Translations

Announcements

• Open position: Web Accessibility Engineer (China)
• Get WAI Announcements

Events, Meetings, Presentations

• At CSUN in San Diego, CA, USA in March 2017
  • WCAG 2.1—A New Version of Accessibility Guidelines with Michael Cooper and Judy Brewer
  • What comes after WCAG 2.1? with Michael Cooper
  • ACT Now: Accessibility Conformance Testing for WCAG with Shadi Abou-Zahra and Michael Cooper
  • Web Accessibility: Finding key work including research in reorganized W3C with Judy Brewer
  • Low Vision Task Force - Proposed Success Criteria for WCAG 2.1 with Shawn Henry
  • The WAI to Web Accessibility: Education & Outreach Update 2017 with Shawn Henry and Eric Eggert
  • Mobile Accessibility: Is mobile really different than desktop? with Shadi Abou-Zahra

[WAI Presentations]
[Past WAI Events]

Highlights

WCAG 2.1 Working Draft - April 2017

Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 Working Draft is updated. This draft includes only the success criteria that have been formally accepted by the Working Group, and not the "proposed" success criteria that were in the previous draft. The Working Group has not addressed all comments yet; they are in queue for upcoming work. We plan to publish updated drafts monthly, to encourage timely review of the success criteria that the Working Group has approved. More information is in the WCAG 2.1 April 2017 announcement and WCAG 2.1 status. Please comment by 9 May 2017. (2017-04-19)

Accessibility Conformance Testing (ACT) Rules Format 1.0 First Public Working Draft

Accessibility Conformance Testing (ACT) Rules Format 1.0 has been published as a First Public Working Draft. It specifies a common format for accessibility test rules, and how to write test procedures for quality assurance. It facilitates harmonization of automated, semi-automated, and manual accessibility testing approaches, and helps organizations to better document and share their testing methods. Please comment by 5 May 2017. More information is in the blog post WCAG Accessibility Conformance Testing (ACT); Read about the Accessibility Guidelines Working Group and the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) (2017-04-06)

Updated: Easy Checks - A First Review of Web Accessibility

WAI's Education and Outreach Working Group (EOWG) has updated Easy Checks - A First Review of Web Accessibility. This resource helps you start to assess the accessibility of a web page. With these simple steps, you can get an idea whether or not accessibility is addressed in even the most basic way. These checks cover just a few accessibility issues and are designed to be quick and easy, rather than definitive. This update includes a new check on Moving, Flashing, or Blinking Content and instructions for the Web Developer Toolbar for multiple browsers. (2016-Dec-16)

Updated Resources: Planning and Managing Web Accessibility

WAI's Education and Outreach Working Group (EOWG) has updated these three resources:

• Web Accessibility First Aid: Approaches for Interim Repairs is intended to help with the situation: "I need to make my website accessible and I don't even know where to start!" It provides guidance on addressing short-term accessibility fixes.
• Developing Organizational Policies on Web Accessibility helps you develop a simple or comprehensive web accessibility policy for an organization.
• Planning and Managing Web Accessibility helps you integrate accessibility throughout the web production process. It applies to individual projects and at the organizational level.

(2016-Dec-15)

WCAG 2.1 under exploration

The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines Working Group announces a plan to develop WCAG 2.1, which builds on but does not supersede WCAG 2.0. We request feedback as early as possible, and by 1 November 2016. (2016-10-12)

Updated October 2016: Understanding WCAG & WCAG Techniques

Updated supporting documents for WCAG 2.0 were published today: Techniques for WCAG 2.0 and Understanding WCAG 2.0. (This is not an update to WCAG 2.0, which is a stable document.) (2016-10-07)

Video Pages Updated: Perspectives on Web Accessibility -- Essential for Some, Useful for All

Web Accessibility Perspectives explores the impact of accessibility for people with disabilities and the benefits for everyone. This resource introduces 10 web accessibility topics with short videos, brief descriptions, and links to learn more. The videos relate the benefits of accessibility to everyone in different situations, and encourage viewers to learn more about web accessibility.

For links to playlists, request for specific feedback, and more information, see the Updated Video Pages e-mail. (2016-09-20)

Updated: How to Meet WCAG 2.0: A customizable quick reference

We're excited about the shiny new version of How to Meet WCAG 2.0: A customizable quick reference to Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0 requirements (success criteria) and techniques. It has a more modern design and additional functionality to filter by Tags that are categorized under Developing, Interaction Design, Content Creation, and Visual Design. (The previous version is still available.) (2016-March-17)

WCAG-EM Report Tool: Accessibility Evaluation Report Generator

The WCAG-EM Report Tool: Website Accessibility Evaluation Report Generator is updated. The tool helps you generate website accessibility evaluation reports according to Website Accessibility Conformance Evaluation Methodology (WCAG-EM). We encourage feedback on this version of the WCAG-EM Report Tool and suggestions for improvements for the next version. (2016-March-17)

Updated: Web Accessibility Evaluation Tool List

An updated version of the Web Accessibility Evaluation Tools List is now available. Web accessibility evaluation tool vendors are encouraged to submit information about their tool to the list. (2016-March-17)

User Agent Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 and UAAG 2.0 Reference published as Working Group Notes

The User Agent Accessibility Guidelines Working Group (UAWG) has published User Agent Accessibility Guidelines (UAAG 2.0) and UAAG 2.0 Reference as W3C Working Group Notes. UAAG 2.0 defines how browsers, media players, and other “user agents” should support accessibility for people with disabilities and work with assistive technologies. Although W3C does not currently have plans to advance UAAG 2.0 to Recommendation, the need and opportunity to improve accessibility in user agents still exists. We hope that this work will be continued in future combined Guidelines group. UAAG 2.0 provides specific accessibility guidance for user agent developers who want to build a better user experience for all users. See the UAAG Published as Notes e-mail for additional info. (2015-Dec-15)

Media Accessibility User Requirements Working Group Note

Media Accessibility User Requirements has been published as a Working Group Note. For information on this publication, see the MAUR Note announcement e-mail and MAUR Note blog post. (2015-Dec-03)

Tips for Getting Started with Web Accessibility

Tips for Getting Started with Web Accessibility are designed to meet the needs of web developers, designers, writers, and others who want practical starting points for implementing web accessibility and WCAG 2.0 in their work. Three Tips pages are available now:

• Tips on Designing for Web Accessibility - Tips for user interface and visual design
• Tips on Writing for Web Accessibility - Tips for writing and presenting content
• Tips on Developing for Web Accessibility - Tips for markup and coding

We welcome your input on improving these pages. Near the bottom of each page are links to GitHub and e-mail for comments. (2015-Oct-01)

ATAG 2.0 is a W3C Recommendation

The Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines (ATAG) 2.0 was published today as a completed web standard. ATAG provides guidelines for designing web content authoring tools that are both more accessible to authors with disabilities (Part A) and designed to enable, support, and promote the production of more accessible web content by all authors (Part B). Selecting authoring tools that conform to ATAG 2.0 can facilitate the process of creating accessible Web content, and can also remove barriers to content creation by people with disabilities. Implementing ATAG 2.0 has been published as a Working Group Note to provide additional explanation, examples and resources for the ATAG 2.0 success criteria. (2015-Sept-24)