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W3C

Techniques for WCAG 2.0

Techniques and Failures for Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0

W3C Working Draft 30 April 2008

This version:
http://www.w3.org/TR/2008/WD-WCAG20-TECHS-20080430/
Latest version:
http://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG20-TECHS/
Previous version:
http://www.w3.org/TR/2007/WD-WCAG20-TECHS-20071211/
Editors:
Ben Caldwell, Trace R&D Center, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Michael Cooper, W3C
Loretta Guarino Reid, Google, Inc.
Gregg Vanderheiden, Trace R&D Center, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Previous Editors:
Wendy Chisholm (until July 2006 while at W3C)
John Slatin (until June 2006 while at Accessibility Institute, University of Texas at Austin)

This document is also available in these non-normative formats:


Abstract

"Techniques and Failures for WCAG 2.0" provides information to Web content developers who wish to satisfy the success criteria of Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 (WCAG 2.0). Techniques are specific authoring practices that may be used in support of the WCAG 2.0 success criteria. This document provides "General Techniques" that describe basic practices that are applicable to any technology, and technology-specific techniques that provide information applicable to specific technologies. Currently, technology-specific techniques are available for HTML, CSS, ECMAScript, SMIL, ARIA, and Web servers. The World Wide Web Consortium only documents techniques for non-proprietary technologies; the WCAG Working Group hopes vendors of other technologies will provide similar techniques to describe how to conform to WCAG 2.0 using those technologies. Use of the techniques provided in this document makes it easier for Web content to demonstrate conformance to WCAG 2.0 success criteria than if these techniques are not used.

Besides the techniques provided in this document, there may be other techniques that can be used to implement conformance to WCAG 2.0. The WCAG WG encourages submission of such techniques so they can be considered for inclusion in this document, in order to make the set of techniques maintained by the WCAG WG as comprehensive as possible. Please submit techniques for consideration using the "Techniques Submission Form."

This document is part of a series of documents published by the W3C Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) to support WCAG 2.0.

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 is a Public Working Draft of "Techniques for WCAG 2.0". These techniques are produced by the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines Working Group to provide guidance about how to conform to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 Candidate Recommendation (WCAG 2.0). Techniques are referenced from Understanding WCAG 2.0 and How to Meet WCAG 2.0. Please note that the contents of this document are informative (they provide guidance), and not normative (they do not set requirements for conforming to WCAG 2.0).

This Working Draft provides additional techniques to clarify existing WCAG 2.0 success criteria and to support new success criteria. Some techniques have been clarified or changed in response to comments received. Information about the relationship of success criteria is primarily indicated in Understanding WCAG 2.0, but advisory information is included in techniques as well.A summary of changes is available in the form of a version of Techniques for WCAG 2.0 with changes marked inline (all elements combined into one file).

One of the requirements for WCAG 2.0 to advance to Proposed Recommendation is that all sufficient techniques for each Success Criterion listed in Understanding WCAG 2.0 contain test procedures. This means that all sufficient techniques will need to be documented, with no placeholder technique titles with a "future link" designation. Any sufficient techniques not documented by the time WCAG 2.0 advances to Proposed Recommendation will be removed. Materials from the public to assist in documenting these techniques are particularly welcomed. Please use the Techniques Submission Form to submit techniques.

Other comments on this document are also welcomed during the Candidate Recommendation period of WCAG 2.0. Your comments on this Working Draft will help the WCAG Working Group improve the document before it is published as a Working Group Note when WCAG 2.0 becomes a W3C Recommendation. While comments are not required in a particular time frame, the WCAG Working Group expects to have collected all implementations by 30 June 2008 and comments are most useful if they arrive by that time. The Working Group requests that comments be made using the provided online comment form. If this is not possible, comments can also be sent to public-comments-wcag20@w3.org. The archives for the public comments list are publicly available. Archives of the WCAG WG mailing list discussions are also publicly available.

This document has been produced as part of the W3C Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI). The goals of the WCAG Working Group are discussed in the WCAG Working Group charter. The WCAG Working Group is part of the WAI Technical Activity.

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.

This document was produced by a group operating under the 5 February 2004 W3C Patent Policy. The group does not expect this document to become a W3C Recommendation. W3C maintains a public list of any patent disclosures made in connection with the deliverables of the group; that page also includes instructions for disclosing a patent. An individual who has actual knowledge of a patent which the individual believes contains Essential Claim(s) must disclose the information in accordance with section 6 of the W3C Patent Policy.


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Appendix