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Accessibility standards
The following accessibility standards are explained:
Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG)
As part of its Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI), the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) published in 1999 a set of Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG version 1.0), along with a checklist for evaluating website compliance. These standards have become the de facto world standard.
These checkpoints fall into three 'compliance' categories:
- A (also known as Level 1)
A website must comply with all checkpoints in Level 1 otherwise one or more user groups will find it impossible to access information or functionality - AA (also known as Level 2)
A website should comply with all checkpoints in Level 2 otherwise one or more groups will experience significant barriers to access information or functionality. - AAA (also known as Level 3)
A website may comply with all checkpoints in Level 3 otherwise one or more groups will find it somewhat difficult to access information in the document.
We can use these guidelines to audit your site. Depending on your requirements and budget, this audit can encompass one or all of the three levels.
Our recommendations
We recommend that the minimum standard to which a website should be accessible is Compliance AA. This is because some of the fundamental barriers to users with disabilities are not covered within Compliance A alone. For example, the ability to resize text (vision impaired users), the use of semantic mark up for headings (blind screen reader users) and the provision of a site map (users with a cognitive disability, such as a memory disorder).
Section 508
The American Rehabilitation Act was amended in 1998 to include Section 508, a provision requiring Federal agencies to make their electronic and information technology accessible to people with disabilities. Section 508 contains 16 checkpoints for testing your website against. The first 11 checkpoints are exactly equivalent to the WCAG Priority Level 1 (A) guidelines. The last five checkpoints are partly based on the WCAG guidelines, but take them further.
For more information:
- Email accessibility@AbilityNet.org.uk
- Phone 0800 269545