What does WCAG 2.0 mean for me?

[Gruden]

Introduction

With version 2.0 of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) out now for 2 years, and with the Australian government committing to a timeline for transition to the latest guidelines, we’re increasingly hearing from clients trying to work out what’s actually involved in getting their sites up-to-date. Government agencies were leading the charge, but the Australian Human Rights Commission (HREOC) joined in recently, recommending a similar timeline for transition for all Australian sites. Moreover, with the W3C releasing additional Techniques regularly, WCAG 2.0 has rapidly become a clear target.

Principles, Guidelines, Criteria, Techniques

The different terms in the WCAG 2.0 and its supporting documents can get confusing. At a high-level, the document is guided by four principles: that information be Perceivable, Operable, Understandable, and Robust. Its 12 Guidelines are divided amongst these principles, each Guideline supported by a number of Success Criteria. The Success Criteria are the testable elements, but remain technology-neutral (or format agnostic), with related Supporting Techniques available to verify Success Criteria in different formats.

Levels

Both WCAG 1.0 and 2.0 define conformance in three priority levels: A, AA and AAA. A is defined as a minimal conformance; AA is desirable and is the level usually mandated; AAA represents an ideal, but is problematic for some content formats.

Note that there is no strict relationship between WCAG 1.0 and 2.0 at the different levels. Version 2.0 of the guidelines is in some ways more flexible, and other ways more strict.

Timelines

HREOC recommend that any website on which development commences after 1 July 2010 should comply with WCAG 2.0 to a minimum AA Level. Any existing sites should be compliant to the AA Level by December 2013, with a recommendation that any substantial changes in the period be compliant also.

AGIMO’s National Transition Strategy has set government agencies to a target of compliance at the A Level by the end of 2012, and at the AA Level by the end of 2014.



Content vs Technique

WCAG 2.0 is concerned with accessibility as a philosophy and as a technology. The guidelines themselves therefore focus predominantly on content, or content strategy, including recommendations specifically talking about the use of language, the structure of documents, the ability to locate and navigate through information, helping users avoid mistakes. These elements are not a simple checklist that an automated tool can verify. Rather, they require considering users and the ways in which they interact with your content.

Beyond that, the guidelines address specific technological concerns, including requiring that functionality be operable when using only a keyboard, that content’s language can be determined programatically, that alternatives be provided for time-based media (audio/video). Further, the W3C’s supporting Techniques include specific ways of testing different electronic formats against the guidelines.

The range of coverage in WCAG 2.0 means that assessment of conformance isn’t a simple matter of running an automated test or completing a checklist. A site’s content strategy needs to be considered as a whole, with technical implementation following from the content strategy and guided by principles of user-centred design, considering accessibility as “usability for all”.

Next Steps

So what do you need to do next? We’d recommend the following activities, all of which can be performed to varying degrees depending on the size of your site and your publishing process:

• Compliance Review; a gap analysis of your existing website with the WCAG 2.0 A and AA levels; we’d then deliver recommendations for compliance
• Content Strategy Review; a workshop with the people responsible for the creation and publication of your content
• Usability Review; a review of your site’s usability considering a variety of contexts and abilities
• Technical Recommendations; a report and workshop with the people responsible for the development of your website, particularly focussing on common pitfalls and ongoing improvements

While the Compliance Review focusses specifically on WCAG 2.0, the other activities here would all show benefits across your site, both in terms of the creation and publication of content and of consumption and interaction with that content.

Finally, if your site doesn’t have significant barriers to transition (ie, content/publishing processes are already compatible, and you don’t have complex functionality that needs rewriting), we’d recommend implementing the WCAG 2.0 upgrade immediately. Our design and development teams can implement a complete WCAG 2.0 Website Upgrade.

Get In Touch

For those Canberra-based government agencies interested in the transition, Gruden plans to run a briefing workshop in early 2011 in Canberra. The workshop will review the Transition Strategy and the particular challenges facing agencies with sites of varying size and complexity. If you’d like to know more, please register your interest with cbrinfo@gruden.com.

And of course, accessibility requirements affect everyone. Other agencies and private-sector organisations can reach us at sydinfo@gruden.com to learn more about how we can help your organisation transition to the latest guidelines.



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