Web Content Accessibility Guidelines released

[Thomas Dowling]

W4L--

If you haven't already seen it, the W3C has formally announced the Web
Content Accessibility Guidelines at
<URL:http://www.w3.org/TR/1999/WAI-WEBCONTENT-19990505/>.  This is the
official release of the document formally called "WAI Page Author
Guidelines"; as a W3C Recommendation, this is now the W3C's standard for
authoring accessible web pages.

Needless to say, this document will become an important reference point as
other organizations--notably the U.S. federal government--start to make
specific requirements about page accessibility.  I work for a
publicly-supported institution, and I'm taking it for granted that at some
point I'll be asked to document that our web sites meet something very
much like the WAI A or Double-A conformance level.

I've taken the liberty of copying below the Priority 1 checkpoints
required for minimal conformance.  What I find surprising is that very few
of these would not appear in a good general guide to web authorship
without any specific mention of accessibility.


Thomas Dowling
OhioLINK - Ohio Library and Information Network
tdowling at ohiolink.edu


=============

    Provide a text equivalent for every non-text element (e.g., via
    "alt", "longdesc", or in element content).

    Provide redundant text links for each active region of a server-side
    image map.

    Until user agents can automatically read aloud the text equivalent
    of a visual track, provide an auditory description of the important
    information of the visual track of a multimedia presentation.

    For any time-based multimedia presentation (e.g., a movie or
    animation), synchronize equivalent alternatives

    Ensure that all information conveyed with color is also available
    without color, for example from context or markup.

    Clearly identify changes in the natural language of a document's
    text and any text equivalents (e.g., captions).

    For data tables, identify row and column headers.

    For data tables that have two or more logical levels of row or
    column headers, use markup to associate data cells and header cells.

    Organize documents so they may be read without style sheets.

    Ensure that equivalents for dynamic content are updated when the
    dynamic content changes.

    Ensure that pages are usable when scripts, applets, or other
    programmatic objects are turned off or not supported. If this is not
    possible, provide equivalent information on an alternative
    accessible page.

    Until user agents allow users to control flickering, avoid causing
    the screen to flicker.

    Make programmatic elements such as scripts and applets directly
    accessible or compatible with assistive technologies.

    Provide client-side image maps instead of server-side image maps
    except where the regions cannot be defined with an available
    geometric shape.

    If, after best efforts, you cannot create an accessible page,
    provide a link to an alternative page that uses W3C technologies, is
    accessible, has equivalent information (or functionality), and is
    updated as often as the inaccessible (original) page.

    Title each frame to facilitate frame identification and navigation.

    Use the clearest and simplest language appropriate for a site's
    content.