W3C

Resolving ATAG 2.0 References to WCAG

Working Group Draft DD MMM 2004

This version:
http://www.w3.org/WAI/AU/2004/WD-ATAG20-20040120/wcagrefs.html
Editors:
Jutta Treviranus - ATRC, University of Toronto
Jan Richards - University of Toronto
Matt May - W3C

Status of this document

This section describes the status of this document at the time of its publication. Other documents may supersede this document. The latest status of this document series is maintained at the W3C.

This is a Public Working Draft of a document that defines the Relative Priority checkpoints in ATAG 2.0 (now a working draft) will refer to the various versions of WCAG.

Please send comments about this document to the public mailing list: w3c-wai-au@w3.org.

For information about the current activities of the working group, please refer to the AUWG home page. This page includes an explanation of the inter-relation of each document as well as minutes and previous drafts.


Introduction

The Authoring Tools Accessibility Guidelines v2.0 (ATAG 2.0) includes a number of checkpoints with a "WCAG Relative Priority" level. These checkpoints rely on the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) to act as a benchmark for what constitutes accessible content. However, which particular version of WCAG to use as the benchmark is not specified by ATAG 2.0. Instead, the evaluator is free to choose any version of WCAG, although the most recent version of WCAG is suggested.

The purpose of this document it to aid evaluators in resolving the general WCAG references made in ATAG2.0 to a particular WCAG vesion.

In order to ensure that the version of WCAG chosen as the benchmark for an evaluation is clearly stated, the ATAG2.0 conformance claim must take the following form:

"[Name of authoring tool] conforms at Level [Single-A, Double-A or Triple-A] to ATAG 2.0 with respect to WCAG [1.0 or 2.0].


Resolving ATAG 2.0 References to Various WCAG Versions

Currently, only WCAG 1.0 is a W3C Recommendation. Another version (WCAG 2.0) includes improvements, but is still in development. Developers and evaluators should be aware that these two versions of WCAG have different conformance schemes. This means there are two different ways of determining the degree to which the WCAG Relative Priority checkpoints in ATAG2.0 have been met. The two different mappings appear below:

WCAG 2.0 (W3C Working Draft - 11 March 2004)
[@@ed. tentative due to ongoing changes to WCAG@@]

Relative Priority checkpoints in ATAG 2.0, can be met "with respect to WCAG 2.0" at one of the three following levels:

Relative Priority - Priority 1:

The Web content referred to by the Relative Priority checkpoint conforms to "WCAG 2.0 Level A". (all level 1 success criteria for all WCAG 2.0 guidelines have been met.)

Relative Priority - Priority 2:

The Web content referred to by the Relative Priority checkpoint conforms to "WCAG 2.0 Level AA". (all level 1 and 2 success criteria for all WCAG 2.0 guidelines have been met.)

Relative Priority - Priority 3:

The Web content referred to by the Relative Priority checkpoint conforms to "WCAG 2.0 Level AAA". (all level 1, 2 and 3 success criteria for all WCAG 2.0 guidelines have been met.)

WCAG 1.0 (W3C Recommendation - 5 May 1999)

Relative Priority checkpoints in ATAG 2.0, can be met "with respect to WCAG 1.0" at one of the three following levels:

Relative Priority - Priority 1:
The Web content referred to by the Relative Priority checkpoint satisfies all WCAG 1.0 "Priority 1" checkpoints.
Relative Priority - Priority 2:

The Web content referred to by the Relative Priority checkpoint satisfies all WCAG 1.0 "Priority 1" and "Priority 2" checkpoints.

Relative Priority - Priority 3:

The Web content referred to by the Relative Priority checkpoint satisfies all WCAG 1.0 checkpoints ("Priority 1", "Priority 2", and "Priority 3").

Level Double-A conformance icon, W3C-WAI Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0