User Agent Accessibility Guidelines (UAAG) Overview

User Agent Accessibility Guidelines (UAAG)

The User Agent Accessibility Guidelines (UAAG) documents explain how to make user agents accessible to people with disabilities, particularly to increase accessibility to Web content. User agents include Web browsers, media players, and assistive technologies, which are software that some people with disabilities use in interacting with computers.

UAAG is part of a series of accessibility guidelines, including the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG WG) and the Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines (ATAG). Interdependent Components of Web Accessibility explains the relationship between the different guidelines.

Who UAAG is for

UAAG is primarily for developers of Web browsers, media players, assistive technologies, and other user agents.

UAAG and supporting documents are also intended to meet the needs of many different audiences, including policy makers, managers, and others. For example:

• People who want to purchase user agents that are accessible can use UAAG to evaluate user agents
• People who want to encourage their existing user agent to improve accessibility in future versions, can refer the user agent vendor to UAAG

Supporting documents are listed under UAAG 1.0 resources on this page, and other resources are listed on the WAI Guidelines and Resources page.

What is in UAAG 1.0

UAAG 1.0 contains a comprehensive set of checkpoints that cover:

• Access to all content, including content tied to events triggered by the mouse or keyboard
• User control over how content is rendered
• User control over the user interface, with documentation of accessibility features
• Standard programming interfaces, to enable interaction with assistive technologies

Technical document format

UAAG 1.0, the techniques documents, and the checklist follow the W3C format for technical specifications which includes at the beginning: version links, editors, copyright, abstract, and status with the link to errata and the email address for comments. Most WAI specifications have a link at the top to the Table of Contents. (Links to technical reports and other page formats without WAI site navigation are indicated with: )

Who develops UAAG

UAAG technical documents are developed by the User Agent Accessibility Guidelines Working Group (UAWG), which is part of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI). For more information about the working group, see the UAWG page.

The W3C specification development process includes formal periods for public review. Opportunities for review and comment of WAI documents are announced on the WAI home page and WAI Interest Group mailing list. An email address for sending comments is included in the "Status of this Document" section.

Opportunities for contributing to UAAG and other WAI work are introduced in Participating in WAI.