W3C TPAC 2025 Participation Report

The W3C’s annual conference, the Technical Plenary and Advisory Committee (TPAC), which alternates to a different location each year, held its annual gathering in Kobe from November 10 to 14. The event, the W3C TPAC 2025, was offered in a hybrid format.

TPAC was previously held in Sapporo in 2015 and in Fukuoka in 2019, however, as it had been a while since the last event in Japan - and because I participate in the Sustainable Web Interest Group - I, again, decided to attend in person.

Incidentally, you can read our company’s previous reports on participation in TPAC at the links below.

• TPAC 2019 Participation Report (in Japanese)
• TPAC 2015 Participation Report (in Japanese)
• TPAC 2014 Participation Report (in Japanese)
• Test the Web Forward Shenzhen & TPAC 2013 Participation Report (in Japanese)
• TPAC 2009 Participation Report (in Japanese)
• TPAC 2008 Participation Report (in Japanese)

Over the course of the three-day event, I attended the following sessions - they were primarily meetings of the Sustainable Web Interest Group and those related to Accessibility, one of my areas of expertise.

At the Sustainable Web Interest Group meeting on November 13, a wide range of topics were covered in connection with the Web Sustainability Guidelines (WSG), which are currently under formulation, including evaluation methods and AI. The minutes are publicly available and available for everyone to read. Many of this year’s participants had previously met online but were coming together in person for the first time, making it a valuable opportunity.

At present, the WSG are in a draft stage and are undergoing horizontal review within the W3C (a process in which reviews are conducted from multiple technical perspectives). In parallel with that, and which was especially beneficial for the Sustainable Web Interest Group, those active in formulating the guidelines also had the opportunity to exchange views with both the Accessibility Guidelines Working Group and the Web Performance Working Group.

Among the Accessibility-related sessions attended, I found the November 12 session by the Accessibility at the Edge Community Group particularly interesting. The Group presented their report titled Accessibility Capabilities: Post-Source Code and Content, released just before TPAC, which they followed with discussions related to content within.

The report also explores in depth how edge technologies—those that are closer to users and more directly controllable by them—can help address accessibility challenges inherent in the original source.

I have long believed that there is room for web browsers to better support users’ browsing experiences and to improve content accessibility (please refer to my Column of August 2022 titled “The Evolution of Web Browsers – Expectations from a User’s Perspective (in Japanese)”). Therefore, I am beginning to consider whether this report could serve as a catalyst for generating some positive momentum.

That concludes this brief report on my participation in this year’s TPAC. Going forward, via our website’s Columns and as well as blog related to Web Quality (in Japanese), I hope to continue sharing updates on WSG progress as well as with regards to any initiatives for adopting parts of the WSG as quality standards for our company’s web development projects.