Conformance Claims

To The Group -

I cannot recall who it was that posted a message a few weeks ago about
conformance claims and the fact that site developers are claiming to have
met some level of WCAG 1.0 when in fact they fall short.  My concern is that
many site developers will boast the claim but NOT actually meet the
guidelines.  A bigger issue is - why do they think they passed in the first
place?  Many of the sites I've looked at could not have tested with a tool
as they had no declared DOC TYPE and the pages would not parse.  So - I
assume they did some sort of manual check and assumed they met criteria.

As we work on WCAG 2.0, I am guessing that there will be many individuals
(well intentioned individuals) who will claim they have met conformance
levels but have not.  Is this an education and outreach issue or one we need
to talk about in terms of content?  If web developers think they are doing
"it" right and they are not (in terms of adherence to the guidelines) -
something is possibly missing (on our part).  Or, possibly, something was
"simply" overlooked when the site was checked for conformance.

I am not sure there is an answer to these questions or concerns but have
been paying attention to those sites that claim to meet WCAG 1.0 and have
done machine and manual tests to determine the validity of the claims.

Doyle Burnett


Doyle Burnett
Education and Training Specialist
Multiple Disabilities Program
Special Education Service Agency
dburnett@sesa.org
Www.sesa.org
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Received on Monday, 18 August 2003 17:44:55 UTC