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Presenter(s)
Wendy Chisholm
W3C Web Accessibility Initiative
MIT/CSAIL Building 32-G530
32 Vassar Street
Cambridge, MA 02139 USA
+1.617.395.4103
Email: wendy@w3.org
Judy Brewer
W3C Web Accessibility Initiative
MIT/CSAIL Building 32-G530
32 Vassar Street
Cambridge, MA 02139 USA
+1.617.258.9741
+1.617.258.5999
Email: jbrewer@w3.org
Introduction
This presentation covers a variety of issues to help you understand and plan for the transition to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 (WCAG 2.0) [1]. We will describe the latest developments in WCAG 2.0, provide a detailed comparison of WCAG 1.0 [2] and WCAG 2.0, suggest processes for transitioning policies and business practices from WCAG 1.0 to WCAG 2.0, and demonstrate how to transition a WCAG 1.0 Level A site to WCAG 2.0 Level A.
Background
The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) published Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0 (WCAG 1.0) as a Recommendation on 05 May 1999. Since then, many organizations have either adopted or referenced WCAG 1.0 in their policies. The feedback received about WCAG 1.0 from developers and policy makers forms the basis of the requirements the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines Working Group (WCAG WG) is using to write WCAG 2.0. To satisfy these requirements, WCAG 2.0 differs from WCAG 1.0 by introducing a new priority scheme, defining testable success criteria, removing technology-specific information from the guidelines, providing testable information in checklists, techniques, and test suites, and providing an overview of materials to orient users to the suite of documents.
Transitioning conformance of a Web site from WCAG 1.0 to WCAG 2.0
The WCAG WG aims to design WCAG 2.0 Level A such that only minor changes will be needed to transition existing WCAG 1.0 Level A sites to the new guidelines. As well as providing materials to help authors transition to WCAG 2.0, the WCAG WG is developing a series of supplementary documents to support the guidelines:
• Techniques documents will provide "how to" information for a variety of markup languages. Techniques documents will contain detailed examples, code snippets, and browser support information for languages such as HTML (including XHTML), Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), and Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG).
• Checklists will provide a process to help Web content developers evaluate the accessiblity of content and provide a format to report evaluation results.
• Test suites will be collections of tests and procedures that the checklists draw from. Test suites will also help evaluation and repair tool developers test the accuracy of evaluation and repair tools.
Making WCAG 2.0 easier to use, test, and understand
WCAG 1.0 was written primarily for making HTML documents accessible. Since then, Web-based applications, Web services, and the Semantic Web are changing the way the Web works. WCAG 2.0 guidelines and success criteria will be written to apply to a variety of markup languages and content formats. At the same time, techniques documents, checklists, and test suites will cover a wide range of technologies. WCAG 2.0 is being developed with a focus on testability such that success criteria are objective, testable statements. Furthermore, extensive technology-specific resources will provide examples, checklists, and test procedures.
The WCAG WG is working with the Education and Outreach Working Group to make WCAG 2.0 easier to understand and use. Particularly, the EOWG is developing an "Overview of WCAG 2.0" which outlines the differences between WCAG 1.0 and WCAG 2.0 and orients readers to the complete suite of WCAG 2.0 materials. Additionally, the WCAG WG will produce detailed transition guidance as well as a point-by-point comparison of WCAG 1.0 and WCAG 2.0.
Transitioning Web accessibility policies to take advantage of WCAG 2.0
Many governments and organizations around the world have taken measures to ensure that their Web sites are accessible to people with disabilities [3]. In the majority of cases they have either directly adopted or referenced W3C's Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0 (WCAG 1.0). In some cases they have also referenced the Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines 1.0 (ATAG 1.0) and the User Agent Accessibility Guidelines (UAAG 1.0) in order to bring about a more comprehensive Web accessibility solution. Other governments and organizations have developed local standards, regulations, or guidelines based indirectly on WCAG 1.0.
The W3C/WAI document "Why Standards Harmonization is Essential to Web Accessibility" [4] explains the benefits across all stakeholder groups of converging on a common international standard for Web accessibility in the future. The upcoming release of WCAG 2.0 provides an opportunity for governments and other organizations to review their technical and policy-related needs with regard to accessibility of Web sites and Web software. Since WCAG 2.0 addresses accessibility issues with the latest Web technologies, and will be more precisely testable than currently available guidelines, many organizations will want to transition forward to WCAG 2.0 once it is finalized. Likewise many organizations may want to review their currently-used authoring tools to ensure that these tools support production of accessible Web sites.
The W3C/WAI document "Developing Organizational Policies on Web Accessibility" [5] provides guidance on common issues which arise in development and implementation of Web accessibility policies. Some organizational policies are simple statements of commitment to conformance with WCAG; others are more complex statements with phased-in conformance milestones across different parts of the Web site. W3C/WAI will be adding guidance about transitioning organizational policies as part of the transition support materials around the release of WCAG 2.0. For instance, some organizations will want to build an option into their Web accessibility policies to transition their policies forward onto WCAG 2.0 once that is available; others may wish to review and test the new guidelines first. The period before WCAG 2.0 is released provides a good opportunity to review and clarify organizational policies on Web accessibility to ensure a smooth transition forward.
Transitioning Web accessibility business practices
The WAI resource suite "Implementation Planning for Web Accessibility" [6] outlines key planning steps in implementing conformance to WCAG across an organization. For instance, basic project management steps involved in ensuring accessibility of Web sites across an organization include: assessment of the existing Web site; assignment of a coordination team; training Web developers; selecting appropriate authoring and evaluation tools; retrofitting the existing Web site or developing a new site; and monitoring the site on an ongoing basis.
It may be useful to plan a few additional steps to facilitate transition onto WCAG 2.0. For instance, managers may want to be assured of the correspondence of WCAG 1.0 and 2.0 conformance levels. Web developers may want an early preview of the differences in technical requirements between 1.0 and 2.0, and may want to know about other improvements in WCAG 2.0 such as the availability of precise testing criteria. They may also be interested in an opportunity to participate in implementation trials while WCAG 2.0 is still under review, in order to be able to provide feedback.
In order to ensure more efficient implementation of WCAG 2.0, Web managers and developers may also be interested to watch the upcoming release of the Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 (ATAG 2.0) [7]. The selection of authoring tools that conform to ATAG 1.0 and/or ATAG 2.0 not only enables people with disabilities to use the Web authoring software that an organization acquires, but use of ATAG-conformant authoring tools also greatly facilitates the production of Web sites that conform to WCAG, for instance by prompting for accessibility content during the authoring process.
Conclusion
By attending this presentation you should leave with a better understanding of how to transition from WCAG 1.0 to WCAG 2.0 in policy, business practices, and Web site development. You should also better understand the relationships between the various WCAG 2.0 documents in development by W3C/WAI to support Web accessibility and the transition to WCAG 2.0 and ATAG 2.0.
References
[1] "Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0," B. Caldwell, W. Chisholm, G. Vanderheiden, and J.White, eds., W3C Working Draft, 30 July 2004, at http://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG20/
[2] "Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0," W. Chisholm, G. Vanderheiden, and I. Jacobs, eds., W3C Recommendation, 05 May 1999, at http://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG10/
[3] "Policies Relating to Web Accessibility" S. Henry, J. Brewer, eds. WAI Reference List, at http://www.w3.org/WAI/Policy/
[4] "Why Standards Harmonization is Essential to Web Accessibility" J. Brewer, ed., Draft WAI Resource, at http://www.w3.org/WAI/EO/Drafts/standard-harmon.html
[5] "Developing Organizational Policies on Web Accessibility," J. Brewer, ed., WAI Resource, at http://www.w3.org/WAI/impl/pol.html
[6] "Implementation Planning for Web Accessibility," J. Brewer, S. Horton, eds., WAI Resource, at http://www.w3.org/WAI/impl/
[7] "Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines 2.0," J. Treviranus, C. McCathieNevile, J. Richards, M. May, eds. W3C Working Draft, 24 February 2004, at http://www.w3.org/TR/ATAG20/
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