An Introduction To Accessible Web Design

Accessibility Initiatives

A number of groups around the world are working to increase the awareness of accessibility issues, and provide help to the authors of accessible Websites. These include the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), the US Government and CAST/Watchfire. Let's take a look at what each of these groups has done in more detail.

Web Accessibility Initiative

Since 1999 the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) (the organisation that creates the standards for the Web) has been working on its "Web Accessibility Initiative" or WAI. The official mission of this initiative is:

The World Wide Web Consortium's (W3C) commitment to lead the Web to its full potential includes promoting a high degree of usability for people with disabilities. WAI, in coordination with organizations around the world, pursues accessibility of the Web through five primary areas of work: technology, guidelines, tools, education and outreach, and research and development.

The result of this initiative so far has been three sets of guidelines:

• Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0
• Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines 1.0
• User Agent Accessibility Guidelines 1.0

The Web Content Guidelines are designed to show Website authors how to make their sites accessible. The Authoring Tool guidelines are for people who write programs that can be used to create Websites. The User Agent guidelines are aimed at those who create Web browsers. Let's look in more depth at the Content Accessibility guidelines.

Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0

The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines or WCAG became a W3C recommendation on the 5th of May 1999 (becoming a W3C recommendation is an extremely tough and long process).

The purpose of the guidelines is to explain the accessible use of Web technologies for those who create Websites. This is achieved through 14 guidelines, with a total of 60 checkpoints that must be followed to ensure a site is accessible.

To accommodate the varying levels of effort people are willing to put in to making their sites accessible, the checkpoints are broken down into 3 different priority levels. The specification lays out the three priority levels as follows:

[Priority 1]

A Web content developer must satisfy this checkpoint. Otherwise, one or more groups will find it impossible to access information in the document. Satisfying this checkpoint is a basic requirement for some groups to be able to use Web documents.

[Priority 2]

A Web content developer should satisfy this checkpoint. Otherwise, one or more groups will find it difficult to access information in the document. Satisfying this checkpoint will remove significant barriers to accessing Web documents.

[Priority 3]

A Web content developer may address this checkpoint. Otherwise, one or more groups will find it somewhat difficult to access information in the document. Satisfying this checkpoint will improve access to Web documents.

For those who take the time to produce pages that conform to any of the above priority levels there is a matching set of conformance levels:

• Level 'A' -- All Priority 1 checkpoints are satisfied.
• Level 'Double-A' -- All Priority 1 and 2 checkpoints are satisfied.
• Level 'Triple-A' -- All Priority 1, 2, and 3 checkpoints are satisfied.

Pages, sites, or portions of sites that conform to one of the three levels may then display a logo, linked to the appropriate W3C explanation of the claim:

- Level 'A'

- Level 'Double-A'

- Level 'Triple-A'

For full details of the conformance logos see the W3C WCAG Conformance Logos.

Alternatively, conformance can be specified through a text explanation such as:

The text must specify:

1. The guideline's title: "Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0"
   
2. The guideline's URI: http://www.w3.org/TR/1999/WAI-WEBCONTENT-19990505
   
3. The conformance level satisfied: "A", "Double-A", or "Triple-A".
   
4. The scope covered by the claim (e.g., page, site, or defined portion of the site).

The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines were developed by the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines Working Group (WCAG WG). The following W3C pages will be useful if you would like to produce pages that conform to WCAG 1.0:

• The Guidelines
• A checklist of the checkpoints
• Techniques for following the guidelines

The US Government - Section 508

The US Government has endorsed the W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines by requiring that all federal Websites and sites that are under a federal contract must comply with the guidelines. More information can be obtained from Section 508.