WCAG 2.0 Comment Submission

Name: Monica Løland, The Danish Council of Organisations of Disabled People (DSI) 
Email: mol@handicap.dk
Affiliation: The Danish Council of Organisations of Disabled People (DSI)
Document: W2
Item Number: media-equiv-sign
Part of Item: 
Comment Type: technical
Comment (Including rationale for any proposed change):
For deaf web users, there are two basic demands to be met to achieve full accessibility.

-	Sign Language is the native language for the deaf, the first language on which thinking and communication is based. Danish is a foreign language learnt by reading and writing. Therefore information provided in sign language will always be preferable to information provided in Danish text. (A new survey states that half of the deaf population has no School leaving exams in Danish, since they were not able to meet the language demands. Døves uddannelses- og arbejdsmarkedsforhold. Castberggaard 2006) 

-	all information provided by sound, should also be provided visually.



Sign language interpretation is mentioned in Level 3 Success Criteria for Guideline 1.2. in the WCAG 2.0 Guidelines. This placing does not ensure full accessibility to the deaf community, since EU documents only have to meet the demands on Level 2. 

Proposed Change:
Broadband Network (ADSL) gives new opportunities to send multimedia, and the guidelines should therefore see that these new opportunities is utilized to achieve full accessibility. Sign language interpretation should at least be a Level 2 Success Criteria.

Received on Thursday, 22 June 2006 14:09:08 UTC