Re: Question regarding WCAG conformance logos.

Chris Gibson wrote:
> 
> Dear Sir/Madam,
> 
> I have a question about the W3C WCAG conformance logo. I consider
> accessibility issues to be very important, and want my webpage to be
> readable by text-readers and so on. I think that the best way to do this is
> to create a text-only version of the site, without the use of images,
> tables, CSS or any presentational markup.
> 
> However - if I create a text-only mirror of my website, am I entitled to
> display a WCAG conformance logo on the front page of my graphical website?
> That is, the logo would indicate that a fully-conforming version of the
> webpage is available, and I would state explicitly that it is the text-only
> version of the page that conforms to the guidelines. Do you think that this
> would be acceptable?

Chris,

Checkpoint 11.4 of the 5 May 1999 Guidelines reads:


     11.4 If, after best efforts, you cannot create an accessible
     page, provide a link to an alternative page that uses W3C 
     technologies, is accessible, has equivalent information (or
     functionality), and is updated as often as the inaccessible 
     (original) page. [Priority 1] 

This means at least two things related to your question:

1) Where possible, you should try to create one accessible
   page rather than two pages that in tandem are accessible.
   In particular, a text-only page does not accomplish
   some of the goals of accessibility (since accessibility
   is not just about content reaching peoples ears, eyes,
   or fingers, but also orientation, navigation, clarity,
   etc.)

2) You may use a conformance logo on one page if that page
   in tandem with other pages produces an accessible result.
   And, you should say near the logo how to find the
   complement that ensures accessibility.

Thanks for asking!

 _ Ian

[1] http://www.w3.org/TR/1999/WAI-WEBCONTENT-19990505/#gl-use-w3c

-- 
Ian Jacobs (jacobs@w3.org)   http://www.w3.org/People/Jacobs
Tel:                         +1 831 457-2842
Cell:                        +1 917 450-8783

Received on Friday, 15 September 2000 12:27:28 UTC