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WAI: Strategies, guidelines, resources to make the Web accessible to people with disabilities

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Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI)

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The power of the Web is in its universality. Access by everyone regardless of disability is an essential aspect.

-- Tim Berners-Lee, W3C Director and inventor of the World Wide Web

Highlights

Working Together for Better Accessibility

To help and encourage developers and users working together, WAI has updated the following documents:

See Updated Resources Encourage Working Together for Better Accessibility e-mail for more information.    (2010-April-22)

Judy Brewer to Testify on Web Accessibility Before US House Subcommittee

On Thursday, April 22, Judy Brewer, Director of the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI), will be among those testifying at a Hearing on Achieving the Promise of the Americans with Disabilities Act in the Digital Age – Current Issues, Challenges, and Opportunities before the US House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties. In her testimony, she will speak about how web accessibility has progressed over the past ten years, and why it is important to continue to lower accessibility barriers on the web as we rely more heavily on the web for education, employment, health care, social networking, and more. Note: We will link to the testimony when it becomes available online.    (2010-April-21)

For Review: UAAG 2.0 and Implementing UAAG 2.0 Working Drafts

WAI has published an updated Working Draft of the User Agent Accessibility Guidelines (UAAG) 2.0. UAAG defines how browsers, media players, and other "user agents" should support accessibility for people with disabilities and work with assistive technologies. This draft adds requirements in seven new areas, including support for speech input, video playback controls, and a new section on conformance. It introduces a new supporting document, Implementing UAAG 2.0, as a First Public Working Draft. WAI encourages you to review UAAG 2.0 and submit comments. See:

Please send comments by 16 April 2010.    (2010-March-11)

Speak up! Tell organizations if their website is inaccessible

Contacting Organizations about Inaccessible Websites guides you through telling organizations about accessibility barriers on their website. We would like to know how this new WAI resource works for you and how we can improve it. See the blog post: Take a few minutes to encourage web accessibility. Your voice counts. Please send comments by 3 February 2010.    (2010-Jan-06)

WCAG 2.0 in Italian: Authorized Translation Published

Linee guida per l'accessibilità dei contenuti Web (WCAG) 2.0, the Italian Authorized Translation of Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0, is now available, following completion of the W3C Authorized Translations process. WAI encourages translating WAI documents in all languages. See:

(2009-Dec-21)

For Review: WAI-ARIA Updated Working Drafts

WAI has published updated Working Drafts of WAI-ARIA, the Accessible Rich Internet Applications technical specification, and two companion documents: WAI-ARIA User Agent Implementation Guide and WAI-ARIA Authoring Practices. Get more information on using WAI-ARIA to make dynamic, interactive web content accessible to people with disabilities from:

Please send comments by 2 February 2009.    (2009-Dec-15)

Resources Supporting Web Accessibility Business Case - Share Yours

Resources for Developing a Web Accessibility Business Case for Your Organization provides a first collection of statistics, case studies, and articles that support the business case for web accessibility. We are looking for additional case studies and resources; see Share Resources Supporting the Web Accessibility Business Case blog post.    (2009-Dec-14)

Want Better, Easier Accessibility? Involve Users in Your Web Projects

The new document Involving Users in Web Projects for Better, Easier Accessibility provides guidance for project managers, designers, and developers of:

Learn more about this and the related document Involving Users in Evaluating Web Accessibility in the Involving Users announcement e-mail and the blog post Discover new ways of thinking about accessibility. Watch for other documents from the WAI-AGE Project coming soon...    (2009-Dec-09)

WCAG 2.0 in German: Authorized Translation Published

Richtlinien für barrierefreie Webinhalte (WCAG) 2.0, the German Authorized Translation of Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0, is now available, following completion of the W3C Authorized Translations process. WAI encourages translating WAI documents in all languages. See:

(2009-October-29)

New: Perspectives on Web Accessibility

Along with the redesigned W3C website, we have a new Accessibility page that introduces the what, why, where, and how of web accessibility. Read what it says about how the impact of disabilities can be radically changed for people using the Web when websites, web technologies, and web tools are properly designed.    (2009-Oct-14)

W3C Shares Multimedia Accessibility FAQ

In order to help the community provide accessible multimedia, W3C made public it's internal Multimedia Accessibility FAQ. The FAQ provides some practical advice on: What do I need to do to make audio and video accessible? How do I get a transcript for my media? How do I do captions? Where can I get more information?

W3C's formal guidance on accessible multimedia is provided in Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0.    (2009-Oct-08)

Accessible and Mobile: WCAG-MWBP Overlap Document Published

Relationship between Mobile Web Best Practices (MWBP) and Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) is published as a W3C Working Group Note. See also:

(2009-July-09)

WCAG 2.0 in French: Authorized Translation Published

Règles pour l'accessibilité des contenus Web (WCAG) 2.0, the French Authorized Translation of Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0, is now available, following completion of the W3C Authorized Translations process. WAI encourages translating WAI documents in all languages. See:

(2009-June-26)

Business Case Updated: Impact of Older Web Users Expanded

Developing a Web Accessibility Business Case for Your Organization is updated to more thoroughly address the impact of Web accessibility on older users, as part of the WAI-AGE Project. Older users are an increasing market segment and an important target group for many organizations. This update also includes references to the new WCAG 2. Get more details on recent and upcoming updates from the WAI IG e-mail.    (2009-June-25)

How People with Disabilities Use the Web - Draft Introduced

"How People with Disabilities Use the Web" provides detailed examples of people with different disabilities using Web sites, applications, browsers, and authoring tools. It is currently a draft, and will soon be updated to reflect current best practice. Introduction to "How People with Disabilities Use the Web" provides a stable reference that will always link to the latest version of the main document.    (2009-Apr-22)

Which links to what: Referencing WCAG, ATAG, UAAG, and WAI-ARIA

Ever wonder which URI (Web address) you should use for links to WCAG or other WAI technical documents? To learn which URI to use for what, which have stable content, and which give you the latest version, see Referencing and Linking to WAI Guidelines and Technical Documents.    (2009-Mar-12)

WCAG 2.0 is Finalized: W3C Web Standard Defines Accessibility for Next Generation Web

On 11 December 2008 W3C announced a new standard that will help Web designers and developers create sites that better meet the needs of users with disabilities and older users. Drawing on extensive experience and community feedback, Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0 improves upon W3C's groundbreaking initial standard for accessible Web content, applies to more advanced technologies, and is more precisely testable. Please see additional information in:

(2008-Dec-11)

WAI-AGE: Addressing Accessibility Needs Due to Ageing

The WAI-AGE Project (Ageing Education and Harmonisation) focuses on education and outreach regarding the requirements of people with Web accessibility needs related to ageing. One of the WAI-AGE project deliverables is Web Accessibility for Older Users: A Literature Review, which was published on 14 March as a First Public Working Draft. WAI encourages you to review this draft and submit any comments by 4 June 2008, if possible.

See Call for Review and Participation: WAI-AGE Literature Review and Task Force for an introduction to the project and an invitation to contribute to the literature review and other WAI-AGE work.   (2008-May-14)

Want to know how people with disabilities use your Web site? Ask.

Web accessibility guidelines, techniques, and tools provide the basis for Web accessibility. Including people with disabilities in the Web development process helps to understand the "why" behind accessibility. It leads to more effective accessibility solutions, developed more efficiently. See "Involving Users in Web Accessibility Evaluation".   (2005-Nov-02)

Web Accessibility: The Fellowship of the Guidelines

Many people know about WAI's Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) and the responsibilities of Web developers in making the Web accessible to people with disabilities. But Web developers alone cannot make the Web accessible.

Web browsers, assistive technologies, and authoring tools also have a vital role in Web accessibility. Essential Components of Web Accessibility describes these roles along with the WAI guidelines.    (2005-July-22)

See additional highlights in the Highlights Archive.
WAI home page Highlights are edited by Shawn Henry, WAI's Education and Outreach Working Group, and other WAI Team and Working Groups.

Sponsors

WAI is supported in part by: the U.S. Department of Education's National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research, European Commission's Information Society Technologies Programme, HP, IBM, Microsoft Corporation, SAP, Verizon Foundation, and Wells Fargo.

WAI welcomes additional sponsors and contributors.

Validation Logos

Level Double-A conformance icon, W3C-WAI Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0 Valid XHTML 1.0 Transitional Valid CSS!