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
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.
- AUTO_REFRESH, covered by 3.2.2 On Input (and at level A partially covered by 3.2.1 On Focus)
- COLOR_CONTRAST, covered by success criterion 1.4.3 Contrast (Minimum) and 1.4.6 Contrast (Enhanced)
- CONTROL_LABELLING, covered by success criterion 1.3.1 Info and Relationships
- FONTS, covered by 1.3.1 Info and Relationships.
- LINK_TARGET_ID, covered by 2.4.9 Link Purpose (Link Only).
- MEASURES, covered by 1.4.4 Resize text
- NON-TEXT_ALTERNATIVES, covered by success criterion 1.1.1 Non-text Content”
- PAGE_TITLE, covered by 2.4.2 Page Titled
- POP_UPS, covered by 3.2.2 On Input
- STRUCTURE, covered by success criterion 1.3.1 Info and Relationships and 2.4.10 Section Headings, and partially by 1.4.1 Use of Color.
- STYLE_SHEETS_SUPPORT, covered by success criterion 1.3.1 Info and Relationships
- STYLE_SHEETS_USE, covered by success criterion 1.3.1 Info and Relationships
- TAB_ORDER, covered by 2.4.3 Focus Order
- USE_OF_COLOR, covered by success criterion 1.4.1 Use of Color
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
Back to Best Practices list.
[BACKGROUND_IMAGE_READABILITY] When using background images make sure that content remains readable on the device
- 1.4.3 Contrast (Minimum) may help ensure compliance with this BP. If contrast is sufficient, this goes part of the way to ensuring readability.
- 1.4.6 Contrast (Enhanced) may help ensure compliance with this BP, as described for 1.4.3 Contrast (Minimum) above.
Back to Best Practices list.
[COLOR_CONTRAST] Ensure that foreground and background color combinations provide sufficient contrast
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[CONTROL_LABELLING] Label all form controls appropriately and explicitly associate labels with form controls
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[CONTROL_POSITION] Position labels so they lay out properly in relation to the form controls they refer to
- 1.3.1 Info and Relationships has an advisory (not required) technique (“Positioning labels to maximize predictability of relationships”) that may ensure compliance.
Back to Best Practices list.
[FONTS] Do not rely on support of font related styling
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- 1.3.1 Info and Relationships does not prohibit the use of graphics for spacing, but some of the sufficient techniques may ensure compliance with this BP by encouraging the use of alternatives.
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[LINK_TARGET_ID] Clearly identify the target of each link
- 2.4.4 Link Purpose (In Context) may go some way to meeting this BP, but as the SC provides for indicating the link purpose in the context which is not contemplated by the BP, and in the title attribute or table cell header which are unlikely to be supported adequately by a mobile browser. As a result, content that conforms to this SC may not meet the BP. Also, the BP explicitly mentions file format (if not known to be supported by device), language, file size.
- 2.4.9 Link Purpose (Link Only) ensures compliance with this BP. Note that the BP explicitly mentions file format (if not known to be supported by device), language, file size.
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[MEASURES] Do not use pixel measures and do not use absolute units in markup language attribute values and style sheet property values
- 1.4.4 Resize text may possibly help comply with this BP as some of the WCAG Techniques use named font sizes, em units or percentages.
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[NAVIGATION] Provide consistent navigation mechanisms
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[NON-TEXT_ALTERNATIVES] Provide a text equivalent for every non-text element
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[OBJECTS_OR_SCRIPT] Do not rely on embedded objects or script
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[PAGE_TITLE] Provide a short but descriptive page title
- 2.4.2 Page Titled ensures compliance with this BP. Tip: The title may be truncated in the mobile device as described in the BP. It may be useful to put the most important, differentiating information first, also helping screen reader users. Refer also to Long page title in “Summary of Experience of Content Features by Users” section.
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[POP_UPS] Do not cause pop-ups or other windows to appear and do not change the current window without informing the user
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[REDIRECTION] Do not use markup to redirect pages automatically. Instead, configure the server to perform redirects by means of HTTP 3xx codes
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[STRUCTURE] Use features of the markup language to indicate logical document structure
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[STYLE_SHEETS_SUPPORT] Organize documents so that if necessary they may be read without style sheets
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[STYLE_SHEETS_USE] Use style sheets to control layout and presentation, unless the device is known not to support them
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[TAB_ORDER] Create a logical order through links, form controls and objects
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[USE_OF_COLOR] Ensure that information conveyed with color is also available without color.
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[VALID_MARKUP] Create documents that validate to published formal grammars
- 4.1.1 Parsing may go some way to complying with this BP with some of the sufficient techniques.
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