Go to previous article
Go to next article
Return to 2005 Table of Contents
Presenter(s)
Jon Gunderson, Ph.D.
Chair, W3C User Agent Working Group
Division of Rehabilitation - Education Services
College of Applied Life Students
University of Illinois at Urbana/Champaign
1207 S.Oak Street, Champaign, IL 61820
Email: jongud@uiuc.edu
Matt May
W3C Team Contact, W3C User Agent Working Group
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL)
32 Vassar Street, Cambridge, MA 02139
Email: mcmay@w3.org
Abstract
The W3C User Agent Accessibility Guidelines working group has developed a second generation test suite and implementation reporting system to help consumers and developers to understand the accessibility features of browsers and multi-media players required by people with disabilities to access web resources. Test suites can be used by people with disabilities to provide specific feedback to developers on accessibility features that need to be improved in browsers and multimedia players. The test suites allow people to easily tell developers where accessibility problems exist in their product by providing a common point of reference to discuss the issue.
Introduction
The W3C User Agent Accessibility Guidelines (UAAG) [1] define the accessibility requirements for browsers and multi-media players to meet the needs of people with disabilities to access web content. UAAG is part of a set of accessibility guidelines developed by the W3C Web Accessibility Initiative to help authors and web technology developers understand how to make the web accessible to people with disabilities. The other two major W3C guidelines related to accessibility are the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) [2] and the Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines (ATAG) [3]. The guidelines work together to insure authors that create accessible content with WCAG can be accessed through web rendering technologies that conform to the UAAG requirements.
Test Suites
Test suites bring the abstract requirements of UAAG to life for both developers and consumers [4]. For example UAAG Checkpoint 1.1 requires that all functionalities of the browser be accessible through the keyboard. User agents do not uniformly implement the same functions and the functions of user agents change over time as new web technologies and services are developed. The test suites provide a way for the abstract concept of supporting the keyboard to be enumerated into all the potential functions that a user agent can implement. Each test includes the configuration, procedures, test code and expected results of the test. Examples of some of their current tests for keyboard support include link navigation and selection; navigation to form controls and changing their state; and selecting and copying content from a web resource.
The second generation test suites are designed to be easier for people to use by providing a web interface to add, edit and delete tests from the test suite. The new test suite uses a database to manage the tests in a test suite. Each test is assigned to one of the UAAG checkpoint requirements. So if a test is added it is automatically reported as a test that has not been evaluated in current evaluation reports. UAAG covers a range of technologies and the new test suite system supports creating tests for technologies other than HTML and CSS. Currently test suites are being developed for SMIL and SVG. With the use of a database test suite and implementation reporting systems can remain synchronized in reporting the results of user agent implementation evaluations. As new test are added they are automatically marked as no evaluated in implementation reports based on that test suite.
Implementation Report
The new implementation reporting system allows developers and consumers to easy view the details of an individual user agent evaluations and the collective implementation of a specific UAAG requirements. Each test can be rated using the following scale:
o C: Complete
o AC: Almost complete
o PI: Partial implementation
o NI: Not implemented
o NA: Not applicable
o NR: Not rated
The ratings are assigned for both the individual tests and for checkpoints to report the implementation of the requirements of a particular test and the reviewers assessment of the implementation of the checkpoint. The review also has the option of adding comments about the results of a particular test. Individual evaluations can be reviewed, including providing both summary and detail views of test suite rating information. The rating of a checkpoint is based on the overall ratings of the tests associated with the checkpoint. A test cannot be rated as complete unless all the test of the evaluation are rated as complete of not applicable. A test is rated as non-applicable when the user agent doesn't implement that feature for any user. The collection of individual user agent implementation reports for a test suite are combined to provide an overall implementation report of the UAAG 1.0 for a given test suite. This report is important to show developers that the implementation of an accessibility feature is feasible. The importance of the individual implementation reports provides developers with information on where improvements need to be made in their technologies and the collective overall implementation report provides consumers with knowledge on the features that are currently available to them in current user agent and assistive technology combinations.
Conclusion
The test suite is an important activity of the user agent accessibility guidelines working group, to transform the user agent requirements into concrete requirements that can be tested by developers. The rating system is useful to provide consumers and developers what functions need to be improved in a particular user agent. It is important to note that an evaluation of a particular user agent should not be misunderstood to be a conformance report. The UAAG 1.0 document has a number of specific requirements for a conformance report [5]. The test suites though can be considered a useful tool for people wishing to make conformance claims.
Acknowledgments
I would like to acknowledge the work of Colin Koteles, Ian Jacobs and Matt May in the development of the test suites and implementation report. I would like to that the user agent working group for all the time and effort they have expended in the development of the User Agent Accessibility Guidelines and their contributions to the implementation report.
References
[1] User Agent Accessibility Guidelines 1.0 http://www.w3.org/TR/UAAG10 [2] Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0 http://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG10 [3] Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines 1.0 http://www.w3.org/TR/ATAG10 [4] User Agent Accessibility Guidelines Test Suites http://cita.disability.uiuc.edu/wai-eval/
[5] User Agent Conformance Requirements
http://www.w3.org/TR/UAAG/conformance.html#Conformance
Go to previous article
Go to next article
Return to 2005 Table of Contents