ATAG 2.0's "Web Content Accessibility Benchmark" and WCAG 2.0's "Accessibility Supported"

(I'm cc'ing this to WAI-CG due to its cross-group nature)

On yesterday's AUWG call I took an action item to consider how ATAG 
2.0's "Web Content Accessibility Benchmark" relates to WCAG 2.0's 
"Accessibility Supported".

URLs:
http://www.w3.org/WAI/AU/2007/WD-ATAG20-20070615/WD-ATAG20-20070615.html#conf-benchmark
http://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG20/#accessibility-support


NOTE: I will use "technology/content-type" since these different terms 
are used in pretty much the same way (more on that later).


SOME INTERESTING PARALLELS:

WCAG 2.0 "Accessibility Supported"

- The purpose of "Accessibility Supported" is specify when it is ok 
(from an accessibility standpoint) to use a technology/content-type 
(HTML, PDF, etc) in a Web page. Basically, it is ok when (1) there is 
user agent support for the technology/content-type and (2) the user 
agent -> assistive technology chain works.

- The conformance claim appears to require documenting accessibility- 
support for any Web technology/content-type used either by pointing to a 
list compiled by a technology/content-type builder (e.g. W3C, Adobe) or 
by creating their own.

ATAG 2.0 "Web Content Accessibility Benchmark"

- The purpose of the "Web Content Accessibility Benchmark" when it is ok 
to provide accessible-authoring support for a technology/content-type 
(HTML, PDF, etc). Basically, it is ok when there is an explanation of 
how the technology/content-type can be used to meet all of the 
requirements in a content accessibility guideline (e.g. WCAG 2.0).

- The conformance claim requires specifying a Benchmark document for any 
Web technology/content-type included in the claim by pointing to one 
compiled by a technology/content-type builder (e.g. W3C, Adobe) or by 
creating their own.

POSSIBILITIES FOR SYNCHRONIZATION:

1. ATAG 2.0 and WCAG 2.0 should use a common term for 
technology/content-type. AUWG's problem with the current WCAG 2.0 
definition of "technology" ("markup language, programming language, 
style sheet, data format, or API ") is the appearance of the term "API" 
in the list. For the record, ATAG 2.0's current definition of 
"content-type" is "A data format, programming or markup language that is 
intended to be retrieved and rendered by a user agent (e.g., HTML, CSS, 
SVG, PNG, PDF, Flash, JavaScript or combinations).".

2. AUWG might want to require that a technology/content-type also be 
"accessibility-supported" in the WCAG 2.0 sense.

3. Some synchronization of wording of the two concepts, since at the 
moment they are phrased very differently (the following is just an idea):

WCAG2: "User Agent Accessibility Support"
as in: A technology/content-type has "User Agent Accessibility Support"
(Note: User agent definition in the WCAG2 Glossary includes Assistive 
Technologies)

ATAG2: "Web Content Accessibility Benchmark"
as in: A technology/content-type has a "Web Content Accessibility Benchmark"


Cheers,
Jan

-- 
Jan Richards, M.Sc.
User Interface Design Specialist
Adaptive Technology Resource Centre (ATRC)
Faculty of Information Studies
University of Toronto

   Email: jan.richards@utoronto.ca
   Web:   http://jan.atrc.utoronto.ca
   Phone: 416-946-7060
   Fax:   416-971-2896

Received on Tuesday, 19 June 2007 14:59:11 UTC