group Note of Further Aligning W3C's Program of Technical Work with Human Rights. There is a clear link between human rights and technical standards setting. In this position paper, the AB lists examples of how the two map, points to existing W3C work in this area, and provides concrete proposals to further the alignment between the W3C’s technical work and human rights.This document summarizes the AB’s current thinking, as of 4 August 2026. This Group Note is endorsed by the AB, but is not endorsed by W3C itself nor its Members.

• W3C Invites Implementations of WebTransport

  The WebTransport Working Group has published WebTransport as a W3C Candidate Recommendation Snapshot. This document defines a set of ECMAScript APIs in WebIDL to allow data to be sent and received between a browser and server. This specification is being developed in conjunction with protocol specifications developed by the IETF WEBTRANS Working Group.Comments are welcome via Github issues by 30 October 2026.

• Group Note Draft: Verifiable Credentials Overview v1.1

  The Verifiable Credentials Working Group has published the first draft of a Group Note titled Verifiable Credentials Overview v1.1. 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, government-issued passports enable us to travel between countries, and trade authorities issue certificates containing various informations on a product. The family of W3C Recommendations for Verifiable Credentials, described in this overview document, provides a mechanism to express these sorts of credentials on the Web in a way that is cryptographically secure, privacy respecting, and machine-verifiable.

• Group Note Draft: EPUB Accessibility 1.2 Explainer

  The Publishing Maintenance Working Group has published the first draft of a Group Note titled EPUB Accessibility 1.2 Explainer, which provides information on how to understand and evaluate the accessible publications conformance requirements of EPUB Accessibility 1.2 against reflowable EPUB publications.

• Group Note: WCAG Evaluation Methodology (WCAG-EM) 2.0

  The Accessibility Guidelines Working Group has published WCAG Evaluation Methodology (WCAG-EM) 2.0 as a Group Note. This document describes a methodology with a step-by-step process to evaluate how well digital products conform to Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2. It provides technology-agnostic guidance to define the evaluation scope, explore the target product, select a representative sample set from products, evaluate the selected sample set, and report the evaluation findings. This procedure is suitable for use in different evaluation contexts, including self-assessment and third-party evaluation. This document does not define feature-specific instructions, as the WCAG success criteria and supporting documents cover those. It also does not define additional WCAG 2 requirements, nor does it replace or supersede them in any way.

• W3C Invites Implementations of EPUB 3.4, EPUB Reading Systems 3.4 and EPUB Accessibility 1.2

  The Publishing Maintenance Working Group invites implementations of the following three Candidate Recommendation Snapshots:EPUB 3.4: EPUB® 3 defines a distribution and interchange format for digital publications and documents. The EPUB format provides a means of representing, packaging, and encoding structured and semantically enhanced web content — including HTML, CSS, SVG, and other resources — for distribution in a single-file container. This specification defines the authoring requirements for EPUB publications and represents the fourth major revision of the standard.EPUB Reading Systems 3.4: This specification defines the conformance requirements for EPUB 3 reading systems — the user agents that render EPUB publications.EPUB Accessibility 1.2: This specification specifies content conformance requirements for verifying the accessibility of EPUB® Publications. It also specifies accessibility metadata requirements for the discoverability of EPUB publications.Comments are welcome via GitHub issues by 19 October 2026.

• Proposed Advancement of Web Authentication: An API for accessing Public Key Credentials Level 3 to W3C Recommendation

  Today, the W3C Team proposed advancing Web Authentication: An API for accessing Public Key Credentials Level 3 to W3C Recommendation. This specification was published by the Web Authentication Working Group as a Candidate Recommendation Snapshot on 26 May 2026. This specification defines an API enabling the creation and use of strong, attested, scoped, public key-based credentials by web applications, for the purpose of strongly authenticating users. Conceptually, one or more public key credentials, each scoped to a given WebAuthn Relying Party, are created by and bound to authenticators as requested by the web application. The user agent mediates access to authenticators and their public key credentials in order to preserve user privacy. Authenticators are responsible for ensuring that no operation is performed without user consent. Authenticators provide cryptographic proof of their properties to Relying Parties via attestation. This specification also describes the functional model for WebAuthn conformant authenticators, including their signature and attestation functionality.

• First Public Working Draft: Character Model for the World Wide Web: String Matching

  The Internationalization Working Group has published today a First Public Working Draft of Character Model for the World Wide Web: String Matching. This document builds upon Character Model for the World Wide Web 1.0: Fundamentals to provide authors of specifications, software developers, and content developers a common reference on string identity matching on the World Wide Web and thereby increase interoperability.Comments are welcome via the GitHub repository issues.