• Skip to Content
• | Change text size or colors

WAI: Strategies, guidelines, resources to make the Web accessible to people with disabilities

Site Navigation

W3C Home

Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) Home

1. Getting Started
2. Designing for Inclusion
3. Guidelines & Techniques
   1. Web Content (WCAG)
   2. »Authoring Tool (ATAG)
      • 1.0 technical
        1. ATAG 1.0
        2. Checkpoints
        3. Errata
        4. Techniques
      • 1.0 educational
        1. FAQ
        2. Conformance Icons
        3. Conformance Evals
      • 2.0 technical
        1. ATAG 2.0 Draft
        2. Techniques
   3. User Agent (UAAG)
   4. WAI-ARIA (Rich Applications)
   5. Indie UI
   6. Evaluation Language (EARL)
   7. Research Topics
   8. Technical Papers
   9. Referencing & Linking
   10. Development Process
4. Planning & Implementing
5. Evaluating Accessibility
6. Presentations & Tutorials
7. Getting Involved with WAI

This is an out-of-date or in-progress internal Editors' Draft. Updated $Date: 2013/11/20 12:47:05 $
The real page is at: www.w3.org/WAI/intro/atag

[Draft update] Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines (ATAG) Overview

Quick links: ATAG 1.0, ATAG 2.0 Working Draft, Implementing ATAG 2.0

ATAG

Authoring tools are software and services that "authors" (web developers, designers, writers, etc.) use to produce web content (static web pages, dynamic web applications, etc.). Examples of authoring tools are listed below under "Who ATAG is for".

The Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines (ATAG) documents explain how to:

• make the authoring tools themselves accessible, so that people with disabilities can create web content, and
• help authors create more accessible web content — specifically: enable, support, and promote the production of content that conforms to Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG).

ATAG is part of a series of accessibility guidelines, including the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) and the User Agent Accessibility Guidelines (UAAG). Essential Components of Web Accessibility explains the relationship between the different guidelines.

Who ATAG is for

ATAG is primarily for developers of authoring tools, including the following types of authoring tools:

• [@@ note to reviewers: the intention is to list below only the most common, most important, and maybe the least know, but not try to be comprehensive. suggestions welcome.]
• web page authoring tools, for example, what-you-see-is-what-you-get (WYSIWYG) HTML editors
• software for generating websites, for example, content management systems (CMS), courseware tools, content aggregators
• software that converts to web content technologies, for example, word processors and other office document applications with "Save as HTML"
• multimedia authoring tools
• websites that let users add content, such as blogs, wikis, photo sharing sites, online forums, and social networking sites
• other types of tools listed in the glossary definition of authoring tools

ATAG and supporting resources are also intended to meet the needs of many different audiences, including policy makers, managers, and others. For example:

• People who want to choose authoring tools that are accessible and that produce accessible content can use ATAG to evaluate authoring tools.
• People who want to encourage their existing authoring tool developer to improve accessibility in future versions can refer the authoring tool vendor to ATAG.

What is in ATAG 2.0

ATAG 2.0 has two main parts:

• Part A is about making the authoring tool itself accessible.
• Part B is about the authoring tool helping authors produce accessible content.

ATAG 2.0 is organized in layers:

• Principles provide high-level organization for the guidelines.
• Guidelines provide the framework and objectives for the success criteria.
• Success criteria are the accessibility requirements, which are written as testable statements, at three levels: A, AA, AAA.
  [@@ ed note: wish had better explanation of the levels to point to (not specifically about conformance, but what they mean)...]

ATAG at a Glance provides a short summary of the accessibility principles and guidelines in ATAG 2.0.

ATAG is a normative technical standard. The success criteria are the basis for determining conformance to ATAG 2.0.

A supporting non-normative document helps understand and use ATAG: Implementing ATAG 2.0. Implementing ATAG 2.0 provides the rationale for each guideline; and for each success criterion, it provides the intent for accessibility and implementation notes, examples, and links to resources.

Technical document format

ATAG follows the W3C format for technical specifications, which has several sections at the beginning, including links to different versions, editors, abstract, and status.

ATAG Versions: 1.0 and 2.0

Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines 1.0 was approved in February 2000 and is the stable and referenceable version.

ATAG 2.0 is being developed to be compatible with WCAG 2.0. WAI anticipates ATAG 2.0 will be completed in 2014. Because of the nature of the W3C development process, WAI cannot be certain when the final version of ATAG 2.0 will be available. ATAG 1.0 will remain the latest approved version until version 2.0 is complete.

Currently ATAG 2.0 is a mature draft and we expect that it will not change significantly. We recommend that you use the ATAG 2.0 draft in most cases, understanding that it might change.

Who develops ATAG

ATAG technical documents are developed by the Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines Working Group (AUWG), which is part of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI). For more information about the working group, see the AUWG page.

How WAI Develops Accessibility Guidelines through the W3C Process: Milestones and Opportunities to Contribute describes formal periods for public review. Opportunities for review and comment of WAI documents are announced on the WAI home page and WAI Interest Group mailing list. An email address for sending comments is included in the "Status of this Document" section.

Opportunities for contributing to ATAG and other WAI work are introduced in Participating in WAI.

Document Information

This is an out-of-date or in-progress internal Editors' Draft.
The real page is at: www.w3.org/WAI/intro/atag

Status: Draft Updated $Date: 2013/11/20 12:47:05 $ (first published July 2005)
Editor: Shawn Lawton Henry. Developed with the Education and Outreach Working Group (EOWG) and the Authoring Tool Accessibility Working Group (AUWG).