Re: The accessibility of your accessibility guidelines

Dear Joy,

We're aware that the readability of the Web Content Accessibility 
Guidelines (WCAG 1.0) is not ideal. When we released WCAG 1.0 in 1999, we 
provided a Checklist format to use in conjunction with the guidelines for 
easier reference when developing a site, while at the same time maintaining 
the explanatory detail in the main body of the guidelines. The Checklist 
for WCAG 1.0 is available at:
         http://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG10/full-checklist.html

But we are also working on an advanced version, Web Content Accessibility 
Guidelines 2.0. This document will address more advanced Web technologies, 
and at the same time, do this is a more understandable manner. While WCAG 
1.0 will remain the stable and referenceable version for some time still, 
you may want to look at the early drafts of WCAG 2.0
         http://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG20/
and provide some feedback on the simplicity and clarity of the language and 
the availability of examples, which as you mention, are so important.

We appreciate your feedback on this general concern, but also invite 
specific comments on draft documents as they are most helpful for the 
development process.

Regards,

- Judy

At 04:03 PM 10/17/01 -0400, joy bower wrote:
>I'm reading your accessibility guidelines and finding the content
>(writing) to be pretty inaccessible.  I'm slogging through paragraph
>after paragraph that doesn't tell me anything. It's frustrating,
>especially when I'm trying to find out what I need to do to make my site
>accessible.
>
>Please consider rewriting your content using simple, clear language with
>clear examples, and as few as possible acronyms. There are excellent
>guidelines available for writing clear, accessible content for the web.
>
>Before you tell the world that they must do to make websites accessible,
>you should apply it to yourself, and since content is what websites
>deliver, the accessibility of the content is doubly important. Make your
>content accessible.
>Joy Bower
>--
>
>Joy Bower
>Web Designer/Webmaster
>Monterey County Office of Education
>Jbower@monterey.k12.ca.us
>831.784.4179

-- 
Judy Brewer    jbrewer@w3.org    +1.617.258.9741    http://www.w3.org/WAI
Director, Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI), World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)
MIT/LCS Room NE43-355, 200 Technology Square, Cambridge, MA,  02139,  USA

Received on Friday, 19 October 2001 18:52:13 UTC