This section describes the status of this document at the time of its
publication. Other documents may supersede this document. The latest status
of this document series is maintained at the W3C.
Warning: This is a pre-release version of this document
and is still being updated. It is known to contain broken and incorrect
links, spelling and gramar errors, and various other errors in the metadata.
Please do not make internal links to this document without first contacting
the at least one
of the editors and ensuring that you are not linking to something that is
about to change.
This version of Techniques for Authoring Tool Accessibility is a working
draft of an update to W3C Note, published as an informative appendix to
"Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines". This document is a draft for
Working Group review. It is intended that it will update the previous version
of this Note but does not represent consensus within the WAI Authoring Tools
Guidelines (AUWG)
Working Group, nor within W3C. This document is likely to change and should
not be cited as reference material or anything other than "work in progress".
The Working Group expects to update this document in response to queries
raised by implementors of the Guidelines, for example to cover new
technologies. Suggestions for additional techniques are welcome.
This document represents an attempt to make it clearer how to use the
techniques for different types of tools. It begins the process of publishing
the techniques as a multi-part hypertext document. It also begins the
process, in its markup, of preparing for a techniques document to match the
"wombat" drafts of the Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines.
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.
Please send general comments about this document to the public mailing
list: w3c-wai-au@w3.org (public archives).
Please note that this document is known to contain typographical errors which
do not need comment. It was published as soon as possible since review of the
content itself is important.
A list of current W3C Recommendations and other technical documents
including Working Drafts and Notes can be found at http://www.w3.org/TR.
This document has been divided into a multipart 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.
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) a pre-fabricated
chat facility that the instructor can drag on to their page, this component
must comply with all the techniques for accessible output (guidelines 1-6)
and accessible user interface (guideline 7).
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 JavaScripts 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.
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 as markup
formats.
Multimedia Creation Tools: Tools that assist authors to create
multimedia Web content without allowing access to 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.
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 actaully used to implement the higher-order content, then
that functionality would be considered to be a Markup Editing Tool.
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?).
Conversion Tools: Tools for converting content from one format
to another. This includes tools for chanigng the format of images, for
conversion of other document formats to XHTML, and tools for importing
document formats.
- Status of this document
- Brief contents
- Introduction
- Full table of contents
- Implementation techniques by
guideline and checkpoint
- Support accessible authoring practices:
- 1.1 Ensure that the
author can produce accessible content in the markup
language(s) supported by the tool. [Priority 1]
- Techniques for
checkpoint 1.1
- 1.2 Ensure that the tool
preserves all accessibility information
during authoring, transformations, and conversions.
[Priority 1]
- Techniques for
checkpoint 1.2
- 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 1.3
- 1.4 Ensure that
templates provided by the tool conform to the Web Content
Accessibility Guidelines 1.0 [WCAG10]. [Relative Priority]
- Techniques for
checkpoint 1.4
- Generate standard markup:
- 2.1 Use
the latest versions of W3C Recommendations
when they are available and appropriate for a task. [Priority 2]
- W3C specifications have undergone review specifically to
ensure that they do not compromise accessibility, and where
possible, they enhance it.
- Techniques for checkpoint
2.1
- 2.2 Ensure that the tool
automatically generates valid markup. [Priority 1]
- This is necessary for user agents to be able to
render Web content in a manner appropriate to a particular
user's needs.
- Techniques for
checkpoint 2.2
- 2.3 If markup produced
by the tool does not conform to W3C specifications, inform the author.
[Priority 3]
- Techniques for
checkpoint 2.3
- Support the creation of accessible content:
- 3.1 Prompt the author to provide equivalent alternative
information (e.g., captions, auditory descriptions, and collated text
transcripts for video). [Relative Priority]
- Note: Some checkpoints in the Web Content
Accessibility Guidelines 1.0 [WCAG10] may not
apply.
- Techniques for checkpoint
3.1
- 3.2 Help the author
create structured content and separate information from its
presentation. [Relative Priority]
- Note: Some checkpoints in
Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0 [WCAG10] may not
apply.
- Techniques for
checkpoint 3.2
- 3.3 Ensure that prepackaged
content conforms to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0 [WCAG10]. [Relative Priority]
- For example, include captions, an auditory description, and a collated text transcript with
prepackaged movies. Refer also to checkpoint 3.4.
- Techniques for checkpoint
3.3
- 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]
- For example, prompt the author for a text equivalent of an image. If
the author has already provided a text equivalent for the same
image used in another document, offer to reuse that text and
prompt the author for confirmation. If the tool automatically
generates a "Search" icon, it would be appropriate to
automatically reuse the previously authored text equivalent for
that icon. Refer also to checkpoint 3.3 and checkpoint 3.5.
Note: Human-authored equivalent
alternatives may be available for an object (for example,
through checkpoint 3.5 and/or checkpoint 3.3). It is appropriate for the
tool to offer these to the author as defaults.
- Techniques for checkpoint
3.4
- 3.5 Provide functionality
for managing, editing, and reusing alternative equivalents for
multimedia objects. [Priority 3]
- Note: These alternative equivalents may be
packaged with the tool, written by the author, retrieved from
the Web, etc.
- Techniques for checkpoint
3.5
- Provide ways of checking and correcting inaccessible
content:
- 4.1 Check for and inform the author of accessibility
problems. [Relative Priority]
- Note: Accessibility
problems should be detected automatically where possible. Where
this is not possible, the tool may need to prompt the author to make
decisions or to manually check for certain types of
problems.
- Techniques for checkpoint
4.1
- 4.2 Assist authors in
correcting accessibility
problems. [Relative Priority]
- At a minimum, provide context-sensitive
help with the accessibility checking required by checkpoint 4.1
- Techniques for
checkpoint 4.2
- 4.3 Allow the author to
preserve markup not recognized by the tool. [Priority 2]
- Note: The author may have
included or imported markup that enhances accessibility but is
not recognized by the tool.
- Techniques for checkpoint
4.3
- 4.4 Provide the author with
a summary of the document's accessibility status. [Priority 3]
- Techniques for checkpoint
4.4
- 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]
- Techniques for
checkpoint 4.5
- Integrate accessibility solutions into the overall
"look and feel":
- 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
5.1
- 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]
- Techniques for checkpoint
5.2
- Promote accessibility in help and documentation:
- 6.1 Document all features
that promote the production of accessible content. [Priority 1]
- Techniques for checkpoint
6.1
- 6.2 Ensure that
creating accessible content is a naturally integrated part of the
documentation, including examples. [Priority 2]
- Techniques for
checkpoint 6.2
- 6.3 In a
dedicated section, document all features of the tool that promote
the production of accessible content. [Priority 3]
- Techniques for
checkpoint 6.3
- Ensure that the authoring tool is accessible to
authors with disabilities:
- 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).
- The techniques for this checkpoint include references to
checklists and guidelines for a number of platforms and to
general guidelines for accessible applications.
- Techniques for
checkpoint 7.1
- 7.2 Allow the author to
change the presentation within editing views without affecting the
document markup. [Priority 1]
- This allows the author to edit the document according to
personal requirements, without changing the way the document is
rendered when published.
- Techniques for checkpoint
7.2
- 7.3
Allow the author to edit all properties of each element and object
in an accessible fashion. [Priority 1]
- Techniques for checkpoint
7.3
- 7.4 Ensure that the editing view allows
navigation via the structure of the document in an accessible
fashion. [Priority 1]
- Techniques for checkpoint
7.4
- 7.5 Enable editing of the
structure of the document in an accessible fashion. [Priority 2]
- Techniques for checkpoint
7.5
- 7.6
Allow the author to search within editing views. [Priority 2]
- Techniques for checkpoint
7.6
- Evaluation Techniques
- Glossary
- References
- Appendix A: Techniques for user prompting