Sample of Literature with WCAG-Usability Implications

Over the years a number of studies and articles have criticized WCAG for having an ambiguous relationship with usability, not having a framework that includes usability, or not having guidelines on usability best practices etc, etc. The following are some of them.

• Guidelines are only half of the story: accessibility problems encountered by blind users on the web - Christopher Power, Andre Freire, Helen Petrie, David Swallow
• Contextual web accessibility - maximizing the benefit of accessibility guidelines - Brian Kelly, David Sloan, Lawrie Phipps, Helen Petrie, Fraser Hamilton
• Forcing Standardization or Accommodating Diversity? A Framework for Applying the WCAG in the Real World - David Sloan, Andy Heath, Fraser Hamilton, Brian Kelly, Helen Petri, Lawrie Phipps
• A challenge to web accessibility metrics and guidelines: putting people and processes first - Martyn Cooper, David Sloan, Brian Kelly, Sarah Lewthwaite
• Complementing standards by demonstrating commitment and progress - Sarah Horton, David Sloan, Henny Swan
• The future of WCAG – maximising its strengths not its weaknesses - Jonathan Hassell, "it's debatable whether many of the missing success criteria to address those missing problems are accessibility or usability issues."
• Holistic Approaches to E-Learning Accessibility (PDF) - Lawrie Phipps and Brian Kelly
• Disabled people and the Web: User based measurement of accessibility (PDF) - Andre Pimenta Freire
• Headings: Who needs ‘em? "...absurd distinctions that are sometimes made about the usability and accessibility of web content" - Roger Hudson
• Measuring accessibility "...Particular difficulty with issues that blur the boundary between usability and accessibility" - Roger Hudson