New guidelines boost Web Access

By Geoff Adams-Spink


The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) has announced a new standard to make sites more accessible to older and disabled people. Version 2.0 of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) will apply to text, images, audio and video. It also covers web applications and is said to give developers more flexibility than the old guidelines.

According to the consortium, WCAG 2.0 should also be easier to understand and use. The guidance is designed to address barriers encountered by people with visual, hearing, physical, cognitive and neurological disabilities and older people with access needs.

WCAG 2.0 explains how to make content:
- Perceivable: including descriptive text for images, audio captions, flexibility of layout and colour contrast
- Operable: making sites usable with keyboards and improving navigation
- Understandable: making content easier to read and input more logical
- Robust: ensuring that content and applications are compatible with assistive technology such as screen readers and magnifiers

"WCAG 2.0...can help ensure that the web stays open to people with disabilities even as we continually introduce new technologies," said Gregg Vanderheiden, co-chair of the WCAG working group. "WCAG 2.0 represents the outcome of a major collaborative effort, and its final form is widely supported by industry, disability organisations, research and government." Dr Vanderheiden says this is important if the guidelines are to become a unifying, international standard for web accessibility.

Publication comes shortly after the British Standards Institute (BSI) issued a draft standard on accessible websites. The standard - BS 8878 - gives advice on process rather than technical or design issues, so should complement WCAG 2.0. In particular, the draft standard recommends the involvement of disabled people in the development of websites and suggests automated tools to test for accessibility.