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The Different WCAG 2.0 Documents*
[Editor's Draft, 7 August 2008]

Status: This document is a draft. Please send comments to wai-eo-editors@w3.org (a publicly archived list).

The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 2.0) is introduced in the Overview of WCAG 2.0 Documents.
[ *Editor's note: The contents and titles of these pages will change as we migrate from WCAG 1.0 to WCAG 2.0.]

This page describes the different WCAG 2.0 documents, to help you know where to go for which type of information.

Different Documents for Different Purposes

Figure 1: WCAG 2.0 documents

Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0 is planned to become a Web Standard "W3C Recommendation" in late 2008. WCAG 2.0 itself is designed as a stable, referenceable technical standard. Most people will use the supporting documents when developing Web content and Web tools, instead of the actual technical standards document.

Figure 2: Example customization box

How to Meet WCAG 2.0: A customizable quick reference to WCAG 2.0 requirements (Success Criteria) and techniques is a key resource for designers and developers using WCAG 2.0. It includes all the WCAG 2.0 guidelines and success criteria. The success criteria are the testable statements that define how Web content meets (conforms to) WCAG 2.0. Under each success criteria are a list of sufficient techniques; that is, if you implement those techniques you meet the success criteria. It also lists common failures, that is, things that do not meet the guidelines.

You can customize How to Meet WCAG 2.0 based on whether you are using CSS, JavaScript, or other Web technologies. You can also select to show Level A, AA, or AAA success criteria.

Understanding WCAG 2.0 has additional details on learning and implementing WCAG 2.0 for people who want to understand the guidelines and success criteria more thoroughly.

Techniques for WCAG 2.0 gives specific guidance on how to develop accessible Web content, such as HTML code examples.

Getting from one document to the other

The WCAG 2.0 documents are interlinked. For example:

• In WCAG 2.0,
  • Links such as "How to Meet 1.1.1" go to the How to Meet WCAG 2.0 document, and jumps down to that section within the document.
  • Links such as "Understanding 1.1.1" links go to an Understanding WCAG 2.0 topic page. (You can get all the Understanding topics in one large Web page from the "single HTML version" link in the footer of each topic page.)
• In both How to Meet WCAG 2.0 and Understanding WCAG 2.0, there are lists of techniques that are links. These links go to a Techniques for WCAG 2.0 topic page. (You can get all the Techniques topics in one large Web page from the "single HTML version" link in the footer of each topic page.)

Figure 3: Example of links between documents