Web Accessibility in the Future

Michael Cooper
Web Accessibility Initiative
cooper@w3.org

Trends

To support improved accessibility in the future:

Legislation
Advocacy
Active technical work
- Accessibility APIs becoming richer and converging
- Common ontology of properties
- Ready-to-use accessibility supports

We are at the beginning of a new wave of advancement in accessibility features of user agents (browsers, media players, etc.)

We need to ride this wave while we can.

Content guidelines (e.g., WCAG) important, but background
Authors produce only to what they can see and understand without specialized knowledge
Authoring tool support (see ATAG)increasingly crucial
- Seamless implementation of technological aspects of accessibility
- Support author in creating accessible content
  - Non-intrusively
  - Understandably
Web-based authoring (blogs, wikis) more prominent
Content Management Systems must not impede accessibility

Evaluation increasingly important because of legislative, policy, and purchasing requirements

New technologies, and new technology paradigms will present a continuing challenge

Professionalization of accessibility
- Evaluation: verifying that sites comply to laws or purchasing requirements
- Design: creating template designs, widget code, etc.
Need for research
- Determine what methods of adaptation most useful
- Discover problems in new technologies early
- Find approaches that yield optimal cost/benefit balance
Advocacy: need an importance increases as technology advances