An insight into WCAG Accessing the Future

About me.. CEO of InterAccess.ie - Accessible UX consultancy. Over 12 years experience working with PWD/AT and the Web. Previously, NCBI Centre for Inclusive Technology. A11y audits for government and private sector clients (Over 60), ran a usability lab, worked on EU/FP7 research projects. Very much a grass roots/punk rock/practical approach to a11y. Stuff has to work, and ideally look good.

About me.. Took over as co-chair of WCAG in April 2013, with Andrew Kirkpatrick (Adobe), from Gregg Vanderheiden/Loretta Guarino Reid (big shoes to fill).

WCAG is.. An ISO standard ISO/IEC 40500:2012. Referenced all over the world. Seen as the ‘standard’ for accessible content creation. Mix of normative/non-normative.

What does ‘normative’ mean? Normative means relating to an ideal standard or model, or being based on what is considered to be the normal or correct way of doing something.

WCAG is.. A range of recommendations for making web content accessible. Normative Success Criteria. Understanding docs. Non-normative techniques. Quickref. Lots of translations.

WCAG is.. A stable standard i.e ‘it does not change’. That one thing you must remember, or nothing that follows will seem wondrous.

So how do we ‘change’ WCAG? We don’t we either add to it somehow, or start a new one...

So whats new?

WCAG Charter activities Support Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0 Recommendation: Errata, maintain our docs/techniques, support materials, work with other groups etc. Develop normative WCAG 2.0 extensions to address special topic areas as needed without changing the meaning of conformance to WCAG 2.0 on its own.

WCAG Charter activities Explore specific user groups and industry verticals that have identified needs for concrete guidance, including but not limited to: Mobile devices, cognitive impairments and learning disabilities, digital learning materials, low vision;

WCAG Charter activities Explore accessibility issues and define requirements for potential future guidelines. Coordinate with other groups working on WCAG related activities. The UAAG and ATAG Working Group charters are no-more (indeed the groups are no more). This may result in a “A new Working Group that addresses uses cases, user needs, and guidelines for content, user agents, and authoring tools may be chartered to take the place of all three groups, in which case the WCAG Working Group would end its charter early.

WCAG Charter activities

New Techniques - 21 ARIA.

New techniques.. HTML 5 (but not many) Client side scripting Some technique/failure updates

Task forces

3 new Task Forces: Mobile, Low Vision, Cognitive (COGA)

Mobile Task force

Low Vision Task force

COGA Task force

WCAG 2.0 Extensions Framework

Requirements for WCAG 2.0 Extensions

Extension Requirements/Overview Satisfy pre-existing requirements for WCAG 2.0 Ensure that web pages which conform to WCAG 2.0 with an extension also conform to WCAG 2.0 on its own Strive to make all WCAG extensions compatible with each other Define a clear conformance model for WCAG 2.0 plus extensions

How to comment on WCAG extensions requirements ents/ -comments-wcag20/

Future work possibilities.. Possibility 1: We will publish extensions but the group may decide that due to issues with conformance model/complexity/cherry picking of extensions by disability type - this extension work may ultimately feed requirements for a 2.1 release (not possible under charter to publish but we can work on requirements). Possibility 2: If option 1 = true; the group will re- charter for the creation/publication of a WCAG 2.1. Possibility 3: If option 1 = true AND option 2 = true. The group may soon start to do requirements for WCAG 3.0, folding in the work of ATAG/UAAG, while working on a WCAG 2.1.

Submit Pull Request Git hub

New issues

New Quickref

Thanks! Any questions? Joshue O Connor InterAccess [WCAG janitor, guitarist, veggie cook, gardener]