FPWD: Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1

Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1

https://www.w3.org/TR/2017/WD-WCAG21-20170228/

Abstract


Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 covers a wide range of recommendations for making Web content more accessible. Following these guidelines will make content accessible to a wider range of people with disabilities, including blindness and low vision, deafness and hearing loss, learning disabilities, cognitive limitations, limited movement, speech disabilities, photosensitivity, and combinations of these. These guidelines address accessibility of web content on desktops, laptops, tablets, and mobile devices. Following these guidelines will also often make your Web content more usable to users in general.

WCAG 2.1 success criteria are written as testable statements that are not technology-specific. Guidance about satisfying the success criteria in specific technologies, as well as general information about interpreting the success criteria, is provided in separate documents. See Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) Overview for an introduction and links to WCAG technical and educational material.

WCAG 2.1 extends Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 [WCAG20], which was published as a W3C Recommendation December 2008. Content that conforms to WCAG 2.1 also conforms to WCAG 2.0, and therefore to policies that reference WCAG 2.0.

Status of the Document


This section describes the status of this document at the time of its publication. Other documents may supersede this document. A list of current W3C publications and the latest revision of this technical report can be found in the W3C technical reports index at https://www.w3.org/TR/.

This is a First Public Working Draft of Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 by the Accessibility Guidelines Working Group. WCAG 2.1 is the first update to Web Content Accessibility Guidelines since WCAG 2.0. This first draft includes 28 new Success Criteria, three of which have been formally accepted by the Working Group and the remainder included as proposals to provide an opportunity for early feedback. A list of new Success Criteria is in the introduction, as well as a reference to other potential Success Criteria that are under consideration.

For this publication, the Accessibility Guidelines Working Group particularly seeks feedback on the following questions: Do the new and proposed Success Criteria address current user needs for web content accessibility? Does conformance to the new and proposed Success Criteria seem achievable and testable? How well do the new and proposed Success Criteria fit with the existing Success Criteria from WCAG 2.0? How completely does the set of new and proposed Success Criteria address current user needs, particularly for users of touch- and small-screen mobile devices, users with low vision, or users with cognitive or learning disabilities? Is the impact of WCAG 2.1 on policies that reference WCAG 2.0 understandable and not disruptive?

To comment, file an issue in the W3C WCAG 2.1 GitHub repository. Although the proposed Success Criteria in this document reference issues tracking discussion, the Working Group requests that public comments be filed as new issues, one issue per discrete comment. It is free to create a GitHub account to file issues. If filing issues in GitHub is not feasible, send email to public-agwg-comments@w3.org (comment archive). Comments are requested by 31 March 2017. In-progress updates to the document may be viewed in the publicly visible editors' draft.

This document was published by the Accessibility Guidelines Working Group as a First Public Working Draft. This document is intended to become a W3C Recommendation.

Publication as a First Public Working Draft does not imply endorsement by the W3C Membership. This is a draft document and may be updated, replaced or obsoleted by other documents at any time. It is inappropriate to cite this document as other than work in progress.

This document was produced by a group operating under the 5 February 2004 W3C Patent Policy. W3C maintains a public list of any patent disclosures made in connection with the deliverables of the group; that page also includes instructions for disclosing a patent. An individual who has actual knowledge of a patent which the individual believes contains Essential Claim(s) must disclose the information in accordance with section 6 of the W3C Patent Policy.

This document is governed by the 1 September 2015 W3C Process Document.