Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1

  W3C
  English
  2018
  Businesses, Civil Society, Media, Policy Makers, Practitioners, Researchers
  Published
  Before
  Legal/Standards, Vulnerable groups
  Intermediate
  https://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG21/
  These guidelines address accessibility of web content on desktops, laptops, tablets, and mobile devices. Following these guidelines will also often make Web content more usable to users in general

The individuals and organizations that use WCAG vary widely and include Web designers and developers, policy makers, purchasing agents, teachers, and students.

In order to meet the varying needs of this audience, several layers of guidance are provided including overall principles, general guidelines, testable success criteria and a rich collection of sufficient techniques, advisory techniques, and documented common failures with examples, resource links and code.

• Principles
  • At the top are four principles that provide the foundation for Web accessibility:
    • perceivable
    • operable
    • understandable,
    • robust.
• Guidelines
  • Under the principles are guidelines.
  • The 13 guidelines provide the basic goals that authors should work toward in order to make content more accessible to users with different disabilities.
  • The guidelines are not testable, but provide the framework and overall objectives to help authors understand the success criteria and better implement the techniques.

• Success Criteria
  • For each guideline, testable success criteria are provided to allow WCAG 2.0 to be used where requirements and conformance testing are necessary such as in design specification, purchasing, regulation, and contractual agreements.
  • In order to meet the needs of different groups and different situations, three levels of conformance are defined: A (lowest), AA, and AAA (highest).
  • Additional information on WCAG levels can be found in Understanding Levels of Conformance.
• Sufficient and Advisory Techniques
  • For each of the guidelines and success criteria in the WCAG 2.0 document itself, the working group has also documented a wide variety of techniques.
    • The techniques are informative and fall into two categories:
    • those that are sufficient for meeting the success criteria and
    • those that are advisory.
  • The advisory techniques go beyond what is required by the individual success criteria and allow authors to better address the guidelines.
  • Some advisory techniques address accessibility barriers that are not covered by the testable success criteria.
    • Where common failures are known, these are also documentedProperty "Synopsis" (as page type) with input value "These guidelines address accessibility of web content on desktops, laptops, tablets, and mobile devices. Following these guidelines will also often make Web content more usable to users in general</br>The individuals and organizations that use WCAG vary widely and include Web designers and developers, policy makers, purchasing agents, teachers, and students. </br></br>In order to meet the varying needs of this audience, several layers of guidance are provided including overall principles, general guidelines, testable success criteria and a rich collection of sufficient techniques, advisory techniques, and documented common failures with examples, resource links and code.</br></br>*Principles</br>** At the top are four principles that provide the foundation for Web accessibility: </br>***perceivable</br>***operable</br>***understandable,</br>***robust. </br>*Guidelines</br>**Under the principles are guidelines. </br>**The 13 guidelines provide the basic goals that authors should work toward in order to make content more accessible to users with different disabilities. </br>**The guidelines are not testable, but provide the framework and overall objectives to help authors understand the success criteria and better implement the techniques.</br></br>*Success Criteria</br>**For each guideline, testable success criteria are provided to allow WCAG 2.0 to be used where requirements and conformance testing are necessary such as in design specification, purchasing, regulation, and contractual agreements. </br>**In order to meet the needs of different groups and different situations, three levels of conformance are defined: A (lowest), AA, and AAA (highest). </br>**Additional information on WCAG levels can be found in Understanding Levels of Conformance.</br>*Sufficient and Advisory Techniques</br>**For each of the guidelines and success criteria in the WCAG 2.0 document itself, the working group has also documented a wide variety of techniques. </br>***The techniques are informative and fall into two categories: </br>***those that are sufficient for meeting the success criteria and </br>***those that are advisory. </br>**The advisory techniques go beyond what is required by the individual success criteria and allow authors to better address the guidelines.</br>**Some advisory techniques address accessibility barriers that are not covered by the testable success criteria. </br>***Where common failures are known, these are also documented" contains invalid characters or is incomplete and therefore can cause unexpected results during a query or annotation process.

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Created: 30 August 2022
Last edited: 14 August 2023

Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1

Source

Quick Facts

Publishing Organisation:

W3C

Year:

2018

Languages:

English

Status:

Published

Covers Thematic

Legal/Standards Legal Requirement means any federal, state, local, municipal, foreign or other law, statute, constitute, principle of common law, resolution, ordinance, code, edict, decree, rule, regulation, ruling or requirement issued, enacted, adopted, promulgated, implemented or otherwise put into effect by or under the authority of any Governmental Body. </br></br>Source: https://www.lawinsider.com/dictionary/legal-requirement</br></br>Standards are voluntary documents that set out specifications, procedures and guidelines that aim to ensure products, services, and systems are safe, consistent, and reliable. They cover a variety of subjects, including consumer products and services, the environment, construction, energy and water utilities, and more.</br></br>Source: https://www.standards.org.au/standards-development/what-is-standard

Vulnerable groups Those groups that, due to physical, social, economic and environmental factors or processes, are more exposed and susceptible to the impacts of hazards.

Target audience

Businesses companies, local business networks, solution providers, suppliers of goods and services

Civil Society Civil society is a target group in LINKS which comprises citizens, civil society organizations, educational institutions, vulnerable groups, social movement organizations

Media The term media refers to any means of distribution, dissemination or interpersonal, mass or group communication of works, documents, or written, visual, audio or audiovisual messages (such as radio, television, cinema, Internet, press, telecommunications, etc.)</br></br>Entities using multiple communication channels are often called Media

Policy Makers local, national, and European agencies and institutes, public authorities, standardization bodies

Practitioners Practitioners is a target group in LINKS which comprises local, national and European disaster management organizations, civil protection agencies, first responders, NGOs, security networks...

Researchers research institutions and scientific communities

Audience experience level

Intermediate Those who currently use social media to communicate with the public and have developed a draft social media strategy, even if this is not thoroughly documented or communicated across the organisation</br></br>Source: https://www.fp7-emergent.eu/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/20170529_D7.3_Guidelines_to_increase_the_benefit_of_social_media_EmerGent.pdf

Disaster Management Phase

Before Comprises 'Preparedness Phase' and 'Prevention Phase'</br></br>Preparedness action is carried out within the context of disaster risk management and aims to build the capacities needed to efficiently manage all types of emergencies and achieve orderly transitions from response to sustained recovery.</br></br>Source: https://www.undrr.org/terminology/preparedness</br></br>Prevention (i.e., disaster prevention) expresses the concept and intention to completely avoid potential adverse impacts of hazardous events.</br></br>Source: https://www.undrr.org/terminology/prevention

Synopsis

These guidelines address accessibility of web content on desktops, laptops, tablets, and mobile devices. Following these guidelines will also often make Web content more usable to users in general The individuals and organizations that use WCAG vary widely and include Web designers and developers, policy makers, purchasing agents, teachers, and students.

In order to meet the varying needs of this audience, several layers of guidance are provided including overall principles, general guidelines, testable success criteria and a rich collection of sufficient techniques, advisory techniques, and documented common failures with examples, resource links and code.

• Principles
  • At the top are four principles that provide the foundation for Web accessibility:
    • perceivable
    • operable
    • understandable,
    • robust.
• Guidelines
  • Under the principles are guidelines.
  • The 13 guidelines provide the basic goals that authors should work toward in order to make content more accessible to users with different disabilities.
  • The guidelines are not testable, but provide the framework and overall objectives to help authors understand the success criteria and better implement the techniques.

• Success Criteria
  • For each guideline, testable success criteria are provided to allow WCAG 2.0 to be used where requirements and conformance testing are necessary such as in design specification, purchasing, regulation, and contractual agreements.
  • In order to meet the needs of different groups and different situations, three levels of conformance are defined: A (lowest), AA, and AAA (highest).
  • Additional information on WCAG levels can be found in Understanding Levels of Conformance.
• Sufficient and Advisory Techniques
  • For each of the guidelines and success criteria in the WCAG 2.0 document itself, the working group has also documented a wide variety of techniques.
    • The techniques are informative and fall into two categories:
    • those that are sufficient for meeting the success criteria and
    • those that are advisory.
  • The advisory techniques go beyond what is required by the individual success criteria and allow authors to better address the guidelines.
  • Some advisory techniques address accessibility barriers that are not covered by the testable success criteria.
    • Where common failures are known, these are also documented

Linked to

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