Contents | Guideline 1 | Guideline 2 | Guideline 3 | Guideline 4 | References

W3C

Implementation Techniques for
Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines 2.0

W3C Working Draft 22 November 2004

This version:
http://www.w3.org/TR/2004/WD-ATAG20-TECHS-20041122/
Latest version:
http://www.w3.org/TR/ATAG20-TECHS/
Previous version:
http://www.w3.org/TR/2003/WD-ATAG20-TECHS-20030314/
Editors:
Jutta Treviranus - ATRC, University of Toronto
Jan Richards - ATRC, University of Toronto
Matt May - W3C

Abstract

This document provides non-normative information to authoring tool developers who wish to satisfy the checkpoints of "Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines 2.0" [ATAG20]. It includes suggested techniques, sample strategies in deployed tools, and references to other accessibility resources (such as platform-specific software accessibility guidelines) that provide additional information on how a tool may satisfy each checkpoint.

This document is part of a series of accessibility documents published by the W3C Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI).

Status of this document

This section describes the status of this document at the time of its publication. Other documents may supersede this document. A list of current W3C publications and the latest revision of this technical report can be found in the W3C technical reports index at http://www.w3.org/TR/.

This version of Implementation Techniques for Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 is a draft of an informative (non-normative) appendix to the Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines 2.0. The Working Group intends to publish a final version of this document as a W3C Note. Note that this draft does not represent consensus within the WAI Authoring Tools (AUWG) Working Group, nor within W3C. This document is likely to change and should not be cited as anything other than "work in progress". The Working Group expects to update this document in response to queries raised by implementers of the Guidelines, for example to cover new technologies. Suggestions for additional techniques are welcome.

This document has been produced by the Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines Working Group (AUWG) as part of the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI). The goals of the Working Group are discussed in the AUWG charter. A list of current W3C Recommendations and other technical documents including Working Drafts and Notes can be found at http://www.w3.org/TR/. The AUWG is part of the WAI Technical Activity.

The working group maintains an ATAG 2.0 Issues List and a list of patent disclosures.

Publication as a Working Draft does not imply endorsement by the W3C Membership. This is a draft document and may be updated, replaced or obsoleted by other documents at any time. It is inappropriate to cite this document as other than work in progress.

Please send comments about this document to the public mailing list: w3c-wai-au@w3.org (public archives). Please note that this document may contain typographical errors. It was published as soon as possible since review of the content itself is important, although noting typographical errors is also helpful.

For information about the current activities of the working group, please refer to the AUWG home page. This page includes an explanation of the inter-relation of each document as well as minutes and previous drafts.


Table of Contents


Introduction

This document has been divided into a multi-part hypertext document to keep individual pages to a manageable size. There are publishing conventions used to identify various features and parts of the document. Some of these will be used to provide multiple views of the techniques - for example implementation techniques for a particular kind of tool, or references for particular techniques.


Implementation Technique

Guideline 1: Make the authoring interface accessible

Guideline 2: Enable the production of accessible content

Guideline 3: Support the author in the production of accessible content

Guideline 4: Promote and integrate accessibility solutions

References


Applicability of examples to different types of authoring tools

For illustrative purposes, the techniques document includes examples of authoring interfaces that demonstrate the implementation of one or more particular techniques. While the examples have been chosen to be as informative as possible, many of them are specific to certain types of authoring tool functions (see "Section 1.1 Definition of Authoring Tool" for descriptions of the different categories of authoring tool functions). In order to assist developers in determining the relevance of the examples to the different categories, each example is marked with one or more of the following category icons:

  1. Applicable to Code-Level authoring functions Code-level Authoring Functions
  2. Applicable to 'what you see is what you get' authoring functions WYSIWYG ("What-you-see-is-what-you-get") Authoring Functions
  3. Applicable to Object-Oriented authoring functions Object Oriented Authoring Functions
  4. Applicable to Indirect authoring functions Indirect Authoring Functions

Note: Authoring tools may fall into one or more of the categories. For example, an HTML authoring tool that has both a text editor and a "browser" view will fall under two categories, Code-Level Authoring Functions and WYSIWYG Authoring Functions.


Contents | Guideline 1 | Guideline 2 | Guideline 3 | Guideline 4 | References