Fwd: Proposal for definition of levels

Some additional explanatory material:

For comparison, the earlier draft of level definitions was from 6 
December. If I remember correctly, that was drafted by a sub-group after 
an impromptu or post teleconference call.

http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/w3c-wai-ua/2012OctDec/0045.html

The major audience for this new proposal for Definition of Levels 
section will be both developers and policy makers. It is valuable to 
have a clear explanation of how the levels were developed when 
persuading policy makers to adopt the guidelines or to set a recommended 
adoption level as part of their policy.

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Proposal for definition of levels
Date: Thu, 25 Apr 2013 11:54:35 -0400
From: Jeanne Spellman <jeanne@w3.org>
To: User Agent Working Group <w3c-wai-ua@w3.org>

Here is my first pass at writing a definition of levels proposal.  This
material would go in the introduction. It would not be normative
material, and should be easy to read.

Proposed:

UAAG conformance levels (A, AA, AAA) provide a path for user agent
developers to improve their product over time and to prioritize new
features to develop.  UAAG conformance levels attempt to balance the
needs of people with disabilities with the difficulty the user agent
developer could experience in meeting that need. There are many
different types of disabilities and different types of user agents, so
the UAAG level assigned to a success criterion may not precisely match
the definition of the level in all circumstances.

Level A success criteria represent needs where different groups of
people with disabilities are blocked from receiving information or
accomplishing a task AND that the solutions to those needs are
relatively minor for developers to solve or the solutions are common in
the marketplace.  In some cases, extensions or addons to popular
browsers provide solutions.

Level AA represents needs where people with disabilities have difficulty 
accessing information or accomplishing a task (including tasks causing 
excessive fatigue), and where the solutions may be more difficult to 
implement or requires developing a new subsystem for the product.

Level AAA represents needs where the solution improves accessibility for 
some information or task, but the solution is challenging to solve,
requiring a major effort or development of intelligent algorithms.

Received on Thursday, 25 April 2013 16:03:04 UTC