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Developing WCAG 3.0

Jeanne Spellman

Slides: https://bit.ly/3kgOn82

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What are W3C Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 3.0?

  • Next major version of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2
  • Broader scope than WCAG 2.2 -- including digital publishing
  • Broader number of stakeholder groups
  • Guidance for more disability groups
  • Research informed and data driven
  • Moving the tradition of WCAG 2.0 forward
  • Starts from user needs of disability groups instead of technical solutions

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Some Disclaimers

  • I do not represent the W3C. I am a volunteer on the WCAG3 project. I am retired and work on this project on my own time.
  • The existing WCAG 2 series is great!
  • If you are starting work on accessibility in your organization, use WCAG 2.
  • WCAG 3.0 is under development and is not finished and is not ready for use
  • Anything in the WCAG3 draft today is not ready for implementation. We have difficult structural problems to solve.

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Agenda

  • WCAG 3.0 Approach
  • Proposed for WCAG 3.0
  • What’s the latest?
  • Differences between WCAG 2.0 and proposed WCAG 3.0 approaches
  • How to Contribute

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Difficulties with Current Approach

  • Who is the audience?
    • Developers? Management? End-Users? Regulators?
  • Accessibility is a continuum
    • Standards compliance tends to binary
      • yes/no — true/false — pass/fail
  • Testing and evaluation can be ambiguous
    • Different SME can reach different conclusions
    • Subject matter seems to have steep learning curve
  • A, AA, AAA structure
    • Most legal requirements combine A and AA
    • Why clutter the baseline requirement (A and AA) with advisory best practices (AAA)?
    • Why a requirement is at A or AA is not obvious (in many cases)
    • A, AA, AAA approach resulted in more A and AA for people with some disabilities than other disabilities

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WCAG 3.0 Approach

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WCAG 3.0 Stakeholders

  • WCAG 2.0 did not develop a stakeholder list, but is primarily oriented for developers, testers and regulators
  • As a first step, the group developing WCAG 3.0 (code named “Silver”) identified 31 stakeholder groups that used accessibility standards.
  • They wrote usability-oriented “job stories” of how each stakeholder group used accessibility standards.

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Research Completed

  • WCAG Use by UX Professionals (survey)
  • WCAG Success Criteria Usability Study (survey)
  • Internet of Things Accessibility (survey & interviews)
  • Interviews on Conformance
  • Interviews on Legacy of WCAG 2.0 Creation
  • Feedback from Reimagining Accessibility Guidelines Presentations
  • Web Accessibility Perceptions
  • Student research on Silver research questions (9 papers)

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Analysis: Structural Problem Statements

Usability

  • Too Difficult to Read (and translate)
  • Difficult to get started
  • Ambiguity in interpreting the success criteria
  • Persuading Others

Conformance Model

  • Strictly Testable Constraints
  • Human Testable
  • Accessibility Supported
  • Evolving Technology

Maintenance

  • Flexibility
  • Scaling
  • Governance

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Kicking off the Solutions: Silver Design Sprint

  • 27 Industry leaders representing parts of the accessibility community: CEOs, consultants, UX professionals, developers, legal, policy, and more
  • Participants came from the US, Canada, UK, Spain, India, Japan, Australia
  • An experienced Agile sprint leader guided participants to find solutions to the Problem Statements
  • People worked in 5 groups of 5-6 people for 2 days in San Diego, CA

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Suggestions

From the Silver Design Sprint

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Suggestions�1/3

Usability

  • Simple language
  • Filtering – “database all the things” to target info
  • Easier to find info
  • Find info by role, by problem, by disability, and by platform
  • Provide a starting point for beginners

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Suggestions�2/3

Conformance

  • From Pass/Fail tests to also include other forms of measurement
  • Rubric for testing task accomplishment
  • Point and ranking system
  • Accommodate dynamic or frequently updated content

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Suggestions�3/3

Maintenance

  • Allow experts to contribute code, tests, design patterns
  • Improve spec tools to allow more people with disabilities to contribute
  • Allow more public participation

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Silver Requirements

  • Design Principles
  • Requirements

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Design Principles

Accessibility guidelines:

  1. Wider range of people with disabilities
  2. New measurement and conformance structure
  3. Include emerging technologies.
  4. Follow our own accessibility guidance
  5. Be written in plain language

Guidelines process:

  1. Include people with disabilities
  2. Facilitate global participation and feedback
  3. Data-informed and evidence-based

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Requirements

  • Multiple ways to measure
  • Flexible structure
  • Multiple ways to display
  • Technology Neutral
  • Attention to Readability and Usability
  • Suitable for Regulatory Environment
  • Motivation to do more than minimum
  • Scoped for a diverse group of stakeholders

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Proposed for WCAG 3.0

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Improving equity between different disability groups

  • Developing a more comprehensive list of functional needs of disability groups
    • WCAG 3.0 currently references a list of 50+ disability categories
      • Example: WCAG 3.0 has a more granular inclusion of different cognitive disabilities
  • Developing guidelines starting with an evaluation of user needs
    • Instead of starting with the technical solutions
    • WCAG 3.0 identifies conflicting user needs
      • Example: high contrast is a barrier for some cognitive disabilities and visual impairments
  • Testing any scoring proposal with the impact on different disability groups
    • WCAG 3.0 has a group focused on testing and evaluating the different proposals

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Addressing Usability

  • Simple Language

  • Database – (still to be designed) with filtering and sorting by tags

  • How-To for each guideline with information for beginners and project team members

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How-to Example

  • Get started
  • Plan
  • Design
  • Develop
  • Examples
  • Resources

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Structure for the WCAG 3.0

  • Guidelines: high-level, plain-language version of the content for managers, policy makers, individuals who are new to accessibility
    • How-To sections describe the guideline
  • Outcomes: testable criteria that include information on how to score the outcome in an optional Conformance Claim
    • Outcomes are technology neutral
  • Methods: detailed information on how to meet the outcome, code samples, working examples, resources, as well as information about testing and scoring the method
    • Methods are technology specific

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Proposed Conformance Approach

  • Point Scoring System
  • Option for adjectival ratings instead of only true false success criteria
  • Evaluating severity in context -- minor errors don’t fail, but critical errors do.

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Critical Errors

  • A critical error is an an accessibility problem that will stop a user from being able to complete a process (or task).
  • Critical errors include:
    • Items that will stop a user from being able to complete the task if it exists anywhere on the view (examples: flashing, keyboard trap, audio with no pause)
    • Errors that when located within a process means the process cannot be completed (example: a submit button that is not in the keyboard tab order)
    • Errors that when aggregated within a view or across a process cause failure (example: a large amount of confusing, ambiguous language)

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Bronze Silver Gold

Bronze Silver Gold translates better than A, AA, AAA

Bronze Silver Gold refers to the overall product, not individual guidelines

There are several approaches being proposed:

  • Currently:
    • Bronze is generally WCAG2 AA equivalent. Required for higher levels
    • Silver is usability or a new idea - best practices (Protocols)
    • Gold is Maturity Model - organization best practices
  • Another proposal:
    • Bronze Silver Gold are just cutoffs on the score - for example: 80%-89% is bronze, 90%-95% is Silver, and 96% and higher is Gold level.
    • No final decisions have been made. There may be more proposals.

A more complex scoring system could result in better improvements for people with disabilities without putting a regulatory burden on organizations trying to make their products accessible.

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Where’s the latest?

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New Proposals in Q3 2021

Revised Methods template to reduce ambiguity

New proposal for User Generated Content

New Explainer document

Error Prevention guideline

New Methods for Text Alternatives

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What’s Next?

  • Revise outcomes to reduce ambiguity
  • Determine the granularity of outcomes and outline how many there will be
  • Protocols - giving bonus credit for implementing other standards
  • Revising Paths and Processes
  • Scoring
  • Maturity Model
  • Error Notification guideline
  • Third Party Media Content
  • Updated formulas for visual contrast of text

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Differences between WCAG 2.0 and proposed WCAG 3.0 approaches

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True/False vs. Adjective ratings

WCAG 2.0

  • Clear measurement of what is passes or fails
  • Fits traditional regulatory model

WCAG 3.0

  • Allows inclusion of more guidance that helps more disability groups
  • Accessibility is rarely binary true false – accessibility generally is a continuum
  • Often accessibility features for one disability category can be a barrier for another category – different groups can benefit from different ratings
  • User need driven

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100% Pass Fail vs Point Scoring

WCAG 2.0

  • Page-based conformance model
    • Websites (i.e., a collection of pages) is passes at 100%, or it fails
    • 100% conformance is rarely realistic
  • Large dynamic sites cannot claim conformance, even if they have good accessibility

WCAG 3.0

  • Point scoring gives a more nuanced view of the accessibility of a site or product
  • Helps businesses to realistically claim accessibility, even if there are minor issues
  • Recognizes that all software has bugs, while encouraging owners to prioritize accessibility issues over other defects

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Precision vs Plain Language

WCAG 2.0

  • Precise wording of success criteria
  • Can be difficult to interpret or learn
  • Has some ambiguity and has some inconsistent interpretation

WCAG 3.0

  • Written in plain language where possible, and uses simple language summaries where technical language is needed
  • Develops tests early in the guideline development cycle so ambiguity can be identified and corrected before the guideline is finalized
  • Uses longer descriptions and bullet lists to describe edge cases and exemptions, instead of trying to fit requirements into one statement

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How to Contribute

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How to contribute to WCAG 3.0

  • Review
    • Review the W3C WCAG 3 landing page: www.w3.org/wai/wcag3
    • Provide email or Github feedback
  • Join the discussion
    • Join the Silver Community Group
      • www.w3.org/community/silver
      • Start a Korean group working on an issue
    • Join the Accessibility Guidelines Working Group (AG WG)
      • Requires being affiliated with W3C member organization or Invited Expert status
      • www.w3.org/groups/wg/ag
  • Contact Jeanne Spellman
    • jspellman@spellmanconsulting.com, @jspellman on twitter and github, or LinkedIn