W3C Community Survey 2026

Dear Community Members,

Following on the success of the surveys of the W3C Community over the last few years, we are conducting the W3C 2026 Survey to get to know our community better, investigate needs, and understand how we can improve.

Based on feedback from the 2025 survey, W3C has

* Improved the method of communicating the survey to all W3C account holders
* Created quarterly onboarding calls for new AC Reps to provide regular guidance on how member organizations can make the most of W3C
* Published a regular newsletter to report on W3C activities
* Held active discussion about membership fees and tiers

This survey is being run through SurveyMonkey and should take about 8 minutes to complete. This survey is available to all those who are part of the larger W3C community, and answers are anonymous. Please be sure to share the information with your working groups and colleagues in member organizations.

The survey closes on 30 September 2026. We look forward to hearing from you.

Question Title

1. How satisfied are you with your W3C experience so far? (Required.)

Very dissatisfied

Very satisfied

Clear

i We adjusted the number you entered based on the slider’s scale.

Question Title

2. How would you rate the overall quality of current W3C standards?

Excellent

Very Good

Good

Fair

Poor

Question Title

3. How do you participate in W3C? Select all that apply.

Working group participant

Interest group participant

Community group participant

Business group participant

Mailing list/GitHub observer

Invited Expert

Chair

Editor

Elected position (AB, TAG, Board of Directors)

Other (please specify)

Question Title

4. Why did you start participating? Select all that apply.

To contribute to standards that impact my industry/interests

To keep informed on standards that impact my industry/interests

To connect with others in my industry

To build a network with stakeholders involved in web standards development

Other (please specify)

Question Title

5. How likely are you to recommend W3C participation to a colleague or employer?

Very unlikely

Very likely

Clear

i We adjusted the number you entered based on the slider’s scale.

Question Title

6. Do you experience any barriers to participation in W3C activities?

Accessibility barriers

Cost of participation

Time commitment required

Difficulty using W3C tools or processes

Lack of multilingual support

Meeting times are inconvenient for my time zone

Lack of organizational backing

Unsure where to start or how to get involved

None, I have no issues participating

Question Title

7. What issues would need to be resolved for your organization to become a W3C Member?

Membership fee

Time zones

Language challenges

Lack of familiarity with tools W3C uses (IRC, GitHub)

W3C’s processes & governance

Unsure where to start, or how to get involved

Accessibility barriers

Lack of employer support

Lack of engagement with local W3C activities

Other (please specify)

Question Title

8. From your experience as a part of the W3C community, where should W3C focus more effort in the next 12 months?

Stronger public communication & visibility – distribute regular materials, enhance public relations and increase visibility of W3C work to the public.

More events & community engagement – revitalize regional/local meetings (especially in non-English speaking regions), incorporate hackathons at TPAC, and create stronger bridges between global and local communities.

Faster & more responsive standards work – accelerate the REC track and efficiently standardize emerging technical topics that members care about, including ensuring greater consistency and timeliness of horizontal reviews.

Facilitate participation from non-English speaking regions – reduce language barriers, enable language-specific mailing lists

Greater diversity & inclusion – actively promote cultural diversity in W3C activities and participation.

Training, implementation guidelines, “marketing collateral”, showing what can be achieved using W3C standards.

Providing more specific action and standardization plans to address the impact of AI on the Web

Question Title

9. Which other institutions, consortia, or technical communities do you participate in? Select all that apply.

Ecma International

GS1

Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)

Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF)

International Organization for Standardization (ISO)

International Telecommunication Union (ITU)

Khronos Group

Linux Foundation (e.g., Kubernetes, Hyperledger)

OpenJS Foundation (e.g., Node.js, jQuery)

WHATWG

Agentic Al Foundation

Alliance for Open Media

FIDO Alliance

None

Other (please specify)

Question Title

10. Which other technical communities, meetups, or open-source projects do you participate in? Select all that apply. (“Participate” = attend, discuss, or contribute — not just follow/read.)

Academic or research communities (e.g., university consortia, research groups)

Accessibility communities (e.g., WebAIM, local accessibility groups)

Design/UX communities (e.g., AIGA, local design meetups)

Developer conferences (e.g., FOSDEM, local dev conferences)

Online technical forums or communities (e.g., Stack Overflow, Reddit, Discord servers)

Open-source project communities (e.g., GitHub, mailing lists for specific projects)

None

Other (please specify)

Question Title

11. Are there any other comments or suggestions you would like to provide regarding W3C engagement, activities, or the value of membership?

Question Title

12. If you are interested in participating in interviews as part of this survey, please provide your email address:

DEMOGRAPHICS

To understand and continue to improve representation in W3C, we need a way to measure it. W3C does not track the demographic data of our participants, so we are using the annual survey to ask questions in a privacy-preserving way. Providing this information will help us understand our population and ensure all voices are heard.

Question Title

13. Your age (meaningful age groups that most likely have different expectations/needs from W3C):

Under 30

30-64

65 and over

Prefer not to say

Question Title

14. Gender that you feel best describes yourself:

Female

Male

Non-binary / Genderqueer

Prefer not to say

Prefer to self-describe:

Question Title

15. Primary region of activity/work:

Africa (excluding North Africa)

Asia (excluding Middle East)

Middle East & North Africa

Europe

North America (United States & Canada)

Latin America & the Caribbean

Oceania / Pacific

Global / Multi-regional

Question Title

16. What industry do you or your company work in?

Technology

Advertising

Publishing

Television/Film/Media

Consumer Electronics

Finance

Accessibility

Security

Government/Policy/Public Institution

Professional Services

Education/Research

Prefer not to answer

Other (please specify)

Question Title

17. How many people are employed by your organization?

0-10

11-100

101-500

501-1,000

1,001-5,000

5,001-10,000

10,000 or more

N/A

W3C Community Survey 2026

Question Title

* 1. How satisfied are you with your W3C experience so far? (Required.)

Question Title

* 2. How would you rate the overall quality of current W3C standards?

Question Title

* 3. How do you participate in W3C? Select all that apply.

Question Title

* 4. Why did you start participating? Select all that apply.

Question Title

* 5. How likely are you to recommend W3C participation to a colleague or employer?

Question Title

* 6. Do you experience any barriers to participation in W3C activities?

Question Title

* 7. What issues would need to be resolved for your organization to become a W3C Member?

Question Title

* 8. From your experience as a part of the W3C community, where should W3C focus more effort in the next 12 months?

Question Title

* 9. Which other institutions, consortia, or technical communities do you participate in? Select all that apply.

Question Title

* 10. Which other technical communities, meetups, or open-source projects do you participate in? Select all that apply. (“Participate” = attend, discuss, or contribute — not just follow/read.)

Question Title

* 11. Are there any other comments or suggestions you would like to provide regarding W3C engagement, activities, or the value of membership?

Question Title

* 12. If you are interested in participating in interviews as part of this survey, please provide your email address:

Question Title

* 13. Your age (meaningful age groups that most likely have different expectations/needs from W3C):

Question Title

* 14. Gender that you feel best describes yourself:

Question Title

* 15. Primary region of activity/work:

Question Title

* 16. What industry do you or your company work in?

Question Title

* 17. How many people are employed by your organization?

1. How satisfied are you with your W3C experience so far? (Required.)

2. How would you rate the overall quality of current W3C standards?

3. How do you participate in W3C? Select all that apply.

4. Why did you start participating? Select all that apply.

5. How likely are you to recommend W3C participation to a colleague or employer?

6. Do you experience any barriers to participation in W3C activities?

7. What issues would need to be resolved for your organization to become a W3C Member?

8. From your experience as a part of the W3C community, where should W3C focus more effort in the next 12 months?

9. Which other institutions, consortia, or technical communities do you participate in? Select all that apply.

10. Which other technical communities, meetups, or open-source projects do you participate in? Select all that apply. (“Participate” = attend, discuss, or contribute — not just follow/read.)

11. Are there any other comments or suggestions you would like to provide regarding W3C engagement, activities, or the value of membership?

12. If you are interested in participating in interviews as part of this survey, please provide your email address:

13. Your age (meaningful age groups that most likely have different expectations/needs from W3C):

14. Gender that you feel best describes yourself:

15. Primary region of activity/work:

16. What industry do you or your company work in?

17. How many people are employed by your organization?