Using WAI Material:
Permission to Use with Attribution

Introduction

W3C Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) develops material to help make the web accessible to people with disabilities. As with all W3C material, WAI material is generally available for you to use, for free, with the two conditions below. For example, you can use WAI material by linking to it from your blog, putting it on a USB flash drive and handing it out at a conference, copying it on your intranet, printing it and handing it out to students, including it in a book, etc.

There are two conditions for using most WAI material; you must:

  1. Clearly attribute the original source as specified below, and
  2. Not modify the content (with few exceptions noted below).

Please read below for more details, including some material that is specially-marked content that you can modify.

Official W3C Document License

Most WAI material (including the standards and guidelines) is provided under the W3C Document License which grants permission to copy and distribute complete documents in any medium for any purpose, without fee or royalty, provided that you include URL, copyright, and status (if it exists). This does not allow modifications or the creation of derivative works, so as to prevent interoperability problems and other problems. For more information, see the Intellectual Rights FAQ.

Creative Commons Licensed (CC) Material for You to Adapt

A few WAI Resources are specifically designed for you to adapt, such as presentation slides. These are provided under a Creative Commons License (CC). We are happy for you to edit, change, and present such CC material under the following conditions:

  1. You include the URI (web address), copyright, and status (if it exists, e.g., “Draft”) of the original WAI material.

  2. You clearly attribute the material appropriately.

    Here is a template you can use:

    This [presentation] is based on [slides] from the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI): [title]. [name], ed. Copyright © 0000 W3C® (MIT, ERCIM, Keio). Status: Updated 00 Month 0000. www.w3.org/WAI/great/page

    For example:

    Some information in this article is from the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) document: Developing Web Accessibility Presentations and Training. Andrew Arch and Shadi Abou-Zahra, eds. Copyright © 2010 W3C® (MIT, ERCIM, Keio). Status: Draft Updated 16 September 2010. https://www.w3.org/WAI/training/

  3. You do not suggest that W3C or WAI endorses you or your use of the material.
  4. You abide by the license terms; most are Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Finding Which Type of License

Unless otherwise indicated, all WAI material not covered by another license is published under the W3C Document License.

For material under the Creative Commons License, the footer includes the license, such as: “This work is published and licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.”

Let Us Know

When you use WAI material, please let us know by sending an email to wai-eo-editors@w3.org (a publicly-archived list), or if you do not want it public send it to wai@w3.org.

For presentations, we would appreciate knowing how many people attended, what questions they had, and other information.

We welcome your feedback and suggestions to improve WAI materials, to wai-eo-editors@w3.org.

Appropriate Use

As stated in the W3C Intellectual Rights FAQ: W3C may rescind your right to publish or distribute derivative works if the W3C finds that it leads to confusion regarding the original document’s status or integrity.

Additional Information

Referencing and Linking to WAI Guidelines and Technical Documents provides general guidance for links, along with which WCAG links to use for policies, tools support, and others.

If you have questions, please contact WAI at wai@w3.org.

Back to Top