The international guidelines exist to help web designers and
developers create sites that better meet the needs of users with
disabilities and older users. In the UK, websites are legally
required to be accessible and usable and conforming to WCAG can
help an organisation to achieve compliance.
The guidelines address barriers to accessing the web experienced
by people with visual, auditory, physical, cognitive and
neurological disabilities, and by older web users with
accessibility needs. They deal with, for instance text alternatives
for images, readability, captions for audio, and colour
contrast.
The development of WCAG 2.0 was
at times controversial, with some critics saying that early drafts
were too long and too confusing. But the body responsible for its
publication, the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI), told OUT-LAW
today that it considered every comment received.
WAI is part of the not-for-profit World Wide Web Consortium,
known as W3C. WAI Director Judy Brewer told OUT-LAW that her team
has been working intensively on WCAG 2.0 for several years.
"What you see is the result of a very broad community of
contributions and a weaving together," said Brewer. "We had
comments from several hundred sources, sometimes one comment,
sometimes a dozen. The total number of issues ran into the
thousands – and we tracked every one."
Brewer described an extensive resource package – available form
the links below – to support WCAG 2.0. "We want to make sure it
works for many different audiences," she said. "The WCAG 2.0
guidelines document itself is a reference for developers.
"There are several layers to WCAG," said Brewer. "The guidelines
document is the key resource for developers. For web developers we
also have something called 'How to meet WCAG 2.0' which is a
customisable quick reference guide. If they set a target they want
their site to achieve it gives them [access to] all the techniques
they may need."
Brewer said that many countries have legal requirements for web
accessibility, which was not the case when WCAG 1.0 was published.
"Where there's such a requirement, people want some sort of
normative provisions," she said. "WCAG 2.0 itself is what should be
referenced when it is used in a policy framework." She said that
the guidance may help businesses to avoid legal challenges.
Where there is an existing policy framework that explicitly
points to WCAG 1.0, Brewer suggests sending the message that
meeting WCAG 2.0 will be an alternative way to meet whatever
mandates are in place. "Though that is for policy makers to
decide," she acknowledged.
The WAI site also includes guidance on managing accessibility,
including the need to establish responsibility for accessibility
within an organisation.
For sites that have made an effort to conform to WCAG 1.0, the
transition to version 2.0 should not be painful, she said. "By and
large what we've found is that for most sites there's not extensive
work that need to be done," said Brewer.
She also expects WCAG 2.0 to be much more popular than WCAG
1.0.
"When 1.0 came out there was not so much awareness of the need
for accessibility. People understood the need for a ramp on a
building but not the issue on the web," she said. "There's much
better awareness now. With WCAG 1.0 it didn't cover the breadth of
technologies so it was either unclear or restrictive regarding
scripting or for dynamic sites."
"Developers using 1.0 were also not sure when they'd achieved
it," said Brewer. Together with the supporting technical and
educational materials, WCAG 2.0 is easier to understand and use,
she said.
Earlier this month a draft British Standard was
published which addresses the policy and process issues in building
and maintaining an accessible and usable site. Aimed at business
owners and marketing managers, BS 8878 is currently available for
public comment and is due to be finalised in summer 2009.
BS 8878 builds on an existing document, PAS 78, Guide to
good practice in commissioning accessible websites. A PAS is a
Publicly Available Specification, a document that is not a full
British Standard but developed using a similar process.
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