W3C

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

W3C Working Draft 03 July 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 WCAG success criteria (SC) can help with achieving compliance with the Mobile Web Best Practices 1.0 (MWBP). For content that already complies with WCAG, it outlines what may need to be done to comply with all of MWBP.

As described in this section, many SCs have the added benefit of partial or complete compliance with certain BPs. However, the best practices may describe a different aspect of the same concept. It should not be assumed that following any SC will ensure compliance with the MWBP. To ensure compliance it is important to always consult the Mobile Web Best Practices document.

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

Compliance with the WCAG 2.0 helps go some way towards achieving compliance with some BPs. This section provides a summary of these BPs.

Note on inconsistent links: Links in the “something” and “nothing” sections point to within this page. Links in the “everything” section point to the Recommendation. REVIEW NOTE: Is this too confusing? Suggestions for better ways to do it?

Nothing: Content that already meets WCAG 2.0 should already meet these BPs. Refer to the description of each success criterion for an explanation of how and in what way it meets the BP.

Something: More effort of some kind or a check, is necessary to ensure compliance with these BPs. Refer to the description of each success criterion for an explanation of how and in what way it partially or possibly meets the BP.

Everything: These BPs are not related to WCAG 2.0.

Addressing Mobile Web Best Practices

This section deals with each of the best practices which WCAG 2.0 helps with meeting.

[AUTO_REFRESH] Do not create periodically auto-refreshing pages, unless you have informed the user and provided a means of stopping it

[BACKGROUND_IMAGE_READABILITY] When using background images make sure that content remains readable on the device

[COLOR_CONTRAST] Ensure that foreground and background color combinations provide sufficient contrast

[CONTROL_LABELLING] Label all form controls appropriately and explicitly associate labels with form controls

[CONTROL_POSITION] Position labels so they lay out properly in relation to the form controls they refer to

[FONTS] Do not rely on support of font related styling

[GRAPHICS_FOR_SPACING] Do not use graphics for spacing

[MEASURES] Do not use pixel measures and do not use absolute units in markup language attribute values and style sheet property values

[NON-TEXT_ALTERNATIVES] Provide a text equivalent for every non-text element

[OBJECTS_OR_SCRIPT] Do not rely on embedded objects or script

[PAGE_TITLE] Provide a short but descriptive page title

[POP_UPS] Do not cause pop-ups or other windows to appear and do not change the current window without informing the user

[REDIRECTION] Do not use markup to redirect pages automatically. Instead, configure the server to perform redirects by means of HTTP 3xx codes

[STRUCTURE] Use features of the markup language to indicate logical document structure

[STYLE_SHEETS_SUPPORT] Organize documents so that if necessary they may be read without style sheets

[STYLE_SHEETS_USE] Use style sheets to control layout and presentation, unless the device is known not to support them

[TAB_ORDER] Create a logical order through links, form controls and objects

[USE_OF_COLOR] Ensure that information conveyed with color is also available without color.

[VALID_MARKUP] Create documents that validate to published formal grammars