W3C

From MWBP 1.0 to WCAG 2.0: Making content that meets Mobile Web Best Practices 1.0 also meet Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0

W3C Editor's Draft 01 September 2008

Table of Contents

Introduction

Incomplete draft: This document is an in-progress Working Draft provided for review and feedback. It is incomplete and will likely have major changes. See also Status of this Document in the overview page.
Please send feedback to public-bpwg-comments@w3.org (with public archive).

This page is part of a multi-page document. Please refer to the “How to Use This Document” section for more information.

It describes how some Mobile Web Best Practices (MWBPs) help with achieving compliance with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 (WCAG). For content that already complies with MWBP, it outlines what may need to be done to comply with all of WCAG.

As described in this section, many Mobile Web BPs have the added benefit of partial or complete compliance with certain WCAG success criteria. However, the accessibility guidelines are often more detailed or describe a different aspect of the same concept. It should not be assumed that following any BP will ensure accessibility. To ensure accessibility it is important to always consult the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines.

Summary of work required to make content that meets MWBP also meet WCAG 2.0

Compliance with the MWBP helps go some way towards achieving compliance with some WCAG 2.0 success criteria. This section provides a summary of these success criteria. There are three possible levels of effort required, labelled for simplicity with the keywords nothing and something. Refer to definition of use of these terms in Appendix B: Special Terms. To summarise, if your content already complies with the MWBP, to achieve compliance with WCAG 2.0, you need to do the following:

Nothing: Content that already meets MWBP should already meet these SCs. The list is provided for completeness. SC and BP links in this section point to the relevant Recommendation.

Something: More effort of some kind or a check, is necessary to ensure compliance with these SCs. Refer to the sections below on each success criterion for an explanation of how and in what way the BPs “partially” or “possibly” help to meet the SC (refer to definition of use of these terms in Appendix B: Special Terms). SC links in this section point to detail sections below; BP links to the MWBP Recommendation.

Addressing WCAG 2.0 Success Criteria

This section deals with success criteria for which MWBP helps with meeting (listed in something section, above). For each SC, the section title is that of the SC. This is followed by a quotation of the text of the SC (sometimes abbreviated) and a list of the BPs that can help meet it.

1.3.1 Info and Relationships

Information, structure, and relationships conveyed through presentation can be programmatically determined or are available in text. (Level A)

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1.3.2 Meaningful Sequence

When the sequence in which content is presented affects its meaning, a correct reading sequence can be programmatically determined. (Level A)

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1.4.3 Contrast (Minimum)

The visual presentation of text and images of text has a contrast ratio of at least 5:1, except for following: (Level AA)

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1.4.6 Contrast (Enhanced)

The visual presentation of text and images of text has a contrast ratio of at least 7:1, except for...: (Level AAA)

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1.4.8 Visual Presentation

For the visual presentation of blocks of text, a mechanism is available to achieve the following: (Level AAA)

  1. foreground and background colors can be selected by the user.
  2. width is no more than 80 characters or glyphs (40 if CJK).
  3. text is not justified (aligned to both the left and the right margins).
  4. line spacing (leading) is at least space-and-a-half within paragraphs, and paragraph spacing is at least 1.5 times larger than the line spacing.
  5. text is resized without assistive technology up to 200 percent in a way that does not require the user to scroll horizontally to read a line of text on a full-screen window.

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2.1.1 Keyboard

All functionality of the content is operable through a keyboard interface without requiring specific timings for individual keystrokes, except where the underlying function requires input that depends on the path of the user's movement and not just the endpoints. (Level A)

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2.1.3 Keyboard (No Exception)

All functionality of the content is operable through a keyboard interface without requiring specific timings for individual keystrokes. (Level AAA)

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Web pages have titles that describe topic or purpose

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The purpose of each link can be determined from the link text alone, or from the link text together with its programmatically determined link context, except where the purpose of the link would be ambiguous to users in general.

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Headings and labels describe topic or purpose. (Level AA)

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A mechanism is available to allow the purpose of each link to be identified from link text alone, except where the purpose of the link would be ambiguous to users in general. (Level AAA)

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3.1.5 Reading Level

When text requires reading ability more advanced than the lower secondary education level, supplemental content, or a version that does not require reading ability more advanced than the lower secondary education level, is available. (Level AAA)

3.2.1 On Focus

When any component receives focus, it does not initiate a change of context. (Level A)

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3.2.2 On Input

Changing the setting of any user interface component does not automatically cause a change of context unless the user has been advised of the behavior before using the component. (Level A)

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3.2.3 Consistent Navigation

Navigational mechanisms that are repeated on multiple Web pages within a set of Web pages occur in the same relative order each time they are repeated, unless a change is initiated by the user. (Level AA)

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3.2.5 Change on Request

Changes of context are initiated only by user request or a mechanism is available to turn off such changes. (Level AAA)

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3.3.2 Labels or Instructions

Labels or instructions are provided when content requires user input. (Level A)

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4.1.2 Name, Role, Value

For all user user interface components (including but not limited to: form elements, links and components generated by scripts), the name and role can be programmatically determined; states, properties, and values that can be set by the user can be programmatically set; and notification of changes to these items is available to user agents, including assistive technologies. (Level A)

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