WCAG 2.0 for the public sector
In June 2008, the COI published a document called Delivering Inclusive Websites, after a consultation period. I had stuck my oar in to contribute towards the document during the consultation period, in my then-role as chair of the Public Sector Web Management Group (PSWMG) and I think that myself and the group did actually provide a positive contribution to the document.
Of course, we didn’t get things all our own way: one of the things we wanted back then was for the COI to consider the use of WCAG 2.0, which was then in Last Call Working Draft. The COI responded saying that because it had not made its way through to the W3C Recommendation status, they could not at this stage include it in the document, but because they appreciated that it was clearly an improvement on WCAG 1.0, they indicated that they would review the guidance once WCAG 2.0 reached the formal ‘recommendation’ status.
Accordingly, the Delivering Inclusive Websites document said:
At the time of writing, version 1.0 of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines is the current standard for web accessibility. At such time that version 2.0 becomes a W3C Recommendation, this policy will be reviewed within six months. Consideration will be given to the adoption of version 2.0 as the minimum standard for public sector websites.Delivering Inclusive Websites: Minimum Standard of Accessibility
Fair enough.
And then of course a few months later, WCAG 2.0 made it to become a W3C Recommendation status in December 2008. By my reckoning, this means that we could expect to see some movement and the idea of a review from the COI in mid-2009.
And so, on September 8th 2009, I contacted the COI to ask what exactly was going on — were they reviewing it, or what? And so, again on September 8th 2009, Adam Bailin at the COI published on the Digigov Blog (which I had somehow missed up to this point) a post entitled Web Accessibility: Roadmap to WCAG 2.0.
I don’t know whether this was prompted by my email, or it was entirely coincidental that my email arrived on that day (perhaps Adam can tell us?) but the order of events doesn’t really matter. What is important is what is happening.
And what is happening is that Adam and the COI want us to contribute our thoughts and ideas about how we (“we” being the UK public sector, which I’m lumping myself in with — you don’t get rid of me that easily) should look to transition our standards from pointing at the somewhat dated and less useful but much-better known WCAG 1.0 to the new, whizzo, but less well known WCAG 2.0.
And what he has to say already came as something of a surprise.
Well, assuming that we want the transition to be as smooth as possible, a first step would be to update the current policy to allow conformance with version 1.0 Level AA or the version 2.0 equivalent. This is the current working position that we have been advising departments unofficially. Allowing a choice of standards for a period of time seems like a fair stance to takeWeb Accessibility: Roadmap to WCAG 2.0
Now this is a good surprise. Basically what Adam is saying is that if you are a public sector organisation, and you want to use the new, better WCAG 2.0 standard instead of WCAG 1.0, go ahead and do it now. Fill yer boots. Over time, other people will eventually be required to shift to WCAG 2.0, but for the time being you can basically pick which set of guidelines you’d rather use.
And that’s a good idea. And so are the rest of them:
- Accurately define conformance criteria for 2.0 that are as close to the current target as possible
- During the transitional period, allow site owners to choose either version
- Re-assess conformance requirements for 2.0 and implement a timetable for moving to the appropriate conformance level
- Put deadlines in place for a 2.0 only system
And he’s after feedback. So why not pop over there and provide some. I’ve already made one suggestion — that half-way through the ‘transitional period’, any new sites going live should be required to conform to WCAG 2.0 (after all, we don’t want new sites using old guidelines) — and once I’ve been through the WCAG 1.0 and 2.0 documentation in more detail, I’ll be making some others. So stay tuned…
Adam Bailin says:
September 24th, 2009 at 10:42 am
Jack, it was entirely coincidental. I had been getting a lot of enquiries about WCAG 2.0 and always intended my first blog article to outline the current working position and request feedback on the suggested approach. Initial feedback from others had been positive so I felt it was time to share with the wider community. Great minds think alike, eh!
Update on move to WCAG 2.0 - Digigov says:
October 19th, 2009 at 8:37 am
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