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Evaluation and Report Language (EARL) Overview

Evaluation and Report Language (EARL)

The Evaluation and Report Language (EARL) is a standardized machine-readable language for expressing test results. The primary motivation for developing EARL is to facilitate the exchange of test results between different checkers, such as Web accessibility evaluation tools, in a vendor-neutral and platform-independent format.

Web authoring tools and other applications can also use EARL to aggregate results from different testing tools including Web accessibility evaluation tools, validators, and other checkers.

Who EARL is for

EARL is primarily intended for developers of:

• Web accessibility evaluation tools
• Web quality assurance and validation tools
• Web authoring and development tools
• Web content description and labeling frameworks

What is in EARL 1.0

The EARL documents include:

• Requirements for the Evaluation and Report Language (EARL) 1.0 describes the requirements for the scope, design, and features of EARL.
• EARL 1.0 Schema Last Call Working Draft is the technical definition of the formal vocabulary. It is planned to become a Web standard, called a W3C Recommendation.
  • HTTP Vocabulary in RDF Working Draft is a stand-alone extension to the core vocabulary that describes a representation of the Hyper Text Transfer Protocol (HTTP) terms using the W3C Resource Description Framework (RDF). It provides a mechanism to record HTTP information that has been exchanged between a client and a server in RDF format, and can be used together with other RDF vocabularies such as EARL. It is planned to become a W3C Note.
  • Pointer Methods in RDF Editors Draft is a stand-alone extension to the core vocabulary. It is planned to become a W3C Note.
• EARL 1.0 Guide Editors Draft will describe the motivations for EARL and provide a tutorial introduction on how to use EARL. It is planned to become a W3C Note.

The difference between W3C Recommendations and W3C Notes are described in How WAI Develops Accessibility Guidelines through the W3C Process.

EARL 1.0 reuses other RDF vocabularies such as those provided by the Dublin Core Metadata Initiative (DCMI) and the Friend Of A Friend (FOAF) project. The EARL vocabulary can also be reused for other purposes, such as for content description and content labeling.

What is the status of EARL 1.0

In March 2007, the ERT WG plans to publish EARL 1.0 Schema as a Last Call Working Draft and HTTP Vocabulary in RDF as a Working Draft, and issue a Call for Review. See How WAI Develops Accessibility Guidelines through the W3C Process for a description of the document stages.

The ERT WG Charter lists the deliverables and milestones that the Working Group expects to accomplish.

Technical document format

The EARL 1.0 specification follows the W3C format for technical specifications which includes several sections at the beginning: links to different versions, editors, copyright, abstract, and status with the link to errata and the email address for comments. Most WAI specifications have a link at the top to the Table of Contents.

Who develops EARL

EARL technical documents are developed by the Evaluation and Repair Tools Working Group (ERT WG), which is part of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI). For more information about the Working Group, see the ERT WG page.

The ERT Working Group encourages feedback about EARL by developers and researchers who have interest in software-supported evaluation and validation of Web sites. Feedback from developers and researchers who have interest in Semantic Web technologies for content description, annotation, and adaptation is also strongly encouraged. Please send comments to public-wai-ert@w3.org, a publicly archived mailing list.

Beyond feedback on an on-going basis, the W3C specification development process includes formal periods for public review. Opportunities for review and comment of WAI documents are announced on the WAI home page and WAI Interest Group mailing list. An email address for sending comments is included in the "Status of this Document" section. For more information about the development of EARL or to be added to a EARL reviewer list of people who want to get direct notification of EARL documents for review, contact the ERT WG Team Contact.

Opportunities for contributing to ERT WG and other WAI work are introduced in Participating in WAI.

Document Information

Content last updated: 19 March 2007
Editors: Shawn Lawton Henry and Shadi Abou-Zahra. Developed with the Education and Outreach Working Group (EOWG) and the Evaluation and Repair Tools Working Group Working Group (ERT WG).

[Contacting WAI] Feedback welcome to wai-eo-editors@w3.org (a publicly archived list).

File (not content) last updated on $Date: 2007/03/20 00:03:21 $ by $Author: shawn $