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[ROUGH CONCEPT DRAFT] Transitioning Web Sites from WCAG 1.0 to WCAG 2.0

Note: This document is a rough draft in development, and should not be referenced or quoted under any circumstances.
$Date: Friday 17 November 2006 - 17:19:29changelog]

Page Contents

This step-by-step guide highlights what designers, developers, and project managers need to think about and what supporting documents are available when transitioning a site from Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0 (WCAG 1.0) to Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 (WCAG 2.0).

WCAG 2.0 builds on WCAG 1.0 and is designed to apply to more advanced Web technologies, be easier to use and understand, and be more precisely testable. Sites built to WCAG 1.0 will already be a long way to fulfilling WCAG 2.0 as it is backwards compatible with WCAG 1.0. As such, existing accessibility work is still valid and in many cases work needed to transition to WCAG 2.0 may be minimal.

For more information on the benifits of WCAG 2.0 please refer to "The benefits of transitioning to WCAG 2.0" (future link).

1. Learn the Basic Differences

Resource: Overview of WCAG 2.0 Documents lists the WCAG 2.0 documents and introduces Differences in approach between WCAG 1.0 and 2.0.

It is essential to understand the differences between WCAG 1.0 and WCAG 2.0, including differences in approach and terminology, before you start deciding on changes to implement in your site.

WCAG 2.0 is organised around four principles of web accessibility, that content is:

Key differences include, baseline, conformance, and changes in technical requirements.

2. Clarify Your Baseline and Conformance Goals

In order to establish what requirements you will need to meet under WCAG 2.0 first establish your Baseline and Conformance levels. If your organisation has an Accessibility Policy that is updated to WCAG 2.0, Baseline and Conformance should be outlined here. With this information in place you can work out what the Level Success Criteria you need to meet in order to transition your site to WCAG 2.0 and meet your Baseline and Conformance level.

The document Developing Organizational Policies on Web Accessibility outlines key considerations when developing an Accessibility Policy. "Transitioning Web Accessibility Policies from WCAG 1.0 to WCAG 2.0" is a future document which will provide guidance on transitioning Accessibility Policies.

Baseline

Resource: About Baseline in WCAG 2.0 provides information about what the baseline concept is, key considerations when deciding a baseline and example baselines.

Once the Baseline [1 sentence elevator pitch goes here] has been set there are a number of key areas that need to be understood in order for you to implement Baseline.

Note: this section will be revised after About Baselines in WCAG 2.0 is updated.

Once the Baseline is established there are a number of key things to understand in order to map out technical changes to your site:

  1. What technologies are relied upon and not relied upon within your site.
  2. Understand how Baseline impacts your Conformance claim.
  3. Dependant on Baseline and Conformance understand techniques that need to be implemented.

Conformance

Resource: Conformance WCAG 2.0 provides information about levels of conformance, how to scope a site and how to write a conformance claim.

You need to understand are how conformance is measured i.e. as Levels in WCAG 2.0 rather than the Priorities used in WCAG 1.0 and how WCAG 2.0 Success Criteria support conformance. You will need to understand:

Note this will be revised after About Baselines in WCAG 2.0 is updated.

  1. How the WCAG 2.0 Conformance scheme works and differs from WCAG 1.0.
  2. How to scope a Web site using the WCAG 2.0 Conformance scheme.
  3. What legal guidelines exist for your country, region or organisation type.

Note that you might refine your conformance goals after you have completed a more in-depth analysis of the technical differences, as describe below in section 3.

3. Analyze How the Technical Requirements Apply to Your Site

Resources:

Note: In WCAG 1.0 requirements were known as "Checkpoints", in WCAG 2.0 requirements are known as "Success Criteria".

To determine what technical changes you need to make to your site identify which WCAG 2.0 requirements are relevant dependant on the Baseline and Conformance level.

With regard to the changes between versions 1.0 and 2.0 themselves there are two main areas to review in the context of your Web site(s):

3.1. Check what WCAG 1.0 "Checkpoints" map to WCAG 2.0 "Success Criteria"

You will need to be familiar with what requirements in versions 1.0 and 2.0 map to each other and what is removed. Key questions to ask your self are:

3.2. Check new WCAG 2.0 Success Criteria requirements

You will need to know what Success Criteria are new in WCAG 2.0 and what is required according to the Baseline and Conformance level you have set. These are listed at under "[New Ones]" in the Comparison of WCAG 1.0 checkpoints to WCAG 2.0. Key questions to ask are:

4. Plan and implement Changes to Your Site

Resources:

Once you have reviewed the differences between WCAG 1.0 and 2.0, you can then plan what changes need to be made to the site. The WCAG 2.0 Quick reference is a key document when doing this as it allows you to list only those Success Critiera and techniques relevant to technologies set in your Baseline. There are two key stages in planning and implementing changes in your site:

5. Update and monitor internal web content development guideance

Resource: Techniques for WCAG 2.0 provides techniques for meeting the WCAG 2.0 Success Criteria. This document will be updated over time as new techniques and Web technologies evolve.

Based on the changes made when updating your site(s) to WCAG 2.0, review and update any internal Web content development guidance and processes. Also refer back to the "Techniques for WCAG 2.0". While the Guidelines and Success Criteria of WCAG 2.0 will not change, the techniques may evolve along with developing technologies as well as assistive technologies. This will enable you to evolve your Web site as new technologies evolve and still meet Success Criteria.

The ongoing maintenance is a positive thing, there will be more tips and checks and as technology evolves so will the support and guidance available. It has been written to allow your site to evolve as technologies evolve. As such WCAG 2.0 is flexible, scalable and adaptable.

When the WCAG 2.0 Techniques are updated, WAI will announce this on the home page and via the IG mailing list. To get WAI announcements, you can subscribe to the following: