RE: 1.3.1 question

From: Paul J. Adam [mailto:paul.adam@deque.com]
Sent: Monday, April 04, 2016 2:35 PM

I like the Refurbishment Model approach! We don’t want to tell web developers they only need to implement web a11y techniques from 2008 when they’re creating a new site in 2016 or updating their old site.

If they’re using a new “list of Web content technologies relied upon” in 2016, then naturally this changes the set of applicable techniques. For example, in 2001 they would have been using HTML 4 technology, but now, assuming they’re using HTML 5, the techniques available for meeting WCAG 2 are different. If they’re using HTML 5 + ARIA, then there are additional differences from HTML 4, as ARIA techniques now become relevant.

There’s a more subtle issue here: suppose I implement a Web site in HTML 4, then I later decide to convert some of the pages to HTML 5 (easily done without making any substantive changes, e.g., by adding the necessary doctype declaration), and I use ARIA in a few places. My Web technologies relied upon (for the modified pages) are now HTML 5 and ARIA 1.0, let us suppose.

Do my modified pages still conform just as the original pages did, even though there are now newer – and better – ways of meeting some of the success criteria, thanks to the use of more recent technologies? As the techniques are non-normative, I think the answer has to be in the affirmative, but I’m interested in the reasoning behind any contrary views.


I also like the Failure Techniques Date approach.


I think it’s problematic for the above reason. Given what is written in WCAG 2, I don’t think moving to a newer version of a backward-compatible technology is enough to make once conforming content cease to conform. Whatever conformed in 2008 still does so now, even if it’s trivially updated to HTML 5 without making changes of substance to how the markup is written.

It seems to me that there’s an issue here for future versions of WCAG: whether some of the success criteria (e.g., 1.3.1) should depend on the capabilities of the technologies relied upon, so that adopting a newer technology with better means of conveying information in an accessible fashion changes what needs to be satisfied in order to conform.


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