Friday, June 16, 2006

@media, WCAG2.0

A quick run-through of some of the new features in the Accessibility Guidelines v2.0.

References: juicystudio.com and accessifiey.com

Why change the existing regs? They are nearly 9 years old and should be:

  • Technology agnostic, using general terminology
  • Perceivable (ie catering for sensory deficiencies)
  • Operable
  • Understandable
  • Robust
New features inlcude terminologies such as web unit; more conformance. There are also several supporting documents, besides the actual standard, namely:

  • Understanding WCAG2.0
    For each guideline, it explains the intent, why the need to address a problem; how to meet the success criteria; benefits of meeting criteria; advisory techniques and examples.
  • Techniques for WCAG2.0
    This is a big, unwealdy document! Starts with listing the common failures (not very positive). Covers client-side scripting techniques, CSS, general techniques, HTML et.
  • About Baselines for WCAG
    What are they? Annotated examples.
    Who sets the baseline; how can developers choose their baseline
  • Application Notes
    To follow
New features - baselines are better (?)
Scoping:- conformance claims are not mandatory but you can say certain parts of a site aren't specifically in scope.
Does it hinder design? - you have to think of philosophy vs practicality.

Reference: Go to http://www.w3.org/WAI/WCAG20/quickref/ and select your baseline technologies. It will then generate a reasonable checklist of what you need to cover for HTML/CSS/JavaScript etc.

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