Web Accessibility Initiative

The Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) is an area within the W3C in which several working groups and interest groups deal with barrier-free access to the web and its content.

The WAI, which was founded in 1997, aims to make the World Wide Web accessible to as many people as possible. This also includes people with various disabilities and the elderly. Since the accessibility of web content depends on several factors, the W3C has published several standards as part of the initiative since 1999:

• The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 1.0 and WCAG 2.0 set requirements for website programming as well as for content architecture, layout basics and the use of technology.
• The Authoring Tools Accessibility Guidelines (ATAG) set requirements for the tools for website creation.
• The User Agent Accessibility Guidelines (UAAG) set requirements for browsers and media players.
• WAI-ARIA is a specification for metadata and mechanisms to make widgets and web applications usable for users of assistive technologies.

WCAG

→ Main article : Web Content Accessibility Guidelines

The guidelines for barrier-free page design of the W3C-WAI WCAG 1.0 were regarded as a basic standard on which many more extensive guidelines were based, for example Section 508 in the USA and the Barrier-free Information Technology Ordinance (BITV) in Germany.

In Feira in 2000, the European Council decided in the “e-Europe 2002 Action Plan” that public websites in Europe should meet the WCAG criteria by January 1, 2008.

WCAG 1.0: The most important points

To comply with the WCAG 1.0 standard, the following fourteen points are required in particular:

1. Provide equivalent alternatives for audio and visual content.
2. Do not rely on color alone (when marking out structure / semantics).
3. Use markup and style sheets , and do them correctly.
4. Clarify the use of natural language (for example, use the HTML-lang attribute for the entire document and parts in a specific language).
5. Create tables that transform smoothly (use tables for tabular data, not layout alone. Use appropriate elements like thead and tbody to mark up table areas).
6. Make sure that pages that use new technologies transform smoothly (so that they can also run on older or accessibility-compatible user agents).
7. Ensure that the user is able to control time-controlled changes to the content (for example by allowing a shutdown or a delay - this also applies in particular to the expiry of the user session or to the refresh of pages).
8. Make sure that embedded user interfaces are directly accessible (applets / scripts should be operable in the same way as the browser interface itself).
9. Choose a device-independent design (independent of the input device, be it keyboard, mouse, language, head rod ).
10. Use interim solutions (until the standards in this area are fully supported by all input devices).
11. Use W3C techniques and guidelines.
12. Provide context and guidance information.
13. Provide clear navigation mechanisms.
14. Make sure documents are kept clear and simple.

WCAG 2.0

WCAG 2.0 was published as a W3C Recommendation on December 11, 2008. While WCAG 1.0 was strongly tied to HTML and CSS, and therefore no longer corresponded to the state of the art after a few years, the aim of WCAG 2.0 was to be independent of certain technologies.

The guidelines are grouped into 4 principles:

• Perceptible (e.g. visual content needs a text alternative)
• Operable (especially keyboard operation)
• Understandable
• Robust (compatibility)

The WCAG working group also provided supporting materials:

• A customizable quick reference: "How to Meet WCAG 2.0"
• Understand WCAG 2.0
• Techniques for WCAG 2.0

See also

• Universal design

literature

• Klaus J. Zink, Markus E. Mund, Thomas Stiren and Harald Weber: Implementing accessibility on the Internet! Bertuch Verlag, Weimar 2004, ISBN 3-937601-12-0 .
• Jan Eric Hellbusch, Kerstin Probiesch: Understanding and implementing accessibility. dpunkt.verlag, 2011, ISBN 978-3-89864-520-1 .

Web links

• Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI)
• Accessible web design
• Web Standards Project
• Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0 - W3C Recommendation May 5, 1999
• Easy for everyone: German translations for WCAG 2.0
• Barriers in the World Wide Web

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Press Release: World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) Launches International Web Accessibility Initiative , April 7, 1997.
2. ↑ Download: eEurope 2002 Action Plan. Retrieved July 7, 2020 . 
3. ↑ Accessibility guidelines for web content 1.0. Retrieved July 7, 2020 . 
4. ^ Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0. Retrieved July 7, 2020 . 
5. ^ Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0. Retrieved July 7, 2020 . 
6. ↑ W3C: W3C Web Standard Defines Accessibility for Next Generation Web (press release, December 11, 2008).
7. ^ Gregg Vanderheiden, John Slatin, Wendy Chisholm: Requirements for WCAG 2.0. W3C Working Group Note April 25, 2006 .
8. ^ Guidelines for Accessible Web Content (WCAG) 2.0 (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0). Retrieved July 7, 2020 . 
9. ↑ How to Meet WCAG 2.0: A Customizable Quick Reference Guide to the Conditions (Success Criteria) and Techniques in the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0
10. ↑ How to Meet WCAG (Quickref Reference). Retrieved July 7, 2020 . 
11. ↑ Understanding WCAG 2.0: A guide to understanding and implementing the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0
12. ↑ Understanding WCAG 2.0. Retrieved July 7, 2020 . 
13. ↑ Techniques for WCAG 2.0: Techniques and Mistakes for the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0
14. ↑ Techniques for WCAG 2.0. Retrieved July 7, 2020 .