Techniques for Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines 1.0

For further information about Working Group decisions, please consult the minutes of AUWG Meetings.

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. The AUWG is part of the WAI Technical Activity.

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A list of current W3C Recommendations and other technical documents including Working Drafts and Notes can be found at http://www.w3.org/TR.

Introduction

How this document is organized

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. Other conventions are used to ensure that this document is compatible with ATAG version 1.0 or will be compatible with ATAG wombat with a minimum of difficulty or change.

Applicability of techniques

Note on applicability of techniques: The following techniques are applicable to all kinds of authoring tools, including those that are insertable components of other authoring tools. For example, if an authoring tool for designing on-line courses (courseware) has a prefabricated chat facility that the instructor can drag onto their page, this component must comply with all the techniques for accessible output (guidelines 1-6) and accessible user interface (guideline 7).

Authoring tool categories

Note: For the purposes of these techniques, authoring tools may fall into one or more of the following categories. For example, an HTML authoring tool that allows the user to create JavaScript will fall under two categories, Markup Editing Tools and Programming Tools. A SMIL editor that includes a text-only view of the markup and a preview mode would be considered both a Markup Editing Tool and a Multimedia Creation Tool.

This draft is accompanied by a version without icons.

1. Markup Editing Tools: Tools that assist authors to produce markup documents. These include text-based and WYSIWYG markup editors for HTML, XHTML, SMIL, etc. and word processors that save in markup formats.
2. Multimedia Creation Tools: Tools that assist authors to create multimedia Web content without the author having control over the raw markup or code of the output format. These include multimedia production tools outputting SMIL or QuickTime as well as image editors, video editors, sounds editors, etc.
3. Content Management Tools: Tools that assist authors to create and organize specific types of Web content without the author having control over the markup or programming implementation. Good examples include courseware in which the author is prompted to enter various information which is then displayed in a format determined by the tool. Note: If the tool allows the author to control the markup that is actually used to implement the higher-order content, then that functionality would be considered to be a Markup Editing Tool.
4. Programming Tools: Tools for creating all kinds of Web Applications, including Java applets, Flash, server and client-side scripts, etc. Also includes tools that assist authors to create markup languages (i.e. XML) and tools that assist authors to create user interfaces (i.e. UIML?).
5. Conversion Tools: Tools for converting content from one format to another. This includes tools for changing the format of images, for conversion of other document formats to XHTML, for importing document formats and document management systems and servers.

Implementation techniques by guideline and checkpoint

1. Support accessible authoring practices:
   • Techniques for checkpoint 1.1: Ensure that the author can produce accessible content in the markup language(s) supported by the tool. [Priority 1]
   • Techniques for checkpoint 1.2: Ensure that the tool preserves all accessibility information during authoring, transformations, and conversions. [Priority 1]
   • Techniques for checkpoint 1.3: Ensure that when the tool automatically generates markup it conforms to the W3C's Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0 [WCAG10]. [Relative Priority]
   • Techniques for checkpoint 1.4:Ensure that templates provided by the tool conform to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0 [WCAG10]. [Relative Priority]
2. Generate standard markup:
   • Techniques for checkpoint 2.1: Use the latest versions of W3C Recommendations when they are available and appropriate for a task. [Priority 2].
   • Techniques for checkpoint 2.2: Ensure that the tool automatically generates valid markup. [Priority 1]
   • Techniques for checkpoint 2.3: If markup produced by the tool does not conform to W3C specifications, inform the author. [Priority 3
3. Support the creation of accessible content:
   • Techniques for checkpoint 3.1:Prompt the author to provide equivalent alternative information (e.g., captions, auditory descriptions, and collated text transcripts for video). [Relative Priority]
   • Techniques for checkpoint 3.2: Help the author create structured content and separate information from its presentation. [Relative Priority]
   • Techniques for checkpoint 3.3: Ensure that prepackaged content conforms to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0 [WCAG10]. [Relative Priority]
   • Techniques for checkpoint 3.4: Do not automatically generate equivalent alternatives. Do not reuse previously authored alternatives without author confirmation, except when the function is known with certainty. [Priority 1]
   • Techniques for checkpoint 3.5: Provide functionality for managing, editing, and reusing alternative equivalents for multimedia objects. [Priority 3]
4. Provide ways of checking and correcting inaccessible content:
   • Techniques for checkpoint 4.1: Check for and inform the author of accessibility problems. [Relative Priority]
   • Techniques for checkpoint 4.2: Assist authors in correcting accessibility problems. [Relative Priority]
   • Techniques for checkpoint 4.3: Allow the author to preserve markup not recognized by the tool. [Priority 2]
   • Techniques for checkpoint 4.4: Provide the author with a summary of the document's accessibility status. [Priority 3]
   • Techniques for checkpoint 4.5: Allow the author to transform presentation markup that is misused to convey structure into structural markup, and to transform presentation markup used for style into style sheets. [Priority 3]
5. Integrate accessibility solutions into the overall "look and feel":
   • Techniques for checkpoint 5.1:Ensure that functionality related to accessible authoring practices is naturally integrated into the overall look and feel of the tool. [Priority 2]
   • Techniques for checkpoint 5.2:Ensure that accessible authoring practices supporting Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0 [WCAG10] Priority 1 checkpoints are among the most obvious and easily initiated by the author. [Priority 2]
6. Promote accessibility in help and documentation:
   • Techniques for checkpoint 6.1: Document all features that promote the production of accessible content. [Priority 1]
   • Techniques for checkpoint 6.2: Ensure that creating accessible content is a naturally integrated part of the documentation, including examples. [Priority 2]
   • Techniques for checkpoint 6.3: In a dedicated section, document all features of the tool that promote the production of accessible content. [Priority 3]
7. Ensure that the authoring tool is accessible to authors with disabilities:
   • Techniques for checkpoint 7.1: Use all applicable operating system and accessibility standards and conventions [Priority 1 for standards and conventions that are essential to accessibility; Priority 2 for those that are important to accessibility; Priority 3 for those that are beneficial to accessibility].
   • Techniques for checkpoint 7.2: Allow the author to change the presentation within editing views without affecting the document markup. [Priority 1]
   • Techniques for checkpoint 7.3: Allow the author to edit all properties of each element and object in an accessible fashion. [Priority 1]
   • Techniques for checkpoint 7.4: Ensure that the editing view allows navigation via the structure of the document in an accessible fashion. [Priority 1]
   • Techniques for checkpoint 7.5: Enable editing of the structure of the documenst in an accessible fashion. [Priority 2]
   • Techniques for checkpoint 7.6: Allow the author to search within editing views. [Priority 2]

Other technique documents

• Appendix A: Techniques for user prompting
• Evaluation Techniques
• Glossary
• References