Re: Legacy content - requirement for conformance to WCAG 2.1?

Hi,

The UK, at present, does not have any legislation that refers to the latest
version of the WCAG standard.


There is a voluntary standard created in 2010 (BS 8878: Web Accessibility
Code of Practice <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BS_8878>) that does say:

Organizations should produce their web products in accordance with the
latest, nalized version of WCAG.

NOTE 1 While previous versions of WCAG are useful, organizations should
consider updating any web products which conform to previous versions of
WCAG to conform to the latest finalized version at the next reasonable
maintenance point in their lifecycle (see:
http://www.w3.org/WAI/intro/wcag.php#version for help in doing this).


The current accessibility policy is set in the The Government Digital
Service (GDS) Service Manual which says:

As a minimum, your service must meet Level AA of the Web Content
Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0 <http://www.w3.org/WAI/intro/wcag.php>.

There are preparations being made to transpose the EU Directive on the
accessibility of the websites and mobile applications of public sector
bodies
<http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/HTML/?uri=CELEX:32016L2102&from=EN>
into UK legislation. This will set the accessibility requirements to EN 301
549 V1.1.2 (2015-04)
<http://www.etsi.org/deliver/etsi_en/301500_301599/301549/01.01.02_60/en_301549v010102p.pdf>
which
sets the conformance requirements to WCAG 2.0 at Level AA.


This is a handy reference to see current government accessibility standards:

https://www.powermapper.com/blog/government-accessibility-standards/


Hope that helps.

cheer,

Al

On 18 May 2017 at 17:54, Detlev Fischer <detlev.fischer@testkreis.de> wrote:

> Hi
> John made the point on the call that some legislations like the UK refer
> to the latest version (at any time) of the WCAG standard.
>
> Can someone with knowledge of the UK situation confirm that this really
> means content providers would have to return to 20 year old legacy content
> to bring it in line with changed requirements? This seems madness
> especially when content actually meets WCAG 2.0 now (which I guess won't
> often be the case).
>
> I guess it would also put a screeching break on many other improvements
> planned in 2.1 - basically prevent any requirement that would raise the bar
> above 2.0.
> I incredulous that there is no time stamp involved (like: "When you have a
> relaunch or prepare a new site, use the latest standard").
> So I would be happy if someone could punch a hole in that argument :)
> Detlev
>
>
>
>


-- 
Alistair Duggin
Head of Accessibility
Government Digital Service
Cabinet Office
Aviation House, 125 Kingsway, London WC2B 6NH
@dugboticus <https://twitter.com/dugboticus>