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W3C/WAI Web Accessibility Evaluation and Testing Activities

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Introduction

This page introduces several W3C/WAI activities on web accessibility evaluation and testing that are on-going, in development, or planned for future development. This includes WCAG 2.0 Techniques, Evaluation Methodology, W3C/WAI Test Suites, Accessibility Support, and Supporting Resources, all of which are developed in coordination with the relevant W3C/WAI working groups. Contact Shadi Abou-Zahra with questions.

WCAG 2.0 Techniques

Status: on-going development.

Resources:

The WCAG Working Group continues to develop techniques for WCAG 2.0, that are document ways of meeting (or failing) the WCAG 2.0 Success Criteria. The group welcomes comments on existing techniques as well as contribution of new techniques. The group also invites the development of techniques outside W3C/WAI, for example by individual regional and language communities and by web technology vendors.

Evaluation Methodology for WCAG 2.0

Status: on-going development.

Resources:

WCAG 2.0 Evaluation Methodology Task Force (Eval TF) is a sub-group of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines Working Group (WCAG WG) and Evaluation and Repair Tools Working Group (ERT WG), and is developing a methodology to help apply WCAG 2.0 on entire websites consistently. The group welcomes input and feedback on current drafts, and volunteers to contribute to the development of this methodology.

Test Suites for W3C/WAI Guidelines

Status: on-going development.

Resources:

Several W3C/WAI Working Groups are looking into developing test suites for their specifications using the W3C Conformance Test Framework. This includes test suites for Accessible Rich Internet Applications (WAI-ARIA) 1.0, User Agent Accessibility Guidelines (UAAG) 2.0, Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines (ATAG) 2.0. The corresponding working groups welcome contribution of test suites and volunteers to contribute to the development of test suites.

Accessibility Support Database

Status: early requirements analysis.

Resources:

W3C/WAI is exploring the use of crowd-sourcing approaches to establish and maintain a repository of information on the support for accessibility features (WCAG 2.0 techniques) in different web browsers and assistive technologies. Comments and feedback on the current draft requirements are welcome.

Note: This is related to previous work on a WCAG 2.0 Test Samples, that has been temporarily discontinued.

Web Accessibility Evaluation Tools

Status: planned for future development.

Resources:

While this resource has been largely superseded by the Techniques for WCAG 2.0, an update should provide specific guidance for web accessibility evaluation tool developers, to help create a new generation of automated and semi-automated tools that better support the WCAG 2.0 Techniques and the Evaluation Methodology for WCAG 2.0.

Further Supporting Resources

Status: planned for future updates.

WAI is planning to develop or extend several educational resources around the technical resources described elsewhere on this page, to support web accessibility evaluation. In particular, this includes: