Briefing Paper: Engage with W3C Accessibility Guidelines

This paper provides context for the Engage with W3C Accessibility Guidelines activity within the Technical Standards for Digital Education project.

The aim is to provide background and provide a framework for eliciting feedback from the focus group on business requirements, possible technical approaches, and priorities for engagement with standards and specifications bodies.

This document is a work in progress: it will be expanded in collaboration with the focus group for this activity.


© Copyright 2009 University of Southern Queensland

Business drivers

  1. W3C has recently released a new version of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG2.0).
  2. The new guidelines incorporate new technologies, including Web2.0.
  3. Web content providers and creators want to be able to work within the new guidelines as closely as possible, to ensure maximum accessibility for as wide an audience as possible.
  4. Moving from adherence to WCAG1.0 to WCAG2.0 will impact upon these content creators, and it is important to examine what this impact will be, to allow the new guidelines to be taken into account.

Interoperability challenges

  • Identify how the new guidelines will be interpreted within the Australian schools sector context
  • Identify practices and process in which the impact of new guidelines may be higher than others
  • Be able to integrate these guidelines with minimal impact upon production of content while maximising accessibility
  • Identify the potential impact of legislation which may eventuate with the release of the WCAG2.0

Scenario

A content provider has been adhering to the Australian Government’s recommendation of producing content that is at least “AA” rating against the WCAG1.0.

With the release of WCAG2.0, the content provider wishes to make the content accessible by adhering to the new guidelines. This has the added benefit of incorporating the accessibility of Web2.0 technologies now that the new guidelines take these into consideration.

The difference in the new guidelines means that there will be an impact for this content provider in the way that content is produced. The content provider wishes to know what this impact will be, so that the new guidelines can be incorporated into the content creation workflow.

The content provider is happy to adhere to whatever level of compliance the Australian government recommends. Until this recommendation is released, the content provider aims to comply with the same recommended comparable level of accessibility, to stay in line with current expectations which are also at “AA” level for compliance to WCAG1.0. Due to investigations and reports that have been done into the impact of the new guidelines, and the way in which to best integrate these into processes and practices, the content provider is able to achieve a good level of conformance.

Australian government releases its perspective on the new guidelines and the content provider is able to remain compliant due to successful planning and implementation. Or, if a higher level of compliancy is required, the content provider is able to move to this level of compliancy due to the prior impact study.

Interoperability and technical analysis

  1. Current guidelines (WCAG1.0) are almost 10 years old and are outdated. They do not include guidelines on using Web2.0 technologies.
  2. A new version of the guidelines (WCAG2.0) was released in December 2008.
  3. HREOC currently requires adherence to the second level of compliance with WCAG1.0, level “AA” (since March 2009).
  4. Australian government is expected to eventually release a statement on what level of compliancy is expected with the new version of the guidelines.
  5. Compliancy with the version is not necessarily a simple matter. With the consideration of the newer technologies in these guidelines, compliancy becomes more complex.
  6. Investigation into what the impact from the new guidelines could be is needed. This could begin with a number of research questions:
    1. How is content currently created as “compliant”?
    2. How do we interpret the guidelines within the context of the Australian schools sector?
    3. There are “novel” requirements for the schools sector - how do we identify and address these?
    4. What technologies does the schools sector feel are most appropriate?
    5. How are current agreements and acknowledgements incorporated?
    6. What benefits will come from moving to WCAG2.0 compliance?
    7. Are there extra practices, processes or tools to be implemented in order to ensure compliance?
    8. Retrospectivity: How is this going to be addressed? Will content providers be expected to retrospectively adhere to the guidelines?
    9. Standing agreements: What happens to the standing agreements? Are they able to be mapped over to WCAG2.0?
    10. HREOC vs AGIMO: Currently HREOC and AGIMO require different levels of adherence. The Education sector adheres to HREOC’s required adherence. Will this continue?
  7. The VET sector is also doing similar investigations. As there is a lot of overlap between the requirements it makes sense to collaborate with the VET sector project on Accessibility, to ensure both groups get maximum benefit.

Relevant Standards and Specifications


The Technical Standards for Digital Education project is funded by the Australian Government's Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations (DEEWR).

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