WAI: Strategies, guidelines, resources to make the Web accessible to people with disabilities
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This page contains information from the 'Shared Web Experiences' document in an alternative table format. Please see the main page, Shared Web Experiences: Barriers Common to Mobile Device Users and People with Disabilities, for an introduction to this information.
Note: W3C WAI recommends using WCAG 2.0, instead of WCAG 1.0.
Information and user interface components must be presentable to users in ways they can perceive.
| Content | Disabilities context | Mobile devices context | Experience | WCAG 2.0 Success Criteria | WCAG 1.0 | MWBP 1.0 Best Practice, MWABP Best Practice |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Information conveyed using color (for example, “required material is shown in red”) with no redundancy. |
User who is blind or colorblind perceives color incorrectly or not at all. |
Many screens have limited color palette and color difference is not presented. Device is used in poor lighting (for example, outdoors), so colors are not clearly perceived. |
User perceives color incorrectly or not at all, and so misses or misunderstands information or makes mistakes. |
1.4.1
Use of Color, |
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Large pages or large images. |
User with restricted field of vision or using screen magnifier gets only small part of page or image at a time. |
Mobile device has small screen (viewport). |
User only sees small areas at a time, is unable to relate different areas of a page, and so becomes disoriented or has to scroll excessively. Additionally, user cannot access picture details because the picture is shrunk. |
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Multimedia with no captions |
User who is deaf or hard of hearing cannot hear. |
Mobile users often in public places (trains, hotel lobbies) turn off sound; or often cannot hear in noisy places (streets, nightclubs). |
User misses auditory information. |
1.2.2 Captions (Prerecorded), |
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Audio-only prompts (beeps) for important information (warnings, errors). |
User who is deaf or hard of hearing cannot perceive content. |
Users often cannot hear in noisy (street, nightclub) or in public places (trains, hotel lobbies). |
User cannot operate or interact correctly with content, misses prompts, makes mistakes. |
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Non-text objects (images, sound, video) with no text alternative |
User who is blind cannot perceive content that include non-text objects. Furthermore, information not available to user whose browser, assistive technology, other user agent doesn't support object. |
User can be billed for download volume so images might be turned off to save costs. Some mobile user agents have limited support for non-text objects so user loses information. Some user agents also shrunk images in size to fit the device's screen which can make images meaningless. |
User cannot perceive important information or loses information due to lack of alternative. |
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Text-entry |
User with motor disability (for example, partial paralysis, hand tremor, lack of sensitivity, coordination) has difficulty entering information. |
Device has small keypad which has limited functionality compared to a full keyboard, or is held in an unsteady hand. |
User has difficulty entering text so text is entered incorrectly or mistakes are made. |
3.3 Input Assistance: Help users avoid and correct mistakes. |
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Content formatted using tables or CSS, and reading order not correct when linearized (for example when CSS or tables not rendered). |
User who is blind reads content in document tree order. |
Meaning of content can be changed because of reformatting or restructuring in adaptation process. |
User cannot understand the content correctly when it's presented in a linear order. |
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Information conveyed only using CSS (visual formatting). |
User who is blind doesn't perceive visual formatting effects. |
Often no CSS support or diverging CSS support by mobile browser. |
User is unable to access some information encoded in visual formatting or in CSS. |
User interface components and navigation must be operable.
| Content | Disabilities context | Mobile devices context | Experience | WCAG 2.0 Success Criteria | WCAG 1.0 | MWBP 1.0 Best Practice, MWABP Best Practice |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Mouse required for interaction and navigation. |
Some users with a motor disability cannot use a mouse. Users who are blind also do not use the mouse. |
Device has no mouse, only alphanumeric keypad or joystick. |
User is unable to navigate all content, or wastes time moving through numerous links. |
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Scripting required to operate content |
User's assistive technology or browser doesn't support scripting. |
Scripting turned off or not supported. |
User cannot operate the content so loses some information. |
Conformance Requirement 4: Only Accessibility-Supported Ways of Using Technologies, |
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Special plugin required. |
Plugin turned off, or not installed, or not compatible with assistive technology. Plugin not operable with preferred input device. |
Plugin turned off or not installed; not compatible with input device (for example, requires mouse). |
User can not perceive content or can not operate interface. |
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Missing or inappropriate page title |
User who is blind typically uses a screen reader feature to get a list of the currently open windows, by window title. Therefore, if the page title is long, inappropriate or missing, user cannot perceive the content. |
Page title truncated to fit narrow viewport of mobile device. |
User cannot easily scan to get an overview because of missing, inappropriate, or long page title. |
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Inconsistency between focus (tab) order and logical document content sequence |
User with motor disability uses keyboard for navigation not mouse. User who is blind also often use tab navigation to move from one element to another. |
Mobile devices may not have a pointing device so the user may have to navigate elements serially. |
User is unable to navigate content in logical sequence, becomes disoriented. |
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Non descriptive link label |
User can not determine purpose of a link when read out of context. User who is blind often accesses a list of links on a page without the context around them. |
User can not determine purpose of link. |
User cannot determine to follow or not to follow a link because the link label is not descriptive enough |
2.4.4
Link Purpose (In Context), |
Information and the operation of user interface must be understandable.
| Content | Disabilities context | Mobile devices context | Experience | WCAG 2.0 Success Criteria | WCAG 1.0 | MWBP 1.0 Best Practice, MWABP Best Practice |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Long words, long and complex sentences, jargon |
Users with some types of cognitive disabilities have difficulty processing information. Users who are deaf and whose native language is sign, have difficulty processing complex written language. |
Text is displayed in small font, and user is often distracted by ambient conditions (background noise, conversations, moving objects in field of vision). |
User has difficulty understanding information. |
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Content spawning new windows without warning user. |
User with low vision, or restricted field of vision, or blindness, or cognitive disabilities doesn't realize active window is new. |
Single window interface. Multiple stacked windows on small screen hide each other. |
User becomes disoriented among windows; back button doesn't work. User closes window, not realizing it is last in stack, closing browser instance. |
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Blinking, moving, scrolling or auto-updating content |
People with reading disabilities, cognitive limitations, and learning disabilities do not have sufficient time to read or comprehend information. |
Reduced size of mobile viewport or poor ambient lighting make it difficult to see content. Auto-refreshed pages may also have cost implications if they are left open or put unnoticed into the background. |
User has difficulty reading and comprehending content. |
Content must be robust enough that it can be interpreted reliably by a wide variety of user agents, including assistive technologies.
| Content | Disabilities context | Mobile devices context | Experience | WCAG 2.0 Success Criteria | WCAG 1.0 | MWBP 1.0 Best Practice, MWABP Best Practice |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Invalid or unsupported markup. |
User's assistive technology or browser cannot handle markup. |
Some older mobile browsers do not display content with invalid markup. |
User cannot access the content because browser or adaptation system chokes on markup or rejects or garbles it. |
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Scripting required to generate content. |
User's assistive technology or browser doesn't support scripting. |
Scripting turned off or not supported. |
User cannot access the content so loses some information because scripting is not supported by the user agent. |
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