Implementing UAAG 2.0

Introduction

Relationship to the Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines (ATAG) 2.0

While it is convenient to think of user agents retrieving and rendering web content for one group of people (end-users) that was previously authored by another group (authors), user agents are frequently involved with the process of authoring content.

For these cases, it is important for user agent developers to consider the application of another W3C-WAI Recommendation, the Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines (ATAG). ATAG (currently 2.0 is in draft) provides guidance to the developers of tools regarding the accessibility of authoring interfaces to authors (ATAG 2.0 Part A) and ways in which all authors can be supported in producing accessible web content (ATAG 2.0 Part B).

UAAG 2.0 Guidelines

The success criteria and applicability notes in this section are normative. Guideline summaries are informative.

Implementing Guideline 1.1 - Provide access to alternative content. @@ 721

Summary: The user can easily determine which pieces of content have alternatives such as alt text or longdesc and choose to render that alternative (1.1.1). The user can also choose at least one alternative such as alt text to be always displayed (1.1.2), but it's recommended that users also be able to specify a cascade (1.1.4), such as alt text if it's there, otherwise longdesc, otherwise filename, etc. The users can choose to be notified (e.g. by an icon) when unrendered alternative content is present. (1.1.2)

Implementing Guideline 1.2 - Repair missing content.

Summary: The user can request useful alternative content when the author fails to provide it. For example, showing metadata in place of missing or empty (1.2.1) alt text. The user can ask the browser to predict missing structural information, such as field labels, table headings or section headings (1.2.2).

Implementing Guideline 1.3 - Provide highlighting for selection, keyboard focus, enabled elements, visited links.

Summary: The user can visually distinguish selected, focused, and enabled items, and recently visited links (1.3.1), with a choice of highighting options that at least include foreground and background colors, and border color and thickness (1.3.2).

Implementing Guideline 1.4 - Provide text configuration.

Summary: The user can control text font, color, and size (1.4.1), including whether all text should be the shown the same size (1.4.2).

Implementing Guideline 1.5 - Provide volume configuration.

Summary: The user can adjust the volume of each audio track relative to the global volume level (1.5.1).

Implementing Guideline 1.6 - Provide synthesized speech configuration.

Summary: If synthesized speech is produced, the user can specify speech rate and volume (1.6.1), pitch and pitch range (1.6.2), and synthesizer speech characteristics like emphasis (1.6.3) and features like spelling (1.6.4).

Implementing Guideline 1.7 - Enable Configuration of User Stylesheets. ## DONE 4 June 2012

Summary: The user agent shall support user stylesheets (1.7.1) and the user can choose which if any user-supplied (1.7.2) and author-supplied (1.7.3) stylesheets to use. The user agent will allow users to save user stylesheets (1.7.4).

Implementing Guideline 1.8 - Help users to use and orient within windows and viewports.

Summary: The user agent provides programmatic and visual cues to keep the user oriented. These include highlighting the viewport (1.8.1), keeping the focus within the viewport (1.8.2), resizing the viewport (1.8.3), providing scrollbar(s) that identify when content is outside the visible region (1.8.4) and which portion is visible (1.8.5), and restoring the focus and point of regard when the user returns to a previously viewed page (1.8.8). Additionally, the user can specify that all view ports have the same user interface elements (1.8.11), if and how new viewports open (1.8.9), and whether the new window automatically gets focus (1.8.10). The user can also close any open window or tab (1.8.9).

Implementing Guideline 1.9 - Provide alternative views. [was 1.10]

Summary: The user can view the source of content (1.9.1), or an "outline" view (1.9.2), and may specify the elements to be used for the outline view (1.9.3).

Implementing Guideline 1.10 - Provide element information. [was 1.11]

Summary:The user agent presents information about content relationships (e.g. form labels, table headers)(1.10.1), and extended link information (e.g. title, internal vs. external) (1.10.2)

PRINCIPLE 2. Ensure that the user interface is operable

Implementing Guideline 2.1 - Ensure full keyboard access. [Return to Guideline]

Summary: Users can operate all functions (2.1.1), and move focus (2.1.2) using just the keyboard. Users can activate important or common features with shortcut keys, (2.1.8), override keyboard shortcuts in content and user interface (2.1.4), escape keyboard traps (2.1.5), specify that selecting an item in a dropdown list or menu not activate that item or move to that new web page (2.1.6) and use standard keys for that platform (2.1.7).

Implementing Guideline 2.2 - Provide sequential navigation [new, includes former 2.1.8 and 1.9.8, and a new SC] [Return to Guideline]

Summary: Users can use the keyboard to navigate sequentially (2.2.3) to all the operable elements (2.2.1) in the viewport as well as between viewports (2.2.2). Users can optionally disable wrapping or request a signal when wrapping occurs (2.2.4).

2.2.1 Sequential Navigation Between Elements [replaces 1.9.8 Bi-Directional and 2.1.8 Keyboard Navigation]:

The user can move the keyboard focus backwards and forwards through all recognized enabled elements in the current viewport. (Level A)

• Intent of Success Criterion 2.2.1:
  Sequential keyboard navigation is the most fundamental, universal method of keyboard access. While it can be slower and require more input than other methods (such as direct, structural, or search-based navigation) it is a simpler mechanism that requires very little cognitive load or memorization, and is more consistent across contexts. Users need keyboard access to all viewports and all enabled elements so that they can manipulate them, view them with screen magnifiers, or have them described by screen readers. The ability to move both forward and backward through the navigation order greatly reduces the number of keystrokes and allows the user to more easily recover from mistakes in overshooting a destination.
• Examples of Success Criterion 2.2.1:
  • Sooj cannot use a pointing device, so she moves the keyboard focus to the next enabled element by pressing the Tab key, and to the previous enabled element by pressing Shift+Tab. Within list boxes and radio button groups she uses the up and down arrow keys to move to the next and previous items.
• Related Resources for Success Criterion 2.2.1:
  • 2.3.1 Direct Navigation to Important Elements

2.2.2 Sequential Navigation Between Viewports [new]:

The user can move the keyboard focus backwards and forwards between viewports, without having to sequentially navigate all the elements in a viewport. (Level A) ## DONE 8 March 2012

• Intent of Success Criterion 2.2.2:
  It is important for the user to be able to jump directly to the next or previous viewports without having to visit every element in a viewport on the way to the next viewport, because that can add an exorbitant number of navigation commands to operations that should be both easy and efficient. Users need keyboard access to all viewports and all enabled elements so that they can manipulate them, view them with screen magnifiers, or have them described by screen readers. The ability to move both forward and backward through the navigation order greatly reduces the number of keystrokes and allows the user to more easily recover from mistakes in overshooting a destination. This navigation can be between viewports within the application, and between windows or applications. This includes the user agent's user interface, extensions to the user interface (e.g. add-on), content,
• Examples of Success Criterion 2.2.2:
  • Sooj cannot use a pointing device, so she moves the keyboard focus to the next pane by pressing F6 or the previous pane by pressing Shift+F6. She moves between tabbed document views by pressing Ctrl+Tab and Shift+Ctrl+Tab.
  • Ruth is working in her web browser, where one document window (viewport) is active (has the active keyboard focus). When she switches to her word processor, the web browser's window and its keyboard focus become inactive, and it hides its cursor. When she switches back to the browser window, it reactivates that viewport, its keyboard focus becomes active again, and its cursor reappears in the same location as when she switched to a different application.
  • A developer creates an extension to a user agent that allows the user to add notes about each web page being visited. A user can press a shortcut key to move focus to the user interface of this extension and interact with the functionality offered by the extension. Similarly, the user presses another key to move focus back to the main viewport for the user agent in the same location as when she moved to the plugin.
• Related Resources for Success Criterion 2.2.2:
  • See the description of 2.2.1 for background information on the importance of sequential navigation.

2.2.3 Default Navigation Order (former 1.9.9):

If the author has not specified a navigation order, the default sequential navigation order is the document order. (Level A) ## DONE 23 March 2012

• Intent of Success Criterion 2.2.3:
  The reason for this success criteria is that browsers will be consistent on the tab order they provide WHEN the content author didn't explicitly define one.It is important for users to have a mental map of where the focus will land when they press the Tab key or use other sequential navigation commands. If the focus jumps in seemingly random fashion, skipping up and down, it becomes impossible to use this method efficiently. It requires the user to stop, find the focus, reorient, and determine whether and in which direction they should proceed every single time they press a navigation key. This is a particular problem for users with some cognitive limitations or whose disability makes input difficult, tiring, or painful. Content authors are expected to define a logical navigation order in their documents, but if they have not specified one, this success criterion ensures the order will at least be consistent between user agents.
• Examples of Success Criterion 2.2.3:
  • Alec is filling out an HTML form. Because the form's author has not specified a navigation order using the tabindex attribute, when Alec presses the Tab key the focus moves to the next control in the order they are defined in the underlying HTML. This order is likely to seem logical as long as the author is not using styles to change the order in which which the controls appear on page, but even if that is not the case, Alec will still experience the same order when using different browsers on different computers, and therefore navigating the page can become an accustomed habit and much easier than if the order were to change from one system to the other.
• Related Resources for Success Criterion 2.2.3:
  • See Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 success criterion 2.4.3 Focus Order: If a Web page can be navigated sequentially and the navigation sequences affect meaning or operation, focusable components receive focus in an order that preserves meaning and operability.

2.2.4 Options for Wrapping in Navigation (new):

The user can prevent sequential navigation from wrapping the focus at the beginning or end of a document, and can request notification when such wrapping occurs. (Level AA) ## DONE 23 March 2012

• Intent of Success Criterion 2.2.4:
  Users need a good mental map of the navigation sequence and behavior, and particularly need to know when they have started over again so they can maintain that mental map and not waste time and energy inadvertently revisiting information. This is a greater problem for users who can only perceive a limited region (e.g. having a narrow field of vision, or using a screen magnifier or screen reader) or have limited short-term memory. This also prevents people with mobility issues from having to use extra navigation commands.
• Examples of Success Criterion 2.2.4:
  • Betsy is using a screen magnifier that only shows her a single line of text. She's navigating through a long list of unsorted items in a list box, searching for one particular entry which, it turns out, is not in the list. Each time she presses the down arrow she is presented with the next item in the list. This particular list box wraps, so when she has read the final entry and presses the down arrow, she is once again presented with the first entry in the list. Unfortunately, because she is quickly discounting every entry that is not her intended goal, she hasn't memorized the list, and it takes her a long time to realize that she's scrolling through the same set of items again and again. To avoid having this happen again, she can turn on options to prevent wrapping, or have the user agent play a sound or present a message before or as it wraps back to the first item. However, keyboard users who can see the entire screen may very well benefit from having wrapping without being interrupted by a pop-up dialog box, so ideally this behavior should be under the user's control.
• Related Resources for Success Criterion 2.2.4:
  • N/A

Implementing Guideline 2.3 - Provide direct navigation and activation [includes former 2.1.6, 2.1.7, 2.1.11] [Return to Guideline]

Summary: Users can navigate directly (e.g. keyboard shortcuts) to important elements (2.3.1) with the option of immediate activation of the operable elements (2.3.3). Display commands with the elements to make it easier for users to discover the commands (2.3.2 & 2.3.4). The user can remap and save direct commands (2.3.5).

2.3.1 Direct Navigation to Important Elements (former 2.7.4):

The user can navigate directly to any important (e.g. structural or operable) element in rendered content. (Level A) ## DONE 23 March 2012 ## DONE 4 June 2012

• Intent of Success Criterion 2.3.1 :
  It is often difficult for some people to use a pointing device (the standard method of direct navigation) to move the viewport and focus to important elements. In this case some other form of direct navigation - such as numbers or key combinations assigned to important elements - should be available which can then be accessed via the keyboard or speech control technology.
• Examples of Success Criterion 2.3.1 :
  • Mary cannot use the mouse or keyboard due to a repetitive strain injury, instead she uses voice control technology with uses a mouse-less browsing plug-in to her browser. The plug-in overlays each hyperlink with a number that can then be used to directly select it (e.g. by speaking the command "select link 12"). This prevents Mary from having to say the word 'tab' numerous times to get to her desired hyperlink.
• Related Resources for Success Criterion 2.3.1 :
  • 2.2.1 Sequential Navigation Between Elements
  • 2.5.7 Configure Elements for Structural Navigation

2.3.2 Present Direct Commands in Rendered Content (former 2.1.6):

The user can have any recognized direct commands in rendered content (e.g. accesskey, landmark) be presented with their associated elements. (Level A) ## DONE 28 March 2012

• Intent of Success Criterion 2.3.2:
  For many users, including those who use the keyboard or an input method such as speech, the keyboard is often a primary method of user agent control. It is important that direct keyboard commands assigned to user agent functionality be discoverable, including in rendered content. If direct commands are not presented in content, most users won't know about them and so the commands effectively won't exist.
• Examples of Success Criterion 2.3.2:
  • Fiona uses an audio browser. When the system reads form controls in the rendered content, it reads the label of the form followed by the accesskey (e.g., "name alt plus n").
  • Mary cannot use the mouse or keyboard due to a repetitive strain injury, instead she uses voice control technology with a mouse-less browsing plug-in to her browser. The plug-in overlays each hyperlink in rendered content with a number that can then be used to directly select it by speaking a command (e.g. "select link 12"). This prevents Mary from having to say the word 'tab' numerous times to get to her desired hyperlink.
• Related Resources for Success Criterion 2.3.2:
  • See 2.1.7 for User Interface commands
  • Mouseless Browsing Firefox Extension: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-us/firefox/addon/mouseless-browsing/
  • Perceivable navigation and activation keys: http://www.mouseless.de/index.php?/content/view/17/30/
  • Microsoft placing Wikipedia on TV-DVD and using mouseless browsing via remote control: http://research.microsoft.com/research/tem

2.3.3 Direct activation (former 2.7.6):

The user can move directly to and activate any operable elements in rendered content. (Level AA) ## DONE 23 March 2012

• Intent of Success Criterion 2.3.3:
  It is often difficult for some people to use a pointing device (the standard method of direct navigation) to move the viewport and focus to important elements. In this case some other form of direct navigation - such as numbers or key combinations assigned to important elements - should be available which can then be accessed via the keyboard or speech control technology.
• Examples of Success Criterion 2.3.3:
  • Mary cannot use the mouse or keyboard due to a repetitive strain injury, instead she uses voice control technology with uses a mouse-less browsing plug-in to her browser. The plug-in overlays each hyperlink with a number that can then be used to directly select it (e.g. by speaking the command "select link twelve"). This prevents Mary from having to say the word 'tab' numerous times to get to her desired hyperlink.
• Related Resources for Success Criterion 2.3.3:
  • 2.5.7 configure set of important elements

2.3.4 Present Direct Commands in User Interface (former 2.1.7):

The user can have any direct commands (e.g. keyboard shortcuts) in the user agent user interface be presented with their associated user interface controls (e.g. "Ctrl+S" displayed on the "Save" menu item and toolbar button). (Level AA) ## DONE 28 March 2012

• Intent of Success Criterion 2.3.4:
  For many users, including those who use the keyboard or and input method such as speech, the keyboard is often a primary method of user agent control. It is important that direct keyboard commands assigned to user agent functionality be discoverable as the user is exploring the user agent. If direct commands are not presented in content, most users won't know about them and so the commands effectively won't exist.
• Examples of Success Criterion 2.3.4:
  • Vlad is a keyboard-only user who uses a browser on the Mac OS operating system. When he needs to perform a new operation with the browser user interface, he searches for it in the menus and notes whether the menu item has a " ⌘ " label (e.g. "Copy ⌘-C"), which indicates the direct activation command he can use in the future to avoid having to traverse the menus.
  • Amir uses ability switches to control an onscreen keyboard for the Windows operating system. When he presses the "alt" key the available browser user interface accesskeys are shown as overlays on the appropriate user interface controls (e.g. "File with 'F' in an overlay").
• Related Resources for Success Criterion 2.3.4:
  • To be written

2.3.5 Customize Keyboard Commands:

The user can override any keyboard shortcut including recognized author supplied shortcuts (e.g. accesskeys) and user agent user interface controls, except for conventional bindings for the operating environment (e.g. arrow keys for navigating within menus). The rebinding options must include single-key and key-plus-modifier keys if available in the operating environment. The user must be able to save these settings beyond the current session. (Level AA)## DONE 8 March 2012 MERGED WITH 2.1.9 on 2 August 2012

• Intent of Success Criterion 2.3.5
  Some users may be able to hit certain keys on the keyboard with greater ease than others. Assistive technology software typically has extensive keyboard commands as well. The goal of this SC is to enable the user to be in control of what happens when a given key is pressed and use the keyboard commands that meet his or her needs, and the ability to save the modifications.
  
  Content authors may utilize the Accesskey attribute to define short cut keys which allow quick access to specific elements, actions, or parts of their Web content. The author-selected short cuts may utilize keystrokes that are unique to their site, differing from conventions used, and or familiar, to users of other similar sites, or sites offering similar functionality. Users of assistive technologies who rely upon keyboard input may wish to have a consistent mapping of shortcut keys to similar, or common actions or functions across the sites they visit.
  
  User agents should allow users to define a preferred key combination for specific instances of author defined accesskeys. The user should have the option to make any defined override to be persistent across browsing sessions.
  
  User agents may also offer the user the option to automatically apply preferred key combinations for content which has author supplied accesskey bindings, based upon the associated text, label, or ARIA role, and which override any author specified keybinding for that page content.
• Examples of Success Criterion 2.3.5:
  • A speech recognition user has defined standard commands to access commonly used parts of a Web site. For example, speaking the command "site search" will take the user to a Web site's search function. A site author may assign an access key to set focus to the search input field, basing the accesskey on the first letter of the search engine used (e.g. G for Google or B for Bing, rather than the mnemonic S for search). The speech user has specified an override key mapping of S, which is consistent with the keystroke issued by the speech recognizer they are using.
  • A mobile device user, whose primary keyboard interface is their phone's numeric keypad, maps common Web site actions to numeric shortcut keys. For example, the user prefers to have the 1 key to activate a site's "skip to content" function. An author of a site visited daily by this user defines "S" as the accesskey for the skip to content function. The user overrides the author defined accesskey of "S" with "1".
  • Laura types with one hand and finds keys on the left side of the keyboard easier to press. She browses to a web page and notices that the author has assigned access keys using keys from the right side of the keyboard. She opens a dialog in the user agent and reassigns the access keys from the web page to the left side of the keyboard home row.
  • Elaine's screen magnification program uses alt+m to increase the size of the magnified area of the screen. She notices that in her web browser, alt+m is a hotkey for activating a home button that stops her from being able to control her magnification software. She opens a hotkey reassignment feature in the user agent, and sets alt+o to be the new hotkey for the home button. Her screen magnification software now works correctly.
• Related Resources for Success Criterion 2.3.5:
  • none

Implementing Guideline 2.4 (former 2.6) - Provide text search. [Return to Guideline]

Summary: Users can search rendered content (2.4.1) forward or backward (2.4.2) and can have the matched content highlighted in the viewport (2.4.3). The user is notified if there is no match (2.4.4). Users can also search by case and for text within alternative content (2.4.5).

Implementing Guideline 2.5 (former 2.7) - Provide structural navigation. [Return to Guideline]

Summary: Users can view (2.5.3), navigate (2.5.5) and configure (2.5.7) content hierarchy.

2.5.3 Location in Hierarchy:

The user can view the path of nodes leading from the root of any content hierarchy in which the structure and semantics are implied by presentation, as opposed to an explicit logical structure with defined semantics (such as the HTML5 Canvas Element), or as a consequence of decentralized-extensibility (such as the HTML5 item / itemprop microdata elements), and only if the user agent keeps an internal model of the hierarchy that it does not expose via the DOM or some other accessibility mechanism. (Level A) @@ 500, 545 .

• Intent of Success Criterion 2.5.3:
  Knowing where you are in a hierarchy makes it easier to understand and navigate information. Users who are perceiving the data linearly (such as audio speech synthesis) do not receive visual cues of the hierarchical information. Efficient navigation of hierarchical information reduces keystrokes for people for whom keypress is time-consuming, tiring, or painful. For people with some cognitive disabilities, providing the clear hierarchy reduces cognitive effort and provides organization.
• Examples of Success Criterion 2.5.3:
  • A media player provides a hierarchical display of playlists, albums, artists and songs, etc. When the user selects an individual item, a breadcrumb of the categories is displayed, can be navigated and is available programmatically.
• Related Resources for Success Criterion 2.5.3:
  • To be written

2.5.6 Navigate by structural element:

The user agent provides at least the following types of structural navigation, where the structure types exist:(Level AA)

1. by heading
2. within tables

• Intent of Success Criterion 2.5.6:
  Users who find it difficult or impossible to use the mouse require an efficient way to jump among elements  without having to navigate through intervening content. Navigating by heading is especially important when scanning a webpage to find a pertinent section. Navigating by table element is especially important when building or reading tables.
• Examples of Success Criterion 2.5.6:
  • Jamie is blind. When he reads the New York Times he scans the headlines to find interesting story. In order to do this needs a way to go from headline to headline.
  • Billie is a paraplegic who uses speech. She writes long legal documents. When she is proofing a document she needs to scan each section header. It takes far fewer speech commands to navigate the section headers when she can jump directly to them. Billie also makes extensive use of tables. It takes far fewer speech commands to navigate tables when she can jump directly among elements. Direct navigation to headlines and table elements allows her to do her job without overusing her vocal cords and within required time constraints.
  • Celia has short-term memory issues and is easily distracted. When looking for any particular section of the document she finds it easier to scan through headings by jumping from heading to heading rather than having to scan through an entire page of potentially distracting text. Celia also finds it useful to be able to move from a subheading to a major heading and back to orient herself within the context without becoming confused.
• Related Resources for Success Criterion 2.5.6:
  • To be written

2.5.7 Configure Elements for Structural Navigation:

The user can configure the sets of important elements (including element types) for structured navigation and hierarchical/outline view. (Level AAA) @@ 500, 545, Issue 87 - ARIA role navigation

• Intent of Success Criterion 2.5.7:
  Sometimes authors will visually convey relationships between elements by spatially grouping them, by giving them the same coloration or background, and so forth. Users may not be able to perceive those attributes, such as when using a screen reader, or when strong magnification makes it difficult to make a mental model of the screen layout. In those cases the user agent can assist by providing a view of the data that groups elements that that user agent perceives as implying relationships.
  
  Often the user agent will choose by default the elements it considers important for structured navigation, however these may not be relevant in all circumstances. It may be that the user wishes to navigate via informal mechanisms such as microformats or via a particular styling which is used to convey a structure in the visual navigation, but which does not exist in the element hierarchy.
• Examples of Success Criterion 2.5.7:
  • Fred is blind and wishes to navigate through the menu structure using the Tab key, however the menu is a set of nested list elements with a particular HTML class attribute denoting the menu-submenu relationship. Because Fred's user agent allows him to configure important elements he can explicitly include the class name as an important element for navigation. He then assigns a keyboard shortcut to navigate to the next element with the same class name as the element that has the focus.
  • Jane uses a mobile device (and is often situationally impaired) and often encounters tables laid out using floating DIV elements with specific class names denoting the visual styling. In this case Jane cannot use the cursor keys to move around these tabular layouts having instead to use the tab key to move sequentially left-to-right top-to-bottom. Jane's browser allows her to configure important elements and so she can pick out the classes associated with the element, and therefore use the cursor key to move logically through columns or rows.
• Related Resources for Success Criterion 2.5.7:
  • To be written

Implementing Guideline 2.6 (former 2.2) - Provide access to event handlers [Return to Guideline]

Summary:Users can interact with web content by mouse, keyboard, voice input, gesture, or a combination of input methods. Users can discover what event handlers (e.g. onmouseover) are available at the element and activate an element's events individually (2.6.1).

Guideline 2.7 - Configure and store preference settings.

Summary: Users can restore preference settings to default (2.7.3), and accessibility settings persist between sessions (2.7.2). Users can manage multiple sets of preference settings (2.7.4), and adjust preference setting outside the user interface so the current user interface does not prevent access (2.7.6). It's also recommended that groups of settings can be transported to compatible systems, and a wizard be available to help users configure their preferences (2.7.7, 2.7.8).

Implementing Guideline 2.8 - Provide toolbar configuration. [Return to Guideline] @@ 740, 747

Summary: It's recommended that users can add, remove and configure the position of graphical user agent controls (2.8.1) and restore them to their default settings (2.8.2).

Implementing Guideline 2.9 (former 2.3) - Allow time-independent interaction. [Return to Guideline]

Summary: Users can extend the time limit for user input when such limits are controllable by the user agent (2.9.1); by default, the user agent shows the progress of content in the process of downloading (2.9.2).

2.9.2 Retrieval Progress:

By default, the user agent shows the progress of content retrieval. (Level A)## DONE 26 March 2012

• Intent of Success Criterion 2.9.2 :
  Users need to know that their actions are producing results even if there is a time delay. Users who cannot see visual indications need to have feedback indicating a time delay and have an idea of where they are in the retrieval process. This reduces errors and unnecessary duplicate actions.
• Examples of Success Criterion 2.9.2 :
  • The user has clicked on a link that is downloading a large file. The user agent displays a programmatically available progress bar. If the progress stops, the user agent displays a message that it has timed out.
  • The user has entered data in a form and is waiting for a response from the server. If the response hasn't been received in 5 seconds, the user agent displays a programmatically available message that it is waiting for a response. If the process times out, the user agent displays a message that it has timed out.
• Related Resources for Success Criterion 2.9.2:
  • 4.1.6 Expose Accessible Properties

Implementing Guideline 2.10 (former 2.4) - Help users avoid flashing that could cause seizures. [Return to Guideline]

Summary: To help users avoid seizures, the default configuration prevents the browser user interface and rendered content from flashing more than three times a second above a luminescence or color threshold (2.10.1), or does not flash at all (2.10.2).

Implementing Guideline 2.11 - Provide control of content that may reduce accessibility. (former 2.9) [Return to Guideline] @@ 720

Summary: The user can control background images (2.11.1); present placeholders for time-based media (2.11.2) and executable regions (2.11.3), or block all executable content (2.11.4); adjust playback (2.11.5), stop/pause/resume (2.11.6), navigate, (2.11.7) and specify tracks for prerecorded time-based media (2.11.9); scale and position alternative media tracks (2.11.11); and adjust contrast and brightness of visual time-based media (2.11.12).

2.11.1 Background Image Toggle:

• Intent of Success Criterion 2.11.1:
  It can be difficult for some people to read text or identify images when the background is complex or doesn't contrast well with the foreground. Allowing users to disable the display of background images helps ensure that foreground content remains easy to read. This can also help remove purely decorative distractions, which is important for some users.
  
  This checkpoint does not address issues of multi-layered renderings and does not require the user agent to change background rendering for multi-layer renderings (refer, for example, to the z-index property in Cascading Style Sheets, level 2 ([CSS2], section 9.9.1)
  
  Note: Because background images occasionally convey important information, when their display is turned off the user agent should give users access to any alternative content associated with them. (At the time of this writing, HTML does not support alternative content for background images, but this may be supported in other technologies or future versions.)
• Examples of Success Criterion 2.11.1:
  • James has a reading disability where he needs text to be clear from distractions that are not related to the text. He configures his user agent to hot load background images and navigates to a web page. James then gets only the text from the web page without any images interfering with what he is reading.
  • Sasha requires high contrast to be able to discriminate the shape of letters. She always sets a preference in her browser to turn off background images, so that she can see the text clearly without the variations in the background.
• Related Resources for Success Criterion 2.11.1:
  • 1.4.1 "Configure Text" for more information related to background colors.
  • 1.1.2 Configure Default Rendering allows the user to hide foreground images by replacing them with alternative content, but 2.11.1 extends this to background images in languages such as HTML that do not support alternative content for background images.
  • In CSS, background images may be turned on/off with the background and background-image properties ([CSS2], section 14.2.1).
  • The z-index property in Cascading Style Sheets, level 2 ([CSS2], section 9.9.1)

2.11.2 Time-Based Media Load-Only:

The user can override the play on load of recognized time-based media content such that the content is not played until explicit user request. (Level A)## DONE 9 August 2012

• Intent of Success Criterion 2.11.2:
  Users who need to avoid signals that may trigger seizures, users who are easily distracted, and users who have difficulty interacting with the controls provided for playing media need to be able to load media in a paused state by default. The user agent provides a global control that sets a state equivalent to "paused waiting for user interaction" for all recognized media when a page loads. As an opt-in user setting, autoplay for media is off/paused, until the user activates 'play'. The user agent provides a visual or auditory (as appropriate) indicator that the video is in paused state and needs user interaction to start. This prevents media from playing without explicit request from the user.
  
  There may times when media doesn't have a native control in the page. That is, the media is not in the actual document, but rather has simply been created with document.createElement('audio'). Here, the user agent does not recognize that the media exists. The user agent cannot give a visual indication by default, as it wouldn't be clear where that indication should appear in the page. At that stage, it will be up to the author to provide the controls See WCAG in resources below.
• Examples of Success Criterion 2.11.2:
  • Jill browses browses the web using a screen reader to listen to the text of web pages. She navigates to her favorite shopping site and is greeted with trumpets blaring and an announcer shouting "Sale, sale, sale!" The audio is so loud that she can no longer hear the web page content. Jill closes her browser and changes a setting titled Play Audio on Request to yes and visits her shopping site again. This time she can read the content and when she is ready plays the audio and smiles, thinking of the deal's she is about to find.
  • Jamie has epilepsy that's triggered by certain types of audio. She sets browser so that content does not play automatically so she can avoid audio that could trigger her epilepsy.
  • Kendra has photo-epilepsy. She sets her browser so that content does not play automatically so she can avoid flashing content that could trigger her photo epilepsy.
• Related Resources for Success Criterion 2.11.2:
  • Guideline 2.10 Help users avoid flashing that could cause seizures.
  • HTML5 4.8.10.8 Playing the media resource (http://dev.w3.org/html5/spec/Overview.html#playing-the-media-resource)
  • WCAG 2.0 - 1.4.2 Audio Control http://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG20/#visual-audio-contrast

2.11.3 Execution Placeholder:

The user can render a placeholder instead of executable content that would normally be contained within an on-screen area (e.g. Applet, Flash), until explicit user request to execute. (Level A)## DONE 9 August 2012

• Intent of Success Criterion 2.11.3 :
  Documents that do things automatically when loaded can delay, distract, or interfere with user's ability to continue with a task. In the case of embedded objects, applets and media, replacing the executable content with a placeholder tells the user what has been blocked and provides a mechanism (e.g. a play button) for unblocking when the user is ready.
• Note: It is generally recommended that the placeholder take up the same space as the object it is replacing, so that the presentation does not need to be reflowed when the execution is started. However, users on mobile devices or using screen enlargers, or who have difficulty with scroll commands may benefit from having the option of a smaller placholder.
• Examples of Success Criterion 2.11.3 :
  • Jane has difficulty concentrating. In order to concentrate on the text of a document she wants to hide any multimedia content, and only trigger execution of that content by clicking on the placeholder she feels it's appropriate.
  • Evan is blind. He sets the option in his browser so that when a web page loads it does not automatically run an executable object, so that any or music or speech they play won't interfere with his ability to hear his screen reader. When he is ready to start it playing he navigates to the placeholder and presses the Enter key to activate it.
• Related Resources for Success Criterion 2.11.3 :
  • To be written

2.11.4 Execution Toggle:

The user can turn on/off the execution of executable content that would not normally be contained within a particular area (e.g. Javascript). (Level A)## DONE TPAC

• Intent of Success Criterion 2.11.4 :
  Documents that do things automatically when loaded can delay, distract, or interfere with user's ability to continue with a task. The user needs to be able to specify that executable content (e.g. scripts) be blocked when a document loads, be told which content has been blocked, and be able to selectively execute the content at a later time.
• Note: Some web applications and document may be essentially empty until scripts are run. However, it is still important for users to have this level of control.
• Examples of Success Criterion 2.11.4 :
  • Jane has difficulty concentrating. In order to concentrate on the text of a document she wants to prevent any animations, media, or dynamic content from executing until she is ready. An icon on the status bar tells her that scripts have been blocked, and by clicking it she can select which scripts to run.
  • Evan is blind. He sets the option in his browser so that when a web page loads it does not automatically start running scripts that might play sounds that would interfere with his ability to hear his screen reader. An icon on the status bar tells him that scripts have been blocked, and by activating it he can select which scripts to run.
• Related Resources for Success Criterion 2.11.4 :
  • To be written

2.11.5 Playback Rate Adjustment for Prerecorded Content:

The user can adjust the playback rate of prerecorded time-based media content, such that all of the following are true: (Level A)

1. The user can adjust the playback rate of the time-based media tracks to between 50% and 250% of real time.
2. Speech whose playback rate has been adjusted by the user maintains pitch in order to limit degradation of the speech quality.
3. Audio and video tracks remain synchronized across this required range of playback rates.
4. The user agent provides a function that resets the playback rate to normal (100%).

• Intent of Success Criterion 2.11.5:
  Users with sensory and cognitive impairments may have difficulty following or understanding spoken audio when presented at the normal playback rate. By slowing down the audio presentation of speech, while maintaining the pitch, or frequency characteristics, users are better able to follow the spoken content. For users with visual impairments familiar with the speeding up of speech presentation using screen readers or digital audio book players, the ability to speed up the audio, while maintaining pitch, allows those users to skim spoken audio without loss of understandability of the speech. Users with learning disabilities may be distracted or otherwise unable to follow complex animations or instructional video. By allowing the presentation to be slowed, the user has a better opportunity to observe the visual events of the animation. Additionally, a person may want to slow down the media if they are trying to take notes, and do so slowly because of language or dexterity impairments, etc.
• Examples of Success Criterion 2.11.5:
  • Timo experienced a traumatic brain injury and has difficulty in comprehending speech. When listening to episodes of his favorite podcast on the Web, he slows down the audio by 50% and is able to understand the interviewer's and guest's question and answer session.
  • Anu is a blind university student who has grown up with digital talking book players, and regularly listens to spoken audio at 200% of normal speaking rate. In studying for exams, she reviews the online lecture videos from her History course, adjusting the presentation rate to 2x on the Web video player, in order to quickly review the material, and slowing the presentation down to normal rate when she encounters material she needs to review carefully.
  • Perttu has a learning disability and requires a longer time to follow instructions. He likes to cook and is watching a cooking demonstration on the Web. The instructions go by too quickly, and Perttu slows the video player to half speed in order to make it easier to follow the recipe being prepared.
• Related Resources for Success Criterion 2.11.5:
  • WAI-ARIA

2.11.6 Stop/Pause/Resume Time-Based Media:

The user can stop, pause, and resume rendered audio and animation content (including video, animated images, and changing text) that last three or more seconds at their default playback rate. (Level A) ## DONE TPAC

• Intent of Success Criterion 2.11.6:
  Users with sensory, attentional, or cognitive impairments may have difficulty following or understanding multimedia content. By allowing time-based media to be stopped, paused, and resumed, users are able control the presentation rate, providing time to understand or act upon presented content before continuing, or to stop potentially distracting or harmful content.
• Examples of Success Criterion 2.11.6:
  • Adam reads more slowly than average because of his dyslexia. He's watching a video of a lecture, and when the video shows slides, he presses the space bar to pause the video so that he can read the text at his own speed. When he's ready to continue, he presses the space bar again to resume the video.
  • Angelica uses a web site to watch and listen to user-contributed podcasts, but when one starts playing she realizes that the level of white noise in the soundtrack is likely to trigger her audio-induced seizures. She quickly clicks on the player's STOP button (or presses the equivalent keyboard command) and the noise is instantly discontinued.
  • Allesandro finds it impossible to ignore visual changes, and so finds unnecessary animations make it very difficult for him to read or interact with other content on the screen. When he's trying to read an article on a newspaper's web site and finds an animated advertisement or moving text of a news ticker continually distracting him, he presses the Esc key (or chooses the appropriate command from the menu bar) to tell his web browser to stop all animations.
  • Amaryllis is blind and is listening to streaming audio on a web page. When she wants to respond to an incoming email message she needs to pause the audio, which would otherwise interfere with her ability to hear her screen reader.
• Related Resources for Success Criterion 2.11.6:
  • WAI-ARIA

2.11.7 Navigate Time-Based Media:

The user can navigate along the timebase using a continuous scale, and by relative time units within rendered audio and animations (including video and animated images) that last three or more seconds at their default playback rate. (Level A) ## DONE 9 August 2012

• Intent of Success Criterion 2.11.7:
  Users with sensory, cognitive or attentional impairments may find it difficult to understand or follow time-based media. This success criteria allows users to position within the timebase to review content or to skip content which may be distracting.
• Examples of Success Criterion 2.11.7:
  • Jared has a print disability which makes it laborious to read text. He is watching a technical training video which will display section objectives or summary questions as text. When the text flashes by too quickly for him to read, he presses a key command to skip back an increment so he can read the text, or pause the video if more time is required.
  • Debbie has difficulty with bright or flashing video. When she encounters a flashing transition in a video, she quickly presses a key command to forward the video past the flashing, then carefully uses the slider to adjust the video back to the start of the next section avoiding the flashing material.
• Related Resources for Success Criterion 2.11.7:
  • WAI-ARIA

2.11.8 Semantic Navigation of Time-Based Media:

The user can navigate by semantic structure within the time-based media, such as by chapters or scenes present in the media (Level AA).## DONE TPAC

• Intent of Success Criterion 2.11.8:
  Users need to be able to navigate time-based media in ways that are more meaningful than arbitrary time increments.
• Examples of Success Criterion 2.11.8:
  • Marka is blind and is listening to a video of an hour-long lecture. The section she is in has some complex material that builds on material from an earlier section. While a sighted user could pause the video and move the slider back until she recognized visually distinct content from the section she wanted, Marka uses a control to skip back section by section until she hears the section title name she wants to review. When she is finished, Marka uses the control to move forward section by section until she hears the title of topic she was originally in.
  • Wes has repetitive stress injury that limits the length of his computer sessions. He stops playback of a training video when he is tired and after resting, he can restart it and navigate to the scene where he left off.
• Related Resources for Success Criterion 2.11.8:
  • WAI-ARIA

2.11.9 Track Enable/Disable of Time-Based Media:

During time-based media playback, the user can determine which tracks are available and select or deselect tracks, overriding global default settings for captions, audio descriptions, etc. (Level AA)## DONE TPAC

• Intent of Success Criterion 2.11.9:
  Some users with disabilities need to choose different languages or audio tracks (e.g. descriptive video). Users need the ability to choose the tracks that best meet their accessibility needs (e.g. the caption track in their own language) when authors have provided many alternatives.
• Examples of Success Criterion 2.11.9:
  • Marka is listening to a video of a lecture. The professor is demonstrating a chemistry experiment and is not speaking during a key part. Since she cannot see what the professor is demonstrating, Marka brings up a menu of the available tracks and discovers that there is a audio description track available. Marka selects the description track, rewinds a few minutes, and listens to the description of the experiment.
  • Gorges is deaf, enjoys current run movies, and subscribes to a web service that streams major popular movies. While he speaks English, a certain movie uses a slang that he doesn't understand. He pauses the movie, selects a menu of caption tracks and finds a Spanish caption track. He then watches the rest of the movie with Spanish captioning.
• Related Resources for Success Criterion 2.11.9:
  • WAI-ARIA

2.11.11 Scale and position visual alternative media tracks:[2.11.11 MOVED to 1.1.3 and 1.1.5 on 2 August 2011]

2.11.12 Video Contrast and Brightness:

Users can adjust the contrast and brightness of visual time-based media. (Level AAA)

• Intent of Success Criterion 2.11.12:
  Text scaling - default setting should apply, UA should allow separate control of the caption tracks. User needs larger captions. Snap captions outside of video, change text size and caption viewport size/position. User need to reposition and make the sign language track larger.
• Examples of Success Criterion 2.11.12:
  • Frank has low vision that requires a higher contrast to discern a video image. When Frank is watching an instructional video, he selects a menu item that allows him to increase the contrast of the video, to make it easier for him to see the important content.
  • Kelly has photo-epilepsy and is watching an amateur video taken on a sunny day near the water. Concerned that the video may contain flashing that could trigger a seizure, Kelly selects a menu item of video controls that allow her to reduce the brightness and contrast of the video. While some of the detail is lost, Kelly can safely watch the video.
• Related Resources for Success Criterion 2.11.12:
  • WAI-ARIA

Implementing Guideline 2.12 - Other Input Devices [Return to Guideline]

Summary: For all input devices supported by the platform, the user agents should let the user perform all functions aside from entering text (2.12.2), and enter text with any platform-provided features (2.12.1). If possible, it is also encouraged to let the user enter text even if the platform does not provide such a feature (2.12.3).

2.12.1 Support Platform Text Input Devices:

If the platform supports text input using an input device, the user agent is compatible with this functionality. (Level A)

• Intent of Success Criterion 2.12.1:
  Some users rely entirely on pointing devices, or find them much more convenient than keyboards. These users can operate applications much more easily and efficiently if they can carry out most operations with the pointing device. It is not the intention of these guidelines to require every user agent to implement its own on-screen keyboard on systems that do not include them, but on systems where one is included it is vitally important that the user agent support this utility.
• Examples of Success Criterion 2.12.1:
  • Ruth has extremely limited motor control and slurred speech, so operates her computer using a head pointer. Her desktop operating system includes a built-in on-screen keyboard utility, and even though the percentage of desktop users who use it is very small, she counts on new applications (including user agents) to be tested and compatible with it so that she can enter text. When active, the on-screen keyboard reserves the bottom portion of the screen for its own use, so the user agent respects this and does not cover that area even in modes that would normally take up the full screen. It also avoids communicating with the keyboard through low-level system API that would miss simulated keyboard input.
• Related Resources for Success Criterion 2.12.1:

2.12.2 Operation With Any Device:

If an input device is supported by the platform , all user agent functionality other than text input can be operated using that device. (Level AA)

• Intent of Success Criterion 2.12.2:
  Some users rely entirely on pointing devices, or find them much more convenient than keyboards. These users can operate applications much more easily and efficiently if they can carry out most operations with the pointing device, and only fall back on a physical or on-screen keyboard as infrequently as possible. If the platform provides the ability to enter arbitrary text using a device (such as large vocabulary speech recognition or an on-screen keyboard utility), the user agent is required to support it per 2.12.1 Text Input With Any Device. If the platform does not provide such a feature, the browser is encouraged to provide its own, but because that is generally more difficult and resource intensive than command and control it is not required.
• Examples of Success Criterion 2.12.2:
  • Ruth has extremely limited motor control and slurred speech, so operates her computer using a head pointer. The mouse pointer moves in response to the orientation of her head, and she clicks, double clicks, or drags using a sip-and-puff switch. It is much easier for her to point and click on a button or menu item than it is for her to simulate keyboard shortcuts using her on-screen keyboard. In fact, she prefers to customize her applications to make most functions available through toolbar buttons or menu items, even those that are by default available only through keyboard shortcuts.
  • Randall has a web browser on his smart phone that allows him to perform most operations using speech commands. Unfortunately, a few features are only available through the touchscreen, which he can only operate by taking off his protective gloves. In the next version of the browser, the remaining features are given keyboard commands, and Randall finds the product safer and more convenient to use.
• Related Resources for Success Criterion 2.12.2:

2.12.3 Text Input With Any Device:

If an input device is supported by the platform , all user agent functionality including text input can be operated using that device. (Level AAA)

• Intent of Success Criterion 2.12.3:
  Some users rely entirely on pointing devices, or find them much more convenient than keyboards. These users can operate applications much more easily and efficiently if they can carry out most operations with the pointing device, and only fall back on a physical or on-screen keyboard as infrequently as possible. If the platform provides the ability to enter arbitrary text using a device (such as large vocabulary speech recognition or an on-screen keyboard utility), the user agent is required to support it per 2.12.1 Text Input With Any Device. If the platform does not provide such a feature, the browser is encouraged to provide its own.
• Examples of Success Criterion 2.12.3:
  • Ruth has extremely limited motor control and slurred speech, so operates her computer using a head pointer. The mouse pointer moves in response to the orientation of her head, and she clicks, double clicks, or drags using a sip-and-puff switch. The operating system does not provide an on-screen keyboard, but in order to be maximally accessible, a small on-screen keyboard is available as an add-on for her browser.
  • Randall has a web browser on his smart phone that allows him to perform most operations using speech commands. By offloading the speech recognition to an Internet server, it is able to perform large vocabulary speech recognition, so Randall can use his voice to compose email and fill in forms, as well as controlling the browser itself.
• Related Resources for Success Criterion 2.12.3:

PRINCIPLE 3: Ensure that the user interface is understandable

Implementing Guideline 3.1 - Help users avoid unnecessary messages. [Return to Guideline]

Summary: Users can turn off non-essential messages from the author or user-agent.

Implementing Guideline 3.2 - Help users avoid and correct mistakes. [Return to Guideline]

Summary: Users can have form submissions require confirmation (3.2.1), go back after navigating (3.2.2), and have their text checked for spelling errors (3.2.3).

Implementing Guideline 3.3 - Document the user agent user interface including accessibility features. [Return to Guideline]

Summary: User documentation is available in an accessible format (3.3.1), it includes accessibility features (3.3.2), delineates differences between versions (3.3.3), provides a centralized views of conformance UAAG2.0 (3.3.4), and is available as context sensitive help in the UA (3.3.5).

PRINCIPLE 4: Facilitate programmatic access

Implementing Guideline 4.1 - Facilitate programmatic access to assistive technology [Return to Guideline]

Summary: Be compatible with assistive technologies by supporting platform standards (4.1.1), including providing information about all menus, buttons, dialogs, etc. (4.1.2, 4.1.6), access to DOMs (4.1.4), and access to structural relationships and meanings, such as what text or image labels a control or serves as a heading (4.1.5). Where something can't be made accessible, provide an accessible alternative version, such as a standard window in place of a customized window (4.1.3). Make sure that that programmatic exchanges are quick and responsive (4.1.7).

4.1.1 Platform Accessibility Services:

The user agent supports relevant platform accessibility services. (Level A) ## DONE TPAC, 19 July 2012

• Intent of Success Criterion 4.1.1:
  The intent of this success criterion is to make user agent user interfaces more accessible to users who rely on assistive technologies, such as screen readers and speech recognition software. Most major operating environments provide platform accessibility services that allow applications (including user agents) and assistive technologies to work together more effectively, but these must be supported by the software on both sides. The requirement is stated generally because the specifics of what constitutes a platform accessibility service will differ on each platform, but basic features common to these services are addressed by other success criteria under Guideline 4.1.
  
  Assistive technologies often use a combination of methods to get information about and manipulate a user agent's user interface and the content it's rendering; some of these are addressed in other success criteria. However, platform accessibility services are particularly important because they provide common functionality across all the well-behaved applications running on the platform, reducing the amount of special-casing the assistive technology has to implement for each of the hundreds of applications it may need to support.
  
  Most web-based user agents will support this requirement automatically because they run inside host user agents, and the host is responsible for exposing all content, including nested user agents, via platform accessibility services. As long as the nested user agent's user interface is entirely web-based and complies with Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (e.g. providing alternative text and supporting WAI-ARIA where needed) the host will understand it well enough to provide a bridge between it and platform accessibility services.
• Examples of Success Criterion 4.1.1 :
  • A browser is developing a new type of button bar for their Microsoft Windows product. When coding the new component the developer includes support for the Microsoft Active Accessibility API (MSAA) so that assistive technologies can recognize it as representing a toolbar, and can identify, navigate, and activate the bar and its buttons on the user's behalf.
• Related Resources for Success Criterion 4.1.1:
  • See 4.1.2 (Name, Role, State, Value, Description) and 4.1.6 (Expose Accessible Properties) for specific information that should be exposed through platform accessibility services.
  • Microsoft Active Accessibility (MSAA) http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms971310.aspx
  • Microsoft UI Automation http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms747327.aspx
  • Gnome Accessibility Toolkit (ATK) http://library.gnome.org/devel/atk/
  • Gnome Assistive Technology Service Provider Interface (AT-SPI) http://accessibility.gnome.org/developer/atk.php
  • Accessibility Programming Guidelines for Mac https://developer.apple.com/library/mac/#documentation/Cocoa/Conceptual/Accessibility/
  • Accessibility Programming Guide for iOS https://developer.apple.com/library/ios/#documentation/UserExperience/Conceptual/iPhoneAccessibility/
  • Iaccessible2 http://www.linuxfoundation.org/collaborate/workgroups/accessibility/iaccessible2, http://www-03.ibm.com/able/open_computing/open_source_windows.html
  • Accessibility API Cross reference http://www.mozilla.org/access/platform-apis.html

4.1.2 Name, Role, State, Value, Description:

For all user interface components including user interface, rendered content, generated content, and alternative content, the user agent makes available the name, role, state, value, and description via a platform accessibility services. (Level A)## DONE 2 August 2012

• Intent of Success Criterion 4.1.2:
  The information that assistive technology requires is the
  • Name (component name)
  • Role (purpose, such as alert, button, checkbox, etc)
  • State (current status, such as busy, disabled, hidden, etc)
  • Value (information associated with the component such as, the data in a text box, the position number of a slider, the date in a calendar widget)
  • Description (user instructions about the component).
  For every component developed for the user agent, pass this information to the appropriate accessibility platform architecture or application program interface (API). Embedded user agents, like media players can pass Name, Role, State, Value and Description via the WAI-ARIA techniques.
  
• Examples of Success Criterion 4.1.2 :
  • A media player implements a slider to control the sound volume. The developer codes the component to pass the following information to the accessibility API:
    Name = Volume control
    Role = Slider
    States & Values
    aria-valuenow
    The slider’s current value.
    aria-value-min
    The minimum of the value range
    aria-value-max
    The maximum of the value range
    Description
    aria-describedby = 'Use the right or left arrow key to change the sound volume.'
    
• Related Resources for Success Criterion 4.1.2:
  • @@ Editors' Note: [more needed]
    http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms697187
  • http://www.mozilla.org/access/windows/msaa-server

4.1.3 Accessible Alternative:

If a component of the user agent user interface cannot be exposed through the platform accessibility services, then the user agent provides an equivalent alternative that is exposed through the platform accessibility service. (Level A)## DONE TPAC

• Intent of Success Criterion 4.1.3:
  Users who rely on assistive technology need to be able to carry out all tasks provided by the user agent, just like everyone else. When a particular user interface component cannot support for the platform accessibility service, and thus can't be made compatible with assistive technology, the user agent should let the user achieve the same goal using another component that IS fully accessible.
• Examples of Success Criterion 4.1.3:
  • The user agent provides a single, complex control for 3-dimensional manipulation of a virtual object. This custom control cannot be represented in the platform accessibility service, so the user agent provides the user the option to achieve the same functionality through an alternate user interface, such as a panel with several basic controls that adjust the yar, spin, and roll independently.
• Related Resources for Success Criterion 4.1.3:
  • To be written

4.1.4 Programmatic Availability of DOMs:

If the user agent implements one or more DOMs, they must be made programmatically available to assistive technologies. (Level A) ## DONE TPAC

• Intent of Success Criterion 4.1.4:
  User agents (and other applications) and assistive technologies use a combination of DOMs, accessibility APIs, native platform APIs, and hard-coded heuristics to provide an accessible user interface and accessible content (http://accessibility.linuxfoundation.org/a11yspecs/atspi/adoc/a11y-dom-apis.html). It is the user agents responsibility to expose all relevant content to the platform accessibility api. Alternatively, the user agent must respond to requests for information from APIs.
• Examples of Success Criterion 4.1.4 :
  • In user agents today, an author may inject content into a web page using CSS (generated content). This content is written to the screen and the CSS DOM. The user agent does not expose this generated content from the CSS-DOM (as per CSS recommendation) to the platform accessibility API or to the HTML-DOM. This generated content is non-existent to an assistive technology user. The user agent should expose all information from all DOMs to the platform accessibility API.
  • A web page is a compound document containing HTML, MathML, and SVG. Each has a separate DOM. As the user moves through the document, they are moving through multiple DOMs. The transition between DOMs is seamless and transparent to the user and their assistive technology. All of the content is read and all of the interaction is available from the keyboard regardless of the underlying source code or the respective DOM.
• Related Resources for Success Criterion 4.1.4:
  • www.w3.org/TR/SVG/svgdom.html
  • www.w3.org/TR/MathML/chapter8.html
  • www.w3.org/TR/DOM-Level-2-HTML/
  • www.w3.org/TR/DOM-Level-2-Style/
  • https://developer.mozilla.org/en/gecko_dom_reference
  • http://developer.apple.com/mac/library/documentation/AppleApplications/Conceptual/SafariJSProgTopics/Tasks/DOM.html
  • http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms533050%28VS.85%29.aspx
  • www.adobe.com/devnet/acrobat/pdfs/access.pdf
  • www.w3.org/2004/CDF/
  • dev.w3.org/2006/cdf/cdi-framework/
  • www.w3.org/TR/CDR/

4.1.5 Write Access:

If the user can modify the state or value of a piece of content through the user interface (e.g., by checking a box or editing a text area), the same degree of write access is available programmatically. (Level A) ## DONE Post TPAC

• Intent of Success Criterion 4.1.5:
  If the user can affect the user interface using any form of input, the same affect may be done through programmatic access. It is often more reliable for assistive technology to use the programmatic method of access versus attempting to simulate mouse or keyboard input.
• Examples of Success Criterion 4.1.5:
  • When the user says the phrase 'Volume 35%' their speech input utility can programmatically set the value of the volume slider to 35%, rather than having to use trial and error by simulating mouse clicks or arrow presses to try to find the 35% point.
  • "Francois directs his third-party macro utility to set the value of a tri-state check box to "mixed". Even though the control would normally need to be cycled through its states of “on”, “off”, and “mixed”, the macro utility can set the control directly to the desired state.
    
• Related Resources for Success Criterion 4.1.5:
  • To be written

4.1.6 Expose Accessible Properties:

If any of the following properties are supported by the platform accessibility services, make the properties available to the accessibility platform architecture: (Level A) ## DONE 8 March 2012

1. the bounding dimensions and coordinates of onscreen elements
2. font family of text
3. font size of text
4. foreground color of text
5. background color of text.
6. change state/value notifications
7. selection
8. highlighting
9. input device focus
10. direct keyboard commands
11. underline of menu items (keyboard command/shortcuts)

• Intent of Success Criterion 4.1.6:
  These properties are used by assistive technology to create alternative views of the user agent user interface and rendered content as well as providing alternative means for the user to interact with these items. This applies to both user agent user interface (e.g. menus and dialog boxes) and to recognized aspects of the user content (e.g. HTML script using ARIA to indicate focus on custom controls).
• Examples of Success Criterion 4.1.6 1:
  • Kiara loads a new version of a popular web browser for the first time. She puts her screen reader into an "explore mode" that lets her review what is appearing on the screen. Her screen reader uses the bounding rectangle of each element to tell her that items from the menu bar all appear on the same horizontal line, which is below the window's title bar.
  • Kiara is using a screen reader at a telephone call center. The Web application displays caller names in different colors depending on their banking status. Kiara needs to know this information to appropriately respond to each customer immediately, without taking the time to look up their status through other means.
  • Max uses a screen magnifier that only shows him a small amount of the screen at one time. He gives it commands to pan through different portions of a Web page, but then can give it additional commands to quickly pan back to positions of interest, such as the text matched by the recent Search operation, text that he previously selected by dragging the mouse, or the text caret, rather than having to manually pan through the document searching for them.
• Related Resources for Success Criterion 4.1.6:
  • To be written

4.1.7 Timely Communication:

For APIs implemented to satisfy the requirements of UAAG 2.0, ensure that programmatic exchanges proceed at a rate such that users do not perceive a delay. (Level A) ## DONE TPAC

• Intent of Success Criterion 4.1.7:
  Conveying information for accessibility can often involve extensive communication between a user agent, an accessibility API, document object model, assistive technology and end user interaction. The objective is to ensure that the end user does not perceive a delay when interacting with the user agent.
• Examples of Success Criterion 4.1.7:
  • Bonita accesses her web browser with a speech input program. She navigates to a web page and speaks the name of a link she wants to click. The link is activated with the same speed as it would be if a mouse had been used to click the link.
  • Arthur is browsing a web page with a screen reader. As he tabs from link to link, the text of each link instantly appears on his braille display.
• Related Resources for Success Criterion 4.1.7:
  • @@ Editors' note: Insert something about performance and classifications.@@

PRINCIPLE 5: Comply with applicable specifications and conventions

Implementing Guideline 5.1 - Comply with applicable specifications and conventions. [Return to Guideline]

Summary: When the browser's menus, buttons, dialogs, etc. are authored in HTML or similar standards, they need to meet W3C's Web Content Accessibility Guidelines.

Conformance

This section is normative.

Conformance means that the user agent satisfies the success criteria defined in the guidelines section. This conformance section describes conformance and lists the conformance requirements.

Conformance Requirements @@ 704, 648

In order for a Web page to conform to UAAG 2.0, one of the following levels of conformance is met in full.

• Level A: For Level A conformance (the minimum level of conformance), the user agent satisfies all the Level A Success Criteria.
• Level AA: For Level AA conformance, the user agent satisfies all the Level A and Level AA Success Criteria.
• Level AAA: For Level AAA conformance, the user agent satisfies all the Level A, Level AA and Level AAA Success Criteria.

Note 1: Although conformance can only be achieved at the stated levels, developers are encouraged to report (in their claim) any progress toward meeting success criteria from all levels beyond the achieved level of conformance.

Conformance Claims (Optional)

If a conformance claim is made, the conformance claim must meet the following conditions and include the following information (user agents can conform to UAAG 2.0 without making a claim):

Conditions on Conformance Claims

• At least one version of the conformance claim must be published on the web as a document meeting level "A" of WCAG 2.0. A suggested metadata description for this document is "UAAG 2.0 Conformance Claim".
• Whenever the claimed conformance level is published (e.g. product information website), the URI for the on-line published version of the conformance claim must be included.
• The existence of a conformance claim does not imply that the W3C has reviewed the claim or assured its validity.
• Claimants may be anyone (e.g. user agent developers, journalists, other third parties).
• Claimants are solely responsible for the accuracy of their claims (including claims that include products for which they are not responsible) and keeping claims up to date.
• Claimants are encouraged to claim conformance to the most recent version of the User Agent Accessibility Guidelines Recommendation.

Required Components of an UAAG 2.0 Conformance Claim

1. Claimant name and affiliation.
2. Date of the claim.
3. Conformance level satisfied.
4. User agent information: The name of the user agent and sufficient additional information to specify the version (e.g. vendor name, version number (or version range), required patches or updates, human language of the user interface or documentation).
   Note: If the user agent is a collection of software components (e.g. a browser and extentions or plugins), then the name and version information must be provided separately for each component, although the conformance claim will treat them as a whole. As stated above, the Claimant has sole responsibility for the conformance claim, not the developer of any of the software components.
5. Included Technologies: A list of the web content technologies (including version numbers) rendered by the user agent that the Claimant is including in the conformance claim. By including a web content technology, the Claimant is claiming that the user agent meets the requirements of UAAG 2.0 during the rendering of web content using that web content technology.
   Note 1: Web content technologies may be a combination of constituent web content technologies. For example, an image technology (e.g. PNG) might be listed together with a markup technology (e.g. HTML) since web content in the markup technology is used make web content in the image technology accessible (e.g. a PNG graph is made accessible using an HTML table).
6. Excluded Technologies: A list of any web content technologies produced by the user agent that the Claimant is excluding from the conformance claim. The user agent is not required to meet the requirements of UAAG 2.0 during the production of the web content technologies on this list.
7. Declarations: For each success criterion: A declaration of whether or not the success criterion has been satisfied; or
   A declaration that the success criterion is not applicable and a rationale for why not.
8. Platform(s): The platform (s) upon which the user agent was evaluated: For user agent platform(s) (used to evaluate web-based user agent user interfaces): provide the name and version information of the user agent(s). For platforms that are not user agents (used to evaluate non-web-based user agent user interfaces) provide: The name and version information of the platform(s) (e.g. operating system, etc.) and the name and version of the platform accessibility service(s) employed.

Optional Components of an UAAG 2.0 Conformance Claim

A description of how the UAAG 2.0 success criteria were met where this may not be obvious.

"Progress Towards Conformance" Statement

Developers of user agents that do not yet conform fully to a particular UAAG 2.0 conformance level are encouraged to publish a statement on progress towards conformance. The progress statement is the same as a conformance claim except an UAAG 2.0 conformance level that is being progressed towards, rather than one already satisfied, and report progress on success criteria not yet met. Authors of "Progress Towards Conformance" Statement are solely responsible for the accuracy of their statements. Developers are encouraged to provide expected timelines for meeting outstanding success criteria within the Statement.

Disclaimer

Neither W3C, WAI, nor UAWG take any responsibility for any aspect or result of any UAAG 2.0 conformance claim that has not been published under the authority of the W3C, WAI, or UAWG.

Appendix A: Glossary

This glossary is normative.

accelerator key

see keyboard command

activate

To carry out the behaviors associated with an enabled element in the rendered content or a component of the user agent user interface.

active input focus

see focus

active selection

see focus

alternative content

Content that can be used in place of default content that may not be universally accessible. Alternative content fulfills the same purpose as the original content. Examples include text alternatives for non-text content, captions for audio, audio descriptions for video, sign language for audio, media alternatives for time-based media. See WCAG for more information.

alternative content stack

A set of alternative content items. The items may be mutually exclusive (e.g. regular contrast graphic vs. high contrast graphic) or non-exclusive (e.g. caption track that can play at the same time as a sound track).

animation

Graphical content rendered to automatically change over time, giving the user a visual perception of movement. Examples include video, animated images, scrolling text, programmatic animation (e.g. moving or replacing rendered objects).

 

application programming interface (API), (conventional input/output/device API)

An application programming interface (API) defines how communication may take place between applications.

assistive technology

An assistive technology:

1. relies on services (such as retrieving Web resources and parsing markup) provided by one or more other "host" user agents. Assistive technologies communicate data and messages with host user agents by using and monitoring APIs.
2. provides services beyond those offered by the host user agents to meet the requirements of users with disabilities. Additional services include alternative renderings (e.g. as synthesized speech or magnified content), alternative input methods (e.g. voice), additional navigation or orientation mechanisms, and content transformations (e.g. to make tables more accessible).

Examples of assistive technologies that are important in the context of UAAG 2.0 include the following:

• screen magnifiers, which are used by people with visual disabilities to enlarge and change colors on the screen to improve the visual readability of rendered text and images.
• screen readers, which are used by people who are blind or have reading disabilities to read textual information through synthesized speech or braille displays.
• voice recognition software, which are used by some people who have physical disabilities to simulate the keyboard and mouse.
• alternative keyboards, which are used by some people with physical disabilities to simulate the keyboard and mouse.
• alternative pointing devices, which are used by some people with physical disabilities to simulate mouse pointing and button activations.

Beyond UAAG 2.0, assistive technologies consist of software or hardware that has been specifically designed to assist people with disabilities in carrying out daily activities. These technologies include wheelchairs, reading machines, devices for grasping, text telephones, and vibrating pagers. For example, the following very general definition of "assistive technology device" comes from the (U.S.) Assistive Technology Act of 1998 [AT1998]:

Any item, piece of equipment, or product system, whether acquired commercially, modified, or customized, that is used to increase, maintain, or improve functional capabilities of individuals with disabilities.

audio

The technology of sound reproduction. Audio can be created synthetically (including speech synthesis), streamed from a live source (such as a radio broadcast), or recorded from real world sounds.

 

audio description - (described video, video description or descriptive narration)

An equivalent alternative that takes the form of narration added to the audio to describe important visual details that cannot be understood from the main soundtrack alone. Audio description of video provides information about actions, characters, scene changes, on-screen text, and other visual content. In standard audio description, narration is added during existing pauses in dialogue. In extended audio description, the video is paused so that there is time to add additional description.

authors

The people who have worked either alone or collaboratively to create the content (e.g. content authors, designers, programmers, publishers, testers).

author styles

Style property values that are set by the author as part of the content.

background images

Images that are rendered on the base background.

base background

The background of the content as a whole, such that no content may be layered behind it. In graphics applications the base background is often referred to as the canvas.

blinking text

Text whose visual rendering alternates between visible and invisible at any rate of change.

captions (caption)

An equivalent alternative that takes the form of text presented and synchronized with time-based media to provide not only the speech, but also non-speech information conveyed through sound, including meaningful sound effects and identification of speakers. In some countries, the term "subtitle" is used to refer to dialogue only and "captions" is used as the term for dialogue plus sounds and speaker identification. In other countries, "subtitle" (or its translation) is used to refer to both. Open captions are captions that are always rendered with a visual track; they cannot be turned off. Closed captions are captions that may be turned on and off. The captions requirements of UAAG 2.0 assume that the user agent can recognize the captions as such.
Note: Other terms that include the word "caption" may have different meanings in UAAG 2.0. For instance, a "table caption" is a title for the table, often positioned graphically above or below the table. In UAAG 2.0, the intended meaning of "caption" will be clear from context.

collated text transcript

A collated text transcript is a text equivalent of a movie or other animation. It is the combination of the text transcript of the audio track and the text equivalent of the visual track. For example, a collated text transcript typically includes segments of spoken dialogue interspersed with text descriptions of the key visual elements of a presentation (actions, body language, graphics, and scene changes). See also the definitions of text transcript and audio description. Collated text transcripts are essential for people who are deaf-blind.

command, direct command, direct navigation command, direct activation command, linear navigation command , spacial (directional) command, structural navigation command

direct navigation commands move focus to a specified item regardless of which currently has the focus

direct activation commands activate a specified item regardless of which currently has the focus; they may move the focus to the item before immediately activating it

linear navigation commands (sometimes called logical or sequential navigation commands) move forwards and backwards through a list of items

structural navigation commands move forwards, backwards, up and down a hierarchy

spatial commands (sometimes called directional commands), require the user to be cognizant of the spatial arrangement of items on the screen:

• spatial navigation commands move from one item to another based on direction on the screen
• spatial manipulation commands resize or reposition an item on the screen

content (web content), empty content, reflowable content

Information and sensory experience to be communicated to the user by means of a user agent, including code or markup that defines the content's structure, presentation, and interactions [adapted from WCAG 2.0]

empty content (which may be alternative content) is either a null value or an empty string (e.g. one that is zero characters long). For instance, in HTML, alt="" sets the value of the alt attribute to the empty string. In some markup languages, an element may have empty content (e.g. the HR element in HTML).

reflowable content is content that can be arbitrarily wrapped over multiple lines. The primary exceptions to reflowable content are graphics and video.

continuous scale

When interacting with a time-based media presentation, a continuous scale allows user (or programmatic) action to set the active playback position to any time point on the presentation timeline. The granularity of the positioning is determined by the smallest resolvable time unit in the media timebase.

cursor

see focus

default

see properties

direct command, direct navigation command, direct activation command, linear navigation command , spacial (directional) command, structural navigation command

see command

dimensions

A viewport may also have temporal dimensions, for instance when audio, speech, animations, and movies are rendered. When the dimensions (spatial or temporal) of rendered content exceed the dimensions of the viewport, the user agent provides mechanisms such as scroll bars and advance and rewind controls so that the user can access the rendered content "outside" the viewport. Examples include: when the user can only view a portion of a large document through a small graphical viewport, or when audio content has already been played.

document character set

The internal representation of data in the source content by a user agent.

document object, (Document Object Model, DOM)

The Document Object Model is a platform- and language-neutral interface that allows programs and scripts to dynamically access and update the content, structure and style of documents. The document can be further processed and the results of that processing can be incorporated back into the presented page. This is an overview of DOM-related materials here at W3C and around the web: http://www.w3.org/DOM/#what.

document source, (text source)

Text the user agent renders upon user request to view the source of specific viewport content (e.g. selected content, frame, page).

documentation

Any information that supports the use of a user agent. This information may be found, for example, in manuals, installation instructions, the help system, and tutorials. Documentation may be distributed (e.g. as files installed as part of the installation, some parts may be delivered on CD-ROM, others on the Web). See guideline 5.3 for information about documentation.

element, element type

UAAG 2.0 uses the terms "element" and "element type" primarily in the sense employed by the XML 1.0 specification ([XML], section 3): an element type is a syntactic construct of a document type definition (DTD) for its application. This sense is also relevant to structures defined by XML schemas. UAAG 2.0 also uses the term "element" more generally to mean a type of content (such as video or sound) or a logical construct (such as a header or list).

empty content

see content

enabled element, disabled element

An element with associated behaviors that can be activated through the user interface or through an API. The set of elements that a user agent enables is generally derived from, but is not limited to, the set of elements defined by implemented markup languages. A disabled element is a potentially enabled element that is not currently available for activation (e.g. a "grayed out" menu item).

equivalent alternative

Acceptable substitute content that a user may not be able to access. An equivalent alternative fulfills essentially the same function or purpose as the original content upon presentation:

• text alternative: text that is available via the operating environment that is used in place of non-text content (e.g. text equivalents for images, text transcripts for audio tracks, or collated text transcripts for a movie). [from WCAG 2.0]
• full text alternative for synchronized media including any interaction: document including correctly sequenced text descriptions of all visual settings, actions, speakers, and non-speech sounds, and transcript of all dialogue combined with a means of achieving any outcomes that are achieved using interaction (if any) during the synchronized media. [from WCAG 2.0]
• synchronized alternatives: present essential audio information visually (i.e. captions) and essential video information in an auditory manner (i.e. audio descriptions). [from ATAG 2.0]

events and scripting, event handler, event type

User agents often perform a task when an event having a particular "event type" occurs, including a user interface event, a change to content, loading of content, or a request from the operating environment. Some markup languages allow authors to specify that a script, called an event handler, be executed when an event of a given type occurs. An event handler is explicitly associated with an element through scripting, markup or the DOM.

explicit user request

An interaction by the user through the user agent user interface, the focus, or the selection. User requests are made, for example, through user agent user interface controls and keyboard commands. Some examples of explicit user requests include when the user selects "New viewport," responds "yes" to a prompt in the user agent's user interface, configures the user agent to behave in a certain way, or changes the selection or focus with the keyboard or pointing device. Note: Users can make errors when interacting with the user agent. For example, a user may inadvertently respond "yes" to a prompt instead of "no." This type of error is considered an explicit user request.

focus (active input focus, active selection, cursor, focus cursor, focusable element, highlight, inactive input focus, inactive selection, input focus, keyboard focus, pointer, pointing device focus, selection, split focus, text cursor)

Hierarchical Summary of some focus terms

• Input Focus (active/inactive)
  • Keyboard Focus (active/inactive)
    • Cursor (active/inactive)
      • Focus cursor (active/inactive)
      • Text cursor (active/inactive)
  • Pointing device focus (active/inactive)
    • Pointer

active input focus

The input focus location in the active viewport. The active focus is in the active viewport, while the inactive input focus is the inactive viewport. The active input focus is usually visibly indicated. In UAAG 2.0 "active input focus" generally refers to the active keyboard input focus. @@ Editors' Note: this term is not used in the document other than the glossary.@@

active selection

The selection that will currently be affected by a user command, as opposed to selections in other viewports, called inactive selections, which would not currently be affected by a user command. @@ Editors' Note: this term is not used in the document other than the glossary.@@

conform

see support

cursor

Visual indicator showing where keyboard input will occur. There are two types of cursors: focus cursor (e.g. the dotted line around a button) and text cursor (e.g. the flashing vertical bar in a text field, also called a 'caret'). Cursors are active when in the active viewport, and inactive when in an inactive viewport.

focus cursor

Indicator that highlights a user interface element to show that it has keyboard focus, e.g. a dotted line around a button, or brightened title bar on a window. There are two types of cursors: focus cursor (e.g. the dotted line around a button) and text cursor (e.g. the flashing vertical bar in a text field).

focusable element

Any element capable of having input focus, e.g. link, text box, or menu item. In order to be accessible and fully usable, every focusable element should take keyboard focus, and ideally would also take pointer focus.

highlight, highlighted, highlighting

Emphasis indicated through the user interface. For example, user agents highlight content that is selected, focused, or matched by a search operation. Graphical highlight mechanisms include dotted boxes, changed colors or fonts, underlining, adjacent icons, magnification, and reverse video. Synthesized speech highlight mechanisms include alterations of voice pitch and volume ("speech prosody"). User interface items may also be highlighted, for example a specific set of foreground and background colors for the title bar of the active window. Content that is highlighted may or may not be a selection.

inactive input focus

An input focus location in an inactive viewport such as a background window or pane. The inactive input focus location will become the active input focus location when input focus returns to that viewport. An inactive input focus may or may not be visibly indicated.

inactive selection

A selection that does not have the input focus and thus does not take input events.

input focus

The place where input will occur if a viewport is active. Examples include keyboard focus and pointing device focus. Input focus can also be active (in the active viewport) or inactive (in an inactive viewport).

keyboard focus

The screen location where keyboard input will occur if a viewport is active. Keyboard focus can be active (in the active viewport) or inactive (in an inactive viewport). See keyboard interface definition for types of keyboards included and what constitutes a keyboard.

keyboard interface

Keyboard interfaces are programmatic services provided by many platforms that allow operation in a device independent manner. A keyboard interface can allow keystroke input even if particular devices do not contain a hardware keyboard (e.g., a touchscreen-controlled device can have a keyboard interface built into its operating system to support onscreen keyboards as well as external keyboards that may be connected).
Note: Keyboard-operated mouse emulators, such as MouseKeys, do not qualify as operation through a keyboard interface because these emulators use pointing device interfaces, not keyboard interfaces. [from ATAG 2.0]

 

pointer

Visual indicator showing where pointing device input will occur. The indicator can be moved with a pointing device or emulator such as a mouse, pen tablet, keyboard-based mouse emulator, speech-based mouse commands, or 3-D wand. A pointing device click typically moves the input focus to the pointer location. The indicator may change to reflect different states.When touch screens are used, the "pointing device" is a combination of the touch screen and the user's finger or stylus. On most systems there is no pointer (on-screen visual indication) associated with this type of pointing device.

pointing device focus

The screen location where pointer input will occur if a viewport is active. There can be multiple pointing device foci for example when using a screen sharing utility there is typically one for the user's physical mouse and one for the remote mouse. @@ Editors' Note: this term is not used in the document other than the glossary.@@

selection

A user agent mechanism for identifying a (possibly empty) range of content that will be the implicit source or target for subsequent operations. The selection may be used for a variety of purposes, including for cut-and-paste operations, to designate a specific element in a document for the purposes of a query, and as an indication of point of regard (e.g. the matched results of a search may be automatically selected). The selection should be highlighted in a distinctive manner. On the screen, the selection may be highlighted in a variety of ways, including through colors, fonts, graphics, and magnification. When rendered using synthesized speech, the selection may be highlighted through changes in pitch, speed, or prosody.

split focus

A state when the user could be confused because the input focus is separated from something it is usually linked to, such as being at a different place than the selection or similar highlighting, or has been scrolled outside of the visible portion of the viewport. @@ Editors' Note: this term is not used in the document other than the glossary.@@

text cursor

Indicator showing where keyboard input will occur in text (e.g. the flashing vertical bar in a text field, also called a caret).

@@ Editor's Note: Need to find the hrefs to these definitions and fix them. @@

globally, global configuration

@@ Editors' Note: Needs to be written@@

graphical

Information (e.g. text, colors, graphics, images, and animations) rendered for visual consumption.

highlight, highlighted, highlighting

see focus

image

Pictorial content that is static (i.e. not moving or changing). See also the definition of animation.

implement

see support

important elements

This specification intentionally does not identify which "important elements" must be navigable because this will vary by specification. What constitutes "efficient navigation" may depend on a number of factors as well, including the "shape" of content (e.g. sequential navigation of long lists is not efficient) and desired granularity (e.g. among tables, then among the cells of a given table). Refer to the Implementing document [Implementing UAAG 2.0] for information about identifying and navigating important elements. @@ Editors' Note: Update links

inactive input focus

see focus

inactive selection

see focus

informative (non-normative)

see normative

input configuration

The set of bindings between user agent functionalities and user interface input mechanisms (e.g. menus, buttons, keyboard keys, and voice commands). The default input configuration is the set of bindings the user finds after installation of the software. Input configurations may be affected by author-specified bindings (e.g. through the accesskey attribute of HTML 4 [HTML4]).

input focus

see focus

keyboard (keyboard emulator, keyboard interface)

The letter, symbol and command keys or key indicators that allow a user to control a computing device. Assistive technologies have traditionally relied on the keyboard interface as a universal, or modality independent interface. In this document references to keyboard include keyboard emulators and keyboard interfaces that make use of the keyboard's role as a modality independent interface (see Modality Independence Principle). Keyboard emulators and interfaces may be used on devices which do not have a physical keyboard, such as mobile devices based on touchscreen input.

keyboard command (keyboard binding,keyboard shortcuts or accelerator keys)

A key or set of keys that are tied to a particular UI control or application function, allowing the user to navigate to or activate the control or function without traversing any intervening controls (e.g. CTRL+"S" to save a document). It is sometimes useful to distinguish keyboard commands that are associated with controls that are rendered in the current context (e.g. ALT+"D" to move focus to the address bar) from those that may be able to activate program functionality that is not associated with any currently rendered controls (e.g. "F1" to open the Help system). Keyboard commands can be triggered using a physical keyboard or keyboard emulator (e.g. on-screen keyboard or speech recognition).

keyboard focus

see focus

natural language

Natural language is spoken, written, or signed human language such as French, Japanese, and American Sign Language. On the Web, the natural language of content may be specified by markup or HTTP headers. Some examples include the lang attribute in HTML 4 ([HTML4] section 8.1), the xml:lang attribute in XML 1.0 ([XML], section 2.12), the hreflang attribute for links in HTML 4 ([HTML4], section 12.1.5), the HTTP Content-Language header ([RFC2616], section 14.12) and the Accept-Language request header ([RFC2616], section 14.4). See also the definition of script.

navigation

see command

non-text content (non-text element, non-text equivalent)

see text

normative, informative (non-normative) [WCAG 2.0, ATAG 2.0]

What is identified as "normative" is required for conformance (noting that one may conform in a variety of well-defined ways to UAAG 2.0). What is identified as "informative" (or, "non-normative") is never required for conformance.

notify

To make the user aware of events or status changes. Notifications can occur within the user agent user interface (e.g. a status bar) or within the content display. Notifications may be passive and not require user acknowledgment, or they may be presented in the form of a prompt requesting a user response (e.g. a confirmation dialog).

operating environment

The term "operating environment" refers to the environment that governs the user agent's operation, whether it is an operating system or a programming language environment such as Java.

override

In UAAG 2.0, the term "override" means that one configuration or behavior preference prevails over another. Generally, the requirements of UAAG 2.0 involve user preferences prevailing over author preferences and user agent default settings and behaviors. Preferences may be multi-valued in general (e.g. the user prefers blue over red or yellow), and include the special case of two values (e.g. turn on or off blinking text content).

placeholder

A placeholder is content generated by the user agent to replace author-supplied content. A placeholder may be generated as the result of a user preference (e.g. to not render images) or as repair content (e.g. when an image cannot be found). A placeholder can be any type of content, including text, images, and audio cues. A placeholder should identify the technology of the replaced object. Placeholders appear in the alternative content stack.

platform

The software environment within which the authoring tool operates. Platforms provide a consistent operational environment on top of lower level software platforms or hardware. For web-based authoring user interfaces, the platform will be user agents (e.g., browsers). For non-web-based user interfaces, the range of platforms includes, but may not be limited to, desktop operating systems (e.g. Linux, MacOS, Windows, etc.), mobile operating systems (e.g. Android, Blackberry, iOS, Windows Phone, etc.), or cross-OS environments (e.g. Java), etc.

Note 1: Many platforms mediate communication between applications operating on the platform and assistive technology via a platform accessibility service.

Note 2: Accessibility guidelines for developers exist for many platforms.

platform accessibility service

A programmatic interface that is engineered to enhance communication between mainstream software applications and assistive technologies (e.g. MSAA, UI Automation, and IAccessible2 for Windows applications, AXAPI for MacOSX applications, Gnome Accessibility Toolkit API for Gnome applications, Java Access for Java applications). On some platforms it may be conventional to enhance communication further via implementing a DOM.

plug-in [ATAG 2.0]

A plug-in is a program that runs as part of the user agent and that is not part of content. Users generally choose to include or exclude plug-ins from their user agents.

point of regard

The point of regard is the position in rendered content that the user is presumed to be viewing. The dimensions of the point of regard may vary. For example,it may be a two-dimensional area (e.g. content rendered through a two-dimensional graphical viewport), or a point (e.g. a moment during an audio rendering or a cursor position in a graphical rendering), or a range of text (e.g. focused text), or a two-dimensional area (e.g. content rendered through a two-dimensional graphical viewport). The point of regard is almost always within the viewport, but it may exceed the spatial or temporal dimensions of the viewport (see the definition of rendered content for more information about viewport dimensions). The point of regard may also refer to a particular moment in time for content that changes over time (e.g. an audio-only presentation). User agents may determine the point of regard in a number of ways, including based on viewport position in content, keyboard focus, and selection. The stability of the point of regard is addressed by success criterion 1.8.7

pointer

see focus

pointing device focus

see focus

profile

A profile is a named and persistent representation of user preferences that may be used to configure a user agent. Preferences include input configurations, style preferences, and natural language preferences. In operating environments with distinct user accounts, profiles enable users to reconfigure software quickly when they log on. Users may share their profiles with one another.Platform-independent profiles are useful for those who use the same user agent on different devices.

prompt [ATAG 2.0]

Any user-agent-initiated request for a decision or piece of information from a user.

properties, values, and defaults

A user agent renders a document by applying formatting algorithms and style information to the document's elements. Formatting depends on a number of factors, including where the document is rendered (e.g. on screen, on paper, through loudspeakers, on a braille display, on a mobile device). Style information (e.g. fonts, colors, synthesized speech prosody) may come from the elements themselves (e.g. certain font and phrase elements in HTML), from style sheets, or from user agent settings. For the purposes of these guidelines, each formatting or style option is governed by a property and each property may take one value from a set of legal values. Generally in UAAG 2.0, the term "property" has the meaning defined in CSS 2 ([CSS2], section 3). A reference to "styles" in UAAG 2.0 means a set of style-related properties. The value given to a property by a user agent at installation is the property's default value.

recognize

Authors encode information in many ways, including in markup languages, style sheet languages, scripting languages, and protocols. When the information is encoded in a manner that allows the user agent to process it with certainty, the user agent can "recognize" the information. For instance, HTML allows authors to specify a heading with the H1 element, so a user agent that implements HTML can recognize that content as a heading. If the author creates a heading using a visual effect alone (e.g. just by increasing the font size), then the author has encoded the heading in a manner that does not allow the user agent to recognize it as a heading. Some requirements of UAAG 2.0 depend on content roles, content relationships, timing relationships, and other information supplied by the author. These requirements only apply when the author has encoded that information in a manner that the user agent can recognize. See the section on conformance for more information about applicability. User agents will rely heavily on information that the author has encoded in a markup language or style sheet language. Behaviors, style, meaning encoded in a script, and markup in an unfamiliar XML namespace may not be recognized by the user agent as easily or at all.

relative time units

Relative time units define time intervals for navigating media relative to the current point (e.g. move forward 30 seconds). When interacting with a time-based media presentation, a user may find it beneficial to move forward or backward via a time interval relative to their current position. For example, a user may find a concept unclear in a video lecture and elect to skip back 30 seconds from the current position to review what had been described. Relative time units may be preset by the user agent, configurable by the user, and/or automatically calculated based upon media duration (e.g. jump 5 seconds in a 30-second clip, or 5 minutes in a 60-minute clip). Relative time units are distinct from absolute time values such as the 2 minute mark, the half-way point, or the end.

rendered content, rendered text

Rendered content is the part of content that the user agent makes available to the user's senses of sight and hearing (and only those senses for the purposes of UAAG 2.0). Any content that causes an effect that may be perceived through these senses constitutes rendered content. This includes text characters, images, style sheets, scripts, and any other content that, once processed, may be perceived through sight and hearing.

The term "rendered text" refers to text content that is rendered in a way that communicates information about the characters themselves, whether visually or as synthesized speech.

In the context of UAAG 2.0, invisible content is content that is not rendered but that may influence the graphical rendering (i.e. layout) of other content. Similarly, silent content is content that is not rendered but that may influence the audio rendering of other content. Neither invisible nor silent content is considered rendered content.

repair content, repair text

Content generated by the user agent to correct an error condition. "Repair text" refers to the text portion of repair content. Error conditions that may lead to the generation of repair content include:

• Erroneous or incomplete content (e.g. ill-formed markup, invalid markup, or missing alternative content that is required by format specification);
• Missing resources for handling or rendering content (e.g. the user agent lacks a font family to display some characters, or the user agent does not implement a particular scripting language).

UAAG 2.0 does not require user agents to include repair content in the document object. Repair content inserted in the document object should conform to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0 [WCAG10]. For more information about repair techniques for Web content and software, refer to "Techniques for Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines 1.0" [ATAG10-TECHS].

script

In UAAG 2.0, the term "script" almost always refers to a scripting (programming) language used to create dynamic Web content. However, in guidelines referring to the written (natural) language of content, the term "script" is used as in Unicode [UNICODE] to mean "A collection of symbols used to represent textual information in one or more writing systems."

Information encoded in (programming) scripts may be difficult for a user agent to recognize. For instance, a user agent is not expected to recognize that, when executed, a script will calculate a factorial. The user agent will be able to recognize some information in a script by virtue of implementing the scripting language or a known program library (e.g. the user agent is expected to recognize when a script will open a viewport or retrieve a resource from the Web).

selection, current selection

see focus

serial access, sequential navigation

One-dimensional access to rendered content. Some examples of serial access include listening to an audio stream or watching a video (both of which involve one temporal dimension), or reading a series of lines of braille one line at a time (one spatial dimension). Many users with blindness have serial access to content rendered as audio, synthesized speech, or lines of braille.

The expression "sequential navigation" refers to navigation through an ordered set of items (e.g. the enabled elements in a document, a sequence of lines or pages, or a sequence of menu options). Sequential navigation implies that the user cannot skip directly from one member of the set to another, in contrast to direct or structured navigation. Users with blindness or some users with a physical disability may navigate content sequentially (e.g. by navigating through links, one by one, in a graphical viewport with or without the aid of an assistive technology). Sequential navigation is important to users who cannot scan rendered content visually for context and also benefits users unfamiliar with content. The increments of sequential navigation may be determined by a number of factors, including element type (e.g. links only), content structure (e.g. navigation from heading to heading), and the current navigation context (e.g. having navigated to a table, allow navigation among the table cells).

Users with serial access to content or who navigate sequentially may require more time to access content than users who use direct or structured navigation.

style properties, user agent default styles, author styles, user styles

Properties whose values determine the presentation (e.g., font, color, size, location, padding, volume, synthesized speech prosody) of content elements as they are rendered (e.g. onscreen, via loudspeaker, via braille display) by user agents. Style properties can have several origins:
user agent default styles: The default style property values applied in the absence of any author or user styles. Some web content technologies specify a default rendering; others do not.
author styles: Style property values that are set by the author as part of the content (e.g., in-line styles, author style sheets).
user styles: Style property values that are set by the user (e.g., via user agent interface settings, user style sheets).

style sheet, user style sheet, author style sheet

A mechanism for communicating style property settings for web content, in which the style property settings are separable from other content resources. This separation is what allows author style sheets to be toggled or substituted, and user style sheets defined to apply to more than one resource. Style sheet web content technologies include Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) and Extensible Stylesheet Language (XSL). User style sheet: Style sheets specified by the user, resulting in user styles. Author style sheet: Style sheets specified by the author, resulting in author styles.

 

support, implement, conform

Support, implement, and conform all refer to what a developer has designed a user agent to do, but they represent different degrees of specificity. A user agent "supports" general classes of objects, such as "images" or "Japanese." A user agent "implements" a specification (e.g. the PNG and SVG image format specifications or a particular scripting language), or an API (e.g. the DOM API) when it has been programmed to follow all or part of a specification. A user agent "conforms to" a specification when it implements the specification and satisfies its conformance criteria.

synchronize

The act of time-coordinating two or more presentation components (e.g. a visual track with captions, or several tracks in a multimedia presentation). For Web content developers, the requirement to synchronize means to provide the data that will permit sensible time-coordinated rendering by a user agent. For example, Web content developers can ensure that the segments of caption text are neither too long nor too short, and that they map to segments of the visual track that are appropriate in length. For user agent developers, the requirement to synchronize means to present the content in a sensible time-coordinated fashion under a wide range of circumstances including technology constraints (e.g. small text-only displays), user limitations (e.g. slow reading speeds, large font sizes, high need for review or repeat functions), and content that is sub-optimal in terms of accessibility.

technology (web content technology) [WCAG 2.0, ATAG 2.0]

A mechanism for encoding instructions to be rendered, played or executed by user agents. Web Content technologies may include markup languages, data formats, or programming languages that authors may use alone or in combination to create end-user experiences that range from static Web pages to multimedia presentations to dynamic Web applications. Some common examples of Web content technologies include HTML, CSS, SVG, PNG, PDF, Flash, and JavaScript.

text (text content, non-text content, text element, non-text element, text equivalent, non-text equivalent )

Text used by itself refers to a sequence of characters from a markup language's document character set. Refer to the "Character Model for the World Wide Web" [CHARMOD] for more information about text and characters. Note: UAAG 2.0 makes use of other terms that include the word "text" that have highly specialized meanings: collated text transcript, non-text content, text content, non-text element, text element, text equivalent, and text transcript.

Atext element adds text characters to either content or the user interface. Both in the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 [WCAG20] and in UAAG 2.0, text elements are presumed to produce text that can be understood when rendered visually, as synthesized speech, or as Braille. Such text elements benefit at least these three groups of users:

1. visually-displayed text benefits users who are deaf and adept in reading visually-displayed text;
2. synthesized speech benefits users who are blind and adept in use of synthesized speech;
3. braille benefits users who are blind, and possibly deaf-blind, and adept at reading braille.

A text element may consist of both text and non-text data. For instance, a text element may contain markup for style (e.g. font size or color), structure (e.g. heading levels), and other semantics. The essential function of the text element should be retained even if style information happens to be lost in rendering. A user agent may have to process a text element in order to have access to the text characters. For instance, a text element may consist of markup, it may be encrypted or compressed, or it may include embedded text in a binary format (e.g. JPEG).

Text content is content that is composed of one or more text elements. A text equivalent (whether in content or the user interface) is an equivalent composed of one or more text elements. Authors generally provide text equivalents for content by using the alternative content mechanisms of a specification.

A non-text element is an element (in content or the user interface) that does not have the qualities of a text element. Non-text content is composed of one or more non-text elements. A non-text equivalent (whether in content or the user interface) is an equivalent composed of one or more non-text elements.

text decoration

Any stylistic effect that the user agent may apply to visually rendered text that does not affect the layout of the document (i.e. does not require reformatting when applied or removed). Text decoration mechanisms include underline, overline, and strike-through.

text format

Any media object given an Internet media type of "text" (e.g. "text/plain", "text/html", or "text/*") as defined in RFC 2046 [RFC2046], section 4.1, or any media object identified by Internet media type to be an XML document (as defined in [XML], section 2) or SGML application. Refer, for example, to Internet media types defined in "XML Media Types" [RFC3023].

text transcript

A text equivalent of audio information (e.g. an audio-only presentation or the audio track of a movie or other animation). A text transcript provides text for both spoken words and non-spoken sounds such as sound effects. Text transcripts make audio information accessible to people who have hearing disabilities and to people who cannot play the audio. Text transcripts are usually created by hand but may be generated on the fly (e.g. by voice-to-text converters). See also the definitions of captions and collated text transcripts.

time-based

defining a common time scale for all components of a time-based media presentation. For example, a media-player will expose a single timebase for a presentation composed of individual video and audio tracks, for instance allowing users or technology to query or alter the playback rate and position.

track (audio track or visual track)

Content rendered as sound through an audio viewport. The audio track may be all or part of the audio portion presentation (e.g. each instrument may have a track, or each stereo channel may have a track). Also see definition of visual track

toolbar @@ 735

A collection of commonly used controls presented in a region that can be configured or navigated separately from other regions. Such containers may be docked or free-floating, permanent or transient, integral to the application or add-ons. Variations are often called toolbars, palettes, panels, or inspectors.

user agent

A user agent is any software that retrieves, renders and facilitates end user interaction with Web content.

user agent default styles

User agent default styles are style property values applied in the absence of any author or user styles. Some markup languages specify a default rendering for content in that markup language; others do not. For example, XML 1.0 [XML] does not specify default styles for XML documents. HTML 4 [HTML4] does not specify default styles for HTML documents, but the CSS 2 [CSS2] specification suggests a sample default style sheet for HTML 4 based on current practice.

user interface, user interface control

For the purposes of UAAG 2.0, user interface includes both:

1. the user agent user interface, i.e. the controls (e.g. menus, buttons, prompts, and other components for input and output) and mechanisms (e.g. selection and focus) provided by the user agent ("out of the box") that are not created by content.
2. the "content user interface," i.e. the enabled elements that are part of content, such as form controls, links, and applets.

The document distinguishes them only where required for clarity. For more information, see the section on requirements for content, for user agent features, or both @@.

The term "user interface control" refers to a component of the user agent user interface or the content user interface, distinguished where necessary.

user styles

User styles are style property values that come from user interface settings, user style sheets, or other user interactions.

values

see properties

view

A user interface function that lets users interact with web content. UAAG 2.0 recognizes a variety of approaches to presenting the content in a view, such as:

• rendered view: Views in which content is presented such that it is rendered, played or executed. There are several sub-types:
  • In conventionally rendered views the content is rendered, played or executed according to the web content technology specification. This is the default view of most user agents.
  • In unconventionally rendered views the content is rendered quite differently than specified in the technology specification (e.g., rendering an audio file as a graphical wavefront); or
• source view: Views in which the web content is presented without being rendered, played or executed. The source view may be plain text (i.e., "View Source") or it may include some other organization (e.g., presenting the markup in a tree).
• outline view: Views in which only a subset of the rendered content is presented, usually composed of labels or placeholders for important structural elements. The important structural elements will depend on the web content technology, but may include headings, table captions, and content sections. Note: Views can be visual, audio, or tactile.

The user agent renders content through one or more viewports. Viewports include windows, frames, pieces of paper, loudspeakers, and virtual magnifying glasses. A viewport may contain another viewport (e.g. nested frames). User agent user interface controls such as prompts, menus, and alerts are not viewports.

Graphical and tactile viewports have two spatial dimensions. A viewport may also have temporal dimensions, for instance when audio, speech, animations, and movies are rendered. When the dimensions (spatial or temporal) of rendered content exceed the dimensions of the viewport, the user agent provides mechanisms such as scroll bars and advance and rewind controls so that the user can access the rendered content "outside" the viewport. Examples include: when the user can only view a portion of a large document through a small graphical viewport, or when audio content has already been played.

When several viewports coexist, only one has the current focus at a given moment. This viewport is highlighted to make it stand out.

User agents may render the same content in a variety of ways; each rendering is called a view. For instance, a user agent may allow users to view an entire document or just a list of the document's headers. These are two different views of the document.
top-level viewports are viewports that are not contained within other user agent viewports.

viewport

The part of an onscreen view that the user agent is currently presenting onscreen to the user, such that the user can attend to any part of it without further action (e.g. scrolling). There may be multiple viewports on to the same view (e.g. when a split-screen is used to present the top and bottom of a document simultaneously) and viewports may be nested (e.g. a scrolling frame located within a larger document). When the viewport is smaller in extent than the content it is presenting, user agents typically provide mechanisms to bring the occluded content into the viewport (e.g., scrollbars).

visual-only

A visual-only presentation is content consisting exclusively of one or more visual tracks presented concurrently or in series. A silent movie is an example of a visual-only presentation.

visual track

A visual object is content rendered through a graphical viewport. Visual objects include graphics, text, and visual portions of movies and other animations. A visual track is a visual object that is intended as a whole or partial presentation. A visual track does not necessarily correspond to a single physical object or software object.

voice browser

From "Introduction and Overview of W3C Speech Interface Framework" [VOICEBROWSER]: "A voice browser is a device (hardware and software) that interprets voice markup languages to generate voice output, interpret voice input, and possibly accept and produce other modalities of input and output."

web resource

Anything that can be identified by a Uniform Resource Identifier (URI).

Appendix C: References

This section is informative.

For the latest version of any W3C specification please consult the list of W3C Technical Reports at http://www.w3.org/TR/. Some documents listed below may have been superseded since the publication of UAAG 2.0.

Note: In UAAG 2.0, bracketed labels such as "[WCAG20]" link to the corresponding entries in this section. These labels are also identified as references through markup.

[CSS1]

"Cascading Style Sheets (CSS1) Level 1 Specification," B. Bos, H. Wium Lie, eds., 17 December 1996, revised 11 January 1999. This W3C Recommendation is http://www.w3.org/TR/1999/REC-CSS1-19990111.

[CSS2]

"Cascading Style Sheets, level 2 (CSS2) Specification," B. Bos, H. Wium Lie, C. Lilley, and I. Jacobs, eds., 12 May 1998. This W3C Recommendation is http://www.w3.org/TR/1998/REC-CSS2-19980512/.

[DOM2CORE]

"Document Object Model (DOM) Level 2 Core Specification," A. Le Hors, P. Le Hégaret, L. Wood, G. Nicol, J. Robie, M. Champion, S. Byrne, eds., 13 November 2000. This W3C Recommendation is http://www.w3.org/TR/2000/REC-DOM-Level-2-Core-20001113/.

[DOM2STYLE]

"Document Object Model (DOM) Level 2 Style Specification," V. Apparao, P. Le Hégaret, C. Wilson, eds., 13 November 2000. This W3C Recommendation is http://www.w3.org/TR/2000/REC-DOM-Level-2-Style-20001113/.

[INFOSET]

"XML Information Set," J. Cowan and R. Tobin, eds., 24 October 2001. This W3C Recommendation is http://www.w3.org/TR/2001/REC-xml-infoset-20011024/.

[RFC2046]

"Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (MIME) Part Two: Media Types," N. Freed, N. Borenstein, November 1996.

[WCAG10]

"Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0," W. Chisholm, G. Vanderheiden, and I. Jacobs, eds., 5 May 1999. This W3C Recommendation is http://www.w3.org/TR/1999/WAI-WEBCONTENT-19990505/.

[XML]

"Extensible Markup Language (XML) 1.0 (Second Edition)," T. Bray, J. Paoli, C.M. Sperberg-McQueen, eds., 6 October 2000. This W3C Recommendation is http://www.w3.org/TR/2000/REC-xml-20001006.

[AT1998]

The Assistive Technology Act of 1998.

[ATAG10]

"Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines 1.0," J. Treviranus, C. McCathieNevile, I. Jacobs, and J. Richards, eds., 3 February 2000. This W3C Recommendation is http://www.w3.org/TR/2000/REC-ATAG10-20000203/.

[ATAG10-TECHS]

"Techniques for Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines 1.0," J. Treviranus, C. McCathieNevile, J. Richards, eds., 29 Oct 2002. This W3C Note is http://www.w3.org/TR/2002/NOTE-ATAG10-TECHS-20021029/.

[CHARMOD]

"Character Model for the World Wide Web," M. Dürst and F. Yergeau, eds., 30 April 2002. This W3C Working Draft is http://www.w3.org/TR/2002/WD-charmod-20020430/. The latest version is available at http://www.w3.org/TR/charmod/.

[DOM2HTML]

"Document Object Model (DOM) Level 2 HTML Specification," J. Stenback, P. Le Hégaret, A. Le Hors, eds., 8 November 2002. This W3C Proposed Recommendation is http://www.w3.org/TR/2002/PR-DOM-Level-2-HTML-20021108/. The latest version is available at http://www.w3.org/TR/DOM-Level-2-HTML/.

[HTML4]

"HTML 4.01 Recommendation," D. Raggett, A. Le Hors, and I. Jacobs, eds., 24 December 1999. This W3C Recommendation is http://www.w3.org/TR/1999/REC-html401-19991224/.

[RFC2616]

"Hypertext Transfer Protocol — HTTP/1.1," J. Gettys, J. Mogul, H. Frystyk, L. Masinter, P. Leach, T. Berners-Lee, June 1999.

[RFC3023]

"XML Media Types," M. Murata, S. St. Laurent, D. Kohn, January 2001.

[SMIL]

"Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language (SMIL) 1.0 Specification," P. Hoschka, ed., 15 June 1998. This W3C Recommendation is http://www.w3.org/TR/1998/REC-smil-19980615/.

[SMIL20]

"Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language (SMIL 2.0) Specification," J. Ayars, et al., eds., 7 August 2001. This W3C Recommendation is http://www.w3.org/TR/2001/REC-smil20-20010807/.

[SVG]

"Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) 1.0 Specification," J. Ferraiolo, ed., 4 September 2001. This W3C Recommendation is http://www.w3.org/TR/2001/REC-SVG-20010904/.

[UAAG10]

"User Agent Accessibility Guidelines 1.0," I. Jacobs, J. Gunderson, E. Hansen, eds.17 December 2002. This W3C Recommendation is available at http://www.w3.org/TR/2002/REC-UAAG10-20021217/.

[UAAG10-CHECKLIST]

An appendix to UAAG 2.0 lists all of the checkpoints, sorted by priority. The checklist is available in either tabular form or list form.

[UAAG10-ICONS]

Information about UAAG 1.0 conformance icons and their usage is available at http://www.w3.org/WAI/UAAG10-Conformance.

[UAAG10-SUMMARY]

An appendix to UAAG 2.0 provides a summary of the goals and structure of User Agent Accessibility Guidelines 1.0.

[UAAG10-TECHS]

"Techniques for User Agent Accessibility Guidelines 1.0," I. Jacobs, J. Gunderson, E. Hansen, eds. The latest draft of the techniques document is available at http://www.w3.org/TR/UAAG10-TECHS/.

[UNICODE]

"The Unicode Standard, Version 3.2." This technical report of the Unicode Consortium is available at http://www.unicode.org/reports/tr28/. This is a revision of "The Unicode Standard, Version 3.0," The Unicode Consortium, Addison-Wesley Developers Press, 2000. ISBN 0-201-61633-5. Refer also to http://www.unicode.org/standard/versions/. For information about character encodings, refer to Unicode Technical Report #17 "Character Encoding Model".

[VOICEBROWSER]

"Introduction and Overview of W3C Speech Interface Framework," J. Larson, 4 December 2000. This W3C Working Draft is http://www.w3.org/TR/2000/WD-voice-intro-20001204/. The latest version is available at http://www.w3.org/TR/voice-intro/. UAAG 2.0 includes references to additional W3C specifications about voice browser technology.

[W3CPROCESS]

"World Wide Web Consortium Process Document," I. Jacobs ed. The 19 July 2001 version of the Process Document is http://www.w3.org/Consortium/Process-20010719/. The latest version is available at http://www.w3.org/Consortium/Process/.

[WCAG20]

"Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0" B. Caldwell, M. Cooper, L. Guarino Reid, G. Vanderheiden, eds., 8 December 2008. This W3C Recommendation is http://www.w3.org/TR/2008/REC-WCAG20-20081211/. The latest version is available at http://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG20/. Additional format-specific techniques documents are available from this Recommendation.

[WCAG20-TECHS]

"Techniques for Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0," B. Caldwell, M. Cooper, L. Guarino Reid, G. Vanderheiden, eds., 8 December 2008. This W3C Note is http://www.w3.org/TR/2010/NOTE-WCAG20-TECHS-20101014/. The latest version is available at http://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG20-TECHS/. Additional format-specific techniques documents are available from this Note.

[WEBCHAR]

"Web Characterization Terminology and Definitions Sheet," B. Lavoie, H. F. Nielsen, eds., 24 May 1999. This is a W3C Working Draft that defines some terms to establish a common understanding about key Web concepts. This W3C Working Draft is http://www.w3.org/1999/05/WCA-terms/01.

[XAG10]

"XML Accessibility Guidelines 1.0," D. Dardailler, S. Palmer, C. McCathieNevile, eds., 3 October 2001. This W3C Working Draft is http://www.w3.org/TR/2002/WD-xag-20021003. The latest version is available at http://www.w3.org/TR/xag.

[XHTML10]

"XHTML[tm] 1.0: The Extensible HyperText Markup Language," S. Pemberton, et al., 26 January 2000. This W3C Recommendation is http://www.w3.org/TR/2000/REC-xhtml1-20000126/.

[XMLDSIG]

"XML-Signature Syntax and Processing," D. Eastlake, J. Reagle, D. Solo, eds., 12 February 2002. This W3C Recommendation is http://www.w3.org/TR/2002/REC-xmldsig-core-20020212/.

[XMLENC]

"XML Encryption Syntax and Processing," D. Eastlake, J. Reagle, eds., 10 December 2002. This W3C Recommendation is http://www.w3.org/TR/2002/REC-xmlenc-core-20021210/.

Appendix D: Acknowledgments

Participants active in the UAWG prior publication:

• Jim Allan (Co-Chair, Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired)
• Alan Cantor (Invited Expert)
• Bim Egan (Royal National Institute of Blind People)
• Kelly Ford (Co-Chair, Microsoft)
• Mark Hakkinen (Invited Expert)
• Simon Harper (University of Manchester)
• Patrick Lauke (Opera Software)
• Greg Lowney (Invited Expert)
• Kimberly Patch (Invited Expert)
• Jan Richards (Adaptive Technology Resource Centre, University of Toronto)
• Jeanne Spellman (W3C Staff Contact)

Other previously active UAWG participants and other contributors to UAAG 2.0:

• Judy Brewer (W3C)
• Sean Hayes (Microsoft)
• Dean Hudson (Apple)
• Cathy Laws (IBM)
• Peter Parente (IBM)
• David Poehlman (Invited Expert)
• Simon Pieters (Opera Software)
• Henny Swan (Opera Software)
• Gregory Rosmaita (Invited Expert)
• David Tseng (Apple)

UAAG 2.0 would not have been possible without the work of those who contributed to UAAG 1.0.

This publication has been funded in part with Federal funds from the U.S. Department of Education, National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research (NIDRR) under contract number ED-OSE-10-C-0067. The content of this publication does not necessarily reflect the views or policies of the U.S. Department of Education, nor does mention of trade names, commercial products, or organizations imply endorsement by the U.S. Government.

Appendix E: Checklist

@@ Editors' Note: This section is still under development@@

Appendix F: Comparison of UAAG 1.0 guidelines to UAAG 2.0

@@ Editors' Note: This section is still under development@@