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Accessibility Guidelines And Standards
Chris Ridpath
Software Designer/Programmer
The fun part of accessibility!
- Standards
- Conformance Levels
- Specifications
- Checkpoints
- WCAG, 508, CLF, ODA
You may need to know about accessibility guidelines and standards if your site is required to confrom to them.
HTML Techniques
http://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG20-HTML-TECHS/
Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG)
- http://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG10/
- from Web Access Initiative (WAI)
- International
- Published in 1999
- Covers Most Web Content
- Voluntary - Not Legislation
- 3 Levels
Section 508
- http://www.section508.gov/
- U.S. Regulation
- Published in 1998
- Covers Some Web Content
- Required For U.S. Federal Websites
- 16 Paragraphs
Common Look And Feel (CLF)
- http://www.cio-dpi.gc.ca/clf-nsi/index_e.asp
- Canadian Standard
- Same As WCAG (level 2)
- Published in 1999
- Covers Most Web Content
- Required For Canadian Federal Websites
- 3 Levels
Ontarians With Disabilities Act (ODA)
- http://www.odacommittee.net/
- Ontario Standard
- First Version 2001
- First Version Weak
- 1 sentence: "The Government of Ontario shall provide its internet sites in a format that is accessible to persons with disabilities, unless it is not technically feasible to do so."
- New Version (passed 3rd reading)
- Will be good standard (likely based upon WCAG2)
International Standards
German Standard (BITV)
- Similar To WCAG 1
- More Practical And Functional
Euro Accessibility
- Standards Under Development
WCAG 1.0 Themes
- Ensuring Graceful Transformation
- Content Understandable and Navigable
- Guideline 1. Provide equivalent alternatives to auditory and visual content.
- Checkpoint: 1.1 Provide a text equivalent for every non-text element.
- Means "images must have alt text".
<img xhref="cat.jpg" alt="photo of a black and brown cat named Rex"/>
WCAG 1.0 in Haiku
- http://infomesh.net/2001/08/wcaghaiku/
- Traditional Japanese Poetry
- A 17-syllable verse form consisting of three metrical units of 5, 7, and 5 syllables.
WCAG Version 2
- due for release this year
- 6 years in the making
- testable
- well defined
- cover all web content
- technology agnostic
- will likely apply to Canada
- 3 levels
WCAG2 Lofty Principles
- Preceivable
- Operable
- Understandable
- Robust
"Preceivable" means images must have alt text
WCAG2 HTML Techniques
- http://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG20-HTML-TECHS/
- very practical
- will be authorative
- other techniques will follow - (CSS, Flash, PDF etc.)
WCAG2, 3.2, L2, SC1
WCAG2 Components that are repeated on multiple delivery units within a resource or a section of a resource occur in the same sequence each time they are repeated, for at least one presentation format.
Conformance Logos
- Voluntary
- Difficult to verify
WCAG2 Test Suite
- http://www.w3.org/WAI/GL/WCAG20/tests/
- practical
- will be authorative
- developed at ATRC