Stronger statement about accessibility for people with cognitive disability

Name: Sandra Vassallo
Email: S.Vassallo@e-bility.com
Affiliation: e-Bility Inclusive IT
Document: W2
Item Number: Introduction
Part of Item: 
Comment Type: editorial
Summary of Issue: Stronger statement about accessibility for people with cognitive disability
Comment (Including rationale for any proposed change):
In their current form there are still some important areas of web accessibility for people with cognitive, language, and learning disability that are not covered by the WCAG 2.0 Guidelines and due to testability are unlikely to be accepted. 

With this in mind a stronger statement about the importance of web accessibility for this audience and the need for developers to consider issues affecting these users would be worthwhile. 

The first part of this issue has already been taken up in the recent draft, which states: 

\"Although some of the accessibility issues of people with cognitive, language, and learning disabilities are addressed by WCAG 2.0, either directly or through assistive technologies, the WCAG 2.0 guidelines do not address many areas of need for people with these disabilities. There is a need for more research and development in this important area.\" (WCAG 2.0 Introduction)

In addition a statement that encourages developers to follow current best practice for this group as part of meeting their accessibility obligations would help raise awareness and provide support for any companion documents/checklists that may be developed by authoritative agencies in the future.



Proposed Change:


Add the following recommendation to the end of the existing paragraph in the WCAG 2.0 Guidelines:

\"... There is a need for more research and development in this important area and developers should seek relevant expert advice about current best practice to ensure that web content is accessible, as far as possible, to this community.\"

Received on Friday, 29 June 2007 02:07:41 UTC