GL 4.2: Revised modification to the conformance section

The GL 4.2 subgroup has made some minor modifications to the changes proposed to the conformance 
requirements proposed to support the notion of baseline.


<proposal>
WCAG 2.0 defines accessibility guidelines and success criteria as
functional outcomes that are technology independent to allow conformance
using any Web technology that supports accessibility. WCAG 2.0 therefore
does not require or prohibit the use of any specific technology. It is
possible to conform to WCAG 2.0 using W3C and non-W3C technologies,
provided they are supported by accessible user agents. In choosing
technologies to rely upon, developers need to know what technologies they
can assume are supported by accessible user agents. This is called the
baseline.

Developers must ensure that all information and functionality comprising
the Web content conforms to WCAG assuming user agents support only the
technologies in the chosen baseline. Developers may also use
technologies that are not in the chosen baseline provided that the
following are true:

       - The Web content still conforms using user agents that only support
the technologies that are in the baseline (i.e. the use of technologies
that are not in the baseline does not "break" access to the Web content
by user agents that don't support them.)

       - All content and functionality must be available using only the
baseline technologies.

Baselines may be defined outside the WCAG 2.0 guidelines as part of a more
comprehensive accessibility policy. Baseline considerations will be
significantly different if the organization defining the baseline can
guarantee the user agents used by the users.

For example, a company or government agency provides its employees with the
information technology tools they need to do their jobs. So for intranet
sites used only by employees, it is reasonable for the baseline to include
newer technologies that might only be supported in one user agent as long
as the organization provides that user agent to its employees.

For a government publishing information for its citizens on the Internet,
however, it is reasonable for the baseline to only include technologies
that have been widely supported by more than one accessible user agent for
more than one release.

Alternatively, governments might implement funding policies to provide
citizens with accessible user agents that support newer technologies. In
this case, it is reasonable for governments to include in their baseline
newer technologies that have limited support by accessible user agents.

1. Any conformance with WCAG 2.0 requires that all level 1 success criteria
for all guidelines be met assuming user agent support for only the
technologies in the chosen baseline.

2. WCAG 2.0 conformance at level A means that all level 1 success criteria
for all guidelines are met assuming user agent support for only the
technologies in the chosen baseline.

3. WCAG 2.0 conformance at level Double-A means that all level 1 and all
level 2 success criteria for all guidelines are met assuming user agent
support for only the technologies in the chosen baseline.

4. WCAG 2.0 conformance at level Triple-A means that all level 1, level 2
and level 3 success criteria for all guidelines are met assuming user agent
support for only the technologies in the chosen baseline.
</proposal>

Received on Monday, 16 May 2005 17:07:06 UTC