Commentary from Government of Canada

WCAGer’s,
I spoke with Paul Jackson in the Government of Canada about the rapid release dilemma.  Paul is part of the Treasury Board Secretariat in the government, and while the Treasury Board has transitioned responsibility for the standards used in Canada to another agency, Paul was heavily involved in the adoption of WCAG 2.0 in Canada and continues to advise and assist in the transition of responsibility.

I asked Paul whether a rapid release cycle (as short as two years) would be viewed as a positive development.

Paul indicated that having better advance notice of what is happening is desirable.  Predictability is desirable.  It sounded like the main experience that guided that view was that in the Jodan court case where the Government was sued, it was found that the Government was violating human rights even though they were using the current standard (WCAG 1.0) and WCAG 2.0 was just a working draft. If there was a schedule of updates it would allow the government to plan better.

Paul also indicated that the messaging related to the updates is critical. We should be very clear that WCAG 2.0 is still in effect and that it remains a high-quality standard, and be very clear about what any dot-release adds in terms of support for end-users.

Thanks,
AWK

Andrew Kirkpatrick
Group Product Manager, Standards and Accessibility
Adobe

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