Coming to a decision on 2.2

As a result of discussion on the WCAG call (https://www.w3.org/2016/02/09-wai-wcag-minutes.html#item04, https://www.w3.org/2016/02/16-wai-wcag-minutes.html#item04), on this thread (https://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/w3c-wai-gl/2016JanMar/0133.html) and in a survey (https://www.w3.org/2002/09/wbs/35422/20160209/results#xq2), we do not have a clear consensus on the wording for the third bullet in 2.2 of the requirements document (https://www.w3.org/TR/wcag2-ext-req/#ensure-that-web-pages-which-conform-to-wcag-2.0-with-an-extension-also-conform-to-wcag-2.0-on-its-own).

The entire text of 2.2 reads as follows:
2.2 Ensure that web pages which conform to WCAG 2.0 with an extension also conform to WCAG 2.0 on its own

Extension specifications are expected to offer modifications to existing WCAG 2.0 success criteria as well as offer additional guidelines and success criteria but extensions may not weaken what is required of web content. The result of this is that when a page conforms to WCAG 2.0 with an extension, it must also conform to WCAG 2.0 if the extension is not considered in the conformance review.

EXAMPLE 1

  *   An existing success criterion may change in priority from a lower level to a higher level, but not the other way around. For example, a Level A Success Criteria cannot move to Level AA.
  *   A new success criterion may be added.
  *   Existing success criterion may be modified, but the resulting change must still satisfy WCAG 2.0 success criteria.

We need some suggestions.  The WCAG’ers on the call believe that the 3rd bullet isn’t quite right and we don’t have agreement on the alternatives.  We want to clearly convey that the extensions may alter the text of a success criteria, but that in doing so a web page that passes the version of the success criteria in the extension must also pass the version of the success criteria in WCAG 2.0.

Any suggestions for language?

Thanks,
AWK

Andrew Kirkpatrick
Group Product Manager, Accessibility
Adobe

akirkpat@adobe.com
http://twitter.com/awkawk

http://blogs.adobe.com/accessibility