Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines 2.0

Conformance

This section is normative.

This section is included here for informative purposes. The normative version appears in the Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 [ATAG20].

This section lists requirements for conformance to ATAG 2.0. It also gives information about how to make conformance claims.

Conformance levels

Authoring tools (see definition) may claim conformance to ATAG 2.0 at either a "full" or "partial" conformance level.

The full conformance levels are:

Full ATAG 2.0 Conformance at Level "A"
The authoring tool satisfies all of the Level A success criteria.
Full ATAG 2.0 Conformance at Level "Double-A"
The authoring tool satisfies all of the Level A and Level AA success criteria.
Full ATAG 2.0 Conformance at Level "Triple-A"
The authoring tool satisfies all of the success criteria.

The partial conformance levels are:

Partial ATAG 2.0 Conformance Level "A": Authoring Tool User Interface
The authoring tool satisfies all of the Level A success criteria in Part A. Nothing is claimed about Part B.
Partial ATAG 2.0 Conformance Level "Double-A": Authoring Tool User Interface
The authoring tool satisfies all of the Level A and Level AA success criteria in Part A. Nothing is claimed about Part B.
Partial ATAG 2.0 Conformance Level "Triple-A": Authoring Tool User Interface
The authoring tool satisfies all of the success criteria in Part A. Nothing is claimed about Part B.
Partial ATAG 2.0 Conformance Level "A": Content Production"
The authoring tool satisfies all of the Level A success criteria in Part B. Nothing is claimed about Part A.
Partial ATAG 2.0 Conformance Level "Double-A": Content Production"
The authoring tool satisfies all of the Level A and Level AA success criteria in Part B. Nothing is claimed about Part A.
Partial ATAG 2.0 Conformance Level "Triple-A": Content Production"
The authoring tool satisfies all of the success criteria in Part B. Nothing is claimed about Part A.

Note: The Working Group remains committed to the principle that: "Everyone should have the ability to create and access Web content" and, therefore, recommends that developers use the partial conformance levels as a step towards meeting the full conformance levels in the future.

Conformance claims

A conformance claim is an assertion by a Claimant that an authoring tool meets a particular ATAG 2.0 conformance level.

Required components of a conformance claim

The conformance claim must include the following information:

The name and affiliation of the Claimant
The date of the claim.
Guidelines title, version, and URI (e.g., "Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 at {URI of final document}")
Conformance level satisfied (Level A, AA, or AAA)
The name of the authoring tool and sufficient additional information to specify the version (e.g., vendor name, version number, language, minor release number, required patches or updates). The version information may be a range (e.g., "this claim refers to version 6.x").
- If the authoring tool is a collection of applications (e.g., a markup editor, an image editor, and a validation tool), then information must be provided separately for each application. Note: The burden is on the conformance claimant rather than the developer of any of the software components.
A list of the Web content technologies produced by the authoring tool indicating whether or not each is covered by the conformance claim.
The platform(s) upon which all or part (e.g., help system) of the authoring tool was evaluated.
- For user agent platform(s) used to evaluate Web-based user interface functionality, provide the name and version information of the user agent(s).
- For non-user agent platforms, provide the name and version information of the platform(s) (e.g., operating system, Java virtual machine, etc.) and the name and version of the accessibility platform architecture(s) employed by the authoring tool on that platform.
For each ATAG 2.0 success criterion:
- a declaration of whether or not the success criterion has been satisfied or a rationale for why the success criterion is not applicable.
- any information that a specific success criterion requires be included in the conformance claim.

Optional components of a conformance claim

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

Conditions on Conformance Claims

Claimants may be anyone (e.g., 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.
At least one version of the conformance claim must be published on the Web as a document conforming to WCAG Level A.
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.
Claimants are encouraged to claim conformance to the most recent version of the Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines Recommendation that is available.
Neither W3C, WAI, nor WAI-AUWG take any responsibility for any aspect or result of any ATAG 2.0 conformance claim that has not been published under the authority of the W3C, WAI, or WAI-AUWG.

"Progress Towards Conformance" Statement

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