W3C

Requirements for WCAG 2.0 Checklists and Techniques

W3C Working Draft 07 February 2003

This version:
http://www.w3.org/TR/2003/WD-wcag2-tech-req-20030207/
Latest version:
http://www.w3.org/TR/wcag2-tech-req/
Editor:
Michael Cooper, Watchfire <michaelc@watchfire.com>

Abstract

This is a W3C Working Draft produced by the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines Working Group (WCAG WG). It describes requirements for Checklists and Techniques described by the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 (WCAG 2.0). These requirements are related to but different from Requirements for WCAG 2.0 in that "Requirements for WCAG 2.0 Checklists and Techniques" specifies requirements for the technology-specific documents produced by the WCAG WG while "Requirements for WCAG 2.0" specifies general requirements for the general usability of documents produced by the WCAG WG. The Working Group encourages feedback about these requirements as well as participation in the development of WCAG 2.0 by people who have experience creating Web content that conforms to Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0.

Status of this Document

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.

Send comments about this document to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines Working Group mailing list. The archives for this list are publicly available.

Patent disclosures relevant to this specification may be found on the WCAG Working Group's patent disclosure page in conformance with W3C policy.

This document has been produced as part of the W3C Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI). The goals of the WCAG WG are discussed in the Working Group charter. The WCAG WG is part of the WAI Technical Activity.

This document describes requirements for creating Checklists and Techniques for the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0. It is a draft document that does not fully represent the consensus of the group at this time. Consensus is expected to be achieved shortly and work on creating the Techniques documents to proceed.

This is a draft document and may be updated, replaced, or obsoleted by other documents at any time. It is inappropriate to use W3C Working Drafts as reference material or to cite them as other than "work in progress". A list of current W3C Recommendations and other technical documents can be found at http://www.w3.org/TR/.

Table of Contents

1 Introduction
2 Definitions
3 General Requirements
    3.1 Intended Uses
    3.2 Scope of Documents
    3.3 Structure
    3.4 Relation to WCAG 2.0
4 Techniques Requirements
5 Checklist Requirements

Appendices

A Output Formats
B Fields
C Techniques Schema


1. Introduction

The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 creates a technology-independent set of Web accessibility guidelines by providing a set of high-level guidelines, and providing technology-specific information in auxiliary documents that are more frequently updated and may be non-normative. This document sets forth requirements for providing those documents, as summarized in Priorities and Techniques. Specifically, this set of requirements fulfills WCAG 2.0 Requirements to provide technology-specific Checklists and technology-specific Application Information.

This document describes requirements both for the source files used to store techniques and for the documents that will be generated from the source files. The source files will likely only be viewed for editing purposes and will exist in the best format and organization that fulfills the requirements (i.e., they are not likely to be available in HTML for general use). From these sources files we intend to generate a variety of views (see A. Output Formats). Each view may have its own requirements. The two views currently under discussion are comprehensive Techniques (4. Techniques Requirements) and Checklists (5. Checklist Requirements).

Other W3C groups have expressed interest in using the schema that is developed. Developers of non-W3C technologies may use the schema to publish their own techniques documents that show how to use their technologies to conform to WCAG 2.0. Therefore, while the Techniques documents are specifically created to meet WCAG 2.0 requirements, the structure is intended to be generalizable to other working groups and technologies.

2. Definitions

[Definition: Testable: Either Machine Testable or Reliably Human Testable.]

[Definition: Machine Testable: There is a known algorithm (regardless of whether that algorithm is known to be implemented in tools) that will determine, with complete reliability, whether the technique has been implemented or not. Probabilistic algorithms are not sufficient.]

[Definition: Reliably Human Testable: The technique can be tested by human inspection and it is believed that at least 80% of knowledgeable human evaluators would agree on the conclusion. The use of probabilistic machine algorithms may facilitate the human testing process but this does not make it machine testable.]

[Definition: Not Reliably Testable: The technique is subject to human inspection but it is not believed that at least 80% of knowledgeable human evaluators would agree on the conclusion.]

3. General Requirements

3.2. Scope of Documents

3.3. Structure

4. Techniques Requirements

The following points are mandatory requirements for Techniques.

5. Checklist Requirements

The following points are mandatory requirements for Checklists.

A. Output Formats

The Techniques are designed to meet a number of needs. As documents are designed to work together, each view may be drawn from multiple source files. The number of possible output formats is therefore large and many views may be generated from the source files at request time.

The following output formats have been identified and it must be possible to generate each of these documents.

B. Fields

The following granualar units of information have been identified to meet the requirements above.

[To be provided]

C. Techniques Schema

[To be provided]