General Techniques for WCAG 2.0

Abstract

This document provides information to Web content developers who wish to satisfy the success criteria of "Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0" [WCAG20] (currently a W3C Working Draft). The techniques in this document can be applied to a wide range of Web technologies. Use of the illustrative techniques provided in this document may make it more likely for Web content to demonstrate conformance to WCAG 2.0 success criteria (by passing the relevant tests in the WCAG 2.0 test suite - to be developed) than if these illustrative techniques are not used.

There may be other techniques besides those provided in this document that may be used to demonstrate conformance to WCAG 2.0; in that case, it is encouraged to submit those techniques to the WCAG WG for consideration for inclusion in this document, so that the set of techniques maintained by the WCAG WG is as comprehensive as possible. Deprecated examples illustrate techniques that the Working Group no longer recommends, but may be applicable in some cases.

This document is part of a series of documents published by the W3C Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) to support WCAG 2.0.

Status of this Document

This section describes the status of this document at the time of its publication. Other documents may supersede this document. A list of current W3C publications and the latest revision of this technical report can be found in the W3C technical reports index at http://www.w3.org/TR/.

Since this document helps to clarify the intent of success criteria and provides a bridge to technology-specific information, the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines Working Group (WCAG WG) encourages feedback about this Working Draft. In particular, how well does this document explain the intent of success criteria? Is it easy to find technology-specific links to HTML and CSS Techniques. Only Guidelines 1.1, 1.3, 2.1, 2.4, and 3.1 are covered in this draft. In the future, the rest of the guidelines will be incorporated as well as other technologies such as SVG and SMIL.The structure and presentation of the techniques documents will likely change as the WCAG WG determines the relationships between Guidelines, Techniques, and testing documents. As the technology-specific techniques documents and checklists progress, we expect to distinguish between techniques required for conformance versus those that are optional. Please refer to "General Techniques Issues" for a list of open issues related to this Working Draft.

Please send comments by 2 August 2005 to public-comments-wcag20@w3.org. The archives for this list are publicly available. Archives of the WCAG WG mailing list are also publicly available.

Publication as a Working Draft does not imply endorsement by the W3C Membership. This is a draft document and may be updated, replaced or obsoleted by other documents at any time. It is inappropriate to cite this document as other than work in progress. This document will be published as a W3C Working Group Note at the time that WCAG 2.0 becomes a W3C Recommendation.

This document has been produced as part of the W3C Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI). The goals of the WCAG WG are discussed in the Working Group charter. The WCAG WG is part of the WAI Technical Activity.